Johann Georg Schwenk

1832-1902 · Lehengericht, Baden, Germany → Schiltach, Baden, Germany → Jordan Township, Whiteside County, Illinois → Hopkins Township, Whiteside County, Illinois → Sterling, Whiteside County, Illinois
Also recorded as John Schwink

Born 1832, Lehengericht, Baden

Died 1902

Children include Catharine

He was born at Lehengericht, a scattered farming commune above Schiltach in the Kinzig valley of the Black Forest, and christened in the town church three days later. He came to America in 1856, at twenty-four, and farmed in Jordan Township in Whiteside County, Illinois, where he naturalised at the county seat in 1875. He married his first cousin, Anna Catharina Kirgus of the same parish, and she died in 1871 leaving him with young children. He married again and had six more. Twice the county court took his name on other men's bonds, once for a widow's minor children and once on an executor's bond of two thousand dollars, which is a thing a court does not do for a man it does not think good for the money. He died at Sterling in October 1902 and was buried in the Reformed Mennonite churchyard there, beside the wife who had died thirty-one years before him. The clerk who wrote him Schwink in 1880 was closer than the family spelling that came after: the parish books at home say Schwenk.

Children

Catharine Barbara Swank (1867-1944)

Sources

Edward Chester Dunbar, died 2 October 1930 at West Point, Hancock, Illinois; born 27 April 1885 at "Spillwell, Ill."; buried 5 October 1930 at Augusta. Parents James Dunbar and Mary L. Printess. Wife Georgia Dunbar.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900. Schwank: 19 marriages statewide, the earliest 1858, and none in Whiteside before SCHWANK, JOHN G to BENNER, SARAH E on 23 February 1882, which is fifteen years after Catharine Barbara was born. Hancock County holds one Dunbar (Bert H. Dunbar to Mary Long, 1898) and one Greer (Clifford L. Greer to Henrietta James, 11 August 1885). No Prentiss marriage to a Dunbar anywhere.

Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County (1885), The Biographical Record of Whiteside County (1900), History of Whiteside County to 1908 (Davis). Neither Schwank nor Bogott appears in any of them.

Catharine Barbara Bogott, died 25 March 1944 at Sterling, Whiteside, Illinois, aged 76 years 11 months 13 days, born 12 April 1867 at Jordan Township, Illinois, of 710 East 13th Street, housewife, buried 28 March 1944 in the MENNONITE cemetery at Sterling. Father: John Schwank, birthplace BODEN, GERMANY. Mother: Catharine Kurgess, birthplace BODEN, GERMANY. Husband Fred Bogott. Boden is Baden, and the parish registers put the family at Schiltach and Lehengericht in the Kinzig valley of the Black Forest.

Adam Schwank, born 1891 at Sterling, Illinois, married Matie Benters Doden at Davenport, Scott County, Iowa, 26 September 1921. Parents given as John Schwank and Christina Weis. Adam Oscar Schwank was born 27 February 1891, twenty years after the first wife died, and is the Adam O. Schwank listed in the newspaper notice among the children of Mrs Christena Schwank alongside Mrs Catherine Bogott.

Deutschland, ausgewaehlte evangelische Kirchenbuecher 1500-1971, and Germany, Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898, for the parish of Schiltach in the Kreis Wolfach, Baden. Johannes Schwenck married Anna Catharina Schwab there on 10 May 1757. Their son Johann Martin was born 13 August 1761 and christened on the fifteenth, married Anna Elisabeta Becht in the same church on 16 June 1802, and was buried there on 14 October 1820. Seven children of that marriage are entered between 1803 and 1815, among them Philipp Jacob, born 30 April 1809 and christened on 1 May. His son Johann Georg was born at Lehengericht on 3 May 1832 and christened at Schiltach on the sixth. The clerks wrote the name Schwenck, Schwenk, Schenk, Schweick, Schweck, Schwenn, Schwent and Schrenk, sometimes twice differently for one man.

If Johann Georg Schwenk is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Johann Georg Schwenk (1832-1902)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/john-schwink-1832-1902-e78c7a.