Page 218

CHRISTIAN REICHERT, proprietor of one of the fine farms for which this county is famed, is a native of the German Empire and one of the men in whose coming to this country all who honor honest industry and good citizenship can rejoice. His career has been marked throughout with persistent and faithful efforts to advance his own interests and those for whom he worked, and he has been rewarded by the acquisition of a good property and a high reputation.

The eyes of Mr. Reichert opened to the light of day in Wittenburg, Germany, January 6, 1825. During his boyhood he studied under the laws by which the Fatherland secures to all her sons and daughters some knowledge of the important branches of learning, and being studious and apt he acquired a practical understanding of the subjects taught. He began to till the soil when quite young and has made that his life work. When he was about thirty years of age he determined to seek his fortune in the land across the sea, of whose opportunities he had heard glowing accounts.

Bidding adieu to home and friends, mr. Reichert embarked, and landing at New York came on at once to Macoupin County, this State, where he worked as a farm hand for three years. During this period he carefully looked after his expenditures, hoarding his resources in order to buy land. A tract on section 36, Pawnee Township, this county, was selected as the scene of the future labors of Mr. Reichert and here he still pursues his steady course of industry and well doing. At present his landed estate consists of two hundred and eighty acres on which every needful and convenient structure has been built and every other means taken to make it a home of comfort as well as a place of financial worth.

At Jerseyville, Jersey County, on February 2, 1858, the marriage rites were solemnized between Mr. Reichert and Katharine Maurer, who was born in Wittenburg, Germany, October 31, 1832. Mrs. Reichert was thoroughly acquainted with the housewifely arts in which the women of her race are so generally proficient, and was a woman of affectionate nature and Christian character. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church, in the faith of which she breathed her last January 10, 1878.

The record of the children born of the happy union is as follows: John died October 30, 1881, leaving a widow whose maiden name was Mary Hendricks; Minnie died April 12, 1878, in the spring time of life, when but seventeen years old; Charles W. married Eva Leonard; Lucy M. is the wife of Joseph Clause; Paulina S., Edward H. and Emma C. are yet unmarried and caring for their father's comfort. They are developing the graces of character that made their mother loved and are adding to the worth of the family name.