HENRY BERENTZ                       GRAVESTONE PHOTO                      

South Kansas Tribune, Wednesday, June 13, 1906:

            Henry Berentz was born at Harrisburg, Pa., April 3, 1832 and died at his home, southwest of Cherryvale, June 8, 1906, after a lingering illness of several years.  He was married to Catherine Jane Doop, December 3, 1857.  To this union six children were born, three sons and three daughters.  In 1862 Mr. Berentz enlisted in Company F, 35th Illinois infantry and was wounded at the battle of Missionary Ridge and after a few months in the hospital was placed on guard duty at Rock Island, until his muster out.  After the war he resided in Illinois until his settlement in this county in 1869 being one of the oldest settlers in the county.  He has been a member of the M. E. Church since 1872 and has always lived a Christian life, been a devoted husband and a kind and loving father.

From History of Montgomery County, Kansas, By Its Own People, published by L. Wallace Duncan, Iola, Kansas, 1903, pgs. 785-786:

 HENRY BERENTZ --  Looking back to the days immediately succeeding the Civil War, there now seems almost a divine prescience in the great Jefferson’s purchase of this western country in 1803.  For, after that sublime struggle in the cause of human liberty, the boundless prairies were ours to be thrown open to the gallant boys who had so gloriously participated in its splendid achievements.  One of those gallant boys was the subject of this sketch, Henry Berentz, who settled in Drum Creek township in 1869, and who has been an active participant in the marvelous growth which has come to the county since that date.

            The Berentz family is of pure German extraction.  Grandfather Berentz was the progenitor of the family in this country, he having been a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, prior to the Revolutionary struggle, in which he took a patriot’s part.  He, later, settled near Harriaburg, Pa., where he reared his family and passed away.  The father of our subject, Christian Berentz, was there married to Henrietta Oaks and, later, moved to Ohio, where he was engaged until his death, in the ministry of the German Reform church.  Ten children were born to these parents, as follows:  Caroline, who married Fred Oxenbeine, a farmer living near Nashville, Tenn.; Henry, Christian W., Mary Ann, who married Henry Windell, deceased, an Illinois farmer; Jerry, a Civil War veteran, of Labette county; Dwight, a veteran, living in Ohio; Michael, of Liberty township; Mahala, of Illinois; Susan, of Ohio; Martin, a veteran, living in Oswego, Kansas.

            Henry Berentz was born in the city of Harriaburg in 1833, and in early boyhood was taken to Ohio, where he received a fair education.  Prior to the war, he went out to Illinois and was located at Danville, when he answered the call to arms in 1862.  Enlisting as a private in Company “F”, 35th Ill. Vol. Inft., he was sent to the front and became a part of the Army of the Cumberland.  He helped whip Bragg at Stone River, then chased him to Chickamauga, and was present at that bloody defeat of the Union army.  But this was compensated for at the glorious battle of Missionary Ridge, which proved a fitting close for our subject’s military career, for, here, he was wounded on the 25th of Nov., and, after five months in the hospital, at Quincy, Ill., he was placed on guard duty at Rock Island until his muster out in August.

            Returning from the field, Mr. Berentz farmed in Illinois until the date of his settlement in Montgomery.  Marriage was an event of 1857 with our subject, his wife having been Catherine Jane Doop, a native of Ohio.  Mrs. Berentz is the daughter of Joseph and Catherine J. (Winland) Doop, early settlers of Monroe county, Ohio, where the mother still resides at the advanced age of eighty-nine years.  She is the mother of nine children.  Eight are living, as follows:  Mary Ann, widow of Hiram Gibson, of Drum Creek township; David, a Civil War veteran, of Cherryvale; Mrs. Berentz, Calvin, a veteran of Caney, Ia.; John, a veteran, deceased; Simon, a veteran, of Iowa; Philip, a veteran of Oklahoma; Joseph, of Beaumont, Texas; Lucretia, who married Wm. Goodner and lives in Drum Creek township.

            To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Berentz six children were born, viz:  Elizabeth Ann, born July 18, 1859, now the wife of Clate Cole, farmer of Cherry township; her children are: Bart, Henry, John and Obediah;  George, born October 8, 1861, married Florence Norris, and lives in Liberty township, one child, Lloyd; Henry, born April 21, 1863; Emma, Born April 17, 1868, married Willis Kidd; her children – Guy, Marble, Luella, and Hazel;  Abraham E., born Mary 26, 1872, married Elsie Van Dyne, her children -–Katie and Roy; Effie, born June 15, 1878, is the wife of Harry Thomas, now deceased; one child – Harry B.

            The shades of evening are closing peacefully about the career of this respected citizen who can look back upon duty well and faithfully performed.  Secure in the love of his comrades of the G. A. R. and his children, and in the respect and esteem of his hosts of friends, he and his good wife are enjoying the rest they so much deserve.

Contributed by Mrs. Maryann Johnson a Civil war researcher and a volunteer in the Kansas Room of the Independence Public Library, Independence, Kansas.