Logan County Illinois Biographies for George Walter Laun and Marie Helen Seefeldt Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by: William L. Stephenson, Jr History of Logan County Illinois 1982 Transcription by William L. Stephenson, Jr., - Historian, Bock Family Association George [Walter] born October 4, 1894 and Marie [Helen] "Mayme" Seefeldt born September 6, 1894 west of Hartsburg, Logan County, Illinois, on what was known as "Scully Prairie" and on farms across the road from each other. George was one of four children born to Adolph (his German descendant family had originally settled in Wisconsin) and Minnie Bock Laun. George was the brother of Howard (1892-1938), Henry (1989-1969), and Marie Johnson White (1900). After their marriage on February 22, 1890, Adolph and Minnie Laun lived on a farm near Hartsburg owned by Mrs. Doc Leonard where he raised horses. Adolph died of blood poisoning in 1899, leaving his wife and three small sons and one daughter to be born after his death. His death forced Minnie to sell out and move to an 80-acre Scully lease at New Holland to be near her oldest sister, Mrs. Marie (Mary) Raber. Mary had helped raise her baby sister, Minnie, when their widowed father came from Germany with his eleven children to make a new life in America. Mary and her husband, Ernest Raber, were a great help to the young widow in rearing her children to adulthood in the New Holland area. Marie Laun was one of seven children born to Wilhelm and Henrietta Bree Seefeldt. Wilhelm was born October 26, 1948 in Pummer, Germany, and came to the United States in a sailboat in 1872. Henrietta was born December 22, 1863 in Miiklenberg, Germany, and came to Illinois in 1881. they were married January 2, 1883, and in 1884 Wilhelm, his wife and his younger brother, Charles, went to Ashland, Oregan to homestead. About 1888, Wilhelm, his wife and two sons, Edward (1885-1944) and William (1887-1955), returned to Illinois. The younger brother Charles remained in Oregon with friends as the Seefeldts did not have sufficient funds for his train fare back to Illinois. After their return to Illinois, they lived on a Scully lease west of Hartsburg (farmed by John Wibben in 1982) where Charles (1889-1921), August (1890-1913), Emma (1892- ?), Marie (1894-1979), and Albert (1896-1901) were born. In 1903 Wilhelm purchased a farm in Eminence Township near Atlanta. After his wife's death in 1913 he moved to Hartsburg with his two young daughters, Emma and Marie, where he built a house (owned in 1982 by the Ernest McElhaneys) and lived there until 1917 when he sold the home to George H. Rademaker. He then hired C.C. Reeder, a local contractor, to build a new eight-room two-story house on his farm for a total cost of $3,000. He lived there until his death in December 1923. George and Marie Laun were married by Rev. C. Coffmann, Pastor of Evangelical St. John's Church, in Lincoln on February 19, 1918, and went to live on an 80-acre farm west of Middletown [Illinois]. Maxine was born there in 1919. Then the Launs moved to her father's farm in Eminence Township where George J. (1921) and Mary (1923) were born. In 1924 they moved to the Woefel farm near Hartsburg where they lived for 25 years. Here Dorothy (1927) and Betty (1934) were born. In July 1929 (the year of the stock market crash, with corn selling for $.10 per bushel - and so was burned for heating fuel) the Launs lost their Sugar Creek bottomland crops and all their livestock in one of Logan County's worst floods. At this time George bought his first tractor to replace all the drowned horses. He was always grateful to Hartsburg State Bank who financed the tractor in those difficult times. After the death of Wilhelm Seefeldt, George and Marie (Mayme) Laun purchased his 140-acre farm on July 15, 1935 for a total price of $15,000, and in 1948 moved back to this farm where they resided until their deaths in 1976 and 1979, respectively. All five Laun Children attended Lone Tree School where their father served as a director of the one-room school for 19 years (and where Florence Stone taught all 8 grades from 1925 to 1933) and they all graduated from Hartsburg High School. Maxine graduated from Dickinson's business College, Peoria, still lives there, and is employed at Caterpillar Tractor Co. George J. (Buzz) married Sara Berninger in 1952 and they live on the former Woefel farm where he grew up. Their children are: Roger (1953), Nancy (1956) and Gary (1958). Mary attended Lincoln College and for 6 years worked for Attorney Harold Trapp, Sr. and also for Harold Trapp, Jr. when he returned to Lincoln after serving with the F.B.I. in World War II. Since 1949 she has lived in Peoria with Maxine and is a legal secretary. After high school Dorothy was employed at the Logan County Circuit Clerk's office and in 1952 helped James Hickey, State Historian, discover lost historical documents there which verified Abraham Lincoln's judicial activities in Logan County. In 1982 she was doing clerical work at Logan Correctional Center and lived on the Laun homestead near Atlanta. Betty married Carol (Sonny) Litwiller in 1956 and they reside on a farm near Armington. Their children are Mark (1957), Judith (1959), Neil (1964 - died of leukemia in 1973), Robert (1966) and Eric (1972). Mayme and George Laun were noted for their hospitality - their home was always open to friends and relatives who seldom left before being served a friendly cup of coffee and a bite to eat.