Bremer County HENRY Pioneers from the Beggs-Henry Genealogy: Brothers John, Douglas, Russell Henry and their families, including John's son Norton J. Henry and grandson Emory Henry.
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The town of Frederika is on the very western edge of Frederika Township. Frederika was set atop the bluff in the wooded ground along the upper Wapsipinicon River in order to secure both a good site location and timber and water power for a flour mill. The town was laid out by Norton and John Henry in 1868, relatively late compared with other towns in Bremer County. The town was originally called "Henry's Town" or "Henry's Mill."

Norton Henry had married Mary Ely on January 25, 1854, in Warren, New York. Norton and Mary bought 120 acres in section 7, together with Norton’s father, John Henry, in 1859. This land was close to the Loren Rima family, who had established a saw mill in 1855. Other early settlers were A.E. Johnson, N.C. Baxter, J.J. Ronco, Sid Adams, and Giles Whitman families.

The Henrys built a water-powered grist mill on their land on the banks of the Wapsipinicon River in 1857. It was operated in connection with the Rima saw mill. The grist mill had a capacity of about 60 barrels of flour a day and farmers came from miles around to the mill. The following is an article from the Bremer County Independent about the grist mill:
"The old grist mill has been torn down recently, thus removing one of the oldest landmarks in these parts. The mill was built by John Henry and son, Norton J. Henry, who formerly resided in New York and came to Iowa in 1858. They lived the first year on what is known as the J.R. Gunsalus farm, southwest of here. Mr. Henry and son became extensive land owners and on a portion of their land the town of Frederika was platted, by Henry and son in the year 1868. The building of the mill was begun in 1867 and was finished in 1868. The mill had three run of stones water power with a capacity of sixty barrels a day of excellent flour. The wheat for the making of the flour was raised hereabouts. The first miller was Nelson C. Win of Maquoketa, who began running the mill in October 1868. Three of the men who helped to raise the mill still reside here. They are J.J. Ronco, S.D. Adams and Giles Whitman. Part of the lumber used in the frame work was sawed here and the rest was hauled from Waverly. The mason work was done by A.E. Johnston and N.C. Baxter. The second miller was John M. Mowatt, who came here in 1869, and conducted the mill for nine years, or until 1879. After Mr. Mowatt left the mill, the making of wheat flour was discontinued. The different owners of the mill since John Henry and son were William Smith of Waverly, who at his death bequeathed it to his son, Rev. W. Ward Smith, who sold it to Robert Brodie and son, C.J. Brodie, and they sold it to Joe Alcock about six years ago." [Bremer County Independent - 24 Dec 1914 ]

Frederika Schools : D.P. Walling taught the first school in the township of Frederika, at his home on section 19, during the winter of 1855-6.
The first schoolhouse [Rima] was built in the summer of 1858, on section 19 [40 rods east of the corner of Midway Ave. and 130th St.], and was placed in charge of Porter Bement, who taught a few pupils then in the neighborhood. The children from Douglas Township as well as the ones from Frederika and surrounding neighborhood attended this school. At that time there was only one child, Emory Henry, in the town of Frederika. Because there were not many other children in the area the school was soon closed.
In the spring of 1862, a log house was built on the corner of 1st Ave. and 3rd St. in Frederika. This schoolhouse was a family house. School was held here only in the summer months as it was inconvenient to hold school during the winter months. Joshua Goodwin was the first teacher in this school.
Sometime later, N. J. Henry erected a log house and school was held there for some time. In this school there wasn’t a grading system and everyone studied from the same textbook. The most difficult textbook was McGuffey’s fourth reader. This school was also in a private home, and it soon became necessary to make different arrangements because the number of pupils had increased to nine.
In 1865, N.J. Henry decided to build another house; this time it was a wooden frame building, and was located east of the first house. This school was in use until 1870 and the attendance ranged from twenty to twenty-five pupils. Following the Civil War, this area was getting more settled and there was an increase in the number attending school. Due to this condition another building was erected on the August Bremer farm east of Frederika which is located at 110th Street and Navaho. This school was known as the Little Red Schoolhouse.

Postal service for the area residents was at a location in section 14, and that location was called Frederica in honor of Frederica Bremer, a Swedish author, for whom the county was named. The post office was moved into Henry’s Town and thus the name of the town was changed. On June 20, 1892, spelling of the town was officially changed to Frederika, Iowa. No one seems to know the reason for the spelling change. The town was incorporated on May 16, 1896. Residents were slow to accept the new name.

There were only fifty people living in Frederika by 1875, but the town began to experience considerable growth shortly thereafter. By 1883 Frederika had two general merchandise stores, two blacksmith shops, a doctor, a shoemaker, a wagon shop, two hotels and a saloon. Other local industries included an ice house along the Wapsipinicon River on the west end of Main Street, and a lime kiln which did a prosperous business for many years making brick and foundation block for buildings in town and the surrounding area. The saw mill was upgraded and continued to supply lumber for barns and buildings in the area. Like nearly every town in Bremer County, Frederika had a creamery which did a thriving business until the depression years of the 1930s, during which it closed temporarily. A bank, a grocery store and several other local businesses closed during the agricultural depression years. The creamery later reopened but was closed for good in 1968.

Sources:
• 1883 History of Butler and Bremer Counties, Iowa. Union Publishing Company, Springfield, Illinois. page 1,052).
• Andreas, A. T. 1970 Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa. Reprinted. State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City. Originally published 1875, Andreas Atlas, Chicago.
• Bremer County History Book Committee. 1985 Bremer County Iowa. Taylor Publishing, Dallas, Texas.
• Grawe, J. F. 1914 History of Bremer County, Iowa. The S. J. Clark Publishing Company, Chicago.
• Bremer County Iowa 150th Anniversary Index. <http://www.co.bremer.ia.us/new/history.htm> Frederika pages 483 - 494

Researched (1976-2008) and compiled by P. Beggs.