Illinois:  History of Cass, County, Illinois, ed. William 
Henry Perrin.  O. L. Baskin & Co. Historical Publishers, 
Chicago, 1882.  Cass County.

HENRY MENKE, retired druggist; Beardstown; was born in 
Bremen, Germany, Dec. 15, 1813; his father was a native of 
Bremen, Germany, was born Feb. 4, 1780, and died in 1854; 
his mother, Maria (Lamke) Menke, died in 1847; they came to 
America in 1834.  Of their family, Henry and Mrs. Hoffman 
are the only survivors.  Henry began learning the baker's 
trade at the age of fourteen, and afterward spent a year 
and a half learning the brewing business.  He came to 
America with his parents, and settled near Arenzville, in 
1834; where his father purchased 200 acres of land, on 
which our subject lived for about thirteen years.  He then, 
in company with his brother, engaged in the drug business 
in Beardstown, in 1847, and his brother dying in the fall 
of that year, he continued the business alone about two 
years, then sold out to the former proprietor, Dr. T.A. 
Hoffman, and remained in the employ of the latter ten 
years; then bought the business back again, and continued 
it until 1879, when he sold out and retired from business 
life.  He became a stockholder and Director of the Illinois 
Insurance Company, and was its first President; the charter 
and name of this company, about two years later, was 
changed to the Cass County Bank, and Mr. Menke has acted as 
President of the organization, in all, about ten years.  He 
married, Jan. 12, 1848, Alice A. Fletcher, a native of 
Lancashire, England, who died in October, 1873.  She bore 
him three sons, two living-Henry and William Edward.  In 
June, 1874, he married Mrs. Mary Dennis, nee Osmotherly, a 
native of Kent, England.

Menke Lamke Hoffman Fletcher Dennis Osmotherly
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Germany England