Herman Gerken | Louis Gerken

Herman Gerken was born on May 1, 1859, at New Vienna, Iowa. He was the sixth of eight children born to Herman and Mary Catherine (Schulte) Gerken; his brothers and sisters were Mary, Margaret, William, Henry, Caroline, Sophia, and Louis.

Herman Gerken died a young boy at the age of seven on June 5, 1866, at New Vienna, Iowa.

Louis Gerken

Louis Gerken, also known as Aloysius or Alois, was born at New Vienna, Iowa, on November 20, 1862. He was the last of eight children born to Herman and Mary Catherine (Schulte) Gerken; his older brothers and sisters were Mary, Margaret, William, Henry, Caroline, Herman, Sophia, and Louis. When Louis was five, his family moved from their farm near New Vienna, Iowa, to their new farm east of Dyersville, Iowa.

His mother died when Louis was just six years old, and his father passed away when Louis was twelve. In his will his father bequeathed Louis fifteen hundred dollars and forty acres of land. The money was to be paid upon Louis's age of maturity, unless he should want to learn a trade, in which case five hundred dollars was to be paid him before his maturity. His older brother William took over the Gerken homestead, and Louis remained on the farm with William and his family.

Louis was a farmer near Dyersville, Iowa. He also lived in Texas for about eight years. For the last six years of his life, he was a resident at St. Francis Home in Dubuque.

On Tuesday, July 24, 1951, at 5:20 P.M., Louis Gerken died at St. Francis Home after a four-day illness, of arteriosclerosis (general and cerebral), at the age of eighty-eight years. Services were held on July 28, 1951, at the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier in Dyersville, and Louis was buried at the church cemetery next to his brother William Gerken.

He was the last of the Herman Gerken family to die, one hundred years after Herman Gerken first set foot on American soil.

Sources include Louis Gerken's obituary from the Dyersville Commercial, Herman Gerken's will, and an early church book of New Vienna's St. Boniface Catholic Church that a priest kindly allowed me to peruse several years ago. The image of Louis Gerken was furnished by Giles Gerken.

© 2000, 2002-03 Tom Larson P.O. Box 141 Peosta, IA 52068-0141 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tdlarson/gerken/hermanlouis/index.htm Last revised May 31, 2003.