Zwank, Ira

ZWANK, DEBRUYN, EFNOR, CARPENTER, LANDMESSER, CARY, WINTERS, SHROYER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 10/24/2009 at 11:34:44

Zwank, Ira

There is a great deal in being born under a good eye, one that watches and guards off the error and folly that overtake so many young men. The father and the mother who are able to infuse into their children the spirit of the Spartans, the spirit that can meet any fate and make the most of the world, will see their children grow to years of maturity with excellent habits and splendid principles and see them become exemplary citizens. The subject of this brief notice was fortunate in having so able and clean a father and so solicitous and gentle a mother. He was taught from the start the duties of life, not ordinary instruction, but the highest duties which all owe to each other and to society. The result has been to give him broad ideas of life and its responsibilities and to fit him for good citizenship. This he no doubt has fully appreciated and has sought to be a worthy representative of an honored old family in all walks of life and has therefore won and retained the good will and respect of all with whom he has come into contact.

Ira Zwank, farmer, of Elk Creek Township, Jasper County, was born in Marion County, Iowa, on January 1, 1872. He is the son of Jacob and Anna (DeBruyn) Zwank, the father born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1847, and the mother in Marion County, Iowa, in 1852, their home being now in Newton, Iowa. The father came to Marion County when a boy and there he and Anna DeBruyn grew up, attended the common schools of their neighborhood and were married. They were both of Hollander descent and the sturdy stock of their progenitors has outcropped in them, enabling them to make a good living and establish a comfortable home. They moved to Jasper County soon after their marriage and bought forty acres of land in Elk Creek Township. This they later sold and purchased eighty acres and at the time of the elder Zwank's death he owned a well-improved farm of one hundred and eighty acres.

Jacob Zwank endeavored to enlist for service in the Union Army during the Civil War, but was too young. However, he ran away from home and started to the front, but was brought back. Politically, he was a Democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His death occurred on August 19, 1897. The mother subsequently re-married, her last husband being Henry Efnor. They have a comfortable home in Newton.

Ira Zwank, of this sketch, had two brothers and five sisters, named as follows: Mrs. Anna Carpenter, Ira was the second in order of birth, Peter, Mrs. Kate Efnor, Harmon, Mrs. Bessie Landmesser, Mrs. Lilly Cary, Ollie, deceased.

The subject attended the Rose Hill district school and when but a boy he had to assist with the general work about the home place, he being the eldest of the family. He began plowing when but nine years of age and made a hand in the fields when most boys are spending their time fishing with a pin hook and making flutter mills; but this early experience was good for him in the long run. When a young man he began farming for himself, renting land of the neighbors and staying at home. In 1901 he bought eighty acres, which he sold a year later and then bought one hundred acres and he has since added forty acres more where he now resides, making one of the choice farms of the community, which he has kept well improved and well cultivated. He keeps good livestock and has a pleasant home.

Mr. Zwank is a Democrat politically, having followed in the footsteps of his father and he has always taken a good citizen's interest in the affairs of his community. He has served as township trustee.

Mr. Zwank was married on March 18, 1900, to Edna Winters, who was born in Elk Creek Township, Jasper County, June 30, 1880, and here she grew to womanhood and received her education in the local schools. She was the daughter of John Winters, a farmer of Elk Creek Township, who was born on April 23, 1849, Ohio and who died on June 5, 1905. He married Phoebe Jane Shroyer, who was born on February 10, 1852, and who is now living at Galesburg, Iowa. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Zwank has been without issue.

Personally, Mr. Zwank is a man of fine physique, pleasant mannered and industrious. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 721.