Herman Mengershausen
Private, Company F

Mengershausen was born in Germany on February 18, 1835. His parents brought him to the United States in 1854. At the time George Bellows signed Mengershausen up for the company of recruits that became Company F of the Fifty-First Illinois, Mengershausen was single and farming in Menard County, Illinois. Mengershausen was wounded in battle and transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps in October, 1863. He was discharged in July 1865.

After the war Mengershausen returned to Menard County and again took up farming. He married Harriet C. Bell on July 25, 1867. They had two children: Mary and Oscar. In 1872, Mengershausen migrated to Jasper County, Iowa and began farming there. We speculate that his first wife and his daughter died of some dread disease, for, in January 1879, Mengershausen married again in Iowa, and the 1880 census places him there with his second wife Rosa and his son Oscar. A son William was born (November 20, 1880) to Mengershausen’s second marriage.

Mengershausen lived into the 20th Century. He died on November 2, 1902 and was buried in St. Andrew’s Cemetery in Jasper County, Iowa.

Sources:
Herman Mengershausen, Compiled Service Record, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's-1917, Record Group 94, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

Standard Historical Atlas of Jasper County, Iowa / Containing Maps of Villages, Cities and Townships of the County; Maps of State, United States and World; Farmers Directory; Business Directory; General Information; Analysis of the System of Civil Government; Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Leading Citizens; Histories of State County and Towns; Reminiscences of Early Settlers, Davenport, Iowa: Huebinger Survey and Map Publishing Company, 1901, pp. 15, 21.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index.

Iowa Gravestone Photo Project.

United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Ninth Census of the United States, 1870. Washington, D.C.

United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. Washington, D.C. [Mengershousen].