CEDAR COUNTY, NEBRASKA - HENRY STUCKENHOFF ==================================================================== NEGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the NEGenWeb Archives by Carol Tramp. Permission granted by: Rob Dump, Editor, Cedar County News ====================================================================== CEDAR COUNTY NEWS – April 2, 1953 Henry Stuckenhoff, Pioneer Builder, Saw Hartington born, Helped to Build it. July 10, 1883 a young German Carpenter and builder crossed the river from Yankton and landed in St. Helena. This young man Henry Stuckenhoff, was destined not only to watch a frontier country be built and grow, he helped to build it and many are the landmarks to his craftsmanship that still stand in the northern part of the county. Mr. Stuckenhoff was born January 27 or 28, 1866 (he is not sure which is the correct date) at Hollinger, Westphaila, Germany on the Ruhr River. He was the second son of a German Farmer. He attended school until he was 14 at which time he was taken to the city to learn the carpenter trade. Later he attended a building trade school for a year and a half. There he learned not only the fine points of building and construction, but how to draw plans and design buildings. As a young carpenter he worked at various places in Germany and in several nearby countries. By that time he had decided that as he puts it “the world was too small”, so in 1883 he sailed for America to make his home and seek his fortune. Saw Hartington Born When Mr. Stuckenhoff arrived in Cedar county there was no Hartingoton. He saw the first lots sold in Hartington and the railroad come into town. He spent several months here in the fall of 883 building counters and shelves for stores just starting up in the new community. He spent his first winter in American in St. Helena where he built 72 tables for Reiferst Furniture store from home grown walnut timber. It was in 1884 that his career as a community builder began with the building of a house which still stands in the east part of Hartington. When the construction of the present court house was started Mr. Stuckenhoff took a sub-contract for the carpenter work and helped to complete that building. The number of homes he built in Hartington in those early years are almost too numerous to mention. Among them however were the A.K. Lammers home built in 1900 to 1901 and 1902 he built the John Walz house in which Ray Hegert now lives in and the Sullivan home next to it. Church Builder Some of Mr. Stuckenhoff’s outstanding work was in the construction of churches. In ’96-’97 he built the present church at St. Helena. In 1901 and 1903 he built the Holy Trinity church in Hartington, which he later saw burned to the ground in a few hours. Mr. Stuckenhoff took the carpenter contract on the SS Peters and Paul’s Church at Bow Valley which was completed in 1904. During the next year he did some general building in Fordyce and 1907 and 1908 he built the Fordyce Catholic Church. The following year he built the Fordyce public School building. He also built and helped to build several schools including the former Holy Trinity high school, St. James School, Pearl Creek School and the school at Constance. Other Buildings Besides many homes, other buildings built by Mr. Stuckenhoff include the Holy Trinity rectory, the hotel building in Coleridge, which is now the Tri-state Nursing Home. He was also the overseer on the KC building her and the bank and Masonic hall in Coleridge. At the age of 60 he retired from active building and contracting and went to Winona, MN where he worked 12 years for St. Mary’s college. Other activity In addition to building Mr. Stuckenhoff took a brief turn at farming. At one time he helped to operate the Paragon Mill and later bought the building where the Pohle Jewerly store is now located and operated a bakery for more than a year. During the busy years he found time to go back to Germany and to visit relatives in 1910 and again in 1931. He did his last outside contruction in 1935 and since that time he has been in retirement. He makes his home with his daughter Mrs. Alex Schulte. Today, Mr. Stuckenhoff told the News reporter, he passed the winter months visiting with friends, playing cards and reading. In the summer he cares for the yard and raises a garden. Mr. Stuckenhoff was the father of nine children, but only two of them, Mrs. Anna Schulte of Hartington and Dr. Harry Stuckenhoff of Wyoming are still living. While he has led a long and active life and is still going strong, many of the buldings he built will live on long after he is gone as a monument to his energy and craftsmanship as a builder.