Wapello County IA Archives Biographies.....Wormhoudt, John 1869 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 6, 2013, 12:51 pm

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

JOHN WORMHOUDT.

John Wormhoudt is sole owner and manager of the Wormhoudt Lumber Company and
president of the Ottumwa Supply Construction Company, which connections indicate
his prominence in business circles. He possesses an initiative spirit and does
not have to wait for others to mark out the path which he wishes to tread. In
fact, he has been a leader in the communities in which he has lived, and his
enterprise and determination have carried him into important commercial relations.

Iowa numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred at Pella in
1869. His parents, H. and Anna Wormhoudt, were natives of Holland, the latter
belonging to one of the first Dutch families to settle in Iowa, arriving at
about the time it was admitted into the Union. She was a daughter of G. H.
Overkamp, and her parents journeyed by ox team from Keokuk to Pella. Her father
was a cabinet-maker by trade and engaged in the manufacture of furniture. He
belonged to the Dutch Reformed church, and it was a desire for religious freedom
that led him to leave his native land and come to the new world. H. Wormhoudt
arrived in Iowa about six weeks after his wife's family. He had crossed the
Atlantic on a sailing vessel about 1847, and was married in Pella, Iowa, where
he and his wife spent their remaining days. By trade he was a carpenter, but at
one time owned and operated a sawmill on the Des Moines river. Business at that
time was merely a trading proposition, no money being paid for labor. For some
years the family lived in primitive style, but gradually as the country became
more thickly settled and pioneer conditions gave way before the improvements and
opportunities of advancing civilization he worked his way upward and won for
himself a place among the substantial and representative business men of his
community. At length he entered the lumber business in connection with T. F.
Baldwin and prosperity attended their efforts. Mr. Wormhoudt remained actively
in commercial connections until he reached the age of seventy-five years, when
he retired, while his death occurred at the ripe old age of eighty-three years.
His widow survives and makes her home in Pella. Mr. Wormhoudt was a man of
deeply religious nature and his church recognized in him one of its most earnest
workers and generous supporters. His entire career was ever honorable and
upright and gained for him the highest regard of the entire community. In his
family were seven sons and two daughters, Garrett, Johannah, Henry, Effie,
Isaac, John, Edward, Andrew, deceased, and Dominicus.

John Wormhoudt spent the days of his boyhood and youth in Pella, there remaining
until 1891, when he came to Ottumwa, where he entered the employ of S. L.
McGavice as yard manager of his lumber business. He occupied that position for
two years, during which time he carefully saved his earnings and then bought out
the business of Finley & Whipple on the south side. There he has since conducted
a lumber business, which was carried on for a time under the firm style of
Warden & Wormhoudt, but the latter is now alone. He conducts a retail lumber
business, handling all kinds of building material, hardware, cement, etc., his
yard being located at the corner of Division and Willard streets. Mr. Wormhoudt
has made steady advancement since his father took him into the lumber business
when he was sixteen years of age. The business arrangement was that the son
should be paid ten dollars per month, out of which amount he was to pay four
dollars per month board and five dollars per year to the church. Something of
the enterprise and ambition of Mr. Wormhoudt is indicated in the fact that
during the first year he saved twenty-one dollars. The highest wage he ever
received up to the time that he came to Ottumwa was thirty dollars per month.
Fie was married at twenty-two years of age and had seven hundred dollars in the
bank. One of the secrets of his success is that he has concentrated his efforts
along a single line, never dissipating his energies over a broad field. He is
thoroughly familiar with every phase of the lumber business, and his energy and
persistency of purpose have enabled him to overcome all difficulties and
obstacles in his path. He is also now a director in the South Ottumwa Savings
Bank, is a director of the L. T. Cristman Planing Company and a director of the
North Empire Timber Company.

In 1892 Mr. Wormhoudt was united in marriage to Miss Ina C. Kelley, who was born
in Peoria, Iowa, in 1869, a daughter of E. S. Kelley, an early settler of this
state, who built one of the first macadamized roads in this section of Iowa.
Mrs. Wormhoudt was one of a family of thirteen children, who were carefully
reared, and by her marriage she has become the mother of a son and two
daughters. The eldest, Henry, completed the high-school course at Ottumwa, spent
two years as a student at Ames and is now associated with his father in the
lumber business. Bertha Cleo, also a high-school graduate of Ottumwa, is now
attending college at Ames. Anna Lucile, the youngest, is a pupil in the Ward
school.

In addition to the family residence at No. 402 Chester avenue Mr. Wormhoudt owns
a farm of one hundred and ninety-five acres west of the city and greatly enjoys
superintending the place and watching its development. He is a public-spirited
citizen and assists every project and movement for the upbuilding of the city.
He belongs to the Willard Street Methodist Episcopal church and for eighteen
years has been a member of the board of trustees. He is also a member of the
Independent order of Odd Fellows and of the Country Club and in all of the
organizations of which he is a member he has taken a helpful interest. He was
one of four who laid out the Jefferson Park addition of South Ottumwa and at all
times his activities have been of a character which has contributed to public
progress and improvement as well as to individual success. He is a large,
finelooking man, standing six feet, three inches in height, and it is said of
him that he is as good natured as he is tall. All who know him entertain for him
a feeling of friendly regard. He easily wins the confidence and good-will of his
fellow men because of his genuine worth and his unfeigned cordiality. There will
be no dissenting voice to the opinion that he is one of the most prominent and
representative residents of his 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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