HENRY RABE.
Self assertion is believed by many people to be absolutely necessary to success in life, and there are good reasons for entertaining such belief. The modest man very rarely gets what is due him. The selfish, aggressive man elbows his way to the front and takes all that is in sight, until it sometimes seems that modesty is a sin and self-denial a wrong. There are, however, exceptions to all rules, and it is a matter greatly to be regretted that the exceptions are not more numerous. One notable exception is Henry Rabe, whose life history is here presented. Mr. Rabe possesses just sufficient modesty to be a gentleman at all times, yet sufffcient persistency to win in the business world. As a result of these well and happily-blended qualities Henry Rabe has won a host of friends in Audubon county, and is well known as an enterprising farmer of Hamilton township.
Henry Rabe was born in Hanover, Germany, on September 18, 1851, the son of Henry and Katrina (Supthut) Rabe, natives of that country. Henry Rabe was a farmer and also did painting and engraving. He and his
wife were the parents of two children, Henry, the subject of this sketch, and Sophia, the latter of whom married Herr Ploghoft and lives in Bremen, Germany.
Until he was fourteen years of age, Henry Rabe attended school and then worked on his father's farm until twenty years old. After that he served in the German army until twenty-four years old, at the conclusion of which he resumed work on his father's farm, where he continued to live until he was twenty-nine years old. In March, 1881, Henry Rabe left the old country and came to the United States, landing at New York City, proceeding thence to Crawford county, this state, where he took up farm work, "by the month," and thus engaged for three years. In 1884 he came to Audubon county and rented a farm in Melville township, remaining there for about eight years, at the end of which time he purchased about forty acres of land in Leroy township. In the fall of 1899 he sold that farm and purchased eighty acres in sections 11 and 14 in Hamlin township, which farm he sold in the fall of 1906 and purchased eighty acres in section 14 of the same township, where he now lives. In 1914 Mr. Rabe bought one hundred and sixty acres in section 13 of Hamlin township. His home farm was fully improved when he bought it, but he has since built a large barn and made other substantial improvements.
On September 16, 1889, Henry Rabe was married to Minna Kassenhaschen, who was born in Oldenburg, Germany, on March 28, 1857, the daughter of Gerard and Sophia (Busing) Kassenhaschen, natives of the same place. Gerard Kassenhaschen was a farmer and he and his wife were the parents of seven children, four of whom are still living, two of them living in the United States. Of these children, Henry was a farmer and a resident of Audubon county. Lena married Fred Buchholtz and lives in New York City, and Sophia married Henry Buchholtz and lives in Bremen, Germany.
To Henry and Minna (Kassenhaschen) Rabe five children have been born, four of whom are living, namely: Harry, born on March 21, 1891; Fred, January 24, 1893; John, June 11, 1895; William, August 27, 1897, was accidentally drowned on June 28, 1914, and Lena, June 15, 1899.
Henry Rabe is engaged quite successfully in general farming and stock raising. When he came to Audubon county in 1881 hogs were two dollars and forty cents the hundred weight; corn was fourteen and fifteen cents the bushel and land could be bought in Iowa for nine dollars and fifty cents an acre.
Mr. Rabe is a Democrat, but has held no public offices of prominence and has never been especially interested in politics. The family are members of the Lutheran church and active in the affairs of that church, to the support of which Mr. Rabe is a liberal contributor.
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Transcribed from History of Audubon County, Iowa Its People, Industries and Institutions With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, by H. F. Andrews, editor, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Company, 1915, pp. 598-599.
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