Andrew and Henry Petry, Ogle & Kane County

Andrew Petry (1860 - 1944) and Henry (1863 - 1928) were sent West in 1874. Andrew was first assigned to the Briggs family, but by 1880 he was working for the Banning family in Dekalb. He married Lizzie Fogle in 1887, naming Henry Petry and Harriet Dachs as his parents. He had appeared with them and his older brother, Henry in 1870 census in New Jersey.

When the visiting agent came to Ogle County in 1877, it was reported that Andrew had run away from his guardian, an act for which he would have been made to feel ashamed and ungrateful on his return. Life on the prairie without family of friends would have been grueling and in the absence of work, a farmer would not keep a hired man in his home to bed and board. The indenture system protected the children from lean times when an unscrupulous employer would throw out his help and force them to find another place to live and another way to make money to pay their way.

In 1880 Henry's guardian wrote a short report of his progress in La Rose, Illinois.

Henry was forced to go out to work on his own when his guardian sold his farm in 1883 and no longer needed a young man to work his farm. Henry died in Montgomery, Kane County in 1928. He died a single man, and a note on his Find A Grave page notes that he was the son of Henry and Hettie.

By 1900 Andrew owned his own farm near Dement, Ogle County and had two children, Myrtle and Clarence. Lizzie and he had one more child in the teens, Mabel. He continued farming, but before his death retired to Rochelle, Illinois. He died July 7, 1944 at the age of 83. It was reported in his obituary that he had come to Illinois as a young boy from New York.