Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Salzmann, Christoph 1821 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 9, 2007, 11:18 pm

Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

CHRISTOPH SALZMANN. The development of the agricultural resources of 
Washington Township, has been largely due to the efforts of foreign-born 
citizens, particularly to natives of the German Empire. Many of them have made 
their home here, and taking tracts of unbroken prairie land, devoid of 
buildings, have soon converted the virgin soil into smiling fields of golden 
grain, in the midst of which substantial dwellings and outbuildings have been 
erected. This has been the case on the homestead of Christoph Salzmann, who 
owns eighty acres of excellent land on section 30. The father of our subject 
was Paul Salzmann, a native of Northern Germany, and a linen-weaver by trade. 
He died when but forty-six years old, leaving four sons and two daughters, 
most of whom are now deceased. His wife was Mary Erbach, also a native of 
Northern Germany, in which she spent her entire life, breathing her last when 
sixty years of age. Both husband and wife were life-long members of the 
Lutheran Church. The gentleman of whom we write was born September 12, 1821, 
in Saxe-Coburg, Germany, and having lost his father when but five years of 
age, was reared by his worthy mother. When he had reached the proper age he 
began to learn the trade of a linen-weaver, in which his father had been so 
skilled a workman and in which he also attained proficiency. He was thirty-two 
years old and yet a single man when he was drawn to America by what he had 
heard of the openings which this country presented for a man of energy. He 
left Bremerhaven May 20, 1853, on a sailer that required fifty-four days to 
make the voyage to New York City. He came at once to Cook County, Ill., in 
which he made his home until 1862, with the exception of one year spent in 
Iowa. During this time he was engaged as a farm laborer and had been hoarding 
his resources in order to buy himself a home. Coming to Will County he secured 
the tract of prairie which his well-directed efforts have converted into his 
present well-improved and well-cultivated estate. The lady whom Mr. Salzmann 
won for his wife and, with whom he was united in marriage in Cook County, was 
Miss Sophia Shoof. She was born in Mecklenberg, Germany, June 23, 1830, and 
reared and educated in her native land. In 1856 she accompanied her parents 
and other members of the family to America, whence two brothers had preceded 
them. They crossed the Atlantic on a slow sailer from Hamburg to New York, the 
entire family coming direct to the Prairie State, and settling at Oak Park, 
Cook County. There Henry Shoof died in 1870, at the ripe age of seventy-one 
years. His widow afterward came to live with her daughter, Mrs. Salzmann, and 
died at her home in 1872, when seventy-nine years old. Both Mr. and Mrs. Shoof 
were members of the Lutheran Church, kindly of heart and industrious in 
habits. After reaching Chicago their daughter earned her livelihood as a 
domestic until her marriage to our subject. The happy union of Mr. and Mrs. 
Salzmann has been blest by the birth of seven children, and they mourn the 
loss of a daughter, Sarah, who died when a year old. Of the surviving members 
of the family circle, Rosa is living with a sister in Thornton, Ill.; Frank 
married Anna Kratchmar and lives in Chicago, where he has a saloon; Emma A. is 
the wife of William Maxwell, a quarryman, in Thornton; Robert, a promising 
young man, is at home and working the homestead and an eighty-acre tract of 
land which belongs to himself; Christy M. is attending school at Thornton; 
Jessie G. is at home. Mr. Salzmann is a member of the Republican party, and he 
and his good wife belong to the Lutheran Church, by whose principles they 
endeavor to guide their daily lives.

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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