Conrad D. Cramer, 124 North Cherry Avenue, former circuit clerk, will celebrate his 89th birthday anniversary on Saturday, May 6. The observance will be a quiet affair at his home. Despite his advanced years Mr. Cramer is still robust and active and is seen about the city every day. He is a representative of the Crum & Forster organization and has been engaged in the insurance business for about 40 years.

Mr. Cramer was born May 6, 1850 at Ihrhove am Leer, Ostfriesland, Germany, and when he was 22 years of age became a sailor and member of the crew of a passenger boat on the Atlantic. After one of his voyages to the United States he remained in New York, later coming to Illinois. He worked on a farm near Freeport for a period of two years, later going to Pecatonica where he worked as a clerk in a grocery store. Subsequently he came to Freeport and entered business in a firm known as Cramer & Pommer General Store, on West Main Street. In 1916 he was elected circuit clerk in which capacity he served for two four-year terms, until 1924.

He again followed insurance work which he first entered with the old German-American company while he was in the grocery business. He is still active and calls on policy holders about the city.

Transcriber’s Note: According to the Illinois Statewide Death Index, 1916-1950, Conrad D. Cramer died June 22, 1941 in Freeport. Minnie Wiening was his first wife and the mother of his children. They married October 31, 1876 in Stephenson County; she was 43 on the 1900 US Federal Census for Freeport, and born in Germany. Their children were Dado C. Cramer, Conrad A. Cramer, Charles Cramer, John Cramer, and Dorothy Cramer. Minnie was still alive when the census was taken in April 1910, but she apparently died between then and 1912 because Conrad married his second wife, Mary Charlotte (Mensenkamp) Van Horn, on November 14, 1912 in Stephenson County. She was the daughter of Heinrich Hermann and Christina (Schwarze) Mensenkamp. Her prior husband was Richard W. Van Horn. After Conrad D. Cramer died, Mary moved to Logansport, Indiana to live with her son, Wilbur Van Horn, and died there March 22, 1942.

Transcribed by Alice Horner from the May 4, 1939 edition of the Freeport Journal Standard