For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 357
HENRY HEINZ....Henry Heinz, editor and owner of the Muscatine Herold, a twelve page weekly newspaper published in German, was born in Davenport, Iowa, March 10, 1856. The family name idicates his German lineage. His parents, Bonaventura and Margaret ( Traenkenschuh ) Heinz, were both natives of Germany, the former born in Baden and the latter in Bavaria. The father was a post and stage-coach driver of Baden but, leaving Germany in the early 40's came to America, landing at New orleans, whence he made his way northward to St. Louis. There he enlisted for service in the Mexican war. He was afterward married in that city, and he and his wife conducted a boarding house there. In 1855 they removed to Davenport, Iowa, where Mr. Heinz conducted a commission house and also dealt in steamboat supplies. He died in Davenport at the age of seventy-five years, after celebrating his golden wedding. His wife survived him and passed away at the age of eighty years and six months, spending her last days at the home of her daughter in Chicago. The family numbered three sons and three daughters who lived to adult age : Frederick, an attorney who was once mayor of Davenport but is now deceased ; Henry, of this review ; John, who is engaged in the practice of law in Davenport ; Caroline, who has passed away ; Fredericka, the wife of Rev. Theodore Hanson, of Dubuque county, Iowa ; and Elizabeth, the wife of the Rev. Eugene Pfund of Chicago.Henry Heinz was reared in Davenport and attended the public schools and also the German schools. When but fourteen years of age he began learning the printer's trade in the office of Der Demokrat, a daily German newspaper, which is still published there. In the latter part of 1880 he came to Muscatine and secured a position on the German paper called Die Wacht Am Mississippi, with which he was connected for six years. He then worked in the News Tribune office for a year and in 1889 began the publication of a paper of his own called Der Correspondent, a German weekly, which he conducted for nearly eighteen years and then consolidated it with the Anzeiger. At that date both names were dropped and the new publication was issued under the name of Der Herold. This is an independent democratic paper published in German and has a large patronage among the German speaking people of Muscatine and this section of the state. He has made it one of the leading German papers of the middle west, and it has a marked influence among the sons of the fatherland through the intelegent discussion of public questions.
On the 16th of May, 1888, Mr. Heinz was married to Miss Anna Schmelzer, a daughter of Henry C. and Elizabeth ( Doerring ) Schmelzer. Mrs. Heinz was born in Muscatine, January 1, 1860. Her parents, who were natives of Hessen, Germany, became early settlers of this city, where they were married and spent their remaining days. They had five children : Anna ; Elizabeth, deceased ; Henry ; William and Charles. The father belonged to the regular army in Germany. After coming to America he conducted a wagon manufacturing plant at Muscatine and was closely associated with the industrial developement of the city. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Heinz have been born two sons : Carl B., who is now collector for the Iowa Telephone Company ; and Henry F., who is employed in the office of the wholesale grocery house of J. M. Gobble & Company.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Heinz were reared in the Lutheran faith, and he belongs to the Odd Fellows and to the Modern Woodmen of America. He is also president of the Turners Society and is secretary of the Maennerchor, both of which societies he founded. He is likewise secretary of the German-American Press Association of the west and is a member of the National Geographic Society. These associations indicate much of the nature of his interests and the breadth of his thought. He is likewise a member of the executive board of twenty-one members from Iowa of the Economic League. He keeps abreast with the best thinking men of the age in the discussion and investigation of political, social and economic questions, and his opinions carry weight not only among the people of his own nationality but among others as well.
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