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< CLICK HERE to RETURN to 1917 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >
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	WILLIAM J. GACKEL Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. III _ Publ. 1917 - Page 1481
	HARMON C. GATHMANN Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ. 1917 - Page 1187
	FREDERICK H. GAUTSCHI Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. III _ Publ. 1917 - Page 1527
	CHRISTIAN GEARHART Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ. 1917 - Page 1180
	WILLIAM GERICKE Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ. 1917 - Page 879
	HERMAN GERKIN.  The owner of a well improved farm in section 23 of Freedom Township, Henry County, Herman Gerken is known as one of the substantial and progressive agriculturists and stock growers who are up building the high standard of these activities in Henry County, and is a citizen who enjoys the high esteem of his neighbors and has achieved a very substantial success.      He was born in Adams Township of Defiance County, Ohio, Nov. 29, 1863, a son of Karl and Mary (Meyer) Gerken.  Both parents were natives of Hanover and of old family stocks in that kingdom.  Karl Gerken about 1852, after reaching manhood, came with his parents to America, and after a long voyage on a sailing vessel arrived in Ohio and settled in the wilds of Adams Township in Defiance County.  There his parents spent their last years. Karl and his brother Frederick after coming to America willingly accepted any legitimate employment in order to make their way.  Frederick enlisted in the Union army, was captured and thrown into a Confederate prison, and endured such suffering and hardship there that he died soon after he was released.  He was then twenty-four years of age and unmarried.      Karl Gerken found work after coming to Ohio on the Miami Canal and the Wabash Railway, and in that way spent several years, carefully saving his earnings and providing for an independent future.  Subsequently he bought eighty acres of wild land in Adams Township, and made a farm of it.  He was a hard worker all his life, and in the course of time improved three other eighty-acre farms.  At his death on Sept. 17, 1889, at the age of fifty-nine he left a large estate to his children.  He was a democrat, and like others of the family was a confirmed Lutheran.  In Adams Township of Defiance County Karl Gerken married Miss Mary Meyer.  She was born in another part of the Kingdom of Hanover on Sept. 17, 1834.  She was the first of her family to emigrate to America, but a few years later her parents joined her and all located in Adams Township of Defiance County.  She was a daughter of Detrick and Mary (Lange) Meyer, who spent the rest of their days in Defiance County, her father passing away at the age of eighty-three and her mother at seventy-four.  The members of the Meyer family were also Lutherans and in politics democrats.  Mrs. Karl Gerken died May 9, 1912.  She and her husband were long active members of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church.  Of their children the following record is made: Fred died after his marriage leaving his widow and seven children; Henry is a farmer in Adams Township of Defiance County and has four children by his deceased wife; Herman is the next in age; Mary is the wife of William Otto, a farmer in Adams Township and they have five children; Minnie married George Copenhover, a farmer in Henry County, and she is the mother of eight children; William is a farmer at Naomi in Fulton County and is the father of three sons and one daughter.      Herman Gerken grew up on the old homestead in Defiance County.  His early advantages were supplied by the public schools, and he has led a very active if not strenuous career of work as a farmer.  In 1889 his father gave him eighty acres of land in section 23 of Freedom Township, Henry County, and that has since been the scene of his productive efforts as a farmer.  Mr. Gerken has a large barn 36 by 70 feet for both stock and grain, and has many other buildings and equipments for the housing and care of his stock and implements.  In 1912 he built as his home one of the most attractive rural residences in the township, a substantial two-story ten-room brick house with all the modern conveniences.      In 1889 in Defiance County, his native township, he married Mary Gobruegge.  Mrs. Gerken was born in Hanover, Germany, Aug. 26, 1867, and came alone when a young woman to America in 1886.  Her parents followed her the next year, and they all lived in Marion Township of Henry County.  Her father died there at the age of fifty-five, and her mother, whose maiden name was Sophia Lindhost is still living in Marion Township at the age of seventy-six.  Mrs. Gerken is also of a Lutheran family. She and her husband are members of St. John's Lutheran Church.  Mr. Gerken is a democrat. Into the family of Mr. and Mrs. Gerken were born thirteen children.  Four of them died in infancy.  Those now living, the five youngest still in school, are: William, aged twenty-four; Sophia, aged twenty-two; Alvin, aged twenty; Mary, aged eighteen; Erna, aged sixteen; Herman, aged fourteen; Amelie, aged twelve; August, aged eight; and Arthur, aged five.  This is a large family of children, all of them are still around the family threshold, and it is a family that does credit to the community in which they live. Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ. 1917 - Page 872
	HERMAN GERKIN.  The distinctive success which this well known citizen of Napoleon, Henry County, has achieved represents the direct result of his own ability, ambition and determined efforts, which have brought to him secure place as one of the progressive and influential business men of this thriving little city, where he controls a substantial and important enterprise as a contractor in varied lines of cement work.      Mr. Gerken was born in Adams Township, Defiance County, Ohio, on the 20th of July, 1870. and takes justifiable pride in his sterling German lineage.  He is a son of Henry and Mary (Vorwerk) Gerken, both of whom were born in Baden, Germany, as members of fine old Lutheran families of that section of the great Teutonic Empire.  They were reared and educated in their native land and soon after their marriage they manifested their ambition and self-reliance by coming to the United States, where they felt assured of better opportunities of winning for themselves independence and prosperity.  They voyaged from the port of Bremen to that of New York City on a sailing vessel, and eight weeks elapsed ere the latter port witnessed their arrival.  Within a short time they continued their journey to Henry County, Ohio, and established their home on a farm in Napoleon Township.  While giving his close attention to the reclaiming and improvement of his land Mr. Gerken found also profitable employment at his trade, that of carpenter, and thus was able to fortify himself more fully for the gaining of success of substantial order.  To his original purchase, of forty acres, he later added a tract of sixty-six acres, and after improving this property he finally sold the same to advantage and removed to Defiance County, where he bought a farm of 120 acres, in section 18, Adams Township.  This place he developed into one of the fine farms of that county, and there he passed the remainder of his life as an energetic and prosperous agriculturist and stock-grower and as a citizen who commanded unqualified popular esteem. His first wife, mother of the subject of this review, died in 1878, when comparatively a young woman, and later he wedded Mrs. Mary (Went) Yoths, who was born in the Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, where was solemnized her marriage to Henry Went, with whom she came to America and established a home in Defiance County, Ohio, where her first husband died, leaving her with a family of one son and four daughters.  By her second marriage Mrs. Gerken became the mother of two daughters, both of whom are now married and .still residents of Defiance County.  To Henry and Mary (Vorwerk) Gerken were born eight children, all of whom are living except one and all of whom are married except the eldest, Herman, of this review, having been the third in order of birth. Henry Gerken died in the fall of 1912, at the age of seventy-nine years, four months and three days, and his widow still resides in Defiance County.      Under the invigorating influences and discipline of the old homestead farm Herman Gerken was reared to adult age, and in the meanwhile he profited duly from the advantages afforded in the public schools of his native township.  He continued to be associated with the work of his father's farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-two years, when he turned his attention to learning the carpenter's trade.  He became a skilled workman and for a number of years followed the work of his trade as a journeyman.  He then became a contractor in the line of his trade, but after doing a successful business for a period of two years he met with an accident that so injured his arm as to make it impossible for him to do further active work as a carpenter.  Under these conditions he wisely consulted ways and means and finally engaged in business as a cement contractor.  In this field he has found ample scope and opportunity for effective enterprise and he continued his activities in his native county until 1902, when he established his residence at Napoleon, where he now controls a prosperous business.  He has laid a large amount of cement sidewalk in this thriving little city, besides having done much other contract work i n cement construction, especially in building cisterns of the most approved and modern type.  Soon after locating at Napoleon he purchased his present attractive residence property, upon which he has made many improvements, including the erection of  a barn that is 184 by 30 feet in dimensions.  He is a progressive business man and public-spirited citizen, always ready to do his part in the support of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community.  In politics he maintains an independent attitude, and both he and his wife are zealous communicants of the Lutheran Church, in the faith of which they were reared.      In Napoleon Township, Henry County, Dec. 13, 1898, recorded the marriage of Mr. Gerken to Miss Julia Classman, who was born in Lippe, Germany, on the 4th of February, 1878. a daughter of Otto and Minnie (Snyder) Classman, who came to America and established their home in Napoleon Township when their two daughters, Julia and Minnie, were children, the father having preceded his family to America by about four years and having thus been able to prepare a home in advance.  He and his wife still reside on their little homestead farm of fourteen acres, and are highly esteemed citizens of Napoleon Township, both being members of the Lutheran Church and Mr. Classman being a democrat in polities.  The children of Mr. and Mrs. Gerken are: Helen, Fred, Hedwig, Emma, Carl, Hildegard, and Hermina, and in 1916 the two oldest children are students in the Napoleon High School. Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ. 1917 - Page 1566