All transcriptions are copyrighted by the Jefferson County Historical Society and are available for your personal use only.
They are not to be sold or reproduced for any commercial purpose, or used on any other web site.
They are not to be sold or reproduced for any commercial purpose, or used on any other web site.
Henry Euler, late a retired miller and capitalist of De Soto, was born in Germany in 1830, and was the eldest of thirteen children born to Christopher and Wilhelomena (Gestenberg) Euler; the former, a miller by trade, was born in 1801 and died in 1874; the latter was born in 1815, and after her husband's death, in 1875, came to America, and resided with her son, Henry, until her death, in 1880. When quite young, Henry Euler was put to work in his father's mill, and after his sixteenth year worked in various mills in the cities of Germany. In 1851 he
embarked for America, settling in Philadelphia, where he followed his trade only a few months, and then removed to Rockport, Ind., and
purchased a saw and gristmill, which mill the floods swept away in 1854; he then went to St. Louis, Mo., and in 1861 married Miss Mary Bourn, who was born in Germany in 1843, and came to America in 1858. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Euler: Emma, wife of Arthur Stearns, a machinist of East St. Louis; August, Sophia, Anna, Carrie (who died in 1860, aged two years and ten months) and Mary. During the war Mr. Euler established a grocery store in St. Louis, which his wife conducted,
while he continued to work in the mill. In 1865 he bought a gristmill
in De Soto, which in 1869, he traded for 360 acres of land near Frumet.
The same year he erected a gristmill in De Soto, at a cost of about
$18,000 including the dam, which he built one and one-half miles above
the town; this mill he successfully conducted until 1883, when it was
consumed by fire. In 1880 he built a mill in Scott county at a cost of
about $9,000, which he disposed of about six months after the burning
of the other mill. Mr. Euler subsequently traveled a great deal on
account of his health. In 1885 he returned and spent several months at
his native place in Germany, and in October, 1887, went to California,
where, five months after, he died, at Pasadena, Los Angeles County. His
remains were brought back to De Soto March 10, 1888, and the following
day he was buried by the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a member.
Mr. Euler left a widow and five children to mourn his loss. For over
twenty years he was one of the enterprising business men of De Soto; he
was highly esteemed, and his honesty and integrity were never questioned.
He owned eleven houses and thirteen lots, two business houses on Main
Street, and his own dwelling house in De Soto. His family are members
of the Lutheran Church.