Sangamon County ILGenWeb © 2000
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PAST AND PRESENT OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD AND SANGAMON COUNTY ILLINOIS
By Joseph Wallace, M. A.
of the Springfield Bar
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, IL
1904



FREDERICK LANGE. - Frederick Lange who owns and operates a nice farm of one hundred and twenty acres on section 22, Cartwright township, dates his residence in this state from 1856 and for twenty-three years he has lived in Sangamon county. His early home, however, was on the other side of the Atlantic, for he was born near Berlin, Germany, December 1, 1840, a son of Carl and Sophia (Walters) Lange, also natives of Germany, where they continued to make their home until 1863, when they came to the new world. Both parents died in Morgan county, Illinois, at the home of our subject.

Frederick Lange spent the first sixteen years of his life in his native land and then came to the United States, landing in New York on his seventeenth birthday. Jacksonville, Illinois, was his destination, as he had some acquaintances living at that place, and soon after his arrival in Morgan county he began work as a farm hand, being in the employ of Benjamin Meyers for five years and Joseph Green for four years.

On the 25th of December, 1875, Mr. Lange was married in Jacksonville to Miss Minnie Shoemaker (Schumacher), who was also a native of Germany and came to America with Mr. Lange's parents. Unto them have been born eight children, as follows: Lizzie, now the wife of William Shoemaker, of Hamilton county, Iowa; Mary, wife of Otto Timian, who is engaged in the implement business in Ashland, Illinois; Minnie, wife of Emil Timian, a farmer of Cartwright township, Sangamon county; Sophia, wife of August Walter, of Morgan county; Emma, Ida, Fred C. and William, all at home with their parents.

After his marriage Mr. Lange was engaged in farming on rented land in Morgan county for several years and then removed to Montgomery county, Illinois, where he bought land and followed farming for ten years. On the expiration of that time he sold his property there and came to Sangamon county. About 1880 he purchased the farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Cartwright township where he now resides, which he has converted from a raw tract into a well cultivated farm and has erected thereon a good house and substantial outbuildings, has set out an orchard and surrounded the place with a good hedge fence, making it a desirable farm. Mr. Lange also operates some rented land.

In his political affiliations he is a stanch Democrat and has filled the office of commissioner of highways three years and school director ten years. Both he and his wife are members of the Lutheran church, having been reared in that faith, and are people of the highest respectability. They have made many friends during their residence in this county and have the regard of all who know them.



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