Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Franz, Balzer 1836 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 7, 2006, 11:09 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

BALZER FRANZ.

    Balzer Franz, of section 8, Ross township, came to this township as a boy of
twelve, some fifty-five years ago, and when he began doing for himself he had
only his industry and strong constitution for his capital stock. He has been a
hard worker and good manager all his life, and does not even now remit much of
his former diligence, although the success that he has won gives him freedom
from care and necessary business activity. He has proved himself an influential
factor in the development of the agricultural interests of Lake county, and
through his own material prosperity and good citizenship has enriched the
community in which he has passed so many years of his life. When he was a boy in
the county there was not a railroad in operation through the county, from which
fact it is evident that he has been a personal witness of all the great
development that has resulted in making Lake county a network of railroad lines,
and six acres from his own farm have been taken for railroad rights of way.

    Mr. Franz was born in Bavaria, Germany, March 21, 1836, so that he is now
within the shadow of the age of threescore and ten. He remained in the old
country until he was twelve years old, and then accompanied his mother and
step-father to America, the family coming directly to Ross township, Lake
county. He was reared and has spent all his subsequent years in this county, and
during his boyhood attended for several years the township schools. He remained
at home and worked for his mother and step-father until he was twenty-three
years old, and for several years thereafter was engaged in various pursuits
connected with farming, working on farms by the month, driving cattle to Chicago
markets, hauling cord wood, etc. He was all the time getting a more substantial
vantage ground in material worth, and was soon engaged in the operation of his
own farm, from which time he has continued with increasing success in
agricultural pursuits until he is now the owner of a fine farm of five hundred
acres, well improved, highly cultivated and productive of as good all-around
crops as are raised anywhere in Ross township.

    Mr. Franz has been married twice. In 1865 he wedded Miss Elizabeth Geibe,
who died without issue. He then married Anna Shello, and they have nine
children: George, Helen, Nora, Maggie, Elizabeth, Cecilia, Grace, Mary and
Balzer. They were all born in Ross township, and all are well educated, Cecilia
and Grace having finished the country schools and being now students in
Merrillville.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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