From David F Wilcox Quincey and Adams County History and Representative Men

Henry Bockhold.

Of the families that have been longest and most industriously identified with the agricultural welfare and enterprise of Melrose Township that represented by Henry Bockhold is especially noteworthy. Mr. Bockhold is one of the leading farmers of Melrose Township, his well improved farm and home being seven miles southeast of Quincy.

He was born near Antony's Church in this county December 22, 1860. son of Bernard and Catherine (Dicker) Bockhold. His father, a native of Germany, came to the United States at the age of twenty-two. In Germany he had become an expert in the manufacture of the wooden shoes which were the regular article of footwear in the low countries of Germany. After coming to Adams County he manufactured many pairs of these shoes for his neighbors. His chief employment, however, was cutting wood in the distilleries at Quincy.

He married here at the age of twenty-eight. Catherine Dicker had come to Adams County with her brother, Herman H. Dicker, who afterward went to Missouri and died in that state iu May, 1918. Before her marriage Catherine Dieker worked out. At the time of their marriage they bought a team and began farming where their son Henry was born. Bernard Bockhold ran a farm in partnership with his brother-in-law, Herman Dicker. About six years later he bought forty acres of timber land, going in debt for the entire purchase. There he built a small house, cleared up the land, and sold the wood in Quincy. White oak cordwood he sold for $8 and hickory at $10 a cord, after hauling it six miles to town. He made the trip every other day, hauling two loads, and his sale of wood was an important factor in paying the family expenses during those years. About 1875 Bernard Bockhold bought the present homestead owned by his son Henry. This comprised nine-one acres and is two and a half miles distant from the former residence of Bernard Bockhold. He went in debt about $5,000 when he bought it. It was the old Odo Bishop farm, at that time belonging to David Bishop. In 1884 Bernard Bockhold returned to his former homestead. His wife had died about ten years after their marriage, leaving four children. For his second wife, he married Christina Vogeding. She died at the old homestead, and her husband then spent his last years among his children, passing away in 1895, at the age of seventy-five. He was a democrat and an active member of St. Anthony's Catholic Church.

By his first wife he had the following children: Henry; Herman, who left Adams County when a young man and died in Marion County, Missouri, at the age of fifty-two; Bernard, a farmer in British Columbia; Frank, who died in boyhood. By his second wife he had five children: Joseph E., of Melrose Township; Anton, who lives in the State of Washington; John, connected with the Gardner Governor Works at Quincy; George, who lives in the West; and Mary, Mrs. Oliver Means, of Quincy.

On these various farms mentioned Henry Bockhold spent his youth, attended the local schools, and was well prepared by experience and training for the work of farming, which he has followed for over thirty-five years.

November 18,1884, he married Rosina Blaesing. Mrs. Bockhold was born in Quincey, daughter of Bernhard Blaesing, who was born in Germany February 14,1828, and came to this country with his parents in 1845. In 1854, Bernhard Blaesing married Mary G. Kroner, who was born in Germany in 1837. Bernhard Blaesing had an intensive farm and garden and fruit orchard just outside Quincey. He died there at the age of sixty-three in 1891 and his widow three years later. Mrs. Bockhold was born November 27, 1857.

At the time of his marriage Henry Bockhold took the farm of his father, renting it until 1896. He then bought the ninety-one acre homestead for $7,000, and has since made many improvements, including the erection of a barn in 1897 and the substantial home in which he and his family resided in 1907. Since then he has added still more lands, seventy-two acres, and has it all well improved and under a high degree of cultivation. One source of revenue to the Bockhold family has been butter making.

The beginning of this home industry was with one cow, but for a number of years he has kept from eight to ten good milk producers, converting the cream into butter at his home. The quality of the butter is well known and appreciated by some of the best families of Quincey who are among his patrons, and to whom he delivers once a week. Mr. Bockhold went in debt for his land, but his progressiveness and energy enabled him to pay for it in a few years, and he has increased its value a great deal by his investments and improvements. He is a democrat in politics but has always refused any tenders of office. His wife and children are members of St. Anthony's Catholic Church.

A brief record of his children is as follows: Rosina, Mrs. Oscar Scheeke, of Melrose township; William H., who farms in Melrose Township and married Cresa Benz; Frank S. and Frances, twins, the former marrying Laura Hoover and the latter the wife of George Benz; Clara, Mrs. Anselm Blickhan of Ellington Township; Rome B., who was with the United States Army in the automobile department at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky, and died there January 7, 1919; and Alfred, at home.