Henry Biedermann

Henry Biedermann is a progressive and public-spirited citizen of Worth county, living on section 14, Union township. While his attention is devoted to agricultural pursuits and he is winning success in that direction, he has always found time and opportunity to cooperate in plans and measures for the general good and the cause of education particularly has found in him a stalwart champion. He is among the substantial citizens that Wisconsin has furnished to Iowa, his birth having occurred in Grant county, on the 18th of August, 1866. His parents were Leonard and Christina (Kraut) Biedermann. The father was reared in Switzerland, where he was probably born. In young manhood he went to France, where he learned the trade of cabinet making, spending several years in that country working at his trade. In the latter '40s, however, he left Europe for the new world, making his way to the United States. He took up his abode in Wisconsin, where he continued to work at his trade for some time, but afterward engaged in the butchering business. In subsequent years he took up the occupation of farming, settling upon a small tract of land in Grant county, Wisconsin, where he resided to the time of his death. He passed away in 1888 at the age of sixty-six years. His wife was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and came to the United States when a maiden of six summers, in company with her parents. She died in 1895 at the age of fifty-six years.

Henry Biedermann of this review acquired but a limited common school education. In 1885, on reaching his nineteenth year, he left the parental roof and came to the west in order to start out in the business world for himself. For a time he worked for wages in Mitchell county, Iowa, and after two or three years crossed the border into Worth county. He began farming on his own account by renting land and he continued to lease farm property for ten years, but during that period carefully saved his earnings and in 1897 he removed to his present home farm, which he had previously purchased. He owns one hundred and sixty acres of valuable and productive land in Worth county and also a tract of similar size two miles east of the home place, located on the Mitchell county side of the boundary line. His holdings are thus important and make him one of the substantial agriculturists of the community.

In October, 1890, Mr. Biedermann was united in marriage to Miss Alma Glassel, a daughter of John Glassel, one of the pioneer residents of Mitchell county now living retired in Mitchell, and a sister of E. M. Glassel, of whom mention is made in this work. To Mr. and Mrs. Biedermann have been born seven children: Mabel; Clarence, who was educated at Cedar Valley Seminary and at the State Agricultural College at Ames; Charles, who attended Cornell College at Mount Vernon, Iowa, and later became a student in the law department of the Iowa State University at Iowa City; William, who was educated at Cornell College and in the Iowa State University; Bertha, who attended the Cedar Valley Seminary and is now teaching school; Alma, who is a junior in the Osage high school; and Florence, who is a graduate of the Graf ton high school. Mr. Biedermann early came to a realization of the worth and value of education and resolved that his children should have the best possible advantages in that direction. He has therefore put forth every effort to enable them to have thorough intellectual training and to stimulate them to make the best possible use of it.

In politics Mr. Biedermann is a republican and for eight years he served as a member of the board of township trustees, while for nine years he was a member of the Grafton school board. He and his family are members of the Evangelical church and are interested in all that pertains to the moral progress of the district. At the same time Mr. Biedermann is wisely and carefully directing his business affairs and his careful management has wrought for substantial success. Aside from his farming interests, he is a stockholder and director in the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Grafton, is a stockholder in the Farmers Incorporated Cooperative Society of Grafton and a stockholder in the Farmers Creamery Company of Grafton. His plans are well formulated and carefully executed and he readily discriminates between the essential and the none-essential in business, his sound judgment being recognized by all with whom he has been brought in contact.

SOURCE: HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, 1918, VOL. II; Pages 543 & 544

Transcribed by Gordon Felland, October 15, 2006