USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 69
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man blessed with endowments far above the usual and commonplace and gifted with the powers of leadership to a marked degree.
Doctor Crane was born December 18. 1875, on a farm in Cedar county, Iowa. His parents were Thomas and Elizabeth (Jones) Crane, natives of the Isle of Man and the state of Kentucky, respectively. Thomas Crane was born on the isle of Man in the year 1844. When ten years of age he and his orphaned brother came to America in company with an uncle, who settled in Jones county, Iowa. Thomas took up the struggle for subsistence when very young and it is said that he drove the breaking team which turned the prairie sod on the site of the city of Monticello, Iowa. When he attained his majority he married Elizabeth Jones, a native of Kentucky and who was of Welsh-Irish descent. After his marriage, Thomas Crane located in Cedar county, where he resided and prospered until 1876, when he removed to the town of Battle Creek, Ida county, and there became prominently identified with the pioneer life of the community. He be- came the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of Ida county lands, which he tilled until 1904 and then removed to Battle Creek to lead a life of repose in his remaining years. He is also the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of good farm land in South Dakota. He is the father of seven sons and one daughter: Elmer, a ranchman in Oklahoma; Frank, a resident of Denver; William, a merchant in Battle Creek; Jennie, who is her father's housekeeper: Charles, also at home; Dr. Edward H. ; and Dr. Odell Crane, who enjoys a lucrative practice in Spokane, Wash- ington. The mother of this family died in December of 1913. It can be truly said of the mother that she was a noble woman and a kind parent who instilled into the hearts and minds of her children thoughts and habits of rectitude that have been of the highest assistance in enabling them to occupy high places in the esteem of their fellow citizens in their respective places of abode. She was finely educated and was widely and favorably known for her literary ability.
Doctor Crane studied in the district schools and spent his evenings poring over his books under the guidance and instruction of his capable mother. He prepared himself to teach school and spent three and one-half years in the useful avocation, in the meantime advancing himself by com- pleting a course in the Iowa Teachers' College at Cedar Falls. He was granted a state teacher's certificate in 1900. While a student in the Teachers' College he took an active part in college athletics, was a leader of his class and graduated with high honors. He matriculated in the College of Medi- cine, Iowa State University, at Iowa City, in the fall of 1900 and graduated therefrom in the spring of 1904. While a student here he won the state
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championship for putting the shot and was the class orator for the Middle- tonian Society of the university. For a period of two years after gradua- tion he practiced his profession at Correctionville, Jowa, and in the fall of 1906, accompanied by his wife, he entered the Harvard Medical College and pursued a post-graduate course for one year. At the expiration of his Harvard course he located in Odebolt and has achieved a remarkable suc- cess as a physician and in the establishment of the Odebolt Hospital.
The Odebolt Hospital is the only one of its kind in two counties and was established by Doctor Crane in 1913. It is located in a large, white frame building on the main street of the city and is completely fitted up for the care of the sick and for surgical operations. The building contains twenty rooms, including well appointed offices and operating rooms. Ten patients can be accommodated and cared for at one time. From one to four professional nurses are in attendance at all times, and the hospital, with its appurtenances, is at the disposal of the local physicians and nurses and those of the surrounding towns. Over one hundred patients are annually treated within its doors and the institution bears a favorable and growing reputation throughout the neighborhood.
Doctor Crane holds membership in the Sac County Medical Society, the Missouri Valley Medical Society and the Iowa State Medical Society. He is a pronounced Progressive in politics and is gaining a wide reputation as one of the state leaders of the party. At the present time he is county secre- tary of the Sac county Progressives and is widely known as an active worker in behalf of Progressive principles. Doctor Crane is the Progressive candi- date for Congress in the eleventh Jowa district, the largest in territorial ex- tent and population in the state. Being a speaker of recognized oratorical ability, he is in great demand in the meetings of the Progressive followers in an advisory and speech-making capacity. He is affiliated with the Metho- dist Episcopal church and is fraternally connected with the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. and varions other secret societies.
Doctor Crane was married in September, 1906, to Elizabeth Thorn, of Correctionville, who has borne him four children: Margaret, aged six years; Edward, who is four years old; Elizabeth, aged two years, and a son four months of age.
The career of this capable and rising young man will bear favorable observation. His qualities of leadership and pronounced ability have marked him for high preferment by his associates and friends in all walks of life. This history would be incomplete did it not contain this foregoing review.
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ALBERT DAVENPORT.
It is a fine thing when a man can retire in his old age with the satisfac- tion that he has attained enough of this world's good in order to live his declining years in comfort. Hundreds of Sac county's best farmers have retired within the last few years, after having lived lives marked by hard work and are now enjoying their last years in peace and quiet. Among the many retired farmers of Odebolt, who have laid by a competency sufficient to maintain them in their declining years, there is no one more highly honored and respected than Albert Davenport, who was born September 25. 1857, in Clinton county, Iowa. He is the son of Charles L. and Mary ( Parnell) Dav- enport, natives respectively of Ohio and England.
Charles L. Davenport was born January 15, 1830, in Ohio and died in Odebolt August 1, 1905. He was the son of John Davenport, a native of Ohio and one of the pioneer settlers of that state. In 1838 John Davenport emigrated to Indiana, where he died. In the spring of 1857 Charles L. Davenport came to Clinton county, Iowa, and was one of the pioneer settlers of this state. In 1883 he came to Sac County, settling in Odebolt. He was one of the most prosperous farmers of the township. Mary Parnell, the mother of Albert Davenport, was born in England in 1833 and came with her parents across the ocean to Ohio when she was only six weeks old. She died in Sac county, lowa, in 1888. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Davenport reared a family of five children : Mrs. Laura Correll, who was born April 15. 1855, and died in Odebolt July 15. 1913; Albert, whose history is herein recorded : Agnes, who died at the age of six: Lincoln H., a farmer living one mile east of Odebolt ; Jesse C., of Clear Lake, Iowa.
Albert Davenport was educated in the district schools of Clinton county and later attended Mt. Vernon Academy. Upon his marriage in 1882 he came to Sac county and located on a one-hundred-and-sixty-acre farm given him by his father. Later he purchased an additional quarter section of land and for the next twenty-six years successfully farmed the half section of land in Clinton township. He improved his farm by drainage and fencing and was regarded as one of the successful farmers of his community. In the spring of 1908 he moved to Odebolt and purchased a large modern resi- dence where he is now living. He owns one hundred and sixty acres of land in South Dakota and one hundred and sixty acres in North Dakota.
Mr. Davenport was married February 15, 1882, to Alice Collenbaugh, the daughter of Christopher Collenbaugh, a native of Indiana. See the sketch
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of B. F. Collenbaugh elsewhere in this volume for additional information on the Collenbaugh family. Mr. and Mrs. Davenport have one child living, Hazel, and one deceased, Grace A., who died at the age of twenty years in 1904.
Politically, Mr. Davenport is a Republican and has served as assessor of his home township. He and his wife are stanch members of the Methodist Episcopal church and give it their support at all times.
HARRY B. FOX.
The development of Sac county has now reached the stage that prac- tically calls for the retirement of the pioneers who have borne the brunt of the hardships and have conquered the wilderness for all time. The burdens of responsibility are gradually being shifted upon younger shoulders. The sons of the pioneers are taking the places formerly occupied by their sturdy parents. They are "making good" and are profiting in great measure by the scientific knowledge now obtainable for the promotion of agriculture and are endeavoring to increase the yields of the soils and progress along new lines.
Harry B. Fox, son of Marshall D. Fox, and who succeeded his father in the possession of the Ashlawn farm, which has long been the Fox homestead in Clinton township, is a progressive farmer and stockinen of decided ability. He owns two hundred acres of land, which is equipped with a fine residence and excellent modern buildings. He has recently, in the fall of 1911, com- pleted a modern swine pen, which is built of stucco. His large barn is thirty-six by forty-two feet in extent and the adjacent shed is twenty-two by thirty-six feet in size. In addition to these buildings, the farm boasts a silo built of hollow tile in the summer of 1912. He is a breeder of Aberdeen Angus cattle and the farm produces about twenty-five head annually. It also produces from eighty to ninety marketable hogs each year.
Harry B. Fox was born November 28, 1878, on the farm where he now lives and is the son of Marshall D. and Lydia ( Bennett ) Fox, pioneer settlers of Clinton township, and concerning whom the biographer has written an appreciation in the pages of this volume. He was educated in the district schools of the neighborhood and the Odebolt high school. He has been operating the home farm since 1908. In 1913 he purchased the tract of two hundred acres from his father.
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Mr. Fox is politically allied with the Progressive party and is now serving a three-year term as township trustee, having been elected to this office in the fall of 1912. He belongs to the Methodist church and is a mem- ber of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He holds the position of vice-president of the Sac County Farmers Institute, an important and in- fluential assembly of Sac county agriculturists.
Mr. Fox was united in the holy bonds of matrimony with Lydie C. Buehler, November 28, 1900. She is the daughter of George and Lucy M. Buchler, of Odebolt. Mr. and Mrs. Fox have three children : Eugene Mar- shall, born September 18. 1905: Paul George, born December 6, 1907, and Elinor Elaine, born October 16, 1910.
While young in years, this talented young man is already making his presence and capabilities felt in the neighborhood in which he has spent his entire life. He stands high in the esteem of the people who know him and his influence among his fellow citizens is considerable. Following in the foot- steps of his esteemed father, he bids fair to become one of the influential figures of Sac county.
SANKEY CHRISTIAN SONNICHSEN.
A descent of sturdy Germanic ancestry is S. C. Sonnichsen, a farmer of Wall Lake township. Sac county, Iowa. Since coming to this county in 1895 he has accumulated farm property, which is netting him a handsome return each year. Ilis career has always been marked by those character- istics which have made all of the Germans of this county such desirable citizens. Not only has he been a successful tiller of the soil, but he has also taken his full share in the public life of his community.
S. C. Sonnichsen was born March 24, 1868, in Marion county, Iowa, and is the son of M. M. and Jetty Caroline ( Datlefsen ) Sonnichsen, both of whom were natives of Germany. M. M. Sonnichsen was born in Schles- wig Holstein in 1835, and served in the Germanic-Danish war in 1863, eight years in all. After his marriage in 1857, he came with his wife and three children to America in 1866 and on the voyage to this country one child was born, Hannah, who died in January, 1907. The other three children who came with their parents in 1866, were Martin, of Colorado City, Colo- rado : Dora Hamilton, of Pocahontas county, and Mary Williams, of Custer, Oklahoma. The Sonnichsen family settled in Marion county, Iowa, in the year 1867 and after settling in this state four more children were born: S.
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C., with whom this narrative deals: Anna (Forsythe), of Sac county, Iowa; Henry, of Hancock, Minnesota. and Jetty, deceased. The wife of M. M. Sonnichsen died in 1876, and he lived near Knoxville, Iowa, until May of 1914, when he came to Sac county to reside with his son, S. C. His second wife was Amy Delp, who died May 14, 1914.
S. C. Sonnichsen was reared and educated in Marion county, Iowa, and came with his parents to Sac county in the spring of 1889. Shortly after coming to Sac county, M. M. Sonnichsen went to Oklahoma, but returned in a few years to Sac county. In 1892 S. C. Sonnichsen removed to Newell, Buena Vista county, Iowa, where he lived three years. In the spring of 1895 he came to Sac county, renting a farm on the river for three years. He owned two farms in this county before he purchased his present farm of eighty acres in 1906.
Mr. Sonnichsen was married November 27, 1890, to Harriet Parkin- son, the daughter of Joseph and Sarah ( Dover) Parkinson. Her father was a native of England and is now living in Lake View in this county. To this marriage have been born two children. Emma, who was born March 18, 1896, and one child who died in infancy.
Mr. Sonnichsen has always given his support to the Democratic party and has been honored by his party by being nominated and elected to various local offices, among which was that of school director. He has always taken an active interest in politics and keeps well informed upon the cur- rent issues of the day. Fraternally, he is a member of the Yeomen and is deeply interested in the success of that fraternal organization. Mr. and Mrs. Sonnichsen are hospitable people who have a host of friends in this community who admire them for their many good qualities.
J. P. THERKELSEN.
It is an axiom in Sac county that a German settler is a prosperous citi- zen. History does not record a single case of a German settler who has come to this county and not succeeded. This is especially true of Sac county and among the three thousand citizens who have made this their home there is not one but who can be classed among the solid and substantial citizens of this favored spot of the state.
J. P. Therkelsen, a prosperous farmer, merchant and banker of Lake View, Iowa, was born September 16, 1850, in Schleswig, Germany, and is the
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son of Thirkel Nelson and Christina Otto Therkelsen. His parents never came to this country, but a brother and sister, Jasper and Mrs. Lena Han- sen, are now living in the city of Seattle, Washington.
J. P. Therkelsen moved to America in 1871 and located immediately in Clinton county, Iowa. His first employment was in a mercantile estab- lishment and he remained there a year. Upon the country-wide call for la- bor after the Chicago fire of 1871, he went to Chicago to help in the stupen- dous task of removing the wreckage and debris from the streets of that ill-fated city. Later he followed various kinds of work in Chicago, in fact, doing anything which would earn him an honest penny. For four years he worked in Chicago. the last three years being employed in a store. With a thrift that characterizes all his people, he saved his money and in 1876 went to Des Moines and started a store of his own. Four years later he moved to Lake View and opened the second store in that new town. For the next thirty-one years he was constantly engaged in the mercantile business in Lake View and still owns the store, which is now occupying a large new brick building, erected by Mr. Therkelsen in 1893. In addition to his mer- cantile interests Mr. Therkelsen has invested some of his money in land and now has four hundred and five acres in two farms. One hundred and sixty acres is located near Lake View and this he oversees personally ; he also has two hundred and forty-five acres in Winona county, this state.
Mr. Therkelsen was married March 3, 1881, to Anna Knudson, a native of Denmark and the daughter of Rasmus and Caroline Knudson. Her parents came to America in 1870 and later settled in Sac county in May. 1896. Mr. and Mrs. Therkelsen are the parents of eleven children, all of whom are living in Lake View: Clarence, who is married and is cashier of Lake View State Bank; Christina: Helena; Robert; Fred, who is teller in Lake View State Bank; Frank ; Naomi : Lynn ; Jasper ; Eugene, and Will- iam, deceased. Christina married W. F. Brower and lives in Lake View. William died at the age of two years. All of the remaining children are still living with their parents.
Politically, Mr. Therkelsen is a Republican and has always taken an ac- tive interest in politics. The indication of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow citizens is shown in the fact that he has served as city council- man, a member of the school board and mayor of Lake View, and in all of these various offices he has acquitted himself with credit and has never failed to identify himself with every enterprise which he felt would benefit his home town. Fraternally, he is a member of the Ancient Free and Ac- cepted Masons, having attained the degree of Knight Templar, and is also
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a member of the Mystic Shrine at Des Moines. Mr. and Mrs. Therkelsen live in a large, handsome home, and are giving their children the best of educational advantages with the idea of making them useful members ot society later on. Mr. Therkelsen is a man of pleasing personality and is one of the most popular men of Lake View. His life history is marked by high motives which ranks him as a true American citizen.
REV. L. SCHENKELBERG.
The most self-sacrificing men are those who minister to the spiritual wants of men, and while they may not secure their reward in this world, they are always sure that their reward will eventually come. The work which the men of this class do is of such a nature that its good cannot always be calculated, and is never measured in dollars and cents. The successful business man may measure his success by his bank roll, while the minister of the gospel measures his by the souls he saves and the good he does in any community. Each man has his work to do, and both are essential to the civilization of our country, and it is not within the province of man to say that the worth of one is more than the other.
Rev. L. Schenkelberg. the pastor of St. Martin's Catholic church at Odebolt, Sac county, Iowa, was born February 9, 1874, in the province of Rhien, in Germany, and is a son of William and Catharine ( Olpertz) Schen- kelberg. In his native country he secured the elements of a common school education, and when eighteen years of age came to this county, arriving here on April 28, 1892. He immediately came to Carroll county, Iowa, where he stayed for a short time with relatives. A few years later he began to prepare for the priesthood. by entering St. Lawrence College, Mt. Calvary, Wis- cousin. He completed the classical course at this institution and then pur- sued the philosophical course at St. Joseph's College at Dubuque, Iowa, graduating with the class of 1900. Then, in order to prepare himself the better for his chosen life work, he went to Montreal, Canada. and entered the Grand Seminary at that place. Here he pursued the theological course for the next three years and three months, at the close of which he was or- dained a priest by the Most Rev. Paul D. Brushesi, the archbishop of Mon- treal. His ordination occurred on December 19, 1903, and on the 24th of the same month he became assistant pastor at St. Joseph's church, at Le Mars, Iowa. Fourteen months later he became the pastor at Ogden, Iowa,
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and remained in this place for three and one-half years, after which fol- lowed a short period of service at Maryhill, Iowa, after which he went to Charter Oak, this state, taking charge of the St. Boniface church at that place on October 28, 1908. The church at this place had burned August 5, 1908, and upon his taking charge of the parish, he immediately began prepa- rations for building a new church. In the spring of 1909 the congregation and Father Schenkelberg erected a magnificent new building of brick, at a cost of about nineteen thousand dollars and a residence at a cost of four thousand dollars. These buildings are entirely modern throughout and are among the finest in Crawford county, Iowa. Father Schenkelberg was trans- ferred to Odebolt, Sac county, Iowa, on October 30, 1913, and has since been ministering to the needs of the congregation at that place.
Father Schenkelberg has two brothers in this country. P. W., who resides in Carroll county, and is the county supervisor, and Henry, who is a prosperous farmer also living in Carroll county, this state. Father Schen- kelberg is a man who possesses that simplicity, purity and humility of char- acter which wins the affections of his parishioners and stands for the best things and with the large-hearted, optimistic view which he takes of life, he finds favor not only with the members of his own church, but with all other people with whom he is associated.
EARL C. ROGERS.
The two most strongly marked characteristics of both the East and the West are combined in the residents of the section of country of which this volume treats. The enthusiastic enterprise which overleaps all obstacles and makes possible almost any undertaking in the comparatively new and vigorous Western states is here tempered by the stable and more careful policy that we have borrowed from our Eastern neighbors, and the combi- nation is one of peculiar force and power. It has been the means of placing this section of the country on a par with the older East. at the same time pro- ducing a reliability and certainty in business affairs which is frequently lack- ing in the West. This happy combination of characteristics is possessed by the subject of this brief sketch.
E. C. Rogers, the owner and manager of the Lake View Creamery, was born December 14, 1857, in Broome county, New York. His parents were Earlman and Cornelia L. (Austin) Rogers, both of whom were natives of New York state and Connecticut, respectively.
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In 1878 Mr. Rogers came to Iowa and located at Alden in Hardin county and taught school one year and returned to New York. In 1881 the entire family came, and E. C. began farming. As a farmer he prospered and rapidly accumulated a fine farm, to which he devoted all of his time and energy. In 1893 he became interested in the organization of a co-operative creamery at Alden and became the first president and later business manager of the plant. In 1898 he purchased a creamery in Ocheyedan, which he managed for two years, then sold it and traveled for a creamery supply house for one year. In 1901 he returned to his farm of two hundred and twelve acres at Alden, where he remained for the next five years. In 1906 he sold his farm and went to Spartansburg, Pennsylvania, as butter maker in the largest creamery in that state. A year after entering the employ of the creamery company in that state he was injured in his right arm and left leg by an explosion in the factory and was compelled to resign his posi- tion. While recuperating he purchased the Lake View Creamery in partner- ship with his son, who began operations in January, 1908. He then came to Lake View, in Sac county, Iowa. after purchasing the creamery in this place which had been established in 1893. Mr. Rogers and son took full charge of the creamery in the spring of 1908 and have continued to manage it up until the present time. The building is twenty by fifty feet and has a capacity of eight hundred pounds of butter and two hundred gallons of ice cream daily. The season's output of butter amounts to over thirty thou- sand dollars in value and is shipped to New York City. Most of the ice cream is used for local consumption. The factory manufactured fourteen hundred gallons in 1900 during the months of July and August.
Mr. Rogers was married in 1880 to Ida M. More, a school girl friend of his in his native state. To this marriage have been born three children : Harold M., who was connected with his father in the creamery business and now a farmer in Wisconsin : Frank L., in the creamery at Lake View, and Richard L., a freshman in Grinnell College.
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