HENRY YERGES SR.
Sunday afternoon all that was mortal of Henry Yerges was laid to rest on the hill-side close to the church where he had worshipped so faithfully and long. Amid the silent mounds where so many of his old friends and neighbors are sleeping on their dreamless pillow, he was placed away. The vast concourse of people that assembled to pay honor to his memory was the best evidence of the high esteem in which he was held.
The long procession of nearly two hundred teams carried with them in that cortege those people who had know him in life and many bowed with age had shared with him the privations of early pioneer days.
Henry Yerges was born in Westernhoff Hanover Germany March 22, 1824. He was married to Wilhelmina Sonneman in 1848 and four years after emigrated to America. He came direct to Portland, Wis., and settled on a farm that has been his home for a half century.
His married life extended over a period of 50 years, Mrs. Yerges dying in 1898. There were born to them eleven children, eight boys and three girls. Of that large family only 5 remain. They are William, Henry, Charles and Fred of Portland and George of Columbus. He is also survived by twenty eight grand children and four great grand children.
Mr. Yerges was always a strong healthy man until some years ago he sustained a fall from which he never fully recovered. During the past two years his health has been failing and his health occured on Thursday July 16, his age being over seventy nine years. The funeral took place, Sunday as above stated, from the Trinity Lutheran church Rev. P.A. Schmidt officiating.