Charles F. Clarenbach, who is closely associated with the farming and stock raising interests of Cole County, was born in Osage County, Mo., January 13, 1844, and is the youngest in a family of six children born to Peter F. and Wilhelmina (Hofins) Clarenbach, natives of Germany, where they were married June 4, 1830, immigrating to the United States in December, 1833, and settling in Osage County, Mo., and there entered and bought 180 acres of land. He immediately began making improvements, cleared land, erected buildings, set out orchards, and made many other improvements, but at the same time carried on his trade, that of a watchmaker. He died at his home February 22, 1851; his widow sold the farm in 1865, bought a farm in Cole County, and there died, November 21, 1869. Charles F. Clarenbach worked on his mother's farm in summer and attended school in winter until eighteen years of age. In 1862 he enlisted in Company C, Seventy-second Illinois Infantry for three years, or during the war, served with his regiment, and was discharged at Springfield, Ill., July 15, 1865. He then returned to his mother's farm in Cole County, Mo., and later clerked in a store in Jefferson City for some time. He then purchased his mother's fine farm of 285 acres, situated on a branch of Honey Creek, following grain and stock-raising with good success. In January, 1870, he married Miss Elizabeth Hehenberger, a native of Austria, who came to Missouri with her parents when quite young, her father dying of cholera soon after reaching this country. To this marriage have been born five children, four of whom survive: Emma (died in infancy), Minnie, George, Willie and Julius.

Transcribed from:
History of Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Benton, Miller, Maries, and Osage Counties, Missouri, Goodspeed Publishing Company (1889).