MARTIN LUTHER HETRICK
Martin Luther Hetrick, born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, on the 16th of March, 1830, is the son of Christian and Barbara Hetrick. His father was a shormaker and stone mason by trade, but his latter years were devoted to farm life. Martin learned the stone mason trade with his father, and when twenty years of age he left his home, and moved to Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and there made it his home about one year, when he moved to Frederick county, Maryland, and from there to Allegheny county, that State, and in June, 1853, he united in marriage with Jemima McElfish, a native of Maryland. Martin continued his profession as builder and contractor until 1867, when he was engaged in the mercantile business until 1872, when he purchased eight hundred acres of land, in Dawson county, Nebraska, and opened a store of general goods, and there did a large business for a short time, when the crops were eaten by grasshoppers, and as the farmers became disheartened with the loss of large crops, Mr. Hetrick was nearly financially ruined. In the fall of 1876, he left that country and came to Iowa, locating in Cass county, and spent the winter in the town of Lewis. The March following he rented a farm in Pymosa township, and remaining there two years, he came to Washington township, and there lived on the farm of Mr. Hicks, until the spring of 1881, when he purchased his present home of one hundred acres of land on section 34. Mr. and Mrs. Hetrick have six children -- Mary 3., wife of N.G. Perdew, of Dakota; Anna M., wife of W. Everett, of Colorado; Rudolph, at home; John, now living at home; Geneva, wife of R.A. Shearer, of this township, and Adda, at home.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pp. 629.
