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| Page 1 of John's Journal |
Among records collected while
researching the Imles are seven digital pages of an incomplete manuscript entitled “John
Frederick Imle Sr., Journal.” John Sr. was the son of Frederick Christian and Clara Josephine (Coldren) Imle. An accompanying note states that the record was given me
by John Imle Jr., though I don’t remember this. Anyway, thank you John.
My questionable transcription of the exceedingly
unclear electronic copy is presented in three parts, here and in
the following two blogs. My own comments (primarily the word “unclear”) are shown
in brackets.
I
was born “at an early age” on or about 1899 just 30 days before the 20th
century. The place: a little log cabin one-half mile or so north of the
“metropolis” of Ernst, Darwin Township, Clark County, Illinois. Ernst was a
flagstop on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and Cairo railroad (the big four
as it was then known) which ran between Chicago and Cairo mainly hauling coal
from the southern Illinois coal fields to the industrial area around Chicago.
Ernst was named (reputedly) after one Ernst Ruhl* a Former land surveyor who
laid out and reportedly acquired large land holdings in its immediate area
while it was still Northwest Territory and before Illinois became a state in
1808.
The
log cabin of my birth was located on the land purchased by grandfather Imle
when he immigrated from Germany in early 1881 with grandmother and six children
Mary, [unclear] my father, Christian, Gotlieb, Arthur [?] & Adam. My father
was 9 and Adam the youngest was just [unclear] year old. Who built the cabin
and who previously owned the land [several lines unclear] that they are all
gone!! They would have made an interesting study.
[Unclear
line] It was later owned by Uncle Chris Imle and still later by Uncle Billy
(Wilhelm) Imle who acquired it in [unclear] from granddad when they married. I
was often reminded by my mother of the fact that I had something in common with
Abe Lincoln – born in a log cabin! That occurred when dad and mother lived
there in their early marriage days – 1898 to some time in 1900 [?]. Grandad and
family had by then moved to a new frame house build northward of Ernst sometime
in the middle 90’s.
In
our [unclear] area and north [unclear] Marshall, I can recall at least five log
houses that were still occupied most [rest of paragraph unclear except for
scattered words]
*Ruhl was the first
recorded owner of our farm ½ mile N of Ernst and on which I lived from 1902 to
1919. Later: Examination of Clerk’s records by Ed & Ernest in 1980 found
the more recent owner to have been one York [?].
