Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Gerlach, George F. 1841 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 17, 2006, 8:36 pm

Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

GEORGE F. GERLACH.

    George F. Gerlach, the prominent and well-known merchant of St. John, Lake
county, is a self-made and successful business man. He began life for himself at
an early age, finding in school teaching the first stepping stone of progress,
and at the same time acquainted himself with the details of mercantile affairs.
He is and has been for some years an important factor in business circles of St.
John township, and is always found identified with the side of progress and
general advancement in material, social and educational movements.

    Mr. Gerlach was born in Bavaria, Germany, January 24, 1841. His father,
Michael Gerlach, was a native of the same country, and in 1846 emigrated with
his family to America. He settled at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, where he
followed his trade of carpenter for about eleven years. In 1857 he emigrated
further west, locating in St. John township, Lake county, Indiana, where he
turned his attention to farming pursuits. He bought eighty acres of land,
improved it, and for the remainder of his life made farming a successful
enterprise. He died at the age of seventy-four years. His wife was Agnes
Catherine Wartheim, a native of Germany, and who also attained the age of
seventy-four years. They were highly respected in Lake county, and are to be
counted among the early settlers who opened up and developed the farming
regions. They were the parents of seven children, one of whom died young, but
the others, four sons and two daughters, are still living.

    Mr. George F. Gerlach, the eldest of the family, was about five years old
when he crossed the ocean to America, and about sixteen when the family came to
Lake county. He began his education in Virginia, and later attended the St.
Vincent's College in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. After coming to Lake
county he began his independent career by teaching school, beginning at the age
of seventeen and continuing the profession for about three months of the year
during the following ten years, in St. John and Hanover townships. What time he
was not teaching he employed by acting as clerk in the store of Henry and F. P.
Keilmann, at St. John. In 1867 he married and in the same year began business in
partnership with Mr. F. P. Keilmann. They carried on a general merchandise
business until 1885, when the partnership was dissolved, and since then Mr.
Gerlach has been conducting his store alone and at his present location. He has
a long established and prosperous business, carrying a stock valued at about
sixteen thousand dollars, and is recognized as one of the foremost business men
of the county. He also buys and ships grain and live-stock. This position in the
world of affairs is the more creditable when it is remembered that Mr. Gerlach
commenced his career with nothing except his own ambition and industrious habits.

    He has also performed his part in public affairs. He has been a Democrat
since the casting of his first vote, but maintains an independent attitude in
local affairs, voting for the best man. He has been a justice of the peace, and
is now a notary public. He is also interested in the agricultural development of
Lake county, for he owns about nine hundred acres of land in different parts of
the county.

    Mr. Gerlach married, in 1867, Miss Margaret Keilmann, and they are the
parents of nine children: Katie, wife of Peter Schmidt; Frank, in his father's
store; Joseph M., also in the store; Maggie, wife of John Stoltz, who is
employed in Mr. Gerlach's store; Lizzie, wife of Michael Weis, of Ross township;
George and Charles, who are in their father's store; and Lena and Clara, who are
still in school. The children were all born in St. John township, Lake county.


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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