JOHN GUMBEL
Page 690
JOHN GUMBEL
Page 690
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JOHN GUMBEL, a successful agriculturist of Mason County, residing on section 16, Manito Township, is the son of Carl and Sabina (Ritter) Gumbel, natives of Hesse-Cassel, Germany. The father who was born in 1808, came to America in July of 1849, and proceeding direct to Illinois, settled in Forest City Township, Mason County. There he continued to reside until his death in 1884. His wife passed away in 1844, prior to his emigration to the New World. In Hesse-Cassel the subject of this sketch was born April 15, 1836, and there he spent the first thirteen years of his life, receiving an excellent education in the German schools. For a short time after coming to this county he was as student in the subscription schools of the locality, but was early obliged to become self supporting, and his educational privileges were few. He was hired out to work upon a farm for $6 per month, the wages to go to his father until he was twenty-one. He then began to work for himself, and engaged in driving an ox-team, breaking prairie, and doing other work necessary to the improvement of the land. On establishing domestic ties, Mr. Gumbel was united in marriage, in September, 1859, with Miss Leah Zaneis, who was born in Somerset County, Pa., April 7, 1839. His father, Nicholas Zaneis, a native of Alsace, emigrated to America in 1840, and settled in Pennsylvania, whence he came to Illinois in 1854, locating near Washington in Tazewell County. There he died in 1885. His widow still survives, and is now (1894) eighty-five years of age. They had four children, Nicholas, Jacob, Mrs. Susannah Wagh, and Mrs. Leah Gumbel. After his marriage Mr. Gumbel lived on a rented farm in Tazewell County for two years, after which he operated as a renter in another part of the same county for one year. After one year in Iroquois County, and four years in Woodford County, he came to Mason County, and for three years rented the J. A. Barnes place. In 1868 he purchased his present farm, upon which a few acres had been put under the plow and a shanty had been built. The other improvements have been placed there as the result of his own efforts, and he now has one hundred acres of valuable land. Recently he remodeled the residence at a cost of $1,200. He has a good barn that cost $600 and has set out an orchard of several acres. From the date of coming hither, this farm has been his home continuously, with the exception of four years, 1881-85, when he resided in Spring Lake, Tazewell County, for the purpose of giving his children the advantages of the excellent schools of that place. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Gumbel has resulted in the birth of six children. The eldest, Samuel A., has three children, one by his first union and two by his second wife, who was in maidenhood Sarah Wamser; Henry C. married Amelia Woerner, and they have two children; Susan E. is the wife of Solomon Stansbury, and they two children; Louisa M. is with her parents; Ella S., the wife of Harry Neikirk, has two children; Emma M. married John Folkman, and they have one child. The children are all well educated and they have a special talent for music, in which the father is also naturally gifted. He takes an active interest in politics, and supports the principles of the Republican party. For some time he was a member of the Board of School Directors of District No. 8. The family is connected with the United Evangelical Church, to the support of which they contribute liberally, and the good works of which they aid with enthusiam and earnestness. |