Arenz, John A.

Born: 1810-10-28 Prussia

Died: 1898-08-26 Cass County, Illinois

Arenz studied engineering and surveying in his native Prussia, and then worked as a teacher and school principal, before emigrating to the United States in 1835. He initially settled in Springfield, Illinois, where he worked in a mercantile store and later edited a German-language Whig newspaper. He later moved to what is now Cass County, where he entered into business with his brother Francis A. Arenz. In 1849, he married Mary L. Miller, with whom he had two children. Arenz served as a justice of the peace and was mayor of Beardstown in 1850.

William Henry Perrin, ed., History of Cass County, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1882), 110, 146, 227; Gravestone, Oak Grove Cemetery, Beardstown, IL.