AARON KOSTENBADER is an industrious farmer in comfortable circumstances, living on section 17, Harlem Township. The Kostenbader ancestry will be found of Teutonic extraction, latterly of Pennsylvania. The parents of Aaron were Henry and Rosamond (Saebard) Kostenbader, natives of Pennsylvania, of German ancestry. They married and first settled in Columbia County, Pa., afterward removing to Union County of that State, which has furnished so many emigrants to Stephenson County. The old people died in Union County, having had fourteen children, three girls and eleven boys.

Aaron Kostenbader was the fourth child of his parents. He was born in Columbia County, Pa., Feb. 22, 1817, and was reared on a farm until twenty-two years old, when he began to work at the carpenter’s trade. He followed carpentering about fourteen years. In 1840 he left Pennsylvania and went to Ohio, remaining there until 1845. In the fall of that year; he came to Stephenson County. He worked a few months at cabinet-making in Freeport, four months at $10 a month, working early and late, and then labored at his trade, wherever he could find employment. In the fall of 1846 he returned to Pennsylvania, and remained there until the spring of 1847, when he came back to Stephenson County. He has lived here since, and followed his trade until, the occupation of a farmer proving more pleasant, he settled on his farm in Harlem Township in the fall of 1852. He has lived the life of a farmer, and has also worked at his trade during a small portion of the time intervening since then. He is the owner of 160 acres of land, over thirty of which is in timber, and has erected good farm buildings.

Mr. Kostenbader was married in Lancaster Township, Stephenson County, Sept. 18, 1848, to Margaret Newcomer, a native of Columbia County, Pa., she having been born there Sept. 21, 1827. She bore him eight children as follows: Samuel, Susanna, Lizzie, Henry, Jacob, Reuben, Daniel and Solomon. Samuel married Mary A. Crow, and resides in Harlem Township; Susanna died in the fall of 1885; Lizzie resides at home; Henry married Miss Emma Bennett, and settled in Harlem Township; Jacob is at home; Reuben died when about two years old; Daniel married Mary E. Bennett, and resides in Buckeye Township; Solomon lives at home.

Mrs. Kostenbader died in Harlem Township in May, 1865. Mr. Kostenbader has held some of the minor offices in the township. He has been School Director for several years, and is a member of the Reformed Church. In politics he is a Republican.

Contributed by Carol Parrish from Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 282