HENRY VORWALD was born in Iowa City,
Johnson county Iowa, October 5, 1850.
He is a son of Francis and Anna (Sherbrook) Vorwald, natives of Hanover, Germany. The parents came to America when young and were married at Hamilton, Ohio. They came to Iowa early in the
"forties”, and settled at Iowa City, where the father lived on one hundred
and sixty acres of land and soon afterwards bought a half section in that
vicinity. He lived there until 1852, when he
came to
Dubuque county, Iowa, and spent much of
the remainder of his life in Liberty township but died in Dyersville,
that county, at the age of seventy years, in 1884. His wife died in 1855 at about thirty-two
years of age. He was a farmer and in later years a
teacher, a man
of splendid education. He and his wife
were the parents of eight children—Anna, Elizabeth, Mary, Frank John, Catherine, Henry and
Theodore. Our subject is next to
the youngest child. He was raised in Dubuque county, Iowa on a farm and received a common-school
education in early life, finishing at Quincy, Ill., at a school connected with the convent. He has followed farming all his life. He remained with his father and gave him the benefit of
his labors until he was eighteen, then he began on his own account and lived
with a brother and farmed in partnership. He settled where he now lives in March, 1886, and
owns two hundred and forty acres in sections 24, 13 and 12. He started in life on small capital and
owes what he has to his own exertions.
He has given all his attention to farming and keeps a good grade of stock.
April 19, 1870, he married Miss Abbie Griffith. She
was born in Delaware county, Iowa, in 1852, and is a daughter of
George W. and Cithy (Williams) Griffin.
Mr. and Mrs. Vorwald have nine children. The
eldest, Annie, married Henry Bockenstedt, of Delaware county,
and they have one child, Gracie.
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