Hans Bornholt, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Hans Bornholt
HANS BORNHOLT.
Porter County, Indiana, like many other parts of the State, has been benefitted by an influx into it of a better class of German emigrants, who have helped to build up the agricultural and commercial prosperity of this section of the country. Mr. Hans Bornholt, who is one of the prominent business men and intelligent farmers of the county, was born in Holstein, North Germany, March 4, 1838, and is a son of Max and Catherine (Hadeufeldt) Bornholt. The father was a well-known farmer in Germany and there two of his children were born, Hans and Claus. The mother of these children died and Mr. Bornholt selected his second wife in the person of Miss Anna Hendricks, who bore him six children: Catherine, Wiebke, Anna, Maggie, Max, and Jacob. Mr. Bornholt, who was a Lutheran in his religious views, died in his native country when seventy years of age. He was a man of honor and uprightness and was recognized as a leader in any worthy enterprise. Hans Bornholt received in his native village a good common school education, according to the German laws, and remained in the school room until sixteen years of age. After this he worked on the farm with his father for ten years longer, and then started out to engage in the struggle of life for himself. As America offered many inducements to an energetic young man, superior to any other country, he cast his lot here, emigrating from Hamburg, and arriving in New York in March, 1864. He came immediately to Valparaiso, where he had an acquaintance from Germany, and worked as a laborer until February 5, 1865. He then enlisted as a private in Company B, One Hundred and Fifty-first Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Capt. A. H. Goodwin, and was honorably discharged at Nashville, Tennessee, September, 19, 1865, receiving his papers at Indianapolis. He served in guarding Government property at Nashville and Tullahoma, Tennessee, and contracted chronic diarrhea, at Nashville. He remained in camp however, until he was reduced from a large man to one weighing ninety-eight pounds. He was sent to the hospital, where he remained for about ten days, and then returned to Valparaiso, so weak that he could not carry his knapsack from the depot. Few thought he would live, and it was a long time before he could do any work at all, and fifteen years before he could do a full day's work. He has not fully recovered from his service even yet, and probably never will. On the 4th of March, 1869, he married Miss Angy Harback, a native of Germany, and the daughter Claus and Dorothey (Engwessen) Harback, both natives of the old country, where they passed all their lives. Mrs. Bornholt, who was born in Holstein, April 13, 1844, came to America in 1865, when twenty-one years of age. She came direct to Valparaiso, where her brother, Carson Harback, was living. To Mr. and Mrs. Bornholt have been born six children: Carl F., Gustave E., Julius E., Hans Leo, Lydia A., and Angy R. Our subject bought cattle for Conrad Horn, for eight years, and then engaged in the butcher's business, for himself, in Valparaiso, remaining there until 1886, when he bought his present farm. While a resident of Valparaiso, he was Trustee of that city for four years. He traded town property for his farm, which consisted of 240 acres, but previous to this, in 1885, he had bought eighty acres of land north of his present residence. In 1887, he bought forty acres, southeast, so that he now has a fine farm of 360 acres, with an excellent house, substantial out-buildings, etc. He runs a large dairy of forty cows, and in this he is assisted by his sons and family. The milk is shipped to Chicago, and he is doing a prosperous business. He is giving his children good educational advantages and has reason to be proud of them. In religious views, he is an Evangelist, and an elder in the church, and in politics, he is a strong Republican. He is a member of the G. A. R. Fifty-six Post, at Valparaiso. Mr. Bornholt is a self-made man, and has made all his property by his own exertions, and those of his excellent wife. Honest, upright, and intelligent, he is one of the county's most influential German-American citizens, and is well liked by all. In 1892, he visited the land of his birth, and enjoyed the same very much, having been absent about twenty-eight years.
Source: Goodspeed Brothers. 1894. Pictorial and Biographical Record of La Porte, Porter, Lake and Starke Counties, Indiana. Chicago, Illinois: Goodspeed Brothers. 569 p.
Page(s) in Source: 378-379
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook