John Hartlauer, Effingham County

Mary Greenawalt was

widowed in 1879, with five children, ages 14 to 1. Her youngest son died in 1881 at the age of 3. Three years later Mrs. Greenawalt would take a seven year old boy into her home -- this would work out well for her, because a few years later her oldest son would marry and leave home. Left with just three daughters, Mrs. Greenawalt desperately needed a "man" around the house. Tasked with the heavy duty of caring for a farm on his own, John Hartlauer must have been a brave young man, or at least desperate for a home. Was he paid a wage during this time? He had not been indentured to run a farm singlehandedly, but to LEARN the trade of farming from an experienced farmer. However, the only "man" on the property when John arrived was nineteen year old Emery Greenawalt, hardly an experienced farmer who could teach him and be a father to him.

In 1910 John Hartlauer was married and had a 7 year old son, Jesse. He was living in Mt. Pulaski in Logan County with his wife Mary (Melson) and working as an odd job man there. They had a boarder, who was also working odd jobs. Unfortunately, his "training" as a farmer did not prepare him for further work in farming, or allow him to save enough money to set up farming himself. In 1910 the Decatur Herald reported that the Hartlauers were moving to St. Louis, where John had work as a freight hustler at the Union Station. In 1920 the family was living in Granite City, Madison County, where John was a laborer in a flour mill.

In 1930, John and Mary lived on their own farm in Effingham County, finally realizing what was probably a long time goal for them. In 1937, Mary Melson Hartlauer's father died in Effingham County, leaving the bulk of his estate to Mary. The real estate had not yet been appraised, but the personal property was valued at $7,400. The Melson and Hartlauer farms were close enough geographically that they were listed next to each other on the 1930 census -- no plats from that time could be located on line.

Although John had apparently little education, John's son, Jesse, achieved a high school education and even attended college for at least one year at Washington University in St. Louis. He was a successful insurance man in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Jesse died after being struck by an automobile in 1947. He did have a family of four sons, three of whom lived after his death.

John Hartlauer died in 1953 in Effingham County. No obituary could be found for John that would tell the circumstances of his death or his history in Illinois.