Henry Bohn, Piatt County

When Mrs. Body wrote this letter in 1892 Henry had only lived with the family for a year or so. Although Henry was taking to farming, in his later life he did not farm. In 1910 Henry was living in Bement, Illinois and working as a "laborer" in the "street." When he registered for the WWI draft he was working as a section hand with the Wabash Railroad in Bement. He continued working for the railroad in the 20s and 30s according to the census reports. When he registered for the WWII draft he was still working for the Wabash Railroad in Bement, at age 64.

Henry married in 1901 to Pearl May Buster and they had five children together. Their two daughters died in infancy, but their sons grew to adulthood. Pearl died in 1915, and Henry was left with three sons to raise. The report of Pearl's funeral says that a woman named Shirley Body helped to provide the music for the funeral, indicating a continuing relationship with Henry's guardian family. Henry married again to Caroline, but she died in 1924. Henry married a third and final time to Viola in 1924. He had no more children with his later wives and continued living in Bement.

Kenneth Bohn, one of Henry's sons died in 1928 at the age of 18 of tuberculosis. For five years he had been living at the boarding home of Rev. Hardesty in Urbana, Illinois, probably for treatment of his tuberculosis.

Henry died in 1960 and is buried in the Bement Cemetery. No obituary could be found for Henry in on line sources. One family tree speculates that Henry and Margaret Bohn of Christie Street in New York City were the parents of Henry, but when he completed his marriage registry, he did not know the name of his mother and gave his father's name as Henry.