LORENZ, William J. and Charles F.

LORENZ, LANFIELD, KRISS, BOWEN

Posted By: Chantel Schmitt (email)
Date: 5/6/2012 at 17:50:33

William J. (1869-1934) adn Charles F. (1858-1933) Lorenz

Charles F. Lorenz, born June 9, 1858, and William J., born in 1860, were of the Martin and Mary Lanfield Lorenz family who had moved to Rockford in 1876 form Freeport, Stephenson County, Illinois. Both brothers were in the grocery and merchantile business, Charles beginning in Rockford in 1887 and William, first in Chicago and Fargo, North Dakota, before returning to Rockford in the early 1890s. Charles married Bertha Kriss, and they had three children - Walter, Russell and June. He retired form the merchantile business in 1912 and died 21 years later.

William married Harriet Bowen and to them were born five sons - Jay, Lynn Luverne, Earl, Kenneth and Roscoe. W.J. was an active member of the Masonic Lodge in Rockford and for many years served as director and president of the school board. Of his sons, Jay became a lawyer in Marshalltown and Mason City. Lyman, who died young from dyptheria, had bcome a successful physician and surgeon in Chicago. Earl wnet into partnership with his father in Rockford and later on his own in industrial work in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Kenneth, who also briefly worked with his fatehr, became a science instructor in secondary schools. Roscoe, graduating from Iowa State University at Ames, became professor of industrial arts at that institution.

Vala, Michael F. The Story of Rockford, 335-336. M.F. Vala Publishing, Dubuque, IA. 1970.

ORIGINAL CITATION:
History of Floyd County, 1917, 689-690; information supplied by Mrs. Gertrude Bird.