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From: Debbie Clough Gerischer <>
Subject: [IASCOTT] Henry Hell, V. M. D., Bio
Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 08:25:07 -0700


Posted on: Scott County Biographies
Board URL: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ia/ScottBios?read=912

Surname: Hell, Stoley, Hagen, Elmegreen, Gensch
-------------------------

"From History of Davenport and Scott County, Iowa - by Harry E. Donner
- Chicago - The S. J. Clark Publishing Company, 1910"

One of the prominent young men of Scott county is Dr. Henry Hell, who for
the past five years has been practicing his profession as a veterinarian
there and in the village of New Liberty. A native of this county, he was
born in Cleona township, November 27, 1877, and is a son of John and Wiebke
(Stolley) Hell. The former was born in the town of Maren, Ditmarschen,
Germany, March 27, 1833. In 1853 he sailed for America, coming to Davenport
immediately after crossing the Atlantic, and there for a number of years
he worked at his trade of a mason, but later in partnership with his brother
Claus bought a team of oxen and engaged in breaking prairie for pioneer
settlers in this county. In 1857 the brothers began to farm for themselves,
having secured what was then known as the Charles Hagen place in Hickory
Grove township. Five years later John Hell married and in March, 1862,
removed to Cleona township, where he lived until 1891, when he came to
New Liberty, here engaging in the general merchandise business. In the
preceding years he had followed farming with great profit, for in addition
to the quarter section of land on which he lived in Cleona township on
the Cedar county line, another tract of eighty acres in Cedar county, comprising
the old homestead farm, and two hundred and forty acres in Cedar county,
in the same section as the tract just mentioned. These extensive landholdings
were entirely the result of his own labor, for he came here with little
capital. The land was unimproved and its resources were then untried. He
overcame the many obstacles that beset his path, however, and in 1900,
at the beginning of the new century, retired from active life. He died
in New Liberty, August 13, 1908. His wife, whom he wedded January 18, 1862,
was born in Rendsburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, January 12, 1833, and
had come to this country in 1860. She is still living and makes her home
in New Liberty. Six children were born to them: John, a farmer at Hankinson,
North Dakota; Charles, a mechanic at Grundy Center, Iowa; Theodore, who
died in childhood; William, who is a molder and lives in Davenport; George,
a farmer at Sunbury, Iowa; and Henry, the subject of this sketch.

Dr. Henry Hell was reared at home and lived with his parents in Cleona
township and New Liberty until 1900. He attended the public schools of
his district during his youth, in which he received a good foundation for
the studies he later pursued in higher institutions of learning. When he
left home upon his father's retirement from business in 1900, he went to
his brother John, who was at that time a contractor of railroad construction.
He devoted some of his time to that labor for several months and in the
fall of 1901 took a course in veterinary medicine at the Iowa State College
at Ames. In the fall of 1903 he was admitted to advanced standing in the
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he pursued his studies
in his chosen profession until June 15, 1904, when he was given a degree
from the veterinary department of that institution. He came to New Liberty
almost immediately after his graduation and on the 1st of July commenced
the practice of veterinary surgery in that village. A young man, who felt
that from his boyhood he was peculiarly fitted for his line of work, and
being endowed with a quick and alert mind, which has been most thoroughly
trained, he has proved that he is well abel to care for the most troublesome
cases entrusted to his care. A skillful practitioner he has also a keen
understanding of animal nature, so that in the half decade that he has
been practicing here he has been of invaluable assistance to the farmers
and stock owners of the surrounding country.

At Omro, Wisconsin, December 26, 1906, was celebrated the marriage of Dr.
Hell and Miss Minne Elmegreen, who was born in Schleswig township, Manitowoc
county, Wisconsin, February 19, 1884, and is a daughter of August Elmegreen.
She received her early education in the place of her birth and then recieved
private instruction under Professor Gensch at Hilbert, Wisconsin, after
which she engaged in teaching for three years. In the fall of 1904 she
was engaged as an instructor in Liberty township and here met Dr. Hell,
whom she afterward married. Two children, Chester John and Ethel Mae, have
been born to the couple.

Dr. Hell is a stanch republican in his political views and is at present
treasurer of the town of New Liberty, for he is a young man in whom all
place the greatest reliance. Fraternally he enjoys pleasant relations,
being an active member of Lodge, No. 221, A. F. & A. M., at Davenport.

Link: Scott County Page
URL: <http://www.rootsweb.com/~iascott/scott.htm>;

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