Henry S. COVENTRY
"The career of the well known and highly respected gentleman whose name heads this sketch, illustrates forcibly the possibilities that are open to men of earnest purpose, integrity and sterling business qualifications. A well spent life and an honorable career constitute his record and now, after long years of honest toil, he finds himself surrounded with all the comforts of a rural home in the midst of fertile and well-cultivated acres which he can call his own.
Henry S. Coventry, a farmer of Illyria township, Fayette county, was born in Hudson, New York, March 8, 1850, and he is the son of Alexander W. and Catherine (LOWE) Coventry, the father born in Columbia county, New York, and the mother in Glasgow, Scotland, the date of the former's birth being May 29, 1809, and that of the latter March 8, 1822. The paternal grandfather was Thomas Coventry, a native of England. Both sides of the family were of sterling old Quaker stock. Thomas Coventry came to America in an early day and lived in Columbia county, New York, where he reared his family of four sons and four daughters. Grandfather John LOWE, a nativeof Scotland, married Elizabeth McLAREN, came to America, and located on Staten Island, New York, where he died of a fever six weeks after landing there, leaving a widow and five children, namely: Peter, William, Daniel, Catherine and Jane. Mrs. Elizabeth LOWE came to Iowa in 1861 and lived with the Coventry family until her death, in 1886, at the advanced age of ninety-three years.
Alexander W. Coventry was educated in the common schools and in youth learned the cabinetmaker's trade, later becoming a plate glass worker. He was reared in the state of New York, but lived for some time in Lennox, Massachusetts. On account of failing health he was compelled to give up his trade, and in 1861 he came to Illyria township, Fayette County, Iowa, where he procured eighty acres of land in section 13, only three acres of which had been cleared, and on this stood a log house and stable. He improved the place and made a very comfortable home here in which he lived until his death, in December, 1885, at the age of seventy-six years, his widow surviving until February, 1906, reaching the age of eighty-three years. He was a school director and held other minor offices. Politically, he was a Republican. He and his wife were the parents of two children, Robert H., who died in infancy in the state of New York, and Henry S., of this review.
Henry S. Coventry was educated in a log school house in Highland township, Clayton county, Iowa, and later in Illyria township, Fayette county, also taking a business course in the Bryant & Stratton Business College. He has engaged in various pursuits, including teaching school one term, which was very creditably done; also took up fire insurance, school supplies for A. H. Andrews & Company and Thomas Kane & Company of Chicago, at the same time looked after farming interests. He is the owner of ninety-five acres of land in Illyria township. He carries on diversified farming and dairying, and raises fine stock, Norman and coach horses and Poland-China hogs.
On March 8, 1880, Mr. Coventry married, at Elgin, Iowa, Mary C. TRUMBOLD, a native of the state of New Jersey, and this union resulted in the birth of three sons, namely: Clarence W., born June 21, 1881, is living at home; George S. died when four years old; Arthur M. died when five months old. The mother of these children, who was a devoted member of the Lutheran Church, passed to her rest on October 8, 1891.
Mr. Coventry first cast his vote for Grant in 1872; he was later a supporter of the Greenbacks, and is now a Democrat. He very faithfully performed the duties of clerk of Illyria township for a period of seventeen years, was a valued member of the school board for a period of twenty years, and he was at one time a candidate for county recorder. Fraternally, he is a member of the Masonic order, Lodge No. 518 at Elgin, Iowa; also the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Wadena Lodge No. 723, being a charter member of the same and is its present treasurer; he belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America at Wadena, and the Ancient Order of Gleaners, No. 853, at Highland, Iowa. Clarence, the son, is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of Gleaners. Mr. Coventry is a well read man and keeps abreast of the times in all current events and he enjoys the respect and friendship of a wide circle of acquaintances."