Wapello County IA Archives Biographies.....Hardsocg, Martin 1852 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 June 29, 2013, 1:32 pm

Source: See Below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

MARTIN HARDSOCG.
Martin Hardsocg is the largest stockholder in the Hardsocg Manufacturing
Company, one of the important productive industries of Ottumwa, employing on an
average fifty men and women. He is resolute and his persistency of purpose and
close application have been the salient features in bringing him to the position
of success which he now occupies. A native of Germany, he was born on the 20th
of April, 1852, his parents being Christopher and Caroline Hardsocg, who during
the boyhood of their son Martin crossed the Atlantic to the new world with Iowa
as their destination. They made their way to Agency, where the mother still
resides, but the father has passed away.

Martin Hardsocg was there reared and, although his advantages in youth were
somewhat limited, he has steadily worked his way upward and by industry, energy
and ability has reached a place among the leading business men of Wapello
county. When fifteen years of age he was apprenticed to the blacksmith’s trade
and there gained a knowledge of mechanics that constituted the basis upon which
he has built his later success. His apprenticeship covered three years, during
which period he thoroughly mastered the business, and at the age of eighteen he
felt competent to start out in business on his own account, establishing a shop
at Smoky Hollow, in Wapello county, where he did such mechanical work as was
brought to him. Many miners’ tools were taken to him for sharpening, and he
displayed such skill in that connection that he was offered a position by a
mining company, which he accepted. He also made new miners' tools, which sold
for a much higher price than those manufactured in the factory. The first skates
which he ever possessed he made and later sold for five dollars. He remained
with the mining company for but a year, during which time he faithfully
represented them and gave them entire satisfaction, but as one of the partners
wished to place a friend in the position Mr. Hardsocg was discharged to make
room for the other man. He learned one lesson from that experience, which was
that when in the employ of others the individual's position was never assured
nor quite safe. As a result he returned to his little shop, although his
earnings there were little more than fifty or seventy-five cents per day. He was
ambitious, was not afraid of work and was eager to enlarge his business, with
which end in view he was always trying to devise some manner to increase his
patronage. At length he decided that he would go to the different mining camps
and solicit work. This plan proved successful and after the work was done he
would deliver it. In this way he built up a reputation for expert workmanship.
He also began to make improvements on the old-fashioned tools, which he sold to
his customers and thus step by step advanced until he took up the manufacture of
miners' tools. He has told that at that time his highest ambition was to give
two men steady employment, but each forward step in his career has brought him a
broader outlook and wider opportunities. When two men were employed he was just
as eager to increase his force to four and so on until his plants have reached
the present extensive proportions. He had removed his business from Smokey
Hollow to Avery, and as it there outgrew its surroundings he determined upon a
further removal to Ottumwa. At that time he capitalized the business for
seventy-five thousand dollars and was enjoying a very extensive and gratifying
trade when the entire plant was destroyed by fire. The amount of insurance which
he was carrying was only sufficient to enable him to discharge his indebtedness.
He must formulate new plans, which would give him the necessary working capital,
and this he did by organizing a stock company, of which he held the controlling
interest. Soon his business was again in a flourishing condition and today the
entire stock of the Hardsocg Manufacturing Company is owned by Martin Hardsocg
and his children, while Mr. Hardsocg and his son are owners of the stock of the
Nicholls Manufacturing Company and the former is the largest stockholder in the
Hardsocg Wonder Drill Company, the three concerns employing on an average one
hundred workmen. His industrial interests have thus become extensive, and his
energy has made him a leading figure in business circles. His interests have
ever been of a character that has contributed to public prosperity as well as to
individual success.

When nineteen years of age Mr. Hardsocg was united in marriage to Mrs. Melinda
Edwards, a widow with two children, and by this marriage there have been born
four children: Dolce, at home; Lester, now manager of the Hardsocg Manufacturing
Company; Fred, manager of the Nicholls Manufacturing Company, and Bane,
superintendent of the Hardsocg Manufacturing Company. The sons are all married.

Mr. Hardsocg some years ago purchased from the estate of Charles F. Blake a
tract of land of five hundred acres, just outside the city limits of Ottumwa.
There he erected a palatial residence, surrounding which is a large and well
kept lawn, intersected by walks and drives in an artistic manner. Mr. Hardsocg
has ever taken great interest in this beautiful home and delights in doing such
work as trimming the trees and shrubs upon the place and giving direction to the
labors of others a to the further improvement of the grounds. He has set out
many trees of different varieties and is most interested in their growth. Of
this estate Mr. Hardsocg has since sold all but twenty-three acres, of which he
still retains possession, and he is likewise the owner of one hundred acres
within the city limits of Ottumwa. There have been no spectacular phases in his
whole life record, his career being characterized by that unfaltering energy
which permits of no discouragements and brooks no obstacles. Steadily and
persistently he has worked his way upward and is now at the head of a business
of large and gratifying proportions, numbered among the leading industrial
concerns of the city.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY IOWA
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME II
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914


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