My Genealogy Hound

Henry Euler, late a retired miller and capitalist of De Soto, was born in Germany in 1830, and was the eldest of thirteen children born to Christopher and Wilhelomena (Gestenberg) Euler; the former, a miller by trade, was born in 1801 and died in 1874; the latter was born in 1815, and after her husband’s death, in 1875, came to America, and resided with her son, Henry, until her death, in 1880. When quite young, Henry Euler was put to work in his father’s mill, and after his sixteenth year worked in various mills in the cities of Germany. In 1851 he embarked for America, settling in Philadelphia, where he followed his trade only a few months, and then removed to Rockport, Ind., and purchased a saw and gristmill, which mill the floods swept away in 1854; he then went to St. Louis, Mo., and in 1861 married Miss Mary Bourn, who was born in Germany in 1843, and came to America in 1858. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Euler: Emma, wife of Arthur Steams, a machinist of East St. Louis; August, Sophia, Anna, Carrie (who died in 1880, aged two years and ten months), and Mary. During the war Mr. Euler established a grocery store in St. Louis, which his wife conducted, while he continued to work in the mill. In 1865 he bought a gristmill in De Soto, which, in 1869, he traded for 360 acres of land near Frumet The same year he erected a gristmill in De Soto, at a cost of about $18,000, including the dam, which he built one and one-half miles above the town; this mill he successfully conducted until 1883, when it was consumed by fire. In 1880 he built a mill in Scott county at a cost of about $9,000, which he disposed of about six months after the burning of the other mill. Mr. Euler subsequently traveled a great deal on account of his health. In 1885 he returned and spent several months at his native place in Germany, and in October, 1887, went to California, where, five months after, he died, at Pasadena, Los Angeles County. His remains were brought back to De Soto March 10, 1888, and the following day he was buried by the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a member. Mr. Euler left a widow and five children to mourn his loss. For over twenty years he was one of the enterprising business men of De Soto; he was highly esteemed, and his honesty and integrity were never questioned. He owned eleven houses and thirteen lots, two business houses on Main Street, and his own dwelling-house in De Soto. His family are members of the Lutheran Church.