USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people, Volume II > Part 37
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
On the 13th of September, 1903, in New York, Mr. Krensky was married to Miss Julia Rubenowich, a daughter of Samuel Rubenowich. She was born in Gradnow, Russia, and came to the United States with her sister Mayme, who is now the wife of Morris Rosenbloom, who was born in Welney, Russia, Febru- ary 15, 1884, and when seven years of age was brought across the Atlantic to Boston, where he attended school. He afterward followed various employ- ments and in February, 1910, came to Waterloo, where he has since been in the employ of Mr. Krensky. To Mr. and Mrs. Rubenowich have been born three children. Mr. and Mrs. Krensky have become the parents of four chil- dren, Jennie, Esther, Isadore and Annie.
At the time of Mr. Krensky's marriage his wife assisted him to the extent of two hundred and fifty dollars, which he wisely invested. Leaving Hoboken, he purchased a store at No. 420 Willis avenue, New York, and conducted it for three years. He then came to Waterloo, having sold his store, which brought him a profit of four hundred dollars. When he came to Waterloo he had one thousand dollars and this he invested in a stock of groceries, opening his present store. He has since conducted a growing and profitable business, and he has a livery and sales stable in connection therewith. He likewise owns property and as the years have gone by he has met with substantial and gratifying success, so directing his efforts that he is now numbered among the substantial merchants of the city.
Mr. Krensky is a member of the Jewish church and also has membership in the Order Brith Abraham. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, and he keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day, so that he is able to support his position by intelligent argument. He deserves much credit for what he has accomplished, for he has been dependent entirely upon his own resources, working his way upward through persistent and inde- fatigable energy, seeking the assistance of no one and depending entirely upon his own labors for the position to which he has attained.
GEORGE TUTHILL.
George Tuthill is the proprietor of the Cedarcroft Farm, an attractive and valuable property situated on section 36, Washington township. There he car- ries on general farming and stock-raising and he was also a pioneer nurseryman of the county, having established a nursery which he conducted two or three years before the outbreak of the Civil war. He is now one of the venerable citizens of this section of the state, having passed the eighty-second milestone on life's journey. He was born in 1832, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, his par- ents being Nathaniel and Fannie (Smith) Tuthill, both of whom were natives of Orange county, New York. In 1827 Nathaniel Tuthill removed to Pennsyl- vania and resided there for thirty years, after which he went to western New York, passing away at King Ferry, Cayuga county, that state, when eighty years of age. To him and his wife were born eight children, of whom six have passed away, the others being George, of this review. and Mrs. Fannie Chase, whose home is in Albany, Oregon.
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George Tuthill spent the days of his boyhood and youth under the parental roof and acquired a public-school education. He came to Iowa in 1855 and to Black Hawk county in 1856 and following the outbreak of the Civil war enlisted for service as a member of Company K, Third Iowa Infantry. He went to the front and was with his command for three and a half years, participating in a number of hotly contested engagements which led up to the final victory that crowned the Union arms. After his discharge he made his way back home and settled upon the farm which he had purchased previous to the war, having owned it since 1860. He then discontinued the nursery business, for his nursery stock had been largely destroyed during the time which he spent at the front in defense of the Union. After his return he concentrated his energies upon farm- ing and stock-raising and his labors have been attended with gratifying results. He has improved and developed two hundred acres of land situated on section 36, Washington township, Black Hawk county, and eighty acres in Bremer county. The tract was wild prairie when it came into his possession but his labors have wrought a marked transformation and the iand today constitutes one of the highly cultivated properties of Washington township. He is also the owner of city real estate in Cedar Falls, having made judicious investments in property there. He also located two of his sons in Kossuth county upon a half section of land which is now owned by his son, Edgar F. Tuthill.
It was in 1857 that Mr. Tuthill was united in marriage to Miss Christina Anderson, who was born in Canada and was of Scotch parentage. They had a family of three sons: George, who is now living in Pasadena, California, and is connected with the United States mail service; Edgar F., who is living in Kossuth county, Iowa, where he owns a farm of four hundred and eighty acres of valuable land ; and Fred, who is operating the old homestead.
Mr. Tuthill is liberal in his political views. He served for three years as a member of the board of county supervisors, in which connection he discharged his duties with promptness and fidelity. He has never been neglectful of the duties of citizenship and his cooperation has proven an element in the work of advancement along lines contributing to the general welfare. He holds mem- bership with the Grand Army of the Republic and has ever been as true and loyal to.his country as when he wore the nation's blue uniform upon the battle- fields of the south. At the age of eighty-two years he is living practically retired, yet he keeps in touch with the work of the farm and the questions of the day and he enjoys the respect, confidence and good-will of all who know him. Many changes have occurred since he came to the county and he is classed with those who have brought about the present agricultural development of this section of the state.
WILLIAM F. NATION.
William F. Nation, a retired farmer living in Waterloo, is a native Iowan and an old soldier. Moreover, he has had vast and wide experience, having spent a long time in the saddle as a cowboy, while in Colorado and Nebraska in frontier days he was a member of the band of vigilantes formed to crush out the
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crime that was then rampant. He was born upon a farm in Center Point town- ship, Benton county, Iowa, August 25, 1844. His father, Joel Nation, a native of Virginia, died in Benton county. His mother bore the maiden name of Mary A. Gritten, and her father was one of the soldiers of the American army in the Revolutionary war.
William F. Nation was born on the banks of the Cedar river and the localtiy is very dear to him, for he has spent the greater part of his life along that beau- tiful stream. In early manhood he went to the west and he saw the hard life with all of its roughness and its crime when horse thieves and bandits inaug- urated a reign of terror. His birth occurred on the deadline between the white and the red men and in his early childhood he saw fifty Indians to one white settler. His opportunities for an education were only such as could be secured in the little old schoolhouse with its hewed log benches. His father died when William F. Nation was but five years of age and the mother, left with a family of three children, kept the little ones together for a year or so. On one occa- sion the Indians manifested such hostility that in the night, with her three children, she fled to a neighbor's, going two and a half miles through the snow. The father had taken up one hundred and sixty acres of land before his death and upon that claim the mother lived and strove to bring up her family. When William was seven years of age she removed to a farm at Center Point and an older brother then began working out, but William F. was still so small that he could do little. The first year that he worked he received one hundred bushels of corn in compensation for his service. The following year he was employed at eight dollars per month. His wages were increased as he grew older and more efficient, but there were many years in which the family struggled hard for a living. The mother eked out their scanty income by doing washing for the neighbors. Later, however, she became the wife of Gabriel Sayer, and about that time William F. Nation left home and worked for others. After his sister married he worked for his brother-in-law.
Following the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in September, 1862. when a youth of eighteen, as a member of Company F, One Hundred and Second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for nine months. He was taken prisoner at Bowling Green, Kentucky, but was paroled at the end of three days by Captain George H. Ward, who said he would rather fight than feed the Union men. He started them for the Ohio river and finally Mr. Nation reached Springfield, Illinois, where he reported to his officer, showing him his parole papers. The officer wished to put him on garrison duty until the close of the war, but Mr. Nation said: "No! Shoot me or send me to my regiment." He finally skipped out and made his way to the depot. A lieutenant told him to try to enlist in the cavalry, which he did. He was sent to Peoria, but owing to the fact that he was out on parole, could not serve and returned home. He found his mother in destitute circumstances. Before he went to the war he gave her his two cows and a yearling heifer, which was all the live stock he had. Upon his return he went to work in the woods, but his spirit of patriotism would not allow him to remain contentedly at home and in the fall of 1862 he came to Waterloo and enlisted in Company G, Ninth Iowa Cavalry, serving for two years under Captain Montague. The regiment was attached to the Western Department of the Seventh Army Corps under General Steele. Mr. Nation
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enlisted at that time under the name of William Franklin, for on account of his parole he could not enlist under his own name.
At the close of the war Mr. Nation went on horseback with three others to Falls City, Nebraska, and ranged all through that country. On reaching Falls City he spent his last fifty cents for a dinner. He told the landlord of his finan- cial straits, however, and was allowed to remain at the hotel until he could get work. He was first employed to conduct a saloon for a proprietor who was sick and went away. Afterward he did any work that he could secure. While in the saloon he was made a member of the vigilance committee for running down bandits, horse thieves and other lawbreakers who terrorized the country. His partner in this work was a half-breed Indian, Henry Boyer, and the first cap- ture made was one of their own company. There were many exciting incidents and episodes connected with this service in the west and there are few who have a more vivid picture of life in those strenuous times than has been imprinted upon the memory of Mr. Nation.
On Christmas day of 1867, at Toddville, Linn county, Iowa, Mr. Nation was united in marriage to Miss Henrietta Newman, a daughter of Perry and Elizabeth Newman. They established their home in the following spring upon a little farm near Toddville and after three years removed to another farm in the same locality. A year later Mr. Nation returned with his family to Benton county and for a year rented a farm. He afterward lived in Tama county, residing in Geneseo township and later in Buckingham township for four years. At length he sold his farm and removed to Waterloo.
While living upon the farm in 1876, Mr. Nation lost his first wife and in 1877 married again, his second union being with Miss Sara A. Bowers. Follow- ing her death he wedded Eva S. Parsons. There were three children by his first marriage, one of whom is deceased, the others being: Ora, living in Cedar Rapids; and Oma in Tama county. The children of the second marriage are: Ernie, of Tama county ; Olive, the deceased wife of John McBride; Walter, living in Tama county ; Mamie, the wife of Henry Henning; William, of Cedar Rapids; Sadie, the wife of Ray Bowers, of La Porte City, Iowa; Pearl, the wife of Joseph Ferris, of South Dakota; and Jesse, living in Tama county.
Mr. Nation has had an eventful life, filled with many interesting and some- times exciting experiences, and is thoroughly familiar with the development of the west and its upbuilding. Whatever success he has achieved is attributable entirely to his own labors, and he has so directed his business affairs that he is now the possessor of a comfortable competence.
A. J. KNAPP.
A. J. Knapp, conducting a substantial business under the name of the Water- loo Monument Company, was born in Haverhill, New Hampshire, January 2, 1877, a son of Frank H. and Mary E. (Tarleton) Knapp, both of whom were also natives of Haverhill. The father devoted his life to farming and died at the place of his nativity in 1911, but the mother still survives.
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A. J. Knapp was educated in the public schools and at the Haverhill Aca- demy, and following the completion of his course in that institution he took up the study of pharmacy, serving an apprenticeship at the druggist's trade. After a time, however, he abandoned the drug business and engaged in the granite business, purchasing an interest in the Carswell, Wetmore Granite Company of Barre, Vermont, acting as sales manager. He was also for a time identified with a wholesale granite firm in Boston and spent one year with M. H. Rice of Kansas City, after which he returned to Barre, Vermont. That year was largely devoted to the work of rounding out his training and experience in the retail monument business, as Mr. Rice was then known as the foremost monu- ment builder, judged from an artistic standpoint, west of the Mississippi river. In 1912 Mr. Knapp came to Waterloo and established his present business, which has been developed into one of the important industrial enterprises of the city. His patronage has steadily grown, and the work of his establishment is now found in many of the leading cemeteries of this section of the state.
In July, 1907, Mr. Knapp was united in marriage to Miss Matilda Rimbach, of Boston, Massachusetts, by whom he has one child, Dorothy C. Mr. Knapp belongs to Helmet Lodge, No. 89, K. P., and to the Waterloo Commercial Club and Board of Trade. His religious faith is indicated in his membership in the Universalist church and his political belief in his adherence to the repub- lican party. While he has been a resident of Waterloo for only a brief period, he is regarded as one of its representative business men, for energy and enter- prise are quickly recognized. Since his school days were over his life has been one of intense and well directed activity in the business world and, advancing step by step, he is now occupying an important place and enjoying an enviable reputation in the trade circles of one of the most alive and growing cities of the middle west.
A. S. HANSEN, M. D.
Dr. A. S. Hansen, a specialist in the treatment of the eye, ear, nose and throat at Cedar Falls, was born in Denmark on the 5th of April, 1859, a son of Hans Hansen, who came to the United States in 1873. He made his way to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where resided some of his sons, who had preceded him to this country and had become prominent in the business life of that city. The father's deatlı there occurred in the early '90s.
Dr. Hansen was fourteen years of age when he crossed the Atlantic to the new world. He had attended the government schools of his native country and continued his education in the public schools of Kenosha. At the age of eighteen he returned to Denmark, where he completed his education, spending some time as a student in Copenhagen and in a private college, from which he was graduated on the completion of a course in missionary work. He returned to the United States in 1883 and took up missionary work among the Danish peo- ple of this country, being pastor of the Danish Lutheran church at Cedar Falls for two years.
DR. A. S. HANSEN
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While making preparation for work in the mission field Dr. Hansen also studied medicine to some extent and in 1890 he became a student in the homeo- pathic department of the Iowa State University, from which he was graduated with the class of 1893. He then located for practice in Cedar Falls and in the intervening years he has done special work in Chicago whereby he has become qualified for the department of practice in which he now specializes. In 1902 he took post-graduate work at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. In 1903 he went to Europe and pursued special work in Vienna on the eye, ear, nose and throat. He visited clinics in various European cities and informed himself concerning the methods of some of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the old world, particu- larly in the line of his chosen specialty. In the late fall of 1903 he returned to Cedar Falls and is today one of the eminent specialists of Black Hawk county, conducting a general office practice as an oculist, aurist and laryngologist. He has expert knowledge of his profession and his ability is widely recognized not only by the laity but also by fellow practitioners.
In 1884 Dr. Hansen was married to Miss Marie Soelbeck, and to them have been born four children, Laurentza, Hans, Thorvald and Ernest. The parents are members of the Danish Lutheran church and Dr. Hansen is connected with the Commercial Club, cooperating in all of its plans and movements for further- ing public progress and improvement. Fraternally he is connected with Black Hawk Lodge, No. 65, A. F. & A. M., the Modern Woodmen of America and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, while along strictly professional lines his membership is with the Black Hawk County Medical Society, the Austin Flint Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Med- ical Association. His broad reading keeps him thoroughly informed concerning the progress of the profession, particularly in his chosen field of practice, and his ability has gained him prominence in that connection.
WILLIAM F. BAUM.
Herding cattle on the prairies at the age of nine years, William F. Baum is now a partner in the Iowa Cast Aluminum Company of Waterloo, in which connection he is active in the control and ownership of an important and growing industry. He was born February 9, 1867, in the city in which he still makes his home, his parents being John and Angeline (George) Baum. The father was born in Pennsylvania in December, 1833, while the mother was a native of Massachusetts. In early life the former was a shoemaker and after working at the trade for a time spent a number of years upon the road engaged in selling hardware specialties. In the year 1855 he arrived in Waterloo, which was then a small town, giving evidence of little commercial or industrial impor- tance. His remaining days were here passed and throughout the intervening period of thirty years to the time of his death, which occurred in December, 1885, he enjoyed the respect and goodwill of all with whom he was associated. His widow still resides in Waterloo and they were the parents of nine children. Vol. II-19
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William F. Baum, who was the third in order of birth, attended the schools of Waterloo and such was the primitive condition here at the time that the "little temple of learning" in which he pursued his studies was a log building. At that time his parents resided upon a farm. He was only about nine years of age when he began herding cattle and with the money thus earned he pur- chased his first regular suit of clothes, his garments having hitherto been made by his mother. He worked for others for a number of years in various ways, was employed for a time by a manufacturing company and also occupied a position with the Waterloo Motor Works, continuing with the latter organization until about 1904, when he formed a partnership with W. W. Kauffer and estab- lished the Waterloo Brass Foundry. This partnership existed until 1907, when Mr. Baum took over the interest of his partner and conducted the business alone until October 10, 1913, when he sold the plant, name and goodwill. He then organized the Iowa Cast Aluminum Company in connection with W. W. Kauffer and A. A. Young. He owns a controlling interest in the company, which manufactures aluminum cooking utensils and does cast aluminum jobbing work. Already the business has become an important and profitable industry and the trade is steadily and rapidly growing. Mr. Baum is also a stockholder in various other local manufacturing concerns and is regarded as one of the enterprising, progressive and valuable business men of the city.
In January, 1894, occurred the marriage of Mr. Baum and Miss Rose Seliger, who was born in Austria, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wendolin Seliger, who came to America with their family, settling at Cedar Falls. Later they resided for a time upon a farm but afterwards returned to Cedar Falls. The father was a shoemaker as well as an agriculturist and he passed away about 1904 in Cedar Falls, where his widow still resides. Mr. and Mrs. Baum have one child, Leasa, now attending the high school.
Mr. Baum holds membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and in his political views is a democrat, but the honors and emoluments of office have had no attraction for him, as he has always preferred to devote his atten- tion to his business affairs. In the latter connection his advancement has been continuous and it has been by reason of his willingness to work, his untiring industry and diligence and his perseverance that he has gained the substantial measure of success which he now enjoys.
F. O. HITCHINS.
Among the important industrial enterprises of Waterloo is that of the Head- ford Brothers & Hitchins Foundry Company, of which F. O. Hitchins is vice president. The business has been conducted in Black Hawk county since 1903 and through the intervening years has steadily grown and developed. It was originally a Dubuque enterprise and it was in that city that F. O. Hitchins was born and reared, his natal day being March 9, 1865. He was educated in the schools of Dubuque and in 1881, when sixteen years of age, entered the employ of the Iowa Iron Works at Dubuque, there learning the foundry trade. Gradu- ally he worked his way upward, winning promotion from time to time until
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after eleven years' connection with that line of business he became in 1892 one of the organizers of the Headford Brothers & Hitchins Foundry Company of Dubuque.
The business was there conducted for eleven years and in November, 1903, the plant was removed to Waterloo, where during the preceding summer the firm had erected a fine cement block building one hundred and twenty by three hundred feet on Westfield avenue, where they have since been located. In 1911 they greatly enlarged the scope of their business through the erection of a plant on Vaughan street one hundred and ten by four hundred and fifty feet. They employ one hundred and ten men in the plant on Westfield avenue and about one hundred and fifty in the plant on Vaughan street. Their business has thus become one of extensive proportions and their manufactured products find a ready sale on the market. The firm has gained a well earned reputation for reliability as well as enterprise and from the beginning they have shown in the conduct of their business that they realize the fact that satisfied patrons are the best advertisement.
In 1892 Mr. Hitchins was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Broadhurst, of Dubuque, and to them have been born two children, Gerrilda Marie and Owen Stanhope. If one analyzes the life record of Mr. Hitchins it is evident that earnest, persistent effort has been the basis of his advancement and growing success. Starting out in the business world at the comparatively early age of sixteen years, he recognized the fact that industry is the basis of all worthy advancement and industry became the beacon light of his life, guiding him to his present creditable position as a representative of the manufacturing inter- ests of Waterloo.
ALBERT L. ANTON.
Albert L. Anton is a worthy representative of a well known and prominent pioneer family of Black Hawk county and enjoys recognition as one of the prosperous and enterprising young agriculturists of the community. He is now serving as trustee of Big Creek township, where he owns a valuable farm of two hundred and fifty-two acres in association with his brother-in-law, who operates the property, Mr. Anton making his home in La Porte City.
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