Henry J. Herzog met with success as a farmer and is now living retired upon his well improved place on section 32, ‘Mount Pleasant Township. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, March 5, 1848, a son of John Adam and Mary (Eiler) Herzog, who in 1849 brought their family to Racine, Wisconsin, where the father engaged in carpentering and contracting until 1859. In that year he purchased one hundred and five acres of land in Mount Pleasant Township, which he cultivated until his death in 1891. He had survived his wife for twenty years, her demise occurring in 1871. Both were buried in Mound cemetery. In politics he was a democrat and in religious faith a Lutheran.
Henry J. Herzog entered the public schools in Racine at the usual age and continued his studies until he was about eighteen years old, when he turned his entire attention to assisting his father on the farm. He devoted his active life to agricultural pursuits and his thorough knowledge of practical methods. his progressiveness and his careful attention to his work enabled him to accumulate a competence. He now leaves the actual work of the farm to others, although still residing upon his land.
Mr. Herzog was married in 1873 to Miss Julia Smith, a daughter of Mathew Smith, of Mount Pleasant Township, and to this union four children have been born, namely: Mamie, the widow of Frank Weber, by whom she has a daughter, Gertrude; Martin, who married Helen Wynhoff and has two children. John and Jeannette ; Leslie, who married Lillian Fonk and has three children, Leslie, Grace and Henry ; and Edna, who married Joseph Wynhoff, by whom she has three children, Bernice, Agnes and Bernard.
The Democratic Party receives the political support of Mr. Herzog, and he takes a public-spirited interest in everything relating to the welfare of the community. He has had years of experience in legislative affairs, having represented his town on the County hoard of supervisors in 1881, 1891, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, as chairman of the County board in 1891, and in 1886 he was elected County treasurer, serving two years. He was one of the organizers of the Yorkville & Mount Pleasant Farmers’ Mutual Fire Insurance Company in 1874, and is its present president, holding this position for the past twenty years. He was elected to the assembly in 1914. When he began his independent career he had no capital, but he possessed the assets of energy and sound judgment and through the exercise of those qualities has won a place among the substantial residents of his Township.