ILEEA M. ENGELMAN HENKEL
Sheriff from 1926-1928
Ileea Minnie Engelman was born in Montcalm County, Michigan May 1890 to William Engelman and Harriet G. Black Engelman. Her father, who was a tailor and owned a store in Howard City, settled there after he immigrated to the United States from Germany about 1882. She was the second child in a family of four siblings. Ileea taught school for a few years in Howard City before she married Franklin B. Henkel January 20, 1925 in Grand Rapids. She and Franklin moved into the sheriff's residence as Franklin had just been elected sheriff of Montcalm County. He appointed her as deputy sheriff/turnkey. Franklin was close to finishing his first term as sheriff and had been nominated, by a large majority, as the Republican candidate for a second term. That election was less than a month away. While on duty at the Lakeview Home Coming celebration September 22, 1926 he was shot by a drunken youth and died two days later. Ileea immediately became acting sheriff and would fill the remaining term (September through December) left vacant by Franklin's death.
The Montcalm County Republican Committee met September 29th and voted to place her name on the upcoming November election in place of her deceased husband. Following is a political column that was placed in the Stanton Clipper-Herald by the Republican County Committee:
Mrs. Ileea M. Henkel, Republican nominee for Sheriff of Montcalm county, to succeed her late husband, who September 24 lost his life in the discharged of his official duty, is ideally fitted for the position both by training and experience. Mrs. Henkel is now acting Sheriff of the county and maintains a thorough organization for the effective administration of the office and with the same force of deputies that her husband had is administering the office in behalf of the taxpayers in the same economical manner that her late husband did. Regardless of what is reported through stories that are circulated anonymously, there has been no increase in expense in the conduct of the office, nor will there be, as far as any human being can control the same. By vote of the Republican county committee, the action being made unanimous, Mrs. Ileea Henkel was named for Sheriff, her name to appear upon the official ballot in place of her husband's, he having by a large majority been nominated by the people for his second term on Sept. 14. This is the first real recognition of women in Montcalm county. Ileea Henkel is a member of a rock-ribbed Republican family. The county wishes real law enforcement. The Henkel administration is giving it. Continue the good work that has been started. If a bank is robbed, buildings burned, a murder committed you want officials who will promptly clean up the matter and use judgment and discretion in doing so. Every deputy in the county is strongly behind Sheriff Henkel in law enforcement efforts. She is abundantly able to manage the business and executive work thus freeing the best officers in the county for this active performance of their duties. Mrs. Henkel is economically minded; for 10 years was a successful teacher, is in earnest to enforce all laws without fear of favor, and is entitled to the support of the members of her party entirely upon the basis of SERVICE to the people. She will appreciate your active and unqualified support, and the lending of your influence among your neighbors and friends in her behalf. The Republican County Committee urges you to vote Nov. 2. The brave sacrifice of Franklin B. Henkel should impel you to vote for Henkel for Sheriff and continue the able work that he organized. REPUBLICAN COUNTY COMMITTEE
Ileea M.Henkel won the November 2nd election receiving 3320 votes to Ward's 1123 and Evan's 1418. She was the fifth woman to ever serve as sheriff in the state of Michigan and the first and only woman to hold that office in Montcalm County. Ileea served during the time of Prohibition and was focused on strict enforcement of the liquor laws perhaps because she felt that liquor had been the indirect cause of her husband's death. One article in the old newspapers had the headline "Lady Sheriff Leads Her Deputies on a Moonshine Raid".
She served until December 1928, retiring at the end of her term. Ileea moved to Grand Rapids and was employed at Woolworth's Department Store. It was there she met and married John O'Brien and they moved to the Big Rapids area. After his death she married Harry Hopkins and they lived in Lyons, Michigan where she died in 1962. She is buried next to her husband, Franklin B. Henkel in Pierson cemetery.
(Sources: Stanton Clipper-Herald, October 1, 1926, November 5, 1926 and January 4, 1929; Lakeview Enterprise, September 29, 1926; Ancestry.com - census; Montcalm County Marriage records and birth records; Ionia-Montcalm magazine (date unknown); interview with Margaret Hill) |
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