Father Clement Kalvelage, having a charge of St. Joseph's Church at Freeport, is a citizen held in warm regard by his parishioners and the public at large. He is a native of the German Empire, and was born in the little city of Lohne, on the 23d of November, 1845. His parents, Herman and Mary (Dieckmann) Kalvelage, were also of German birth and descent. The father died in his native land in 1858. The balance of the family emigrated to America in the fall of 1858, landing in New York, and settled in Chicago. Our subject was a lad of thirteen years when he came with his mother's family to this country. The following year he went to Milwaukee, Wis., and there he entered St. Francis' Seminary, and pursued a rigorous course of study for five years, and subsequently completed his education in St. Mary's Seminary at Chicago, which he attended four years. On returning to Milwaukee he was required to study five months more in the school where he had been a pupil, and was then ordained Priest, Jan. 29, 1869. In February following he was sent to Ottawa, Ill., where he took charge of the German Catholic parish, and remained there five years. In March, 1874, he was appointed to his present charge, which under his supervision has greatly increased in importance and in membership, the congregation now numbering 250 families. The school connected with it is conducted by the Sisters of St. Francis, and accommodates about 200 pupils.

Contributed by Carol Parrish from Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 646