Biographies

HENRY MOHR, one of the leading and representative farmers of Lomax Township, now living on section 32, has been a resident of Henderson County during the greater part of the time since 1849, and is therefore numbered among its pioneer settlers. He claims Germany as his native land, for he was there born December 2, 1837.

He is one of three children whose parents, Conrad and Elizabeth (Weggs) Mohr, were also natives of Germany. His brother and sister bore the names of John and Elizabeth respectively. In 1846 the family crossed the Atlantic to America in a sailing-vessel, which was upon the ocean for six weeks, and then reached the harbor of Baltimore. Coming West, they located in Nauvoo, where they made their home until 1849, when they came to Henderson County.

Henry Mohr was a lad of nine years at the time of the emigration. He grew to manhood in Illinois, and received a limited education in the public schools. His training at farm labor, however, was not meagre, for at an early age he began work on the old homestead, and was thus employed until 1864, when he made a trip to the West with horse-teams, spending about eighteen months in California and Nevada.

In the autumn of 1865, he returned to Illinois and has since made it his home.

On the 6th of June, 1866, Mr. Mohr was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Wamsauser, and to them have been born eight children: Lewis, John, Emma, Edward, Willie, Caroline, Clara, and Louisa, who died at the age of two years.

Mr. Mohr has always been a stanch supporter of the Republican party and its principles, and is a member of the German Lutheran Church. He has served as School Director for nine years, and takes an active and commendable interest in all worthy public enterprises which are calculated to benefit the community.

He has a pleasant home on section 32, Lomax Township, whither he removed in 1871, having since made his home thereon. He has two hundred and twenty acres of valuable land, which is now under a high state of cultivation. He has made all the improvements upon the place himself, and therefore they stand as monuments to his thrift and enterprise. In all its appointments the place is complete, and the owner is now successfully engaged in general farming and stock-raising. He started out in life a poor boy, but has steadily worked his way upward, and has now become one of the thrifty and substantial citizens of the communitv.

From the Portrait and biographical record of Hancock, McDonough and Henderson counties, Illinois : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county (1894)
May, 1894. Lake City Publishing Co.