The Cordes Family

Henry Cordes in History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota (1916

The full biographical sketch as printed in 1916, transcribed from the public-domain book. Spelling and wording are the original author’s; a few scanning errors may remain.

HENRY CORDES.

The energy, frugality and business instinct of the German citizen has done much toward the development of the United States. Wherever these people have settled there is evidence of thrift and prosperity. Substantial homes, large barns and well-cultivated fields in the rural districts and well- conducted business interests in the towns and cities. Otter Tail county, Minnesota, is no exception to the rule, for here is found the progressive farmer and the successful business man of German origin.

Henry Cordes, a German by birth, is a man true to the instincts of his race, born in Hanover, Germany, February 12, 1872, he came to this country in early boyhood and has been most successful in his calling.

Henry Cordes was the son of Herman and Charlotte (Winter) Cordes, natives of Hanover, Germany. Herman Cordes was born on April 14, 1842, and was married to Charlotte Winter in 1870, whose birth occurred on May 20, 1844. He received his education in the common schools of his country. He and his wife were active members of the German Lutheran church. Mr. Cordes operated a small farm in German}-, where he and his wife reared a family of ten children. In the year 1885 he decided to cast his fortunes in America and, in company with his wife and children, he landed in New York City mi April 5, of that year. He came directly to Minnesota, where he entered one hundred and sixty acres of land in section 21, Leaf Lake town- ship, Otter Tail county. Mr. Cordes is still living on a farm near Henning, Mrs. Gunk's having died on July 18, 1909.

The parents of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Cordes never came to America. Henry Cordes. the lather of Herman, was an extensive farmer and owned large tracts of land in Germany. Fritz Winter, the father of Mrs. Herman Cordes, was also a tiller of the soil and owned a small farm. The Cordes and Winter families wen- all members of the German Lutheran church.

Henry Conks, the subject of this sketch, received most of his educa- tion in Germany, having come to the United Slates when a lad of thirteen, he received but one year of schooling in America. Mr. Cordes was mar- ried on October 18, 1900, to Doris Bormann, a native of Hanover, Ger- many. She was bom on January 28, [878. Mr. and Mrs. Cordes are the parents of eight children: Herman, Hertha, Emma, Bettie, Clara, Walter, Edwin and Norbert.

Tn tooo Henn Cordes purchased of his father one hundred and sixty

acres of his proem farm. Two years before he purchased an adjoining one hundred and twenty acres completing his present farm of two hundred and eighty acres. Mr. Cordes has added much to the value of his farm by the erection of a large barn, forty by eighty-four feet, with two silos, twelve by thirty-four feet, the work being completed in the year 1909. Two years previous to this he had rebuilt a large and modern house. Later he has added a number of large sheds for bis machinery and for the comfort of his many hogs and line Guernsey cattle. Air. Cordes owns his threshing outht, but does only the threshing on his own farm and near neighbors.

Mr. and Mrs. Cordes are active members of the German Lutheran church, in which denomination Mr. Cordes has been a member of the official board fur six years. He is at the present time treasurer of the school board, director of the creamery company and he holds the office of vice-president witli the telephone companies of Otter Tail and Henning. Mr. Cordes has been very active in all things that tend to the development and improvement of his home and the community in which he lives.

Source: History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota (1916. See the original pages at the Internet Archive.