Last month when we stoped in Peoria we went to Springdale Cemetery. We wanted to see what Wenke family members we could find and knew most of them were buried there. When we got to Uncle John Wenke’s headstone I started looking around. His parents George D Wenke and Marie Beutel Wenke, are buried between he and his brother Otto.
Behind them is John Wagner (half-brother of Marie Beutel Wenke), his father, Carl Wagner, and then his mother, Elizabeth Beutel Wagner. Elizabeth Beutel Wagner is also mother to siblings from her union to Adam Beutel, Marie Beutel Wenke, Annie Beutel Oesterle, and William Beutel.
Behind this row, I found John and Otto Wenke’s sisters, Aunt Rena Wenke Armfield and her husband, Roy Armfield, along with our Pop, Frank Burd, and Mom, Anna Wenke Burd. This is as far as I usually go, as I usually stand there and talk to Frank and Anna. For some reason I kept on walking behind Roy and to my surprise found another row of our family. This row had Annie B Eichhorn, her sister Lizzie Eichhorn, father Phillipp Eichhron, their mother Anna M Eichhorn, I think she went by Mary. And the lone ranger on the end was brother John P Eichhorn. I stopped there at John. and was just gobsmacked. I had not realized that they had all been buried in the same area. 17 family members all buried together.
Springdale Cemetery has a really neat tool where you can go on and find a grave. This is pretty accurate, except next to Roy Armfield is Rena and Philipp Eichhorn is between Lizzie and Anna Eichhron. I have discovered that Anna Beutel Oesterle is also buried at Springdale with her husband Jacob, just not in this section
Once I got home and was looking at my blog schedule I realized that I had scheduled this photo for posting and was so happy. Now we get to talk about the Eichhorns and how we are related to them!
This is John Phillip Eichhorn. And I guess, by what was written on this photo, he also went by the name “Jack”. Jacks mother, Anna M. was sister to our Adam Beutel. I can find Anna M. in Census’ as ‘Mary”. Many times, people would not give their given names to the census takers. I can also find in her death records, it’s recorded as Anna M. Eichhorn. I am having a hard time finding Anna M’s or Adam’s arrival in the United States or in Philadelphia.
Anna M “Mary”, was married to a man named Phillip Eichhorn. I found a military record for him for the Civil War. I might be able to find out a maiden name from his pension paperwork, so I have will just have to locate it. Phillip and Mary had three children, Elizabeth, John and Annie. That made Adam their uncle and Elizabeth their aunt. Why they referred to them as “Aunt” and “Uncle” I can only assume was honorary and out of respect as they would have been more like cousins to our Anna, Rena, John and Otto.
I just love this photograph. Taken at the Sunbeam Gallery owned by Max Erler, located at 1216 S Adams Street in Peoria, Illinois we have our subject John “Jack” Phillip Eichhorn. It’s like he just walked into the studio laid his jacket and hat on the chair and said I’m ready for my photo. I would anticipate that this was taken in the late 1870’s to early 1880’s. His Jacket was done in the style of the day with only the top button closed. I like how this makes it so that you can see his watch fob hanging from his waistcoat. And the stick pin in his tie makes him look very dapper.
John P Eichhorn was born to Anna M and Phillipp Eichhorn in 1859. He was the second child born to them and the only son. Elizabeth was born in 1857 and Annie was born in 1864. In the 1900 census John’s occupation is that of blacksmith. That’s the last records I can find about him until his death record on September 12, 1909.
They, like all the Wenke, Bourscheidts, Jordens, and Holtmans, seem to be an extremely close family. I hope that we too can strive to be as close and as united a family as the Eichhorns, Beutels and Wenkes. They are definelty #FAMILYGOALS
