HENRY SUNBERG.
In the United States there are more persons engaged in farming than in any other business or vocation. The United States census reports for 1910 show that there are about one hundred and fifteen thousand lawyers, one hundred and fifty thousand physicians and surgeons, one hundred and eighteen thousand clergymen, something over sixty thousand engineers and some six hundred thousand school teachers, but there are twelve million men living in the United States engaged in farming. It therefore appears that farming is one of the most important vocations known to mankind. Farmers, industrial workers and commercial and transportation workers constitute ninety-five per cent of the population, and control an even greater percentage of the wealth of the country. One of the enterprising and successful farmers of this county, now living retired, who has succeeded in his chosen vocation as a consequence of his own courage, persistency and good management, is Henry Sunberg. Mr. Sunberg believes in lending what aid he can to his neighbors and the general public, and is regarded as one of Audubon county's best citizens.
Henry Sunberg was born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, on May 12, 1844, the son of Christ and Paulina Sunberg. With his wife and firstborn son, in 1871, he crossed the Atlantic on the voyage to America, locating, shortly after his arrival, in Johnson county, Iowa. Mr. Sunberg came to this country on borrowed money, and for five years after arriving here worked for one dollar a day as a farm laborer. He then rented land for ten years in Johnson county, and in 1886 came to Audubon county and purchased eighty acres of splendid partly-improved land in Melville township, for which he paid twenty-five dollars an acre. Mr. Sunberg paid half of the purchase price of the farm in cash and gave his note and mortgages for the balance. His affairs prospered, and five years later he purchased one hundred and sixty acres additional, wholly unimproved, for which he paid twenty dollars an acre, later buying forty acres in Leroy township, at eighty-seven and one-half dollars an acre, making in all two hundred and eighty acres. He resided in Melville township until 1906, and then moved to his forty-acre farm in Leroy township, where he lived until March, 1914, at which time he retired from the farm and moved to Audubon, where he has since resided.
On May 14, 1868, Henry Sunberg was married to Hannah Ahrand, who was born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, on September 16, 1839, the daughter of Christ Ahrand, and to this happy union seven children have been born: Fred, a farmer; Charles, sheriff of Audubon county; Frank, a farmer; Mrs. Minnie Owen; John a farmer; Henry, also a farmer, and Mrs. Anna Lefler, the wife of a farmer of this county. Henry Sunberg has thirteen grandchildren, Fred Sunberg having four children, May, Carl, Milton and an infant; Mrs. Minnie Owen, three children, Henry, Grace and Helen; John, two children; Henry, two children, Edward and Gertrude; Mrs. Anna Lefler, two children, Gladys and Dessie.
Henry Sunberg is a Democrat, and at one time served as trustee of his township. Mr. and Mrs. Sunberg and family are all members of the Lutheran church, and are active in the affairs of that denomination, being interested in all good works throughout the community in which they reside.
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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. 367-368.
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