NEWSLETTER

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SERVING THE GREATER LIVINGSTON COUNTY AREA

NUMBER 7 - JULY 2001

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JOSEPH VERKLER, WAS BORN NEAR STRASBOURG, GERMANY, IN 1807, THE SON OF JOSEPH AND KATHARINA RINGENBERG VERKLER. WHEN 21 YEARS OF AGE HE WAS DRAFTED FOR THE REGULAR ARMY AND AFTER 2-1/2 YEARS OF SERVICE, WENT HOME ON A FURLOUGH OF TWO WEEKS.

HIS MOTHER AND HIS STEP-FATHER PETER ENGEL, WHOM SHE HAD REMARRIED AFTER THE DEATH OF HER FIRST HUSBAND, JOSEPH, WERE PREPARING TO EMIGRATE TO AMERICA. KATHARINA HATED TO LEAVE YOUNG JOSEPH BEHIND AND THROUGH THE AID OF A FRIENDLY GENDARME ( A FRENCH POLICE OFFICER ), THE YOUTH'S ESCAPE WAS PLANNED.

IN THE MENNONITE FAITH AT THAT TIME NO MAN WAS PERMITTED TO WEAR A MUSTACHE. JOSEPH, HOWEVER, BEING A SOLDIER, WORE A MUSTACHE. HIS FIRST MOVE IN PLANNING TO ESCAPE WAS TO SHAVE OFF HIS MUSTACHE; THEN, BY APPROPRIATING A FRIEND'S PASSPORT AND USING HIS FRIEND'S NAME JOSEPH GINGERICH, HE WALKED FROM STRASBOURG TO HAVRE. THERE HE MET SOME MENNONITE FRIENDS, NAUFSINGER BY NAME, WHO WERE ALSO EMIGRATING TO AMERICA AND HAD IN SOME WAY LEARNED OF HIS PLAN. WITH THEM HE SET SAIL AND HAD BEEN ON THE OCEAN SEVERAL DAYS BEFORE HIS FURLOUGH EXPIRED. THIS WAS IN THE WINTER OF 1829. UPON HIS FAILURE TO REPORT FOR SERVICE, THE GENDARME WHO HAD HELPED HIM TO ESCAPE, NOW PRETENDING TO BE VERY ANGRY AT NOT FINDING THE YOUTH, SCOLDED HIS MOTHER SOUNDLY. HAD HER SON JOSEPH BEEN FOUND HE WOULD HAVE BEEN COURT-MARTIALED AND SHOT. SMALL WONDER THAT FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS HE OFTEN DREAMED THAT HE HAD MET WITH SUCH PUNISHMENT.

JOSEPH LANDED IN NEW YORK CITY AND THEN WALKED TO LANCASTER COUNTY, PENN., WHERE HE WORKED FOR $7.00 A MONTH. EIGHTEEN MONTHS LATER HE CROSSED THE ALLEGHENY MOUNTAINS AFOOT. ARRIVING IN BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO, HE SECURED A JOB AT CUTTING WOOD FOR 25 CENTS A CORD. SIX MONTHS LATER HE STARTED FOR ILLINOIS WITH HIS ENTIRE SAVINGS OF $100.00. HE MADE THE TRIP BY BOAT DOWN THE OHIO RIVER THEN UP THE MISSISSIPPI AND ILLINOIS RIVERS TO PEORIA, THEN CALLED FORT CLARK.

HE WAS MARRIED TO JACOBINA ENGEL ON DEC. 27, 1832 BY REV. CHRISTIAN ENGEL, WHICH WAS HER FATHER. CHRISTIAN ENGEL WAS A MENNONITE MINISTER WHICH WOULD BE THE SAME AS BENEDICT WEYENETH IN THE APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN FAITH.

JACOBINA ENGEL, WAS BORN IN ALSACE-LORAINE, THE DAUGHTER OF CHRISTIAN AND BARBARA BRUNNER ENGEL. SHE EMIGRATED TO AMERICA WITH HER PARENTS WHEN SHE WAS QUITE YOUNG. THEY WERE ON THE OCEAN 65 DAYS, BEFORE LANDING IN NEW ORLEANS AND SETTLED IN METAMORA, ILLINOIS. AT THE AGE OF 21 SHE MARRIED HER HALF-BROTHER'S STEP-SON, JOSEPH VERKLER. THEIR FIRST HOME WAS A ONE-ROOM LOG-CABIN ON KICKAPOO CREEK, WEST OF PEORIA.

IN 1834 JOSEPH AND JACOBINA VERKLER MOVED NEAR METAMORA, WHERE THEY CLEARED SEVERAL TIMBER FARMS. IT WAS AT THIS TIME WHEN JOSEPH BECAME INVOLVED WITH BENEDICT WEYENETH AND HIS NEW AMISH (NEU TAUFER) MOVEMENT AT THE PARTRIDGE CREEK CHURCH. IN 1864-1865 JOSEPH BECAME A CITIZENS OF PLEASANT RIDGE TOWNSHIP NEAR FORREST, ILLINOIS. WHERE HE BOUGHT 800 ACRES OF LAND. IT WAS HERE THAT THE NORTH SIDE APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN CHURCH WAS STARTED.

110 YEARS OF "NORTH SIDE"

APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN CHURCH

BY BEN NUSSBAUM

"AS ADDITIONAL FAMILIES MIGRATED TO THE AREA AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GROUP WORSHIP PRESENTED ITSELF AND, UNDER VERKLER'S LEADERSHIP, SERVICES WERE SOON BEING HELD IN NEARBY HOMES. IF A HOUSE HAPPENED TO BE TOO SMALL THEY WOULD CONGREGATE IN THE BARN.

ABOUT 1868 OR 1870 A SMALL TWO-ROOM CHURCH WAS BUILT ON VERKLER'S LAND AT THE SOUTH EAST CORNER OF SECTION TWENTY-ONE.

BASICALLY THEN, THIS WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE NORTH SIDE. THOUGH THE GROUND PROVED UNSATISFACTORY, THE BUILDING WAS ADEQUATE UNTIL ABOUT 1875 WHEN THEY RELOCATED TO A HIGHER ELEVATION BEFORE CONSTRUCTING AN ADDITION.

JOSEPH WOULD SERVE AS THE FIRST MINISTER FOR NORTH SIDE CHURCH, AND LATER WOULD BE ASSISTED BY RUDOLF LEUTHOLD AND THEN JACOB HONEGGER.

ON SEPT. 7, 1885 JACOBINA VERKLER DIED AND 16 DAYS LATER JOSEPH SEPT. 23, 1885, WOULD FOLLOW HER. THEY WERE BURIED IN THE VERKLER FAMILY LOTS. THE VERKLER FAMILY NAME IS LONG GONE FROM THIS AREA AND THE FAMILY LOTS IS ALL THAT WE HAVE LEFT TO REMEMBER THEM BY. WITH OUT JOSEPH VERKLER COMING TO LIVINGSTON COUNTY, THE CHANCES ARE THE APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN FAITH WOULDN’T OF EITHER.

JOSEPH VERKLER’S OBIT

FAIRBURY BLADE

SEPT. 25 1885

MR. VERKLER, LIVING NORTH OF FORREST, DIED TUES. EVENING. HIS AGED COMPANION PRECEEDED HIM SEVERAL WEEKS AGO. FUNERAL TODAY AT 2 P.M.

FAIRBURY BLADE

OCT. 2 1885

JOSEPH VERKLER, AFTER A LINGERING ILLNESS OF MANY WEEKS, QUIETLY AND PEACEFULLY PASSED AWAY AT HIS HOME NEAR FORREST, ON THE MORNING OF SEPTEMBER 23 1885, AGED 78.

HE CAME TO PLEASANT RIDGE NINETEEN YEARS AGO, AND EVER SINCE LIVED IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD WHERE HE DIED. ON DECEMBER 27 1832, HE WAS MARRIED, AND LIVED HAPPILY WITH HIS WIFE UNTIL HER DEATH, SOME TWO WEEKS AGO. NINE CHILDREN, WE BELIEVE, WERE THE FRUIT OF THIS UNION, OF WHOM EIGHT SURVIVE THEIR PARENTS. HIS REMAINS WERE INTERRED IN THE FAMILY CEMETERY ON THURSDAY. THE LARGE ATTENDANCE OF FRIENDS ATTENDED THE UNIVERSAL ESTEEM HE HAD WON, AND EXPRESSED THE GENERAL SYMPATHY WITH HIS BEREAVED FAMILY. HE DIED AS HE HAD LIVED, A PURE AND UPRIGHT MAN.

THE NORTH SIDE DEED

THE GRANTORS JOSEPH VERKLER AND JACOBENA VERKLER HIS WIFE OF THE COUNTY OF LIVINGSTON AND STATE OF ILLINOIS FOR AND IN CONSIDERATION OF TEN ($10.00) DOLLARS IN HAND PAID, CONVEY AND WARRANT TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF PLEASANT RIDGE TOWNSHIP, LIVINGSTON COUNTY ILLINOIS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS IN OFFICE, THE FOLLOWING DESCRIBED LOTS PRICES ON PARCELS OF LAND TO WID.

COMMENCING AT THE SOUTH EAST CORNER OF THE SOUTH WEST QUARTER OF SECTION TWENTY ONE (21) IN TOWNSHIP TWENTY SEVEN (27) NORTH RANGE SEVEN (7) EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN. RUNNING THENCE WEST EIGHT (8) RODS AND THENCE NORTH ELEVEN (11) RODS THENCE EAST EIGHT (8) RODS THENCE SOUTH ELEVEN (11) RODS TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING ALSO COMMENCING AT A POINT FORTY NINE (49) RODS NORTH OF THE SOUTH WEST CORNER OF THE SOUTH WEST QUARTER OF SECTION TWENTY ONE (21) IN THE SAME TOWNSHIP AND RANGE AFORESAID RUNNING THENCE EAST TEN (10) RODS THENCE NORTH THIRTEEN (13) RODS THENCE WEST TEN (10) RODS THENCE SOUTH THIRTEEN (13) RODS TO THE PLACE OF BEGINNING. EXCEPT A STRIP SEVEN RODS LONG AND TWO RODS WIDE OF THE NORTH PART OF THE LAST MENTIONED AND DESCRIBED TRACT TO WID.

COMMENCING AT THE NORTH EAST CORNER OF SAID LAST MENTIONED TRACT ON LOT RUNNING THENCE WEST SEVEN RODS THENCE SOUTH TWO RODS THENCE EAST SEVEN RODS THENCE NORTH TWO RODS TO THE PLACE OF THE BEGINNING WHICH IS RESERVED BY THE GRANTORS AS A FAMILY BURYING GROUND SITUATED IN THE COUNTY OF LIVINGSTON AND STATE OF ILLINOIS HEREBY RELINQUISHING AND WAVING ALL RIGHTS UNDER AND BY VIRTUE OF THE HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION LAWS OF THIS STATE.

UPON THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS HOWEVER AND FOR THE FOLLOWING PURPOSES TO WID. IT IS EXPRESSLY AGREED AND UNDERSTOOD BY AND BETWEEN THE PARTIES HERETO THAT THIS CONVEYANCE IS MADE SOLELY FOR THE FOLLOWING PURPOSED TO WID. THAT THE FIRST MENTIONED AND DESCRIBED TRACT OF LAND IS TO BE USED BY THE SAID RELIGIOUS DENOMINATION FOR CHURCH OR SCHOOL PURPOSES OR BOTH AT THEIR OPTION AND THE SAID SECOND MENTIONED AND DESCRIBED TRACT OF LAND IS TO BE USED BY THE SAID RELIGIOUS DENOMINATION AS A CEMETERY OR PLACE OF BURIAL FOR THE DEAD AND SHOULD THE TIME EVER COME WHEN THE SAID RELIGIOUS DENOMINATION SHALL CEASE TO USE THE SAID TRACTS OF LAND OR EITHER OF THEM FOR THE PURPOSES AFORESAID OR WHEN SUCH TRACT OF LAND OR EITHER OF THEM SHALL BE CONVERTED OR USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE OR PURPOSES THAN THOSE ABOVE NAMED THEN AND IN THAT CASE SUCH TRACT OR TRACTS OF LAND SHALL IMMEDIATELY REVERT TO THE GRANTORS HEREIN THEIR HEIRS EXECUTORS ADMINISTRATORS AND ASSIGNS AS FULLY AND TO ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES AS IF THIS CONVEYANCE HAD NOT BEEN MADE. DATED THIS TWELFTH DAY OF OCTOBER AD 1875.