Adam Gebert Biography


	This biography appears on pages 538, 543 in "History of Minnehaha
	County, South Dakota" by Dana R. Bailey and was scanned, OCRed
	and edited by Joy Fisher, http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031
.

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GEBERT, ADAM, was born in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, April 8, 1823; 
was reared on a farm; learned the brickmason's trade, and engaged in farming 
and worked at his trade until 1852, when he moved to Maquoketa, Iowa, and 
went into the hardware business. In 1862, he enlisted in Co. F, 3lst Iowa Inf., 
and was in the military service until June 27, 1865.  He was captain of his 
company, and was at the front at the time Vicksburg was besieged by Gen. Grant. 
He was so afraid that the rebel army would escape that he watched night after 
night at the foot of a big walnut tree, so that in case an attempt was made he 
could give the alarm. This fact became so generally known that the big walnut 
was called "Captain Gebert's tree." His company numbered one hundred and one 
when it first went out, but there were only twenty-seven left to be mustered 
out in 1865; thirty-seven of the original number were dead.  The regiment was 
mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, and a passenger car was provided for 
the officers to come north, and cattle cars for the privates; Captain Gebert 
rode with his men in the cattle cars.  Upon returning home he resumed his 
mercantile business.  In 1876, he went to Colorado and engaged in the 
manufacture of lumber six years; then removed to Louisiana and engaged in the 
manufacture of shingles on an extensive scale in company with his two sons.  
In 1889, having secured a competence, he came North and located in the city 
of Sioux Falls.  The writer for several years was his next door neighbor, 
but it did not take long to discover that he and his good wife were royal 
good neighbors.  He is upright, enterprising, generous, and in every way an 
exemplary citizen.