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- http://genealogytrails.com/ill/carroll/carrollfamilygeisz.html
THE GEISZ FAMILY
Contributed by Alice Ehmen
The Geisz family came to Fairhaven Township in 1854. They came from Hesse-Darmstadt in Germany . Ermenrod is the village in Hesse-Darmstadt where Johann Conrad was born in 1789 and lived before coming to Carroll County . No emigration index shows the Geisz?s on passenger lists from the major ports in Germany . It may be that the family immigrated under an assumed name. The Geisz family were educated, as evidenced by Johann Conrad listed as a school teacher. There was a series of revolutions in Germany in 1848 and many people who were educated became involved on the democratic side. Many people fled to avoid being arrested. This might have been the case for the Geisz?s as they seemed to scrupulously avoid mention in county histories even though they lived on the same land from 1855. There is a listing in the 1878 directory.
The family built a house on farm land about 3 miles west of Chadwick and a half mile west of the Black Oak Road on the Chadwick-Argo Fay Road . Those coming to Fairhaven Township were Johan Conrad (1789-1875) his sons: Conrad Geisz(1812-1873) and wife Catherina Jager (1814-88), their daughter, Anna (1837-); Heinrich Geisz (1815-1875) and his wife Elizabeth Semmler (1810-1892) and their daughter Anna (1837-1918) and son Henry (1841-1914). The Conrad Geisz family?s descendents became the Sauer and Richter families of Carroll County .
The following are the descendents of the Heinrich Geisz family. They continued to live on the farm west of Chadwick. It became a Centennial Farm owned by Conrad (1789-1875), Heinrich Geisz (1815-1875), Henry Geisz (1841-1914, Charles Geisz Sr. (1868-1945), Charles Geisz Jr. (1918) and Richard and June (Geisz) Houzenga until 1997.
The children of Heinrich and Elizabeth were Anna who married Jacob Glascock He ran a mill at Malvern , IL and they later moved to Iowa having a family of 9 children. Heinrich and Elizabeth?s other child was Henry who married Catherine Hartman. They had seven children; Charles whose family we will follow later. Henry and Clara did not marry. Anna who married John Tripp and started that Carroll County family; Conrad who married Emma Dahler and they farmed across the road from the original Geisz homestead; (a descendent of this family is Kenneth Geisz and his family of Lanark). Mary who married Conrad Miller from which the Miller family descended, who have and still live in Chadwick; and finally John who married Barbara Howe (John was a mail carrier in Chadwick for many years). Their sons were both school teachers but left Carroll County .
The Charles Geisz Sr?s lived on the Geisz farm from the early 1900 until 1947. Their children were Lila who married Benton Dyson, William who married Erma Heinze, Clara who did not marry but taught school for 35 years and lived in Chadwick, Mildred who married Carl Gengenbach and Charles who married Grace Hoffman.
Lila?s family who lived in Carroll County were David (worked in law enforcement for many years) and Martha Biasi who now lives in Savanna. William Geisz and family lived in the Mt. Carroll area where he was County Superintendent of Highways. His daughter Joyce Dunn lives in Mt. Carroll , her sons Doug and Billy also live in Carroll County . Mildred and Carl Gengenbach farmed west of Mt. Carroll and their son George still farms there and there son William was a teacher and principal in Thomson for many years and now works for the Carroll County Review, Bill?s sons, Scott, Mark and Todd live in Carroll County . Charles Jr. farmed the family farm until 1978. Charles? daughter June and husband Richard Houzenga bought the farm in 1978 and sold the Geisz farm in 1997 but continued farming the land until 2004. They continue living and farming in the Ideal area. Their daughter Heidi Fehlhafer and family live in Mt. Carroll.
The Geisz?s belonged to the Black Oak Lutheran church until 1880 when they were among the founders of Trinity Lutheran Church in Salem Township . The word was that the two churches split over a disagreement on a hymnal. Heinrich who had died in 1875 was buried in the Black Oak Cemetery but when his wife Elizabeth died in 1892 she could not be buried with him. Evidently bitterness still existed. The Geisz family has continued to belong at Trinity Lutheran and to this day has members there. The Charles Geisz Sr. family consisted of 14 grandchildren who all grew up attending Trinity. They still meet for a family reunion each year in July.
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1788 - 1875 (87 years)
d. 13 Mar 1875 (Age 60 years)