Henry Schellhouse (1900), who is the owner and farmer of 240 acres of Martin township's
productive soil, is a German by birth, his nativity occurring January 5, 1857, in the
province of Hessen Kausel. His father, John Schellhouse, a large farmer in the old
country, died when Henry was a boy of fourteen, and his mother, Anna Elizabeth (Strube)
Schellhouse, passed away three years before.
Until a young man of twenty-four, Henry Schellhouse's life was spent in the fatherland,
and for most of that time he was engaged in agricultural pursuits. Coming to America in
1881, he lived for seven years in Benton county, Iowa. For the first two years he worked
out, then rented land and farmed for himself. O'Brien county, Iowa, was the scene of his
labors for the next eleven years. While there he invested in eighty acres of wild land,
which he improved and farmed for a considerable length of time. His residence in Rock
county dates from 1900. That year he bought his present farm, the southwest quarter of
section 26, Martin township. His other property has been acquired since. He raises quite a
bit of stock and engages to a great extent in dairying. In 1909 he was elected one of the
directors of school district No. 40. He is a member of the Evangelical church of Steen.
Mr. Schellhouse was married January 7, 1885, in Benton county, Iowa, to Mary Tilcher, born
in Germany, September 3, 1863. She came to this country with her parents when a child
three years of age. Her family first located in Illinois but later moved to Benton county,
Iowa. The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Schellhouse: Edward, born
October 14, 1886; Charles, born January 10, 1888; John born March 20, 1890; William, born
September 4, 1892; Clara, born October 29, 1895; Harry, born June 22, 1898; Albert, born
November 2, 1903.
