John Lenth John Lenth has maintained his residence in Clayton county for nearly half a century, has been an energetic, discriminating and successful exponent of agricultural industry and still gives his personal supervision to the operations of his fine homestead farm in Farmersburg township, where his sterling integrity and his worthy achievement have marked him as fully entitled to the esteem in which he is uniformly held. Mr. Lenth was born in Mecklenberg, Germany, on the 27th of May, 1851, and is a son of Christian and Mary Lenth, who there passed their entire lives and of whose twelve children eight are still living. He whose name introduces this review was reared in his native land, where his early educational advantages were those offered in the excellent national schools, and in November, 1869, when eighteen years of age, he severed the ties that bound him to home and fatherland and set forth to seek his fortunes in the United States. Within a short time after his arrival in the land of his adoption he came to Clayton county and obtained work on a farm in Farmersburg township. Industrial and frugal, he carefully saved his earnings and pressed forward to the goal of independence and successful individual accomplishment. The years have brought to him gracious rewards, and he has long been known as one of the substantial farmers of Farmersburg township. He made improvements on the farm which he purchased in his youth and there continued operations until 1903, when he sold the old homestead to his son, Alfred F., and purchased his present fine landed estate, which comprises two hundred and forty-two and one-half acres, of which forty acres are timbered land, his place being under a high state of cultivation, being eligibly situated in Section 3, Farmersburg township, and being one of the model farms of the county, with thrift and prosperity in evidence on every hand. Mr. Lenth has shown his sense of stewardship by the hearty interest he has taken in all things pertaining to the communal welfare and while never a seeker of official preferment, he is now giving most efficient and loyal service as treasurer of his school district. Both he and his wife are earnest communicants of the Lutheran church, in the faith of which they were reared. On October 6th in the year 1882 Mr. Lenth married Miss Lena Rohde, who likewise was born in Germany, one of the seven children of Christian and Minnie (Lehmenn) Rohde, who came to the United States in 1874 and established their home in Clayton county, where they passed the remainder of their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Lenth became the parents of seven children, all of whom are living except one: Alfred F. and Arnold are successful farmers of the younger generation in their native county; Elmer J. is associated with his father in the operations of the home farm; Hilma and Olga E. likewise remain at the parental home; Leona E. died at the age of about seventeen years; and Clara M. is a student in the college of Waverly, Bremer county, at the time of this writing, in 1916. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page 248-249 |