Dale C. Maley: How the Borngasser family got to Fairbury
The circumstances surrounding how various families arrived at Fairbury are often interesting stories. One such story is about how the Borngasser family ended up in Fairbury.
The story of the Borngasser family began with the birth of John T. Borngasser in 1828 in Germany. He was the son of Philipp Borngasser and Anna M. Jung. He emigrated from Germany to LaSalle, Illinois.
Katherine Werling was born in Germany in 1838. She was the daughter of Ferdinand Werling (1811-1872) and Caroline Mowry (1817-1853). The Werling family also emigrated from Germany to the LaSalle area.
In 1855, John T. Borngasser married Katherine Werling in LaSalle. John and Katherine Borngasser had seven children. Their last child was born in 1871 in LaSalle. Two girls, Dora and Catherine Borngasser, died as infants.
John Borngasser was a very successful butcher in LaSalle. He purchased 10 city lots in LaSalle. John also purchased 220 acres of farmland in LaSalle County and 320 acres in Marysville, Kansas.
In 1862, Borngasser employed his wife's brother, Louis Werling, in his shop. He also gave a job to Peter Laubenheimer as a butcher. Louis Werling and Peter Laubenheimer moved to Fairbury and opened a butcher shop three years later.
One son of John and Katherine Borngassers was John T. Borngasser Jr. He was born in 1855 in LaSalle. In 1880, John Borngasser Jr. married Louise Echinfelter. Unfortunately, after just two years of marriage, Louise Borngasser died at the age of 25. John T. Borngasser Jr. decided to move to Marysville, Kansas, to farm his father's 320-acre farm.
In 1883, the Streator Times reported that John Borngasser Sr. had one of the finest coin collections in LaSalle County. In today's dollars, Borngasser paid $84,500 to acquire the coins. Some of the coins were more than 500 years old.
John Borngasser Sr. died in 1884 at the age of 55. He was buried in LaSalle. The probate records reported a complete list of his possessions, but the coin collection was not included. John Borngasser Sr. likely sold his coin collection before he died or gave it to one of his children. Katherine Borngasser passed away in 1917 at the age of 78. She was buried with her husband in LaSalle.
Another son of John and Katherine Borngasser was Louis Borngasser. He was born in 1864 in LaSalle. In 1886, when he was 21 years old, Louis married 22-year-old Adeline Bates.
Adeline Bates had a fascinating family history. Her family came to Fairbury in 1864. Unfortunately, Adeline's 36-year-old mother then died in 1865, leaving 56-year-old John Bates to care for six children between the ages of two and 21. In 1866, 16-year-old Mary Bates married Louis Werling in Fairbury. Adeline and Elizabeth Bates began living with Mary and Louis Werling in Fairbury. In 1872, Elizabeth Bates married Joe Werling, brother of Louis Werling. Adeline's brother, George Bates, also grew up in Fairbury.
After they were married, Louis and Adeline Borngasser moved to Blue Springs, Nebraska. Louis and Adeline Borngasser likely visited his brother, John T. Borngasser Jr., who lived 30 miles south in Marysville, Kansas.
In 1888, the court finally settled the estate of John T. Borngasser Sr. In this legal proceeding John T. Borngasser Jr. reported living in Marysville, Kansas. Louis Borngasser said that he was living in Blue Springs, Nebraska. The rest of the John T. Borngasser Sr. family reported residing in the LaSalle area.
In 1894, John T. Borngasser Jr. announced to a Kansas newspaper that he was selling his Kansas farmland and moving back to LaSalle. John speculated that the recently announced new Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal would create many business opportunities in the LaSalle area.
In 1891, the only child of Louis and Adeline Borngasser was born in Blue Springs, Nebraska. They named their son Lloyd Carl Borngasser.
The year 1900 was a difficult one for the Borngasser families. In June, John T. Borngasser Jr. died in LaSalle at the age of 45. Just one month later, his brother, Louis Borngasser, passed away in Blue Springs, Nebraska, at 36.
The widow of Louis Borngasser, Adeline Borngasser, moved from Blue Springs back to the LaSalle area with 8-year-old son Lloyd Carl Borngasser. She then decided to move herself and her son to Fairbury.
Adeline chose Fairbury for several reasons. One reason was that she had lived in Fairbury as an orphan with her sister and husband years earlier. Two of her sisters had married the Werling brothers, and her brother George also lived in Fairbury.
Lloyd C. Borngasser attended Fairbury schools and then attended Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. At the age of 19, he returned to Fairbury and took a job at the Fairbury Bank. Lloyd also sold life insurance while working at the bank. After his position ended at the bank in 1929, Lloyd continued to sell insurance until 1948.
Lloyd Borngasser married Louise Bussell in 1936 in Peoria. They had one child, Carl Lloyd Borngasser. Mr. Borngasser died in 1961 at the age of 70. Louise Borngasser passed away in 1987 at the age of 84. Lloyd and Louise Borngasser are both buried in Graceland Cemetery.
Carl L. Borngasser grew up in Fairbury on Third Street by the fairgrounds. He attended Brown's Business School in Peoria. While attending this school, Carl met his future wife, Georgann. Carl's first job after marriage was as a teller in the Jefferson Trust and Savings Bank in Peoria.
Carl moved back to Fairbury and eventually became president of the Fairbury Savings & Loan Association. Carl Borngasser eventually retired from the banking business.
One interesting phenomenon in the story of the Borngasser family is coin collecting. John T. Borngasser Sr. (1828-1884) had an extensive coin collection back in 1883. Current Fairbury resident Carl Borngasser is also an avid coin collector. Unfortunately, none of the rare coins in John Borngasser's collection were passed down to his great-grandson, Carl Borngasser.
The Borngasser family arrived in Fairbury because Louis Werling took two sisters of his wife into his home. Years later, when she was a widow with an 8-year-old son, she returned to Fairbury because two sisters and one brother had already made Fairbury their home.
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Dale C. Maley column on Borgasser family of Fairbury
