Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Meyer, John Henry 1833 - 
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Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

JOHN HENRY MEYER.

    John Henry Meyer, who is one of the oldest and most prosperous farmers of
Hanover township, was born in Hanover, Germany, September 21, 1833, being the
oldest of four children, two sons and two daughters, born to John H. and Maggie
(Beckman) Meyer. Only two survive, his brother John being a wealthy retired
farmer of Crown Point.

    The father of this family was born and reared in Hanover, Germany, being
educated in the German schools and following the occupation of farmer. He
married in Germany and all the children were born there. In 1851 he and his
family sailed from Bremen, and forty-two days later arrived in New York. The
parents and one of their children went to Savannah, Georgia, for the winter, but
the other three remained in New York. In the spring of 1852 the parents started
for the west with the intention of locating either at Fort Wayne, Indiana, or in
Iowa, but on the death of a brother who had taken up land in Lake county they
came to this county and purchased two hundred acres of land near the western
corner of Cedar Lake. The father added to his possessions until at his death he
owned three hundred acres of good land. The first home of the Meyers was a log
cabin, and deer and wolves were still to be seen in the neighborhood. The father
voted for Fremont, the first Republican nominee, and he and his wife, who was a
native of the same locality in Germany as himself, were members of the Lutheran
church.

    Mr. Meyer was a young man when he became a resident of the United States,
and during his first winter in this country he clerked in a store in New York.
Coming to Lake county in the spring of 1852, he began on the farm and has
remained a tiller of the soil all his life. He was educated in both the German
and English languages.

    He remained with his parents to the age of twenty-seven, when, on January
20, 1861, he was married to Miss Christena Doescher, by which union twelve
children have been born, all of whom are living. Johanna is the wife of John E.
Meyers, a merchant of Kinman, Jasper county, Indiana. Henry is married and is a
contractor and builder at Mexico, Missouri. John is married and a resident of
Kansas City, Kansas. August, married, is a dealer in and a manufacturer of
harness at Mexico, Missouri. Emma is the wife of August Grabe, a professional
horseshoer of Chicago. Lizzie is at home with her parents. Christena is in
Chicago. Anna is in Chicago. Julius is a resident of Independence, Missouri.
Edwin, a practical farmer and stockman in Hanover township, had a common school
education and then took a business course at Valparaiso, where he graduated in
1896; he is a Republican and cast his first vote for McKinley. Adolph, who took
the commercial and shorthand course at Valparaiso, graduating in 1900, is now in
the wholesale house of Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company, at Chicago. Ernest, also
a student at Valparaiso, is at home.

    Mrs. Meyer was born in Hanover, Germany, November 8, 1841, a daughter of
Herman and Johanna (Steffens) Doescher, who were the parents of eight children,
two sons and six daughters, five of whom are living. Herman, the eldest, is
married and is a farmer in Endor, Illinois. Johanna, of Endor, Illinois, is the
widow of Christopher Batterman. Fredericka is the widow of Charles Horn, a
resident of Crete, Illinois. Mrs. Meyer is next. Charles, who was a soldier in
the Civil war, is married and a resident of Crete, Illinois.

    When Mr. and Mrs. Meyer began life it was as renters on section 19 in
Hanover township, and for six years they farmed on rented land. The first land
he purchased was two hundred and twenty acres in section 31, and he went in debt
for a large part of it, but in the end his diligence and good management paid
off all the indebtedness, and he is now owner of three hundred and two acres in
Hanover township and fourteen acres in Center township, well improved with
barns, granaries, and other buildings, and they have an excellent farm
residence, without a dollar of mortgage standing against the property. He is
also owner of three hundred and sixty-five acres in Audrain county, Missouri,
situated only four miles from the thriving city of Mexico.

    Mr. Meyer is a Republican, having cast his first presidential vote for
Fremont, since which time each party candidate has received his support. He and
his wife had seen all the remarkable development of Lake county during the last
half century, and they are therefore among the real old-timers, and held in the
highest esteem for their many excellent qualities of mind and heart.


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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