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D. G. KALB, the subject of the following memoir, was born on the morning of the 4th day of December, 1815; in the city of Frederick, Frederick county, Maryland. His father, Absalom Kalb, born March 23, 1787, was a native of the same county; yet, being born in a house through which the State line of Pennsylvania and Maryland passed, there were but about ten feet of the latter that claim him as a native of the State. Absalom's father, John Kalb, was born November 12, 1761, in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, in what is now the county of Berks, at or near a place then called Bottsgrove, not farm from what is now Reading, on the Schuylkill river. Here his father, also named John Kalb, settled at an early day, before the Revolutionary war, having emigrated from his native country, that of Polish Germany, where he imbibed the theory and spirit of freedom from political oppression, and left it to join the struggles then engaged in by the British colonies of North America. John Kalb, Sr., was born in the year 1733, and hence was in the prime of young manhood, when the struggle in the colonies commenced, and found him in their midst, imbued with the same spirit of freedom, where he was rearing a family of four sons, and two daughters of like minds and spirits; and, whether the elder Kalb enlisted personally in the battles of the Revolution or not, it is certain that others of his household did, as numerous anecdotes of them go to show. And, no doubt, he had something in inducing his cousin, the Baron DeKalb, to cast in his fortunes with the people who, like their noble countrymen, the Polish Germans, were oppressed by stronger powers, and offer his gratuitous services, in company with that distinguished soldier and patriot, La Fayette, in freeing the oppressed Americans. Perhaps the readers of this sketch will allow a digression, in order to connect the history of Sangamon county with so brave and philanthropic a man as the Baron DeKalb, from whose ancestors came at least six of his name, who went out from Sangamon county as soldiers in the late war, where they joined a score or more of others of the same name and lineage, from this and other States of our Union, to fight and die, if need be, to maintain what their ancestors procured by treasure and blood, in company with the brave Baron DeKalb, during the struggle for American freedom; but we shall be brief on this point. He died from the effects of numerous wounds at Camden, South Carolina, August 19, 1780; and when the British officer came to condole with him, as he lay prostrate, DeKalb extended to him his hand, saying, "I thank you for your generous sympathy, but I die the death I always prayed for - the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man."
Many years after his death, General Washington, when at Camden, inquired for his grave; and after gazing upon it for some time, he breathed a sigh, and exclaimed: "So, there lies the brave DeKalb, the generous stranger who came from a distant land to fight our battles, and to water with his blood the tree of liberty. Would to God he had lived to share its fruits."
We find that there went out from the county of Sangamon, no less than a half dozen men of the name of Kalb, as true Union soldiers, in the late war of the Rebellion, all of whom came in the same direct line of ancestry, whose blood flowed in the veins of the brave Kalb of Revolutionary fame. The names of the six alluded to are: D. G. Kalb, the special subject of this sketch, and his two sons, already mentioned, also three of his nephews - John William, son of his brother Ezekiel L., and James William, son of another brother, A. H., both in the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois Infantry, and William A., son of Jesse D., in the One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment. James William and William A., were killed in battle.
The great grandfather of D. G. Kalb, moved from Maryland to the wilds of Ohio in 1805, with his youngest son, George, from whom a numerous progeny have come, and many of whom are yet residing in Ohio, and in the late war there were quite a number of Chaplains and soldiers of that name from that State.
In the autumn of 1849, the subject of this sketch came to Sangamon county in company with his father and mother and several brothers. The father, Absalom Kalb, was favorably known in the county and city of Springfield, for the time of over sixteen years, to the day of his death, January 7, 1865, for his zealous adherence to the cause of the Union, as also for his fervency in the church of his early choice. The M. E. Church always found in him a true friend and liberal supporter, for more than sixty years. After his death his widow, Mrs. Susannah (Larkin) Kalb, made her home with the youngest living son, Dr. A. J. Kalb, in the city of Quincy, Illinois, and died there, April 15, 1873.
D. G. Kalb was engaged in teaching about seventeen years of his life, from September 22, 1837, till 1854, and for about as long a time, from 1847 to 1864, he was a local preacher in the M. E. Church, of which he has been a member nearly fifty five years. He enlisted as a soldier in the war of the late Rebellion, in Company G, One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois Infantry Regiment and served to the close of the war, a term of three years.
Mr. K. was married in 1841, to the widow of George W. Shutt, who, after the death of Mr. Shutt, came to Sangamon county in 1836, residing in Springfield till 1841, and thus became an old settler of the county, and on her return to Virginia, on a transient visit, she was married a second time, thus connecting her husband, D. G. K., with the Old Settlers' history, till, by a residence of thirty two years, now he is a bona fide old settler. Mrs. D. G. Kalb died at their residence at Willow Dale Farm, on Round Prairie, Rochester township, February 3, 1881. She had one child by the first marriage who is now the wife of Philip Shutt, till lately, the publisher and editor of the Edgar county times, in the town of Paris. By his marriage with the widow, Mrs. Eliza S. (Bennett) Shutt, Mr. K. had three sons, Ethelbert, William Edward B., and George B., and two daughters, Mary Abner, and Julia Maria. The son, Ethelbert, enlisted in the Thirty- third Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, August
20, 1861, and served nearly four years, and was honorably discharged at the close of the war. William Edward B., enlisted in the company and regiment with his father, March 26, 1864, and was killed in the battle of Guntown, Mississippi, June 10, 1864. George B., and his brother, Ethelbert, yet live, as also the daughter, Mary Abner, who remains single, and resides with her father, at Willow Dale. The youngest child, Julia Maria, died January 10, 1859, at the age of four years. Mr. K. respectfully declines to be further interviewed, and refers to numerous older, and, as he modestly says, more worthy and prominent citizens of the city and county, with whom he has had a pleasant and profitable social acquaintance for more than thirty two years.