Illinois: History of Cass County, Illinois, ed. William Henry Perrin. O. L. Baskin & Co. Historical Publishers, Chicago, 1882. Cass County. HENRY ROTES, grocer, Beardstown; was born in Beardstown, Aug. 4, 1849. His father, Henry Rotes, was born in Oldenburg, Germany, about 1811; emigrated to America, and worked for a cotton planter some time, then came to Beardstown, where he married Mrs. Mary Nolte, nee Bolte, of that town, who bore him two children, viz.: Henry (subject), and Carrie, both living. Subject's father died about the year 1869. Mr. Rotes, at eighteen years of age, began farming on a part of his father's place, and followed that occupation till 1876, when he engaged in the grocery business with J.L. Black, under the firm name of Black & Rotes, for two years, when Mr. Rotes sold out his interest in the business to his partner, and until May, 1880, worked in the boiler shops of the C.B. & Q.R.R., when he purchased the grocery business of J.L. Black, on Main street, and has since been engaged in that business, meeting with good success. Rotes Nolte Bolte Black = Germany