CHRISTOPHER M. OSTERLOH, dealer in hay, corn, oats, and proprietor of general feed store on Commercial avenue, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets, Cairo, Ill., was born April 27, 1823, in Brunswick, Germany. His father, John H. Osterloh, was a native of the same dukedom, where he was reared and married, and died in 1845, leaving a family of six children, Christopher M. being the third. The family was first represented in the United States by the oldest son, Henry, who came and located in Missouri in 1845 soon after the death of his father. In 1848, the mother and four children came, and also settled in Missouri, where, in the fall of 1852, the mother, Mary Osterloh, died. Christopher M. remained in Germany until 1850, when he, too, came to this country, but made his first permanent location at Yazoo City, in Mississippi, where he opened a barber shop, having learned the “art tonsorial" in the old country. He was afterward employed as barber on a steamboat, and thus he came to Cairo, Ill., in 1852, and was induced by its people to open a barber shop, which he did, first on a wharf-boat, but soon after removed upon the levee. He continued to be a "knight of the razor" until 1864, in the fall of which year he sold out; the year following he built the brick storehouse which he now occupies, located on Commercial avenue, where he has done a general grain and feed business ever since. On the 3d of October, 1858, in Cairo, Ill., he was married to Miss Catharine Wagner, of Germany, where she was born April 7, 1838, coming to St. Louis in 1847. Their union has been blest with eight children, all born in Cairo, viz.: Charles, born November 22, 1859; Louisa, born November 30, 1861, and died January 5, 1863; Amelia, born December 31, 1863; Ernest, born October 3, 1866; Ada, born December 20, 1868; August, born September 28, 1871; Louisa J., born April 1, 1874, and Frank Osterloh, born July 14, 1876. Mr. Osterloh is a Republican, has served four years on Board of City Councilmen, and for twenty-seven years a member of the I. O. O. F.
Extracted 31 Mar 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part V, page 34.
| Cape Girardeau MO |
Union | |
 |
Pulaski | |
| Scott MO | Mississippi MO | Ballard KY |
