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HENRY C. HENKLE , known as "squire," is the owner and proprietor of Inglewood Stock Farm, of Jackson township. He has made the most of the improvements on his farm, and now has an entirely new and handsome residence. Mr. Henkle was born in Hardin county, Ohio, October 21, 1843, and is a son of Asa S. and Anna (Michaels) Henkle, both deceased. The father died in 1888, at the age of seventy-five years, and his widow died in 1906, aged nearly eighty-nine, both at their home in section 7, Jackson township, Benton county. Asa S. Henkle and his wife were both natives of Virginia, both born in Rockingham county; their respective families had removed to Ohio, and there they were married. They were farmers all their lives and very successful, as were their parents. Mrs. Henkle's mother was ninety-eight years old at her death; her stepfather, William Rogers, was a Kentuckian by birth, served in the Revolution and died in Ohio.
Asa Henkle and his wife came to Benton county, Iowa, with their six sons and six daughters in September, 1856, and located first on a farm in Taylor township, near Vinton, where they lived until 1860, and then moved to section 7, Jackson township. He had lived from 1844 until 1856 in Kankakee county, Illinois, and a part of the city of Kankakee is located on what was formerly his farm. Asa Henkle traded his eighty acres in Kankakee county, Illinois, for three hundred and twenty acres in section 7, Jackson township, Benton county, Iowa, which he had never seen. In 1860 he located on the farm now occupied by his son Henry, where he spent the remainder of his life. Asa Henkle filled many local offices in his township, and was first a Whig and later a Republican. He was a highly respected, public-spirited citizen, and his loss was keenly felt. Of his twelve children six sons and three daughters survive, namely: Jacob, of Jackson township; James, retired and living at Vinton; Henry C.; John, Merritt and Grant, of Jackson township; Rebecca, wife of Samuel Wilford, residing at Vinton; Belle, wife of John W. Robertson, of Garrison, Iowa; and Clara, wife of M. J. Lepley, of Ladysmith, Wisconsin. Those deceased are: Adeline, Lucinda and Ellen. Adeline died un married at the age of about sixty-five years, at Vinton; she had cared for her mother during her later years. Lucinda married 0. J. Williams, who resides at Guthrie, Oklahoma; she died over twenty years ago. Ellen died when about one year old.
Henry C. Henkle was reared in Illinois and Iowa, and has been a resident of the latter state since 1856. He received a common school education, and in July, 1862, enlisted in Company D, Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry. He became ill while in camp before they left the state, and went to a hospital at Keokuk, Iowa, where he remained until March, 1863, and then re-enlisted in the Mississippi Marine Brigade. He was able to do this on account of a special order of the War Department which authorized Brigadier-General A. W. Elliott to recruit a brigade, and authorized him to arm and equip a fleet designed to open and keep open the Mississippi river. They had seven boats which patrolled the river, subject to the orders of the commanding officer of the department. Mr. Henkle served until February, 1865, when by special order of the War Department they were discharged, although they had enlisted for three years. But one other man served from Benton county, George W. Black, now a physician in the state of Washington, and he was Mr. Henkle's bunkmate. Mr. Henkle was never injured seriously, although he had a bullet go through his cap and hair. At the close of the war he returned to Benton county and took up farming.
Mr. Henkle owns three hundred and fifty acres in sections 17 and 20, Jackson township, and some two hundred acres of this are under the direct management of his son Hays, who lives on the farm, in a fine home. Mr. Henkle made most of the improvements himself, and is an intelligent farmer. He has been very successful and enjoys the respect and confidence of his neighbors. He has always voted the Republican ticket, the first time for Lincoln in 1864, and he has, as an interesting souvenir, a duplicate of that ballot. He has served in all township offices, and for twenty-one years has held the office of justice of the peace. He is a member of P. M. Coder Post, No. 98, Grand Army of the Republic, of Vinton.
In 1876 Mr. Henkle married Rebecca Wilson, born May 14, 1854, in Pennsylvania; after her mother's death, May 16, 1868, she, with a brother James, now of Cass county, Iowa, came in February, 1869, to Benton county, Iowa, since her home. She is a daughter of Samuel and Mary (Douglass) Wilson; her father visited Benton county in 1870, but returned to Pennsylvania, where he remarried, and died about 1897. Mr. Henkle and his wife have two children, Hays W., and Blair Blaine. Hays married Doris McBride, daughter of Mrs. Mary McBride, now a resident of Garrison. Blair lives at home, and is unmarried.
Mrs. Henkle was one of fourteen children of two families having the same father; the others are: Miriam C., who married Harry Chamberlin, and resides in Pennsylvania; James E., now a resident of Cass county, formerly lived in Benton county a number of years; Julia M., who married Samuel Henderson and lives in Pennsylvania; Eliza J., who married John Stephens and lives in Pennsylvania; Salena M., who married Peter Hornish, and died in Pennsylvania, July 9, 1909; Samuel S., who died several years ago; John M., a railroad man of Altoona, Pennsylvania; Isabella M., who married John Hicks, and died in 1906 in Pennsylvania; Ira D., a real estate dealer of Longmont, Colorado; Emma, who died young; Nancy E., who married Martin Hammon and lives in Pennsylvania; Caroline G., who married Charles Miller and resides in Vinton; and Lucetta J., who died in infancy.
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