HENRY WILLIAM PIEPER

One of the most industrious and enterprising farmers of Flint River township, who was born and raised on the farm which he now owns, and on which he also resided since his birth, is Henry William Pieper. He is a son of Herman Henry and Wilhelmina (Westerbeck) Pieper, and was born June 21, 1859. The father died when our subject was only eight years old, and his mother passed away April 1, 1900, aged seventy-six years. Henry William received all of his education in the district school of his native township, and as soon as he laid aside his textbooks he at once proceeded to take up farming, so as to aid his widowed mother. His farm consists of sixty-eight acres on Section 9, most of which he has under cultivation. Mr. Pieper carries on general farming, at which he has been most successful. He now has two good horses, nine head of cattle, and raises from fifteen to thirty fat hogs annually. May 15, 1895, Mr. Pieper married Miss Anna Hobesiefken, daughter of Rankie Hobesiefken. This union was blessed with two children, both of whom died in infancy. Mr. Pieper has passed through deep sorrow, as his beloved wife died when they had been married only five years. Her death occurred April 19, 1900, only a little over two weeks after his aged mother. This left him alone on the home place. The next three years his two nieces, Sarah and Minnie Brandmeier, lived with him and kept house for him. Since then he has lived alone, doing all of his own cooking and housekeeping and all of the farm work. Politically, he is a Republican, but generally casts his vote for the man best qualified for office, and has never aspired to hold office himself. He is a member of the Swedenborgian church. During this long continuous residence of forty-six years Mr. Pieper has witnessed many changes both in the county and in the people. Flint River township, at the time of his birth, was considered by some as the “jumping off place,” it presented such a wild and desolate appearance, having only a field here and there under cultivation. Log cabins and small tworoomed buildings served as the houses, and the oxen were the beasts of toil, drawing the plough and the wagon when travel was necessary. Today this township is thickly settled by a thrifty class of Germans, who all own large farms, and have hundreds and hundreds of acres under cultivation, yielding annually thousands of bushels of golden grain; and who have erected modern houses and well-built barns. These, together with the miles of good roads and numerous bridges, all tend to make it one of the prettiest valleys in the county.Our subject, though still a young man, has seen the majority of the original farmers pass away and other new comers fill their places. His own farm is known to all as an old-time landmark; and were it to change hands tomorrow, it probably would go for years by the name of the Pieper place. Mr. Pieper’s motto has ever been, “Upward and onward.” His career has been a busy one, as well as one of good deeds.