Posted on: Whiteside Co. Illinois Queries Reply Here: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Il/Whiteside/753 Surname: Gerten, Starck, Spark ------------------------- Found two references, first in Bent-Wilson's History of Whiteside County, pub. 1877: "Gerten Bros. and the Messers. Spark have each a good sized pipe manufactory, and each of them turn out annually a large number of boses of pipes, which find a market in all sections of the country." In the Bastian History, pub. 1968 is a longer description: "Back in 1868, Nick Gerten, who had been living in Fulton for about a year, packed some samples of clay and returned to Germany. There, under tests, the clay proved to be excellent pipe material. In 1869, he returned to Fulton, accompanied by his parents, brothers and sisters. They moved into a house east of the Water Works and started to manufacture clay pipes. The Gertens were accompanied by Charles Starck who worked with them for a time and then went into business for himself. About 1884, Peter Starck, Jr., arrived in Fulton. He started a factory in 1896. By 1897, there were four manufactories in the city. They were run by John Gerten and Henry Gerten, Nick Gerten, Peter Starck, Jr., and Nick Starck. At peak production as many as 72,000 clay pipes were shipped monthly. Most of them went by steamboat to river-towns. They were shipped in barrels and packed in straw. Three of the factories closed in the early 1900s but Peter Starck's lasted until the 1930's. In late years, most of the clay pipes were used in shooting galleries or for souvenirs. Some of the pipes and cigar holders were covered with a yellowish glaze, veritable poor-men's meerschaums." Checking the 1870 Census, in Fulton I find: Gerten, Mathias 62 M PR x x x Peter 28 M PR x x x Pipemaker Nicholas 27 M PR x x x " Henry 25 M PR x x x " John 23 M PR x x x " Catharine 21 F PR x x Dom Mathias 17 M PR x x Catharine 15 F PR x x Regena 11 9 F PR x x John 9 M PR x x Also, in the Mortality tables, Gerten, Mary 54 F PR x x Mar married housekeeper. Interesting group, you probably know, the x's mean, Father foreign born, mother foreign born, and became citizen. This probably means that the last five were born in the United States, so they did NOT HAVE to become a citizen, they were born citizens! While two names repeat, John and Catharine, I suspect that all were children of Mathias and Mary...and that their formal german names included at least one middle name which is probably what they went by, like Catharine Anna and Catharine Marguerita... In the Naturalization index, Henry, John, Matthias, Nicholas and Peter were all naturalized between 1876 and 1884. Bob