JOHN GERBER SR. ???? - 1853

(WIFE) MATHILDA (ZIMMERMAN) GERBER 1810 - 1894

(SON) CHRISTIAN GERBER 1948 - 1910

(SON) JOHN GERBER JR. 1949 - 1912

(DAUGHTER) MARIA (GERBER) ACKERMAN 1850 - 1908

(DAUGHTER) LYDIA (GERBER) BELSLEY 1852 - 1942

(DAUGHTER) ANNA GERBER 1853 - ????

THE EARLIEST INFORMATION KNOWN ABOUT THE GERBER FAMILY, IS THAT THE JOHN GERBER, SR. FAMILY WAS LIVING IN WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO, NEAR RITTMAN. IT WAS HERE THAT ALL FIVE CHILDREN WERE BORN TO THE COUPLE AND THEY LIVED IN THAT VICINITY, UNTIL JOHN, SR. DECIDED TO MOVE HIS FAMILY TO WEST BEND, IOWA.

THE FOLLOWING LINES COME FROM A LETTER BY ANNE (GERBER) LEMAN, A DAUGHTER OF JOHN GERBER, JR. IT WAS SENT TO ME BY DOUG LEMAN:

He started out to his father's and got very sick on the way. I think some friends took him there or he died before he got there. But his folks had him in a casket of box as my father called it. It was homemade. But they got the children and did not tell their mother because she was too sick. My father looked in the room and saw the box and got a glance of his father, which he never forgot."

THE FAMILY LIVED IN WEST BEND, IOWA FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS, UNTIL THEY REMOVED TO MORTON ILL. AROUND THE LATE 1860’S TO THE EARLY 1870’S. IN TIME, JOHN, JR. RETURNED TO WEST BEND. HIS BROTHER CHRISTIAN, MARRIED AND MOVED TO THE FAIRBURY/CROPSEY AREA, FIRST LIVING WITH HIS IN-LAWS. EVENTUALLY AFTER CHRISTIAN BECAME MINISTER AND THEN ELDER OF THE SOUTH SIDE APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN CHURCH, JOHN, JR., WHO WAS SERVING AS MINISTER AT WEST BEND, TRANSFERRED HIS MINISTRY TO THE SOUTH CHURCH AND SERVED ON THE PULPIT WITH HIS BROTHER.

REV. CHRISTIAN GERBER DEAD.

PASSES AWAY SUDDENLY THURSDAY AFTERNOON AT HIS HOME.

REV. CHRISTIAN GERBER, ONE OF THE BEST KNOWN OF THE GERMAN RESIDENTS OF THIS LOCALITY AND A PREACHER OF THE GERMAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH, DIED SUDDENLY AT HIS HOME SOUTH OF FAIRBURY THURSDAY AFTERNOON ABOUT THREE O'CLOCK WHILE AT WORK IN THE HAY FIELD. HE WAS STRICKEN WITH APPOLEXY, AND ALTHO MEDICAL AID WAS AT ONCE SUMMONED HE HAD PASSED AWAY BEFORE THE PHYSICIAN ARRIVED.

REV. GERBER HAS LIVED ON HIS FARM SOUTH OF FAIRBURY FOR MANY YEARS. HE WAS A MAN WHO STOOD HIGH IN THE ESTIMATION OF ALL WHO KNEW HIM AND ONE OF THE CHIEF CONSELERS OF THE GERMAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH. HIS DEATH IS A GREAT SHOCK TO HIS MANY FRIENDS AS HE WAS APPARENTLY IN THE BEST OF HEALTH.

THE FUNERAL SERVICES WILL BE HELD SUNDAY, JULY 17, AT 12 O'CLOCK, AT THE SOUTH GERMAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH

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DEATH OF REV. CHRISTIAN GERBER.

THE FURTHER DETAILS OF THE DEATH OF REV. CHRISTIAN GERBER ADD BUT LITTLE TO THAT PUBLISHED IN THE BLADE LAST WEEK. REV. GERBER WAS WORKING IN HIS HAY FIELD AND WAS WALKING AND DRIVING THE HEAD TEAM HITCHED TO A HAY LOADER. JOHN HOERR, WHO WAS WORKING WITH THE LOADER WAS FIRST TO NOTICE REV. GERBER'S ABSENCE. THE TEAM WENT BY AND MR. HOERR NOTICED THE LINES WERE DRAGGING. HE LOOKED BACK AND SAW THAT MR. GERBER HAD FALLEN IN THE TRACKS OF THE LOADER. HE HAD EVIDENTIALLY BEEN STRICKEN AND STOOD UP FOR A MOMENT OR TWO BEFORE FALLING. WHEN MR. HOERR AND THE OTHERS REACHED HIS SIDE HE WAS STILL ALIVE AND BREATHING HEAVILY. DEATH OCCURRED IN ABOUT FIVE MINUTES.

OBITUARY

CHRISTIAN GERBER WAS BORN IN WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO, DEC. 12 1848. WHEN A BOY OF 11 YEARS HIS PARENTS MOVED TO IOWA AND THE FAMILY RESIDED THERE FOR FIVE YEARS AND THEN THEY MOVED TO TAZEWELL COUNTY NEAR MORTON ILL. ON JANUARY 20 1870, HE WAS UNITED IN MARRIAGE TO MISS. BARBARA ROTH AND TO THIS UNION SEVEN CHILDREN WERE BORN, THREE DYING WHILE YOUNG DURING AN EPIDEMIC OF SCARLET FEVER. THE CHILDREN LIVING ARE ANNA, LYDIA, KATIE AND CHRISTIAN, ALL AT HOME.

MR. GERBER WITH HIS FAMILY CAME TO LIVINGSTON COUNTY TO LIVE IN 1875, SETTLING ON THE PRESENT HOME FARM, WHERE HE HAS LIVED CONTINUOUSLY SINCE THAT TIME, LOVED AND RESPECTED BY ALL HIS NEIGHBORS AND ALL WHO KNEW HIM.

THERE ARE FEW MEN WHO RISE TO THAT PLACE IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW THEM, THAT MR. GERBER HAD RISEN, AND FEW MEN WHO KNOW TESTED BY THE TRIALS OF LIFE PROVE SO WORTHY. FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS REV. GERBER HAD BEEN AN ELDER OF THE GERMAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH AND HE NOT ONLY STOOD HIGH IN THE COUNCILS OF HIS CHURCH, BUT WAS LOVED AND REVERED FOR HIS RUGGED HONESTY, HIS HIGH MORAL CHARACTER AND THE EARNEST CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES HE SET FORTH IN HIS SERMONS AND IN HIS LIFE. HE TAUGHT HIS PEOPLE TO SHUN THE VANITIES OF THE WORLD AND AS HE TAUGHT SO HE LIVED. HE TRAVELED FROM COAST TO COAST AND CROSSED THE OCEAN TWICE ON MISSIONARY WORK. HE WAS A MAN OF PLEASANT DISPOSITION, AND ONE WHOM IT WAS A PLEASURE TO MEET AT ANY TIME. HE WAS WIDELY KNOWN AMONG HIS CHURCH PEOPLE, MANY OF WHOM HAD BEEN MARRIED BY HIM, AND HE HAD PREACHED AT FUNERALS IN MANY FAMILIES. HE WAS ONE OF THE LEADING MEN IN THE GERMAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH AND FOR YEARS HELD THIS POSITION OF GREAT HONOR. HIS LIFE WAS ONE THAT MIGHT BE EMULATED BY ALL.

THE FUNERAL SERVICES WERE HELD SUNDAY AT NOON AT THE SOUTH CHURCH AND WERE PERHAPS THE MOST LARGELY ATTENDED OF ANY EVER HELD IN THIS SECTION OF THE STATE. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT THERE WERE FULLY 2500 PEOPLE WHO ASSEMBLED TO PAY THEIR LAST RESPECTS TO THE MEMORY OF THE DECEASED. AMONG THE TOWNS AND CITIES REPRESENTED BY VISITING DELEGATES WERE THE FOLLOWING:

MORTON, EUREKA, PRINCEVILLE, ROANOKE, PEORIA, ELGIN, MACKINAW, EUREKA, GRIDLEY, MEADOWS, FORREST, CISSNA PARK, WOLCOTT AND REMINGTON IND., AND OTHER POINTS. A SPECIAL TRAIN WAS RUN FROM BLOOMINGTON TO CROPSEY AND A SPECIAL TRAIN CARRIED THE PEOPLE WEST FROM FAIRBURY IN THE EVENING. REV. ENGWEILER, OF MANSFIELD OHIO, PREACHED THE FUNERAL SERMON, TAKING FOR HIS TEXT THE WORDS, "IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE THERE ARE MANY MANSIONS, IF IT WERE NOT SO I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU." HE PREACHED AN ELOQUENT SERMON, DEALING WITH THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE DECEASED. THE EXPRESSIONS OF SORROW OVER THE DEATH OF THE DECEASED WAS UNIVERSAL AMONG THOSE ASSEMBLED. THERE WERE SAID - TO HAVE BEEN ALMOST 500 CARRIAGES TO CONVEY THE PEOPLE TO THE CEMETERY WHERE THE REMAINS WERE LAID TO REST.

THE BEREAVED WIFE, CHILDREN AND RELATIVES HAVE THE SYMPATHY OF ALL IN THEIR SAD LOSS.

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MRS. BARBARA GERBER

MRS. BARBARA GERBER, FOR MANY YEARS A HIGHLY ESTEEMED RESIDENT OF THIS CITY AND COMMUNITY, PASSED AWAY AT HER HOME ON EAST ELM STREET LAST SATURDAY EVENING AT THE AGE OF 77 YEARS, 8 MONTHS AND 21 DAYS.

BARBARA ROTH, DAUGHTER OF ANDREW AND ANNA ROTH WAS BORN AT WASHINGTON, MAY 2, 1847. SHE GREW TO YOUNG WOMANHOOD THERE, LATER MOVING TO MORTON, WHERE ON MARCH 3, 1872, SHE WAS UNITED IN MARRIAGE TO CHRISTIAN GERBER. MR. AND MRS. GERBER RESIDED AT MORTON FOR TWO YEARS, THAN MOVED TO A FARM NORTH OF CROPSEY, WHERE MRS. GERBER RESIDED UNTIL SIX YEARS AGO, WHEN MRS. GERBER AND DAUGHTERS MOVED TO THIS CITY. IT WAS WHILE RESIDING ON THE FARM NEAR CROPSEY THAT MR. GERBER PASSED AWAY, HIS DEATH OCCURRING FIFTEEN YEARS AGO.

SURVIVING MRS. GERBER ARE THREE DAUGHTERS AND ONE SON - MISSES ANNA AND LYDIA, AT HOME; MRS. PETER SCHAFFER, RESIDING SOUTHEAST OF FAIRBURY; AND CHRIS GERBER, OF CROSPEY. THERE ALSO SURVIVE FOURTEEN GRANDCHILDREN AND THE FOLLOWING BROTHERS AND SISTERS: SAM, JOHN AND MISS KATIE ROTH, ALL OF FAIRBURY.

THE FUNERAL SERVICES WERE HELD ON TUESDAY FROM THE SOUTH CHRISTIAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH, THE MANY PRESENT TELLING BETTER THAN WORDS OF THE HIGH REGARD IN WHICH THE DECEASED WAS HELD. MANY WERE PRESENT FROM A DISTANCE. THE SERVICES WERE IN CHARGE OF REV. MANGOLD, OF ROANOKE, AND INTERMENT WAS IN THE SOUTH CEMETERY.

CHRISTIAN GERBER 1948 - 1910

(WIFE) BARBARA (ROTH) GERBER 1848 - 1926

(SON) DANIEL ROTH 1873 - 1880

(DAUGHTER) ANNA ROTH 1875 - 1952

(SON) JOSEPH GERBER 1877 - 1880

(DAUGHTER) LYDIA GERBER 1879 - 1882

(DAUGHTER) LYDIA GERBER 1882 - 1983

(DAUGHTER) KATHERINE "KATIE" (GERBER) SCHAFFER 1886 - 1978

(SON) CHRISTIAN GERBER 1888 - 1971

(ADOPTED DAUGHTER) MATHILDA "TILLIE" (WANNER) GERBER 1898 - 1970

(ADOPTED DAUGHTER) SARAH (WANNER) BAER ???? - ????

(NOTE:) THE ADOPTED CHILDREN WHERE THE DAUGHTERS OF JOSEPH AND MARGARET (GOSTELLI) WANNER. THE DEATH OF MARGARET, THEIR MOTHER, IN JAN. 1901, CAUSED JOSEPH TO GIVE UP ALL OF HIS TWELVE CHILDREN. THE GERBERS TOOK "TILLIE" AND SARAH, AND RAISED THEM AS THEIR OWN.

THE JOHN GERBER, JR. FAMILY

REV. JOHN GERBER DEAD

NEWS WAS RECEIVED IN THIS CITY ON SATURDAY OF THE DEATH OF REV. JOHN GERBER AT BREMEN, IND., HIS HOME. THE NEWS CAUSED A SHOCK OF SURPRISE AND SORROW AMONG THE MANY OLD FRIENDS OF REV. GERBER IN THIS CITY WHO SUPPOSED HE WAS IN THE BEST OF HEALTH. REV. GERBER WAS IN GOOD HEALTH UNTIL A FEW HOURS BEFORE HIS DEATH, WHICH WAS THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY RHEUMATISM OF THE HEART. JOSEPH UNSICKER, NORTH-EAST OF TOWN, HAD BEEN VISITING REV. GERBER AND OTHER FRIENDS IN THAT LOCALITY AND WAS PRESENT DURING HIS LAST MOMENTS. HE SAID THAT MR. GERBER COMPLAINED OF A PAIN IN HIS LEFT SHOULDER AND BREAST FOR TWO DAYS PREVIOUS, BUT IT WAS LIGHT AND HE DID NOT THINK IT AMOUNTED TO MUCH. A FEW HOURS BEFORE HIS DEATH HE WAS TAKEN VERY SEVERELY AND SANK RAPIDLY UNTIL THE END.

REV. JOHN GERBER WAS WIDELY KNOWN NOT ONLY IN THIS IMMEDIATE LOCALITY BUT IN THIS SECTION OF THE STATE. HE LIVED SOUTHEAST OF FAIRBURY FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS AND WAS HIGHLY ESTEEMED BY HIS NEIGHBORS AND THE CITIZENS OF FAIRBURY. HE WAS A MINISTER OF THE GERMAN APOSTOLIC CHURCH AND TWO YEARS AGO HE PURCHASED A FARM AND MOVED TO BREMEN, IND., WHERE HE FARMED HIS LAND AND ON SUNDAYS PREACHED FOR HIS PEOPLE.

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SUDDEN SUMMONS

REV. JOHN GERBER, WHO MOVED HERE A YEAR OR SO AGO FROM FAIRBURY, ILL., DIED SUDDENLY SATURDAY FORENOON AT HIS HOME SOME FIVE MILES NORTHEAST OF BREMEN OF NEURALGIA OF THE HEART. HE HAD SUFFERED NO SERIOUS ILLNESS AND ONLY THE NIGHT BEFORE WAS AT THE HOME OF HIS DAUGHTER NEAR BY UNTIL 10 O’CLOCK. SATURDAY MORNING HE WAS TAKEN WITH SEVERE PAINS IN THE REGION OF THE HEART AND THEY RESULTED FATALLY IN A FEW HOURS.

MR. GERBER WAS 63 YEARS OLD ON MARCH 6. HE WAS BORN IN OHIO, HIS FATHER DYING WHEN HE WAS FOUR YEARS OLD. HE LIVED FOR A TIME IN IOWA, GOING FROM THERE TO FAIRBURY, ILLINOIS, WHERE HE LIVED FOR 22 YEARS. HE MOVED TO BREMEN, IND., MARCH 1911. HE WAS A MAN OF KINDLY, GENIAL DISPOSITION, HAD BEEN A MINISTER OF THE GERMAN APOSTOLIC FAITH FOR MANY YEARS AND ENJOYED THE RESPECT AND ESTEEM OF ALL WHO KNEW HIM. WAS THE FATHER OF ELEVEN CHILDREN, MRS. EDWARD GETZ, WILLIAM, MRS. EDWARD HIRSTEIN, MRS. WILLIAM LEMAN, MISS. LEAH, SAM, LOUIS, JEPTHA, OF BREMEN; JOHN, OF NEW BOSTON, ILL.; MRS. JOSEPH NUSSBAUM AND JOSEPH, OF FAIRBURY, ILL. THERE WERE ALSO 32 GRANDCHILDREN, AND THESE WITH THE BEREAVED WIFE AND NUMEROUS FRIENDS MOURN HIS DEATH.

FUNERAL SERVICES WERE CONDUCTED TUESDAY AFTERNOON IN GRACE U. B. CHURCH, WHICH WAS SECURED FOR THE OCCASION, FOLLOWED BY INTERMENT IN THE BREMEN CEMETERY.

IT WAS ONE OF THE LARGEST FUNERALS EVER HELD IN BREMEN. MORE THAN 700 PEOPLE CROWDED ONTO GRACE U. B. CHURCH, WHILE MANY WERE UNABLE TO GAIN ADMISSION. REV. MICHEAL MANGOLD, OF ROANOKE, ILL., PREACHED THE SERMON AND HALF A DOZEN OTHER MINISTERS WERE PRESENT. MORE THAN 400 FRIENDS WERE HERE FROM DISTANCE, COMING FROM PEORIA, FAIRBURY, EUREKA, ROANOKE, GRIDLEY, FORREST AND CISSNA PARK, ILL.; CROGHAN, N. Y.; WOLCOTT, REMINGTON AND MILFORD, INDIANA, AND OTHER POINTS. A HIGHER TRIBUTE TO THE WORTH OF A GOOD MAN COULD SCARCELY HAVE BEEN PAID. REV. GERBER WAS ESTEEMED ONE OF THE ABLEST PREACHERS OF HIS FAITH AND WAS AN OBJECT OF REGARD AMOUNTING TO VENERATION. - BREMEN ENQUIRER.

JOHN GERBER, JR. 1849 - 1912

(WIFE) MARY (FALB) GERBER ???? - ????

(DAUGHTER) LIDIA GERBER 1874 - 1943

(SON) WILLIAM GERBER 1875 - 1929

(DAUGHTER) IDA GERBER 1876 - 1957

(SON) JOHN GERBER 1880 - 1951

(DAUGHTER) MARY GERBER 1880 - 1953

(DAUGHTER) SARAH GERBER 1881 -1892

(SON) JOSEPH GERBER 1883 - 1955

(DAUGHTER) ANNE (GERBER) LEMAN 1886 - 1974

(SON) CHRISTIAN GERBER 1889 - 1892

(DAUGHTER) LEAH (GERBER) SOUDER 1890 - 1981

(SON) JOSHUA GERBER 1891 - 1892

(DAUGHTER) RACHAEL GERBER 1893 - 1893

(SON) SAMUEL GERBER 1894 - 1957

(SON) LOUIS GERBER 1895 - 1982

(SON) JEPTHA GERBER 1897 - 1936

ELDER JOSEPH BELLA IS ONE OF THE APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN SOUTH SIDE CHURCH MOST NOTED MINISTERS, EVEN THO HE PROBABLY NEVER PREACHED IN THIS CHURCH. THE CHRIS GERBER FAMILY TOOK IN BELLA IN THE FINAL YEARS OF HIS LIFE. HE WAS AROUND EIGHTY-NINE YEARS OLD AND QUITE FEEBLE DUE TO A STROKE AND COULD NOT EVEN WALK WITHOUT AID, WHEN HE ARRIVED TO THIS AREA. HE WAS BURIED IN THE APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN SOUTH SIDE CEMETERY, IN THE SAME ROW, FIVE STONES AWAY FROM THE LOVING FAMILY THAT TOOK HIM INTO TO THEIR HOME AND HEARTS.

LIVINGSTON CO. CENSUS

1900 BELLE PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP

49/49 CHRISTIAN GERBER, HEAD, (AGE) 52, (BORN) 1847, OHIO, (JOB) FARMER

BARBARA GERBER, WIFE, (AGE) 53, (BORN) 1847, ILL.

ANNIE GERBER, DAUGHTER, (AGE) 24, (BORN) 1875, ILL.

LYDIA GERBER, DAUGHTER, (AGE) 17, (BORN) 1882, ILL.

KATHERINE GERBER, DAUGHTER, (AGE) 14, (BORN) 1886, ILL.

CHRISTIAN GERBER, SON, (AGE) 12, (BORN) 1888, ILL.

ANDREW RAPP, SERVANT, (AGE) 24, (BORN) 1875, GERMANY

* JOSEPH BELLA, BOARDER, (AGE) 88, (BORN) 1812, HUNGARY, (JOB) MINISTER

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HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL NEWSLETTER RESEARCHER