ANDREW J. RONK, farmer and stock-raiser, section 11, Madison
Township, was born in Greenbrier County, Virginia, August 24, 1842. His father,
George W. Ronk, was a native of the same State, born in Roanoke County, but is
now deceased. He being a farmer, our subject was reared to agricultural
pursuits, receiving such education as the rude log-cabin subscription schools
of his neighborhood afforded. In 1861 he
went to Canton, Fulton County, Illinois, where he remained about eight years,
working at coopering, wagon-making and carpentering. He was a member of the
State militia during the John Brown raid in 1861, and was sent into the
Confederate army, but after serving four months he deserted, and joined the
Union troops in Illinois, enlisting in the Sixty-seventh Infantry, Company F,
and was appointed Orderly Sergeant. March
10, 1864, he was married to Rachel Briley, and to them have been born eight
children – George W., Edith M., Daisy G., John A., Cecil H., Ora B., Olive U.
and Amy P. Mr. Ronk came to Clarke
County, Iowa, in the fall of 1870, and has since made his home on section 11,
Madison Township, where he has 183 acres of fine land. In politics he is a
Democrat, taking an active interest in that political party, and June 30, 1886,
he attended the State Nominating Convention held at Des Moines. Mr. Ronk never
seeks official honors, but has served his township several terms as trustee,
with credit to himself and his constituents. He is a member of the Masonic
fraternity
SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Record of Clarke
County, Iowa, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1886 p. 294
