Frank Bente is a scion of
the third generation of the Bente family in Clayton
county, with whose annals the name has been
identified since the early pioneer days, and he is
now one of the extensive and representative
agriculturists and stock-growers of his native
county, where he is the owner of a well improved
landed estate of three hundred and twenty-seven
acres, in sections 11 and 12, Boardman township and
with free mail service on one of the rural delivery
routes from Elkader, the county seat.
Mr. Bente was born in Cox
Creek township, this county, on the 17th of February,
1876, and is a son of William and Margaret (Kress)
Bente, both of whom were born in Germany but reared
and educated in the United States. William Bente was
a child of three years at the time of his parents'
immigration to America and he became one of the
pioneer settlers in what is now Cox Creek township,
Clayton county, Iowa, where he reclaimed and improved
a valuable farm and where he continued his residence
until his death, which occurred in 1910. He was one
of the substantial and highly esteemed citizens of
this county, was a Republican in politics and was a
communicant of the Lutheran church, as is also his
widow, who now maintains her home at Elkader, the
county seat. Of their ten children the eldest is
Henry, who is a prosperous farmer in Read township;
Louis resides at Elkader; George is engaged in
farming in Boardman township; Mary is the wife of
Adolph Altschul, of Duluth, Minnesota; Frank, of this
review, was the fifth child; Annie is the wife of
Edward Messe, of Littleport, this county; Michael is
a farmer in Cox Creek township; Katherine is the wife
of Robert Englart, and they reside in the city of
Chicago; Ida is the wife of John Miller of that city;
and Elizabeth is the wife of Morris Hesner, of
Strawberry Point, Clayton county.
Frank Bente passed the
period of his childhood and youth on his father's
farm and in the meanwhile fortified himself in mental
discipline by attending the public schools. He
continued to be associated with the work and
management of the home farm until he was twenty-three
years of age, and in his independent career as an
agriculturist and stock-grower he has shown himself
ambitious, resourceful and progressive, with the
result that he has gained distinctive success and is
to be designated as one of the representative farmers
of his native county. In 1907 he purchased his
present fine farm of three hundred and twenty-seven
acres, and he is making the same one of the model
places of the county, with a consistent application
to diversified agriculture and the raising of good
grades of live stock. He is aligned as a staunch
supporter of the principles of the Republican party,
is affiliated with the Brotherhood of American
Yeomen, and both he and his wife are communicants of
the Lutheran church.
On the first of August,
1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Bente to
Miss Lena A. Scheer, who has likewise born and reared
in Clayton county and who is a daughter of Frederick
and Lena Scheer, both natives of Germany. Mr. and
Mrs. Bente have two children — Florence Mary,
who was born October 30, 1902; and Ralph William
Edward, who was born December 19, 1903.
source: History of
Clayton County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical
Times Down to the Present; by Realto E. Price,
Vol. II; pg. 38-39
-OCR scanned by S. Ferrall
