Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Baltz, John 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 28, 2008, 11:58 pm

Author: Past and Present of Will County, IL; 1907

John Baltz, who for many years was actively, successfully and honorably 
engaged in farming in Will county, was born in Germany in 1822, and died in 
this country on April 4, 1896. It was after his emigration to America that he 
was married. His wife, Theresa D. Bait, was also a native of Germany, born in 
1831. Her father was likewise a native of that country, born in 1809, and his 
death occurred in 1884, when he was seventy-five years of age. Her mother, 
Gertrude Spitzer, was a native of Germany, and died at the age of forty-eight 
years. The parents of Mrs. Baltz were members of the German Catholic church. 
In the public schools of her native country Mrs. Baltz acquired her education. 
When a young lady she sailed to America with several friends of about her own 
age. They made the voyage on a sailing vessel which was on its third trip. It 
was loaded with passengers and they were on the water for twenty-five days, 
but finally landed safely in New York. From the east Mrs. Baltz made her way 
to Joliet, Illinois, and was there married to John Baltz in the St. John's 
Catholic church. The young couple resided in the city of Joliet for about two 
months, after which they moved to the country, residing on a farm in Joliet 
township. Later they took up their abode in Troy township, where Mr. Baltz 
engaged in the cultivation of a rented farm for about eight years. In the 
meantime he lived frugally and economically, saving his earnings, so that at 
length he was enabled to purchase one hundred acres of land in Troy township, 
for which he paid twenty-six dollars per acre. He afterward bought other land 
and paid sixty-nine dollars and eighty cents for the last eighty acres. At the 
time of his demise he was the owner of two hundred and twenty acres of 
valuable farm land in Troy township. He had brought his fields under a high 
state of cultivation and everything about the place was neat and thrifty in 
appearance, giving evidence of his careful supervision and untiring labor. 
Both he and his wife were hard workers. He had only fifty dollars at the time 
of his marriage and the success which he later enjoyed was due to his 
diligence and perseverance. His political allegiance was given to the 
democratic party. He had many friends who esteemed him because of his genuine 
worth, his fidelity to the principles in which he believed, his reliability in 
business and his faithfulness in citizenship. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Baltz were 
born the following; John, who is engaged in farming in Troy township; Mrs. 
Lena Ley, deceased; Joseph, who was a resident of Jewell, Iowa, and who died 
at the age of twenty-nine years; Louisa, who married Simon Yack and lives at 
No. 517 Stone street in Joliet; Caroline, who acquired her education in Joliet 
and is now living at No. 723 Nicholson street in that city; Theresa, wife of 
S. J. Stevens, a resident of Chicago Heights; Lawrence, who is living on the 
home farm in Troy township, and Lizzie, who became the wife of Joseph Zerbes 
and who died at the age of twenty-five years. 

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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