Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Bettenhausen, Conrad C 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com September 5, 2007, 11:21 pm

Author: Biographical Publishing Company

CONRAD C. BETTENHAUSEN, a retired farmer residing in Frankfort Station, was 
born in Koenigswald, Kurhessen, Germany, June 14, 1834, a son of George and 
Martha (Sangmeister) Bettenhausen. He was one of five children, all of whom 
came to the United States, but only two are living, his sister being Martha, 
Mrs. Martin Stipple, of Charles City, Iowa. His mother died in Germany when he 
was an infant, and he was reared under the care of others. When he was 
nineteen he came to the United States and at once proceeded to Illinois, 
settling in Will County. For the next three years (1853-56) he worked one year 
on Horace Messinger's farm and two years on George Tilfer's farm. Next he went 
into Cook County and settled on a farm in the town of Orland, where he 
remained for a quarter of a century. Meantime, by the exercise of energy and 
good judgment, he acquired a competence, which represented his persevering 
efforts through all these years of labor. In the fall of 1882 he left a son in 
charge of the Cook County farm and returned to Will County, settling in 
Greengarden Township, where he owns two farms. Nine years were spent in that 
township. In 1892 he retired from the active duties of farm work and purchased 
a home in Frankfort Station, where it is his intention to spend his remaining 
years. His life has been so successful that he is now the owner of five 
hundred acres of land in Will and Cook Counties, and, besides this, he has 
assisted his children to get started in life and has also contributed to the 
promotion of enterprises calculated to benefit the people.

The Republican party represents the political views of Mr. Bettenhausen, and 
he has always been stanch in his adherence to its principles. While he has 
never sought  political leadership, yet he has to some extent been one of the 
party leaders in his township, and has wielded a large influence both here and 
in his former home in Cook County. Among the offices he held in the latter 
county were those of township assessor, collector and supervisor. During the 
Civil war he was a member of the home guard. He is identified with the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, in which for some years he was a trustee, and also 
served as Sunday-school superintendent.

September 9, 1857, Mr. Bettenhausen married Miss Elizabeth Horn, a native of 
the town in Germany in which he was born. She, also, is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. In every way she has been a worthy helpmate to her 
enterprising husband, and deserves credit for her good influence in the home 
and in the neighborhood. They became the parents of ten children, of whom the 
following are living: John M., who resides on a farm in Greengarden Township; 
Christ C., who cultivates the old homestead in Cook County; Mary, wife of 
Henry Deist; Martha E., who married Frank Folkers, and Emma, who married Frank 
Kohlhagen, both of Frankfort Station. Mr. Bettenhausen and his wife sustained 
a heavy loss in the death of their son William, a bright and promising youth 
of nineteen years. Had he lived he would have inherited the homestead in 
Greengarden Township, and would have been the staff of his parents in their 
declining years; but his early death put an end to all of their fond hopes for 
his future.

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

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