Pastorates of German Congregational Churches in Illinois to 1938

The following list of churches, with dates of organizations, names of pastors, and years of service, is as complete as the records will allow. While entire accuracy is not claimed for all the dates, still it is believed that they may be received as tolerably reliable. Where materials at hand were deficient, further information was secured by correspondence, wherever possible, with the pastors and congregations concerned.

Illinois in the Mexican War

A database of almost 5,600 Illinois men who enlisted as volunteers for the Mexican War (1846-1848). The place of enlistment is listed by city, not county. The troops would organize and then travel to a designated city to be enlisted.

Lincoln’s Daughters of Mercy

During the Civil War the number of men lost by disease was appalling, but it would have been even larger had it not been for the women whose work is described in Lincoln’s Daughters of Mercy by Marjorie Barstow Greenbie. These were the women who, first organizing spontaneously in Ladies’ Aid Societies, later bore the brunt of the work of the United States Sanitary Commission after that organization was founded in the summer of 1861.

Richard Yates, Jr.

Governor of Illinois, 1901-1905 William A. Northcott, Lieutenant Governor Richard Yates was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, December 12, 1860, the son of Richard and Catherine Geers Yates. Richard Yates, the elder, was elected Governor in November, 1860, and his son...

John Riley Tanner

Governor of Illinois, 1897-1901 William A. Northcott, Lieutenant Governor John Riley Tanner was born in Warrick County, Indiana, April 4, 1844, and was brought to Southern Illinois in boyhood where he grew up on a farm in the vicinity of Carbondale, enjoying only such...

Joseph Wilson Fifer

Governor of Illinois, 1889-1893. Lyman B. Ray, Lieutenant Governor. Joseph W. Fifer was born at Staunton, Virginia, October 28, 1840; in 1857 he accompanied his father to McLean County, Illinois, and worked at the manufacture and laying of brick. At the outbreak of...

Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne

Governor of Illinois, 1913-1917 Barratt O’Hara, Lieutenant Governor. Edward F. Dunne was born at Waterville, Connecticut, October 12, 1853. He was one year old when his parents removed to Peoria, Illinois, where his father attained political and business prominence....

Charles Samuel Deneen

Governor of Illinois, 1905-1913. Lawrence Y. Sherman, Lieutenant Governor. John G. Oglesby, Lieutenant Governor.  Charles S. Deneen was born in Edwardsville, Illinois, May 4, 1863. He is a representative of one of the oldest families of Illinois. Governor Deneen...

John Peter Altgeld

John Peter Altgeld Governor of Illinois, 1893-1897. Joseph B. Gill, Lieutenant Governor. John Peter Altgeld was born in Felters, near Cologne, Germany, December 30, 1847, and in boyhood accompanied his parents to America, the family settling in Ohio. At the age of 16...