My Genealogy Hound

GOTTLIEB ARNOLD, farmer and stock-raiser, Sec. 21; P. O. Bloomington. Methodist; Republican. One of the old settlers of McLean Co.; born in Wurtemberg, Germany, May 30, 1831, where he worked at farming, ditching and piking until he emigrated to America, landing in New York in 1854; coming West, he worked upon a farm in Pennsylvania eighteen months, and came to McLean Co. in 1856; after working in the brick-yard one year, in Bloomington, then two years as farm laborer, he rented land, upon which he farmed five years, when he bought eighty acres of land upon Sec. 21, Towanda Township, upon which he then located and where he has since lived. When Mr. Arnold came to this country, he was in debt $100 for money borrowed to come to America; he paid the same from his first year’s labor, and upon arriving in Bloomington, his capital consisted of 35 cents; he now owns 160 acres of land, with good farm buildings, which, with his stock, is valued at upward of $8,000, all of which he has made by his own hard labor and good business management His marriage with Katarina Bloom was celebrated in 1850; they have six children now living, having lost three by death; the living are William, Charles, Katarina, George, Mary and Jacob.