WILLIAM JOCKISCH, a retired farmer, of Beardstown, was born in Liepsic, Saxony, Germany, in 1829. His parents, Carl G. and Eliza (Jacob) Jockisch, were born in Saxony. Mr. Jockisch, Sr., was a farmer and distiller for some years before he and his family embarked for the United States in 1834. They went to New Orleans, and then worked their way up the Mississippi river to St. Louis, and there the mother died at the birth of her tenth child. Mr. Jockisch was left with his small children to make the rest of the trip alone. He stopped in Cass county for some time, and then was married a second time to Mrs. Christina Long, of Germany. Mr. Jockisch died in this county, and his wife followed him some ten years later. They were at first Lutherans, and later Methodists.

William Jockisch is the youngest but one of nine children that grew to maturity. Two of his brothers are in the same county. He began farming at an early age, and by his good management has amassed a small fortune, which he now enjoys in retirement in his comfortable and pleasant home on the corner of Sixth and Edwards streets. He owns 300 acres of good, tillable land, besides other lands which lie southwest of Beardstown. The building of the railroad has aided him greatly in making his fortune, as much of the land he owned was increased by the building of the road.

He was married to Elizabeth Rohn, of Beardstown, Illinois. She was born in 1839, in Beardstown, and lived there till 1855. She was the daughter of John and Catharine (Stier) Rohn, of Hesse-Darmstadt. They came to the northwest early in life, and were married in Beardstown. Mrs. Rohn is still living, and is nearly eighty-nine years of age. Mr. Rohn was a plasterer by trade, and was the proprietor of the ferry at Beardstown at the time of his death. He was a Republican in politics, and a Lutheran in religion.

Mrs. Jockisch is the eldest of four children. Mr. and Mrs. Jockisch have had seven children, two of whom are dead, Mary A. and Rosena A. Those living are: Elizabeth, now the wife of J. T. Brines, a farmer in Schuyler county; J. Victor, at home, and clerking for Phil Kuhl; Anna A., now Mrs. Cad Allard (see biography); Rosa, now Mrs. Dr. J. C. Henny, of Beardstown, the leading dentist; Rudolph, deputy clerk in the post office of Beardstown. The children have all been well educated. They are all members of the Methodist Church, of which Mr. Jockisch has been Trustee for four years, and a member of the building committee of the new church that has just been erected.

Mr. Jockisch is one of the promoters and a director of the First National Bank of Beardstown, as well as one of the heaviest stockholders in the same. He was appointed Public Administrator in and for the county of Cass September 13, 1892. He is a worthy citizen of this thriving place, and as he has lived in the county since his fourth year, and in the town for the last twenty years, he is one of the pioneers of the place and is a pioneer of whom Illinois may well be proud.