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Belgians in the Civil War

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BELGIANS IN AMERICA:    Biographies of Belgian settlers  

John KLEIN, an energetic, industrious, and prosperous farmer, owning one hundred and eighty-five acres of land lying in District No. 13 in the town of Sheldon, Wyoming County, N.Y., was born on the other side of the broad Atlantic, being a native of the town of Dehachy, Belgium, six miles from the city of Arlon, where his birth occurred in 1833, on the 24th of March.
His parents, Francis and Catherine (Leffering) Klein, came to this country with their two children, Charles and John, leaving Havre, France, in a sailing-vessel, and being fortyfour days on the water. From New York City they came by canal to Buffalo, and thence to Sheldon, where the father bought thirty acres of woodland, paying six dollars per acre. Having but nine dollars in money when he reached Sheldon, he had to run in debt for the property; but with the assistance of his two sons he cleared and improved the land, paid off the indebtedness, and bought another thirty acres, for which he gave nine dollars an acre. On the farm which he redeemed from the wilderness Francis Klein lived until called to the brighter world, April 12 1859. His widow, Catherine Klein, who Outlived him a quarter of a century, retained her faculties to the last, and died at the advanced age of ninety-one years.
John Klein, the second of the two sons named above, obtained a good practical education in the country of his nativity; and, after leaving the parental roof, he worked out as a farm laborer by the year, being four years in the employ of Ephraim Durfee, of Orangeville, receiving thirty-six dollars wages the first year, fifty dollars the second, seventy-five dollars the third, and the fourth year he was given one hundred dollars and a pair of boots. He afterward worked for his former employer's son, Burton Durfee, nine months, receiving nine dollars a month. He continued thus laboring until the death of his father, the highest compensation he ever received having been one hundred and forty dollars per year. Forty-five acres of the paternal homestead fell to his share. He paid his brother for one-half of it, and farmed on this for twelve years before buying the farm where he now resides, which forms a portion of his one hundred and eighty-five acres. This he bought in 1870, and the following year moved on to it with his family. Mr. Klein carries on mixed husbandry, raising the staple grains of the county, and keeping a dairy of twenty cows, sending the milk to the factory. Diligent in his calling, honorable and upright in his dealings with others, he is held in high respect throughout the entire community, and is one of the valued citizens of the town. In politics he is a stanch Democrat; and, religiously, he and his family are members of the Roman Catholic church.
Mr. John Klein was united in marriage in 1859 with Catherine Redding, a native of Belgium. Of the ten children born to them, one, Lucy, died October 26, 1889, at the age of eight years. The record of the others is as follows: Lany, the wife of Michael D. George, of Sheldon, has four children. Frank, a single man, resides in Batavia. Edward lives at home. Mary lives in Batavia. Eva is at home. Albert is a farm laborer. John resides on the home farm. Henry works in Batavia. Willis, a boy of fourteen, lives at home with his parents.
Source : Biographical review : this volume contains biographical sketches of the leading citizens of Livingston and Wyoming Counties, New York; Boston: Biographical Review Pub. Co., 1895, 685 pgs.