He was always known as Joseph. His baptismal name was Henrich Joseph Schwarzhoff according to records of the Catholic church in Horneburg, Recklinghausen, Westfalen, Germany. At the age of sixteen, he immigrated to the US in 1854 with his mother, and two brothers. His father and other brothers had immigrated a few years earlier. He attained adulthood in/near Dorchester, Iowa. Family tradition is that Joseph was a successful businessman in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. He managed a famly brewery in Highlandville, IA, was a landowner in South Dakota, and he owned a flour mill in Bee (a village north of Dorchester on the Minnesota border). The flour was marketed under the name "Indian Joe's". He was also Bee's postmaster and owner of its general store. Sometime in the late 1870s, he was a member of the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors. Personal and physical problems in old age caused his wife to leave him and caused him to spend his last years alone and in poverty. His great granddaughter, Maude Byrne Feeney, has said that he died in a Waukon old age/poorhouse. He is found on the 1900 census for Dorchester, Iowa, but there is no record of him after that. The 1905 death entry is therefore an estimate. There is no record of his burial location, but it is most likely in the cemetery attached to the Allamakee County Poorhouse in Waukon. This was known as Makee Manor Cemetery. None of the graves in this cemetery are marked. He may, however, have an unmarked grave in St. Mary's Cemetery in Dorchester. (submitted by Joseph Byrne Jr., great great grandson.)
He was always known as Joseph. His baptismal name was Henrich Joseph Schwarzhoff according to records of the Catholic church in Horneburg, Recklinghausen, Westfalen, Germany. At the age of sixteen, he immigrated to the US in 1854 with his mother, and two brothers. His father and other brothers had immigrated a few years earlier. He attained adulthood in/near Dorchester, Iowa. Family tradition is that Joseph was a successful businessman in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. He managed a famly brewery in Highlandville, IA, was a landowner in South Dakota, and he owned a flour mill in Bee (a village north of Dorchester on the Minnesota border). The flour was marketed under the name "Indian Joe's". He was also Bee's postmaster and owner of its general store. Sometime in the late 1870s, he was a member of the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors. Personal and physical problems in old age caused his wife to leave him and caused him to spend his last years alone and in poverty. His great granddaughter, Maude Byrne Feeney, has said that he died in a Waukon old age/poorhouse. He is found on the 1900 census for Dorchester, Iowa, but there is no record of him after that. The 1905 death entry is therefore an estimate. There is no record of his burial location, but it is most likely in the cemetery attached to the Allamakee County Poorhouse in Waukon. This was known as Makee Manor Cemetery. None of the graves in this cemetery are marked. He may, however, have an unmarked grave in St. Mary's Cemetery in Dorchester. (submitted by Joseph Byrne Jr., great great grandson.)
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