USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II > Part 106
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Mr. Jansen is a member of the Evangel- ical church at Nameoki and, fraternally, is identified with the M. W. of A. Politically he is a Republican, and for a number of years has taken an active interest in local affairs. He served one term as assessor of Chouteau township, and for the past ten years has been a member of the Republican central committee.
HENRY A. GERLING. In view of the no- madic spirit which is gradually growing to ani- mate all classes of American citizens to move restlessly about from place to place, it is a matter of unusual gratification to here accord recognition to one who has passed practically his entire life thus far in the place of his nativity, where he is held in high esteem by those who have been familiar with his career from earliest youth. Henry A. Gerling is en- gaged in agricultural pursuits in Collinsville township, Madison county, Illinois, where he was born on the Ioth of March, 1871, he being a son of Charles and Augusta Gerling, both of whom are now deceased. Charles Gerling was a son of Henry and Carolina
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Gerling and he was born in the great Empire of Germany, whence he accompanied his par- ents to the United States when he was a lad of fourteen years of age. The mother of him whose name forms the caption for this article, was a daughter of Carl and Augusta Fangen- roth, likewise of Germany. The Gerling and Fangenroth families came to America about the year 1844, landing in New Orleans, whence they later removed to the city of St. Louis, Missouri. Eventually Henry Gerling established the family home in Collinsville township, where he purchased a tract of forty acres of farm land and where he continued to reside during the remainder of his life. Henry and Carolina Gerling were the parents of two sons, Christian and Charles. After the death of the father, in 1857, Charles Gerling as- ยท sumed full responsibility of the farm, he hav- ing purchased Christ's share when the latter went to Missouri. Charles Gerling continued to devote the major portion of his time and attention to agricultural operations until his death, in 1906. He was united in marriage to Augusta Fangenroth on the 10th of Sep- tember, 1853, and they became the parents of eight children, of whom five are living at the present time, namely : Herman, who is en- gaged in farming; Augusta, who is the wife of Charles Kulmann, of Collinsville, Illinois ; Elizabeth, who is now Mrs. William Acker- mann, and who resides at Troy, Illinois ; Emma, who is the wife of John Schwaln, of Edwardsville, Illinois ; and Henry A., the im- mediate subject of this sketch. The children deceased are Charles, Carolina and Louise.
Henry A. Gerling was reared to adult age in the vicinity of the old home farm, in the work and management of which he early began to assist his father and brothers. He attended the Pleasant Ridge school until he had reached the age of fourteen years, when he became a student in the public school at Elm Grove, attending the latter until he had reached his eighteenth year. He then re- turned to the home farm, where he has since resided. Mr. Gerling owns and farms eighty acres of splendidly improved land in Collins- ville township, and here he is engaged in diversified agriculture and the raising of high grade stock. In his political convictions he accords a stanch allegiance to the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and while he has never mani- fested aught of ambition or desire for public office of any description he is ever on the
alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all measures and enterprises advanced for the good of the general welfare. In his religious faith he is a consistent member of the German Lutheran church at Pleasant Ridge, with which his wife is also connected, and they are most active and zealous workers in all kinds of philanthropical movements.
On the 26th of April, 1894, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Gerling to Miss Mary Fresen, who was born and reared in Madison county and who is a daughter of Henry and Carolina Fresen, representative citizens of Granite City. Mr. and Mrs. Gerling are the parents of one son, Walter, who was born on the 16th of April, 1902, and who is now at- tending school at the Acme school near the Gerling home. Mr. and Mrs. Gerling are popular factors in connection with all social activities of their home community and their spacious and attractive residence is widely re- nowned for its cheer and its gracious hospi- tality. Mr. Gerling is affiliated with a number of representative fraternal organizations of a local nature and by reason of his fair and honorable business dealings he is accorded the highest regard of his fellow citizens. He is genial in his associations, is ever considerate of others' feelings and sensibilities, and as a citizen is valued for his sterling worth and integrity.
AUGUSTUS THEODORE NORTON was born in Cornwall. Litchfield county. Connecticut, March 28, 1808. The names of his parents were Theodore Norton and Mary (Judd) Norton, the former born in Goshen. Connec- ticut, February 17, 1775, the latter in Litch- field, Connecticut, September 21, 1775. They were married January 22. 1797. The original ancestor of the family in this country was Thomas Norton, of Guilford, Connecticut, who immigrated to that colony from England in 1639, and was one of the first twenty-five planters in that place.
The subject of this sketch when only three months old was deprived of his father. His mother married again six years after, and he was brought up with his maternal grand- mother, his mother and step-father until the age of ten. His early life was full of sor- row, hardships and poverty. At the age of ten he became an inmate in the family of Dea. William Collins, of Litchfield, Connecticut, where he remained until the age of fourteen. In his fourteenth year he became a hopeful subject of renewing grace. He was baptized
Clug. d. norton
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by Rev. Lyman Beecher, then pastor of the Litchfield church. From fourteen to eigh- teen he was part of the time with his step- father, Joel Millard, in Cornwall, and part with Judge Moses Lyman, of Goshen, Con- necticut, who took a deep interest in his wel- fare, doing him more real service than all others combined. At the age of seventeen he taught a district school for several months at Salisbury, Connecticut. In 1826 his prepara- tion for college commenced, and was com- pleted in less than two years. In the fall of 1828 he entered the freshman class of Yale College, and graduated with one of the high- est honors of the class, August 15, 1832. He immediately took charge of an academy in Catskill, New York, and at the same time read theology with Rev. Thomas M. Smith, paying particular attention to the Hebrew language then and during his subsequent life. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Colum- bia, September 17, 1834, at Stockport, New York, and at once commenced his ministerial labors with the Presbyterian church of Wind- ham, Greene county, New York. On April I, 1835, he was ordained by the same Pres- bytery. His cousin, Rev. Theron Baldwin, and his old associate, Frederick Collins, who had been for several years in Illinois, urged him to come to them. He accordingly re- signed his pastorate and removed to Illinois, arriving at Naples, on the Illinois river, where Mr. Collins then resided, October 25, 1835. Here he remained for one year, preaching at Naples and Meredosia. In October of the same year he removed to Griggsville, Pike county, and labored there, at Pittsfield and Atlas, same county, till April, 1838. At Pitts- field he organized a Presbyterian church in January, 1838, being the first of a large num- ber of churches which he afterwards gath- ered. He then accepted an invitation to St. Louis, where under his labors the Second Presbyterian church was organized in the fall of 1838, and where he continued for one year. In February, 1839, he was called to the pas- torate of the First Presbyterian church, Al- ton, Illinois, and entered upon his labors there on the first Sabbath in March. On the ninth of the next May he was installed. This posi- tion he retained for more than nineteen years, during all of which period his relations with his own flock and with all his evangelical fel- low-laborers were of the most endearing and harmonious character. The church flourished greatly under his leadership, and became in its character and influence one of the leading
Presbyterian churches in the state. In Sep- tember, 1859, he was appointed district sec- retary of Church Extension and Home Mis- sions for the west. For a few months after this appointment his family residence was in Chicago, but in the spring of 1861 he returned to his home in Alton, though still retaining the same position. After the union of the New and Old School Assemblies, in 1870, his field was limited to the Synod of Illinois South. In May, 1845, he originated and for twenty-three years edited and published the Presbytery Reporter, a monthly magazine. In December, 1868, he transferred the list of subscribers to the Cincinnati Herald. His religious views were ever thoroughly evangel- ical and Calvinistic. Ecclesiastically, he was a Presbyterian from conviction and prefer- ence. The degree of D. D., or doctor of sacred theology, was conferred upon him by Wabash College, Indiana, June 22, 1868. This honor he did not seek. Indeed no one of the important positions he occupied in life came to him in any degree with his own pre- vious consent or knowledge. He was a cor- porate member of the A. B. C. for Foreign Missions, a member of the Board of Trustees of Monticello Seminary, and of Blackburn University. In early life his political views were those of the old Federalist party, then of the Whig, then Republican, and always anti-slavery. Though never active in politics, he has ever held decided views and ex- pressed them fully. In the civil war he preached patriotic sermons on more than one hundred occasions.
On November 12, 1834, he married Eliza Rogers, daughter of Deacon Noah Rogers, of Cornwall, Connecticut. She was born Aug- ust 22, 1812, was a lineal descendant of Rev. John Rogers, the first martyr in the reign of 'bloody Mary," having been burned at the stake in Smithfield, London, February 14, 1554. The result of this union was five chil- dren-two sons and three daughters, of these three survive, Mrs. C. H. Phinney, of Bos- ton; W. T. Norton, of Alton, and E. R. Nor- ton. of Nashville, Tennessee
Dr. Norton was known as "the Father of Presbyterianism in Illinois." During his life- time he founded more churches in Illinois, Missouri and Kansas than any other minister of his denomination, during the same period. He died April 29, 1884, aged seventy-six years and one month. His widow survived him until April 28, 1907.
The Synod of Illinois, in session at Bloom-
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ington, October 16, 1884, adopted the follow- ing memorial on the decease of Rev. Dr. A. T. Norton :
"This Synod humbly recognizes the chast- ening hand of the Heavenly Father in remov- ing from our midst our venerable brother and co-worker, the Rev. Augustus T. Norton, D. D., who died at his home in Alton, April 29, 1884. Dr. Norton was one of the noble band of pioneers who laid the foundations of the Presbyterian church in Illinois. Called to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian church of Alton in its infancy, it grew during the eighteen years of his pastoral labors to be a tower of strength and of commanding in- fluence among the churches of southern Illi- nois. Then being made district secretary of Home Missions for the branch of the church he served, his remarkable executive and or- ganizing abilities were consecrated to a widely extended work of evangelization, in the plant- ing of churches and in directing and inspiring missionary labors in all the region round about, and especially in southern Illinois. His labors were untiring and abundant, the fruits whereof appear in multiplied agencies, for the yet wider extension of the Redeemer's king- dom. As a preacher he was remarkable for the clearness, pungency and power with which he presented Divine truth. As a presbyter he was faithful in duty, wise in council and ener- getic in action. As a brother in the ministry he was tenderly sympathetic, helpful and deeply beloved by those who enjoyed his fel- lowship. He bore the care of the churches on his heart. He was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of power. We thank God for the great work He gave him to do; we rejoice in the crown of glory he has won ; and we commend his widow and surviving children to the God of all comfort, praying that He may minister to them abundantly the consolations of His infinite grace."
HON. SAMUEL WADE. One of the most valued, influential and useful citizens of Alton was the Hon. Samuel Wade, a pioneer settler, who can be justly termed one of the founders and builders of the city. He saw it grow from a straggling frontier settlement in 1831. first to a town, then to city, and throughout its progress, and until his death in 1885, he exerted a commanding influence in its civic social, religious and business life. He was ever a good power for good in the commun- ity, and none was more trusted and esteemed. Following is a brief summary of his useful life:
Samuel Wade was born in Ipswich, Massa- chusetts, April 17, 1806, his ancestor, Jona- than Wade, settled in Ipswich in 1632, hav- ing come that year from Norfolk, England, in the ship "Lion." Mr. Wade was married to Eunice Caldwell, of Ipswich, in Novem- ber. 1830. In 1831 he came to Alton, his wife, in company with Mrs. Olive B. Emer- son, who was the wife of Dr. William S. Emerson, already in Alton, following in the spring of 1833. Mr. Wade was by trade a carpenter and builder, and followed that oc- cupation on his arrival in Illinois with Mr. William Hayden. Later he engaged in the packing business with his brother-in-law Dr. Ebenezer Marsh, and together they estab- lished the Alton Bank, the successor of the Alton Marine and Fire Insurance Company.
Dr. Marsh was the first president of the bank, and on his death in 1877 was succeeded by Mr. Wade, who held the position until his death, January 1, 1885. Mr. Wade was for a number of terms a member of the common council of the city of Alton, his service be- ginning with the first election under the city charter, on August 28, 1837. He served as mayor of Alton in 1849-51 (two terms) and in 1855 and 1857.
Mr. Wade was a power in the religious life of the community. His ecclesiastical con- nection was with the Presbyterian church un- til the organization of the Congregational so- ciety in. 1870, soon after which he connected himself with that church and remained an influential and active member until his death. In the Presbyterian church he served as rul- ing elder from 1841 to 1870, a period of twen- ty-nine years. He was a student all his life and possessed a choice library of standard works with which he made himself familiar. Mr. Wade was succeeded in the presidency of the Alton Bank, which had become the Alton National Bank, by his brother-in-law, Charles A. Caldwell, and on the death of Mr. Cald- well, Mr. Edward P. Wade, son of Samuel Wade, became president and still holds that position.
To no one of its citizens is Alton more in- debted than to Samuel Wade. A man of the highest integrity, of moral worth, and of busi- ness enterprise he was foremost in advancing the best interests of the city throughout his long and active career. Such a life as his is an inspiration and incentive to high endeavor to all, especially to those who are called to positions of honor and trust in the commun- ity.
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LOUIS AHRENS. Illinois boasts, and with reason, of its wonderful agricultural re- sources. That it is such a successful farming country is due to the presence of such men as Louis Ahrens, a farmer by inheritance, by nature and from choice.
He was born November 30, 1872, in Venice township, Madison county, Illinois. He was the son of Christ and Minnie (Baum) Ahrens, who were both born in Germany, but were married in this country, in 1867. They were the parents of six children, four of whom are living, as follows: Dora, Louis, Lena and William. Dora married Charles P. Hess, of Edwardsville township, and Lena is the wife of William Smith.
Louis attended the country school of his native county until he was fifteen years old, at which time he left school and went to work on the farm, staying there as an employe un- til 1895, when he took up sixty acres of ground in Madison county. He has made a success of this venture, being a farmer who knows his business thoroughly.
On March 7, 1895, he married Clara Mode, the daughter of John Mode, of Jerseyville, Illinois, where he was a wagon maker. He was of German parentage. Mr. and Mrs. Ahrens have six children, as follows: Christ, aged fifteen; Charlotte, aged thirteen; Clara, aged eleven; Gustav; aged nine; Louisa, six years old, and little Dorothy, four years of age. The four eldest children are in the pub- lic schools and Louisa will start in very soon.
Mr. Ahrens is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America at Wanda lodge, in which he carries insurance. He was raised and christened in the Lutheran faith, the home of his parents always being full of re- ligion. They observed all the customs of the church and brought up their family strictly. Louis Ahrens is a Republican in political views, having served his party and his county at the same time by filling the offices of high- way commissioner and of tax collector, both of which positions he held for a long time, rendering the best service of which he was ca- pable. In addition to the sixty acres of ground where his home is, Mr. Ahrens is joint heir in two hundred and twenty acres of ground which his father owned in the county. Mr. Ahrens is an influential citizen of Madison county, where he is greatly re- spected. His whole life has been spent in the same county and during these years there has been no word spoken against his character. He has lived an upright life, acting at all
times according to his beliefs and doing what good he could for others as he went along.
GUSTAVE BENDER. It is always pleasing to the biographer or student of human nature to enter into an analysis of the character and career of a successful tiller of the soil. Of the many citizens gaining their own livelihood, he alone stands pre-eminent as a totally inde- pendent factor, in short "Monarch of all he surveys." His rugged honesty and sterling worth are the outcome of a close association with nature and in all the relations of life he manifests that generous hospitality and kindly human sympathy which beget comradeship and which cement to him the friendship of all with whom he comes in contact. Successfully engaged in diversified agriculture on the beautiful Bender estate of seven hundred acres in Chouteau township, Madison county, Illinois, Mr. Gustave Bender is decidedly a prominent and popular citizen in this sec- tion of the state, where he has resided during the major portion of his life time thus far.
Gustave Bender was born at Edwardsville, this county, on the 8th of September, 1869, and he is a son of Herman and Mary (Sido) Bender, the former of whom is deceased and the latter of whom is now residing on the farm referred to in the preceding paragraph. The father was born at Baden, Germany, on the Ist of May, 1840, and when twelve years of age he immigrated to the United States in company with his father. After disembarking at New Orleans the father and son proceeded to St. Louis, Missouri, whence they walked across the country, a distance of twenty- five miles, to Highland, where the former had a brother. Herman Bender was a very poor boy and he worked as a farm hand for. a number of years after his arrival in Illinois. His father died when he was but fourteen years of age and thereafter he supported the family, remaining with his mother until after his marriage. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Sido, was born at Belleville, Illinois, and she is a daughter of Francis Sido and his wife, nee Yeck. In the fall of 1870 Mr. and Mrs. Herman Bender established their home on the farm in Choteau township, Madi- son county, where he was identified with ag- ricultural operations during the remainder of his life and where he was called to rest on the 13th of March, 1901, at the age of sixty-one years. Mr. and Mrs. Bender became the par- ents of eleven children, ten of whom are still living, and whose names, togther with their respective dates of birth, are here entered: E.
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J., 1867 ; Gustave, September 8, 1869; Harmon W., April 14, 1871; Fred J., December 23, 1873; Josephine, December 23, 1875; Lizzie, May 7, 1877 : Frank, September 28. 1879; Ben- jamin, July 5. 1881; William, July 19, 1883, and Charles May 17, 1891. Herman Bender, through his own well directed endeavors. worked his way from comparative poverty to affluence before his death, at which time he was the owner of a highly cultivated farm of four hundred and fifty acres. He was a man of intrinsic loyalty and public spirit and in all the relations of life conducted himself in such a way as to command the unalloyed confi- dence and esteem of his fellow citizens. His death was uniformly mourned throughout Choteau township and Madison county.
Gustave Bender was a child of but one year of age at the time of his parents' settle- ment in Chouteau township, where he was reared to maturity under the invigorating dis- cipline of the old homestead farm, in the work and management of which he early be- gan to assist his father. Ile received his practical education in the neighboring district schools and in the public schools at Wanda. Subsequently he pursued a commercial course in a business college at St. Louis, Missouri, in which he was graduated in 1890. He then returned to the old home farm, which he is now managing for his aged mother. During the past decade the farm has been increased in size so that it now comprises some seven hundred acres of most arable land. It is all in a high state of cultivation and is known as one of the finest estates in Madison county. Mrs. Bender is a woman of most gracious personality and is deeply beloved by all who have come within the sphere of her gentle in- fluence.
In addition to managing his mother's estate Gustave Bender is the owner of a tract of forty acres of land and is interested in another tract of seventy-five acres. In his political convictions he is aligned as a stanch sup- porter of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponser and while he has never shown aught of ambition for the honors or emoluments of public office of any description he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all measures and enterprises advanced for the good of the general welfare. In a fraternal way he is af- filiated with Wanda Camp, No. 6498, Mod- ern Woodmen of America. and in their re- ligious faith the Bender family are devout communicants of the Catholic church, to
whose charities and benevolences they are most liberal contributors. Their spacious and attractive country home is widely renowned for its gracious and generous hospitality and the various members of the family are every- where accorded the highest regard.
CHARLES L. FAIRES. Many people gain wealth in this world, many gain distinction in the learned professions, and many are hon- ored with public offices of trust and responsi- bility, but to few is it given to attain so high a place in the esteem and affection of their fellow citizens as that enjoyed by Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Faires, who are widely re- nowned throughout Madison county, Illinois, as citizens of sterling integrity and worth. Mr. Faires is a son of Elam and Elizabeth (Cuddy ) Faires. He was born on the place on which he now resides in St. Jacob town- ship, the date of his nativity being the 27th of August, 1850. Elam Faires was a son of William Faires, a native of Virginia, whence he removed to Illinois about the year 1828. William Faires entered a tract of government land immediately after his arrival in this state and the same was located in St. Jacob town- ship. He was engaged in farming operations during the remainder of his life time and his death occurred in 1855. Elam was born in the state of Virginia and came to Illinois with his father. Here he grew to young manhood and was married, in 1842, to Miss Elizabeth Cuddy, a native of Illinois. To this union were born eight children, of whom five are living at the present time, and concerning whom the following brief data are here in- corporated : Josephine is the widow of James Bryan, of Lebanon, Illinois ; John is engaged in agricultural pursuits in Madison county ; Charles L. is the immediate subject of this review ; Mary Ellen is the wife of William B. Williams, of Greenville, Illinois, and Lida is the wife of Clemens Denniger, of St. Louis, Missouri. After his marriage Elam Faires assumed the active responsibilities of life as a poor man. He was a wagon-maker by trade and was engaged in that line of work on his old homestead for a number of years. With the passage of time he accumulated considerable land in St. Jacob and Troy town- ships. In July, 1858, he was killed by a stroke of lightning while in the wheat field of a tenant. After his death his sons assumed charge of the old homestead and conducted the same with noteworthy success. Mrs. Elam Faires was summoned to eternal rest in 1903.
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