Henry Hart Bartle was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 27, 1858.
In Creston, Henry Hart met his wife, Kate Scudder. She had moved with her father Marvin Scudder from Galesburg, Illinois, where Henry's father had studied for the ministry. Before Henry and Kate were married, they both moved out to the prairies of Nebraska, where she taught a year previous to their marriage. Rev. William was a trustee of Tabor college in Iowa, and hoped his sons would study there. Henry and Kate however moved to Kansas City, where he went into the offices of the freight department of the Burlington railroad, two of his brothers being railroad men at the time.
In 1900, Henry and Kate moved to Mentone, California, near Redlands, on account of the poor health of their daughter, Helen S. Bartle. Their first daughter, Elizabeth, died there in 1901. In 1911, the family relocated 30 miles west to Claremont. In his obituary, the Courier stated, "It seemed impossible at the time for him to go into the city where he was to have been engaged in railroad work, so once again he turned to the trade of his young manhood, and in it he continued, doing less and less of manual work and depending more and more on the selling of implements and garden tools." So Henry took up blacksmithing again, turning out tools and implements which he sold, establishing a successful business. In 1915, Kate passed away. Helen continued to live with her father until his death, so her infirmity followed her all her life.
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