Polk Co. IAGenWeb

ENGLEBERT, J. LEE - Was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania February 5, 1843, being the second son of Cornelius Joseph Michael Englebert, before deceased a prominent merchant of Philadelphia. He emigrated to this country in 1820 from Laon, in France, and was of Spanish-French extraction, and on the male side descended from the French nobility; his ancestry dating back to the fifteenth century. His mother was a German lady, whose parents emigrated to this country from the German Empire, therefore the son is of Spanish-French-German extraction. He was educated in the public schools of this city (Philadelphia) and was pursuing a mercantile training in the manufacturing establishment of Jules Hand & Co., when the rebellion of 1861 occurred. In July of that year he enlisted as a private in a company of Young's Kentucky Light Cavalry, which was, merged into the Third regiment of Pennsylvania cavalry, the favorite regiment of generals McClellan and Meade, and on account of its severe disciplines being commanded by a regular army officer, Colonel Wm. W. Averill, and brigaded with regulars, comprised of the Second dragoons, Fifth and Sixth U. S. cavalry and Tidball's flying battery of U. S. artillery, was very often selected for hazardous undertakings. He rose from the ranks, through non-commissioned grades, to captaincy, November 28, 1862. In cavalry action at Hartwood church, Virginia, with Wade Hampton's cavalry; he was captured and incarcerated in Libby prison. Exchanged, February 22, 1863. He received several wounds in action, and was left on the field for dead, and so reported on two occasions, and for gallantry and meritorious conduct was thrice breveted, to the full rank of colonel of volunteers upon recommendation of President Lincoln and the Secretary of War, Stanton. He was frequently placed in responsible positions where wise discrimination and judgment, were necessary, and invariably discharged his duties faithfully. After the battle of Antietam, September 19, 1862, under McClellan, when Lee's army crossed the Potomac, General Pleasanton's cavalry pursued them. Lieutenant Englebert led and conducted the advance upon the enemy's rear-guard. After supporting a battery during the battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, he again led the advance of the Army of the Potomac, with Meade and Grant at its head, through the enemy's country to the James river, where a junction was formed with General Ben. F. Butler's Army of the James before Petersburg. After a marked career for one so young, he was honorably discharged from the army. Colonel Englebert, for a few years, engaged in the oil business in Pennsylvania. He returned to Chester county where he married Miss Fanny H. Davis. He found his district politically in a state of turmoil, and resolved to take a hand in politics. Having been solicited by prominent men including Governor Geary, he applied for appointment as assessor of internal revenue for the Seventh district of Pennsylvania, one of the wealthiest in the State. At that period the district was distracted by partisanship, and it required military influence especially, added to other friendship at court, to obtain an appointment from the President to an office with which there were connected forty-three subordinates, but he was equal to the occasion, and was appointed and confirmed by the Senate, and discharged his onerous duties to the satisfaction of the numerous manufacturing and other interest, and to taxpayers generally, receiving the commendation of Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Hon. E. S. Rollins, who said "his district was the second best assessed in the United States," which was highly complimentary, considering that millions of money were assessed yearly in this district. In 1869, he was superseded, for political reasons. About one year following was commissioned by the Secretary of the Interior as United States Indian agent for different bands of hostile Sioux at the Cheyenne river agency, Dakota Territory, on the recommendations of the Board of Home and Foreign Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Pennsylvania and New York, and was the first Indian agent selected by the Hon. Win. Welsh, the originator of President Grant's Indian peace policy. Colonel Englebert discharged his duties with honor to himself, the department at Washington, and enjoys the credit at the Indian Department of accomplishing great innovations at his agency, and merited the thanks of General Yarker, the Indian Commissioner, and Mr. Welsh the President of the Church Board of Commissioners, for recalling two Indian war parties who had gone out on a scalping expedition, and by mere force of character and will-power, compelling them to send out their own warriors to effect this, and by his timely interposition averted an Indian war at that time. In May, 1871, he was recalled, having taken issue with the authorities, and after visiting his home in Pennsylvania, for several months, he emigrated with his wife and one child, a boy, to Omaha, Nebraska, where he was engaged in and was one of the original incorporators of the Willow Spring Distilling Company, which is in successful operation at this time. In January, 1874, Colonel Englebert disposed of his interest, and with his family removed to Des Moines, where he purchased an interest in the Eclipse Coal and Mining Company of which he is still a member.