Heinrich (Henry) Jacob Lorenzen was born in Schleswig-Holstein, the son of Jacob Lorenzen (1844-1922) and Caroline Sass (1853-1931), and the last of eight children. The other siblings were Mary (1874-1959), Hans F. (1875-1956), Henrietta Wilhelmina “Henny” (1876-1952), Fred (1879-1940), Alfred (1883-1962), Bertha (1886-1959), and Dora Emline Maria (1888-1940).
Henry was about 12 years old when he and his parents emigrated, showing up on a passenger list from Hamburg in 1903. His father, already 58 at the time of this emigration, farmed in O’Brien County, but by the time of the 1910 census, he had retired from the farm and moved to the town of Calumet. In that census there were four family members in the household: father Jacob, mother Caroline, and the two youngest children who had not yet married — daughter Bertha and Henry Jacob. (At least one of the older children did not emigrate but remained in Germany her entire life.)
Thus, at the time of this 1909 photo, Henry was living in Calumet with his parents. But in 1912 he left the household as a 21-year-old and moved further north in O’Brien County, to Primghar (the county seat, in Center Township). There he met Orlena M. Bowles (1891-1986), who lived in the town with her family, and the two were married on 4 March 1913. Orlena did not have a German heritage from either her father, Frank Pierce Bowles (1853-1935), or her mother, Elizabeth Ralston (born about 1861).
Henry and Orlena’s only child, a son, Henry Dale Lorenzen (1913-1994), known as Dale, was born less than 10 months after their marriage.
The small family settled on a farm in Center Township; later they farmed in Hartley Township, further to the east, and Henry and Orlena stayed in the Hartley area for the remainder of their lives.
Their son, Dale Lorenzen, married Myrtle Louise Pheteplace (1913-2019) in 1934, and this couple had two children, both sons. At some point Henry and Dale established a car dealership, the Lorenzen Motor Company, a Pontiac agency, in Hartley. Henry retired from the car dealership, although it continued in operation under Dale’s care until 1959, when Dale and Myrtle moved to California. After living there for almost two decades, they returned to the Hartley area in 1977, following Henry’s death, to be near Dale’s mother in her remaining years.
Although Henry Lorenzen lived a long life, passing at the age of 85, Orlena lived for almost another decade, to the age of 94.
Both Henry and Orlena, as well as their son Dale Lorenzen and Myrtle Pheteplace Lorenzen, are buried in Pleasant View Cemetery in Hartley.
Subscribers to Ancestry.com may wish to further explore some family connections of Henry Lorenzen by accessing an Ancestry profile page (within the context of a “Mugge Family Tree”).
Connection to Other Band Members
Beginning with the marriages in February 1907 of two of Henry Lorenzen’s older sisters, he would eventually become related through complex in-law relationships to three of his bandmates — Henry W. Mugge (1891-1967), Nick Jessen (1890-1938), and William “Bill” Eggers (1886-1968).
Henry Lorenzen’s sister Henrietta “Henny” Lorenzen (1876-1952) married Wilhelm Faust (1870-1932), on 19 February 1907. Among the four children of Wilhelm and Henny were Carl Henry Faust (1913-1986), who in November 1936 would marry Gladys Caroline Mugge (1916-2000), a daughter of Harry D. Mugge (1893-1956) and Frances C. Schimmer (1892-1919). Harry Mugge was a brother of band member Henry Mugge.
Just four days after the 1907 marriage of Henny Lorenzen to Wilhelm Faust, Henry Lorenzen’s sister Dora Emline Maria Lorenzen (1888-1940) married Fred Henry Jurgensen (1884-1966), on 23 February 1907. Fred’s younger brother, Johanne A. “John” Jurgensen (1887-1958), in January 1910 would marry Elizabeth Anna Thoms (1888-1985), whose sister was Nick Jessen’s wife Rosa Margaretha Thoms (1891-1984).
Finally, as detailed above, Carl Faust was a nephew-in-law of Henry Lorenzen. But another nephew-in-law, Carl’s brother William Jacob Faust (1908-2000), married Viola Eggers (1910-1992) in 1931. Viola was the oldest child of bandmate Bill Eggers and his wife Dora Maria Dreessen (1888-1981).
These complicated connections among Henry Lorenzen, Henry Mugge, and Bill Eggers can best be seen visually. Two schematics show the relationships:
Henry Lorenzen to Henry Mugge and Bill Eggers
Henry Lorenzen to Nick Jessen
Connection to the Mugges
As noted on the previous page, Henry Lorenzen is connected to Henry Mugge through Henry Mugge’s niece, Gladys Mugge, daughter of his brother Harry D. Mugge. Gladys was a two-year-old in January 1919 when her mother, Frances Catheryn Schimmer (1892-1919), died of the “Spanish flu.” (That family tragedy is described on the biographical sketch for Charles Bandholz). Gladys’s siblings were Clarence J. Mugge (1915-1989) and Delbert H. Mugge (1918-1990).
Incidentally, Frances C. Schimmer was also connected to the Henry Mugge family in a second way: she and Henry Mugge’s wife Lillie Kundel (1892-1960) were first cousins, in that Frances’s mother, Caroline Rohwer (1869-1953) (wife of John Peter Schimmer, 1866-1941), and Lillie Kundel’s mother, Dora Rohwer (1862-1932) (wife of John Claus Kundel, 1959-1934), were sisters. Their parents were Claus Rohwer (1832-1904) and Frauke Bock (1837-1888). These two connections are displayed on a schematic for visual understanding.
