IAGenWeb Project - Clayton co.

Henry Luehsen

Henry Luehsen

Henry Luehsen has been a resident of Clayton county since his early childhood, is a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of the county and has achieved definite prominence and influence as one of the leading business men and progressive citizens of the thriving village of Garnavillo, where he has been established in the furniture and undertaking business for more than thirty years and where he has served seventeen years as postmaster, an office of which he is the present efficient and valued incumbent. Mr. Luehsen was born in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 14th of June, 1861, and is a son of Henry and Margareta (Luers) Luehsen, both natives of Germany, where the former was born on the 11th of December, 1823, and the latter on the 5th of October, 1818. In his native land Henry Luehsen, Sr., learned the tailor's trade, to which he there devoted his attention until 1850, when he immigrated with his wife to the United States and established his residence in the city of Cincinnati. He continued his residence in Ohio until 1864, when removal was made to Clayton county, Iowa, where he became one of the early settlers in the village of Garnavillo and where he successfully continued in the merchant tailoring business for many years, his death having here occurred in 1903, shortly prior to his eightieth birthday anniversary, and the wife of his young manhood having here been summoned to eternal rest on the 8th of April, 1876, both having been devout communicants of the Lutheran church and his political allegiance having been given to the Republican party. Of the three children the first-born was Herman, who died in childhood, prior to the family immigration to America; Dora was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and she was a resident of National, Clayton county, Iowa, at the time of her death. She married John Schierholtz. He whose name initiates this review was about three years of age at the time of the family removal to Iowa, and he was reared to manhood in Clayton county, where he duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools and where he has won marked prestige and prosperity as a man of energy, mature judgment and much progressiveness. He has been for thirty-two years (1916) engaged in the furniture and undertaking business at Garnavillo and is essentially one of the honored and representative citizens of this place. Mr. Luehsen has been influential in public affairs of a local order and has shown a lively interest in all things pertaining to the civic and material welfare of his home county, besides which he has been an active and influential factor in the Clayton county councils of the Republican party. As previously noted, he has given seventeen years of efficient service in the office of postmaster of the village, and for twelve years he was secretary of the Clayton County Fair Association. Both he and his wife are earnest communicants of the Lutheran Church, and he is affiliated with the local lodge of the Woodmen. On the 14th of February, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Luehsen to Miss Mary lhde, who was born in this county on the 6th of September, 1863, her parents having been sterling pioneers of the county, where they continued to maintain their home until their death. Marvin H., the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Luehsen, was born on the 25th of May, 1886, and the supreme loss and bereavement in their married life came when this devoted son was called to eternal rest, he having been a resident of Garnavillo at the time of his death, which occurred on the 27th of January, 1915.

source: History of Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page 255-256
-transcribed by Mary Cameron

 

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