Doctor Graening, was born at Marine City, Michigan, in 1871.  His father, Rev. John Graening, was born in Germany, in 1846, was brought to the United States in 1857, completed his professional education in Saint Sebald, Iowa, Seminary and for many years was active in the pastoral work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.  For nineteen years he was pastor at Marine city, Michigan, nineteen years at Monroe, Iowa, and fifteen years at Maxfield, Iowa.  He is now retired and a resident of Waverly.  Rev. John Graening married Elizabeth Bitter, who was born in Holland.  They had three children:  Dr. C. H.; Mrs. George Kaiser and Mrs. A. G. Studier, of Waverly.
Dr. C. H. Graening took his M. D. degree at the University of Iowa in 1893, and after a year of practice at Aspen, Colorado, returned to Waverly, where he has devoted nearly forty years to a general practice as a physician.  He has been for a long time city health officer of Waverly and is  a member of the Bremer County, Iowa State and American Medical Associations, the Autin Flint Association, the Interstate Association.  He is the medical director of the Lutheran Mutual Aid Society.  Doctor Graening has earned a special reputation as a doctor in diseases of children.  He is a member of the Community Club of Waverly.

He married, in 1893, Etta Waldschmidt, of Waverly, who died in 1896, leaving no children.  Doctor Graening's second wife and Dr. Adele Kimball, who was a medical graduate of the University of Iowa and built up a large reputation as a woman physician.  She died in 1928.  Subsequently Doctor Graening married Ruth Hertlein, of Waverly.  His only child, a son of his second marriage, is Dr. Paulus K. Graening, who was a member of the Students Army Training Corps at the University of Iowa during the World war and is now practicing medicine at Oklahoma City.  He married, in 1926, Miss Ruth Smith, daughter of Ed. Smith, ex-secretary of the State of Iowa, and they have one son, David, born in November, 1928.