Henry Felkner

Henry Felkner From Biography of William J. Felkner, by Ruth Irish Preston, Yearbook, Old Settlers Association, 1915-1916 p. 20-21; 1921-1922, p. 6; 1924-1925, p. 4. 47
Henry and Elizabeth Felkner were prominent pioneers of Iowa. The Felkner family is of German and Scotch descent and for several generations, on the mother's side, had been members of the Quaker faith. They came from Ohio into Iowa soon after the Blackhawk Purchase was thrown open for settlement and brought with them an inherited veneration for those forms of free government so aptly expressed by Manasseh Cutler in the "Bill of Rights" for the North West Territory.
William Felkner was born on a farm in the civinity of Iowa City, July 18, 1852, the third son of Henry and Elizabeth. Like his father, Willilam was stalwart in form, large hearted and kindly. Henry had been one of Johnson County's earliest settlers, one of the organizers and law givers of the State of Iowa, and of him it has been said by one of his noble associates that "He was a typical pioneer. Who that has looked upon his giant form, crowned by a face limned in benignity and strength can forget him!" This man of strength, of courage, of ability and honor--this pioneer Henry Felkner, came into the wilderness of Iowa then known as the Blackhawk Purchase as early as 1837 accompanied by two others of our celebrated and greatly beloved pioneers, Philip Clark and Eli Myers. These brave young men, joined by a few others of like courage and foresight, came into this region when the Indian trails and the rivers were the only highways of communication, and settling on the western edge of the Purchase, set to work at once to lay the foundation of the future State of Iowa. By peaceful though strenuous labor they in a few years wrought marvellous changes in the community that had but recently been a wilderness inhabited only by the Indian and the trapper. By the hands of these pioneers, the Indian trails of this vicinity were widened and along their deep cut banks the wigwams were giving way to the settlers' cabins. Meanwhile the tomahawk and scalping knife were being sheathed and the breaking plow and other instruments of peaceful husbandry were transforming the prairies into cultivated fields.
In 1843 Mr. Felkner returned to his boyhood home in Ohio and claimed for his bride the sweet young Quakerress, Elizabeth Lewis, the choice of his youthful heart. Eizabeth was the daughter of Enoch Lewis and Mourning, his wife, and she was possessed of many virtues and graces inherited from a long line of noble and talented ancestry from which she sprang.
The 1924-1925 Yearbook of Old Settlers, p. 4 states that in 1837 Mr. Henry Felkner was engaged in building a sawmill on Rapid Creek about three miles northeast of Iowa City. His supplied being exhausted, he walked eight miles to the home of the nearest acquaintance, borrowed a horse and rode to Bloomington, forty miles distant, and procured his supplies. Returning to the home of his friend, he walked eight miles carrying seventy pounds of provisions.