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Below is a family biography included in The History of Moniteau County, Missouri published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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William Gentzsch, an extensive farmer of Moniteau County, was born in Prussia, Germany, in 1832, and is a son of Michael and Christina (Kourge) Gentzsch, also natives of Prussia. Michael Gentzsch was born in 1808, was well educated in his native country, and when old enough learned the wagon-maker’s trade, which he followed until he came to America. He set sail for America with his family in August, 1852, and after a voyage of seventy-two days landed in New Orleans, from there going by steamboat to St. Louis, Mo. The family lived in St. Louis until March, 1853, when the father purchased a small farm in Linn Township, Moniteau County, where he died in 1854. After his death the mother of our subject, who was born in 1813, married Samuel Berger. She died in 1886, at the age of seventy-two years. Of the seven children born to Michael and Christina Gentzsch two died in Prussia. The others are William, Frank, Herman and Fritz, and Reckie Thiess, who died in this country, leaving five children. Michael Gentzsch was a member of the Lutheran Church, and his wife of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William Gentzsch remained with his parents until his father’s death, when he engaged at wagon-making, having learned the trade in the country of his birth. He was so employed until 1870, since which time he has turned his attention to farming, and has been very successful. In 1855 he traded four wagons for forty acres of timber land in Cooper County, and the following year purchased an adjoining forty acres. He then settled on this place, but remained only one year, when he bought the farm upon which Marion Marshall now lives, and worked the same two years. He afterward purchased a farm of 120 acres south of Jamestown, where he lived until after the war, and to which he added 120 acres more, all of which he sold in 1866, and invested in real estate in Jamestown. One year later he purchased the farm now owned by John Muri, consisting of 160 acres, and owned besides a number of houses and lots in Jamestown, where he built a store and engaged in general merchandising. He traded for the mill at Jamestown, and again traded for property in California, where he remained one year, and in 1874 removed to his present location in Linn Township, where he has since lived, and owns over 500 acres of land on the river bottom, all under cultivation. In 1855 Mr. Gentzsch married Elizabeth Dearing, daughter of William Dearing, and to them have been born seven children, viz.: W. Edward, the eldest son, was drowned in Moniteau Creek at the age of twenty-two; Christenia married John Ingesham, and lives in Kansas. The others are James M., Frank Z., Anthony, Delilah, Charles, Polly, and an infant not named. Mr. and Mrs. Gentzsch are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and are held in high esteem by all who know them. In politics Mr. Gentzsch is a Republican.

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This family biography is one of 187 biographies included in The History of Moniteau County, Missouri published in 1889.  For the complete description, click here: Moniteau County, Missouri History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Moniteau County, Missouri family biographies here: Moniteau County, Missouri Biographies

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