Henry Klinkenberg Henry Klinkenberg is a scion of a pioneer family that has played a large and benignant part in the industrial and civic development and upbuilding of Clayton county and the place of his nativity was the finely improved farm of two hundred and forty acres which he now owns and makes his place of residence, the same being eligibly situated in Section 29, Farmersburg township, about 2 1/2 miles distant from the village of St. Olaf, which is the postoffice address of the family. Mr. Klinkenberg was born March 28, 1874, and is a son of Carl and Dorothy (Mandelkow) Klinkenberg, both of whom came from their native land, Germany, in America in the year of 1857. That year marked their arrival in Clayton county, Iowa, and they became pioneer settlers on an embryonic farm in Farmersburg township. In 1863, Carl Klinkenberg purchased a tract of forty acres of wild land in Reed township, and through his industry and good management he was so significantly prospered that he was eventually able to claim as his own a valuable landed estate of thirteen hundred acres, of a considerable portion of which he has now disposed, though he continues to maintain his residence on his original homestead place and continues a prominent and honored exponent of agricultural industry in the county that has been the stage of his worthy and successful endeavors as one of the world's productive workers. His devoted wife, who proved a faithful helpmate, is now deceased, she having been a devout communicant of the Lutheran church, as is also Mr. Klinkenberg, and of their nine children, six are living. Henry Klinkenberg is indebted to the public schools of his native county for his early educational discipline and he continued to be associated with his father in the work and management of the latter's large landed estate until his marriage, after which he rented one of his father's farms. This property he later purchased and it constitutes his present fine homestead of two hundred and forty acres, maintained under effective cultvation and given over to diversified agriculture and the raising of excellent grades of live stock. The permanent improvements on the place are of substantial and modern order and Mr. Klinkenberg is the owner also of twenty-three acres of timber land in Reed township. His political support is given to the Democratic party and both he and his wife are communicants of the Lutheran church in Farmersburg. In June, 1901, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Klinkenberg to Miss Bertha Kurth, who was born in the state of South Dakota, and who is a daughter of William and Lena (Schroder) Kurth. The parents were born in Germany and came to the United States in 1882, in which year they established their home in South Dakota. They later came to Clayton county, Iowa, where they still reside. Of their seven children all are living except one. Mr. and Mrs. Klinkenberg have two children - Fritz William, who was born February 26, 1902, and Alvin G., who was born June 15, 1911. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page
212-213 |