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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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Henry
Welle In
the constant and laborious struggle for an honorable competence and a creditable
name on the part of business or professional men there is little to attract the
reader in search of a sensational chapter, but to a mind thoroughly awake to the
true meaning of life and its responsibilities there are noble and imperishable
lessons in the career of an individual who, early thrown upon his own resources
and without other means than a sound mind, fertile perceptive faculty and a true
heart, conquers adversity and wins not only a position in the industrial world,
but what is equally as great, the deserved esteem and confidence of his fellow
men. Such a man is the prominent
business man of Sully, Jasper County, whom the biographer treats in this
connection, and whose name is so intimately associated with the material and
civic interests of Lynn Grove Township as to reflect much credit upon the town
and vicinity, at the same time gaining the undivided respect of all who know him
for his well directed life, which has been along paths of honor. Henry
Welle was born in Marion County, Iowa, June 24, 1867, the son of Cornelius and
Sarah (Nollen) Welle, both natives of Holland, the father having emigrated to
America in 1847 with his parents, Peter and Dirkie Welle, and located in Marion
County, Iowa, two and one-half miles from Pella, and there they spent the rest
of their lives, having established a very pleasant home in the new world, and
there the father of our subject was reared, he having been but a boy when he was
brought to this state. The maternal
grandparents, Henry and Sarah Nollen, also natives of Holland who emigrated to
America in 1854, located in Marion County, Iowa, also and there the mother of
the subject was reared. Cornelius
Welle devoted his life to agricultural pursuits and became the owner of about
two hundred acres of valuable land. His
death occurred on September 20, 1907, his widow is still living at the town of
Pella, being now about seventy-five years of age.
Their family consisted of two sons and two daughters, all living.
Mr. Welle was a quiet, home man, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church,
to which his widow also belongs. Henry
Welle was educated in the common schools of Marion County and reared on the
farm, and he engaged in the various phases of agricultural pursuits until he was
twenty-eight years of age, then he spent a year in Pella and in 1895 came to
Sully, Jasper County, and entered the general mercantile business in partnership
with B. H. Van Spanckeren, which continued successfully for a period of five
years, during which time they built up an extensive trade with the town and
surrounding country. At the end of
that time Mr. Welle bought out his partner and conducted the business alone for
ten years, enjoying a liberal and growing patronage all the while, then sold out
in the fall of 1910 to Mr. Haan, and soon entered a partnership with Frank
Sherman in the automobile and garage business, in which they are still engaged,
having been successful from the first. They
built a modern, substantial cement building, thirty by sixty feet, on Main
Street. They handle the popular Ford, Hudson and Mitchell cars
and their business is constantly growing. Mr.
Welle is a Democrat in politics and while he has never sought public leadership
he has always stood ready to do his part in furthering any laudable undertaking
having for its object the upbuilding of the community in any way. Religiously,
he belongs to the Congregational Church. Mr.
Welle was married on September 2, 1896, to Dora Van Spanckeren, daughter of B.
H. Van Spanckeren, Sr., who located in Marion County, Iowa, in 1847. He now
lives in Pella and is eighty-four years of age.
One son has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Welle, named Cornelius. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 745. |
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