Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Ehrhardt, August 1840 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 5, 2007, 1:45 pm

Author: Portraits & Bio Sketches, 1890

AUGUST EHRHARDT. The leading mercantile establishment of Beecher is that of 
August Ehrhardt, who carries a very full line of goods, well selected for the 
needs of country trade. The business was begun in 1880, prior to which time 
Mr. Ehrhardt had been engaged as clerk for August Seniffer of Monee, in whose 
employ he had gained a thorough knowledge of the business. Mr. Ehrhardt is 
also Postmaster, having received his appointment under the present 
administration. He is well and favorably known as a man of upright character, 
more than ordinary intelligence, and an abundance of energy in whatever he 
undertakes. He is active in local politics, voting the Republican ticket at 
all times, and his fellow-citizens have called for his services in various 
local offices. He and his good wife belong to the Lutheran Church. Mr. 
Ehrhardt comes of good old German families, the home of both ancestral lines 
being in Saxony. His father, Christoph Ehrhardt, was reared as a farmer and 
after his marriage took up for himself that occupation. His wife was Miss 
Sophia Werner, who was reared in the same neighborhood as himself. To them 
were born two sons and two daughters, with whom they set sail from Bremerhaven 
in July, 1854, on the sailing vessel "Susannah." After a tedious voyage of 
eight weeks landing was made at Baltimore, whence the family came to Chicago. 
The father chose a location in Monee Township, Cook County, and there the 
family lived on a small farm for some years. The parents then settled in Blue 
Island, where both died, the father passing away in 1872, at the age of 
seventy-six years and the mother surviving until 1889, she being then seventy-
eight years old. Both were life-long members of the Lutheran Church in the 
tenets of which they reared their children. These all survive, are married and 
have families. The subject of this sketch is the eldest member of the parental 
family and was born in Saxony, Germany, April 30, 1840. He received a good 
education in his native land during his early boy-hood, and after accompanying 
his parents to America, attended schools in this State, acquiring an excellent 
knowledge of the English language. He was living in Will County when he became 
of age and was occupied with agricultural pursuits until after the breaking 
out of the Civil War. In 1862 he was enrolled in Company D, Eighty-second 
Illinois Infantry, his company and regiment being under the command of Capt. 
Miller and Col. Hecker. He was mustered into service at Camp Butler, and in 
October went to the front, first meeting the enemy at Chancellorsville. The 
next heavy engagement in which he participated was at Gettysburg, and he 
afterwards bore his part in the terrible conflicts of Lookout Mountain and 
Missionaiy Ridge. He was one of the gallant sixty thousand who marched with 
Sherman from Atlanta to the sea and back through the Carolinas to Washington, 
and with other members of Hecker's regiment was known to officers and comrades 
as a faithful and plucky soldier. He escaped injury and was able to report for 
duty every day until the last gun was fired, when he was honorably discharged 
at Chicago and mustered out of service at Camp Douglas. Coming at once to 
Monee, this county, he began his clerkship, which he continued until he 
established the business in which he is now engaged. The lady to whose fine 
character and housewifely skill Mr. Ehrhardt owes the joy and comfort of his 
home life, was known in her maidenhood as Miss Louisa Klein. She was born June 
26, 1843, in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, her parents, August and Madeline 
(Boehl) Klein, being natives of the same province. In 1846 they left their 
native land to make a home in the New World, sailing from Bremerhaven 
accompanied by four children. After some weeks they landed at New York City 
whence they journeyed by river, canal and lakes to Chicago. Later they located 
at Blue Island, and still later settled on a farm in Cooper's Grove, where 
they remained some years. They then purchased a farm in Monee Township, Will 
County, where they erected a comfortable dwelling in which they lived until 
after the death of Mrs. Klein, which occurred when she was forty-five years 
old. Mr. Klein subsequently went to Missouri, dying there when about seventy-
six years of age. He and his wife belonged to the Lutheran Church. Their 
daughter, now Mrs. Ehrhardt, being scarcely more than an infant when they 
crossed the briny deep, was reared in Cook County, Ill., and there obtained 
her education. Her happy union with our subject has been blest with the birth 
of two children—Arthur and Carl—who have been educated in the public schools 
and who are still living under the parental roof. As a representative citizen 
of Will County, we are pleased to present on another page of the album a 
lithographic portrait of Mr. Ehrhardt.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 
 


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