(This is basically a photo album. Click on the photos to see them in full size.)

On May 9th, 2011 I had to drive from Champaign, IL to St. Louis. I decided to take the long way to my destination and visit the towns of my ancestor, Lawrence Zerr, in Shelby County, IL.

Lawrence was the father of one of my great grandfathers, E. M. Zerr. Stories are told in the town history books of Strasburg, IL that Lawrence Zerr, as a 17 year old boy, entered a partnership with William Telgmann and began a brick kiln in 1867. Other stories refer to Stewardson, IL, five miles south of Strasburg along State Rt. 32, as the site of a later kiln, in the center of the village where now stands a Prairie National Bank building. Strasburg was only laid out as a town in 1874 (by Charles Ostermeier), and no maps are published before that time, so the precise location for that first brickyard is a bit tenuous.




Several brick buildings and houses are still standing in the centers of Strasburg and Stewardson. Around this time the first post office of Strasburg was established with Lawrence Zerr appointed as the postmaster (he was already a village trustee by the late 1870s). His term ended in 1883 when a new President was elected in the national election. In addition to running a brick operation and acting as postmaster, Lawrence also obtained a liquor license for 90 dollars a year in 1877 according to the published records of the town of Strasburg, IL. By 1900 Lawrence had convinced the town that it needed brick sidewalks, and guess who was going to supply the bricks?
My objective on this day of sight-seeing was to find some evidence of those brick sidewalks, see what brick buildings still stood from the time of Lawrence, and see what I could find that was left of the legacy of my ancestor. As you can see from these photos, plenty of his bricks remain even though the Zerr family had mostly left Shelby county by the time of Lawrence's death in 1935.

One of the first things I saw upon entering the center of the village was a brick house with a seemingly original brick sidewalk. A sign out front said "Honey for sale" and I love honey. So I thought I'd buy a jar of honey and talk to the owners of this lovely place.



Laura Dollarhide greeted me and she spoke with an accent identical to that of my own dear Mom. (Even her wicker chairs were the same ones my Mom cherishes to this day!) "We moved here from Indiana 17 years ago" she explained. "But we know the house was built in 1886, and it was owned by Dr. Risser." The Rissers are mentioned a lot in the town histories. We had a nice conversation about honey and bricks and she let me take some pictures. The honey came in a Ball jar of course which also was a sweet regional touch. (incidentally, I also talked to someone in the Village office who had relatives in Anderson, IN, that same region that Lawrence's son E. M. Zerr emigrated to and started my Mom's family - there must have been some connection between Shelby Co. IL and Anderson, IN).

Since this brick house was assembled in 1886, isn't it a good assumption that they were manufactured in the nearest kiln that was active at that time? That would have been Lawrence Zerr's very own kiln which had been in operation for almost 20 years by the time the Risser house was built. Laura told me that they have to work to maintain the brick sidewalks by spraying them with roundup every couple years to keep the weeds under control.

Although the sidewalks date to 1900, the bricks are similar in every way to those used in the Risser house which went for 14 years before the sidewalks were put in. IL State route 32 was just a dirt road in those days.

Here we can surmise that the brick sidewalks crossed the dirt roads back in the day. See them protruding up through the worn out asphalt of a side street.

More of Lawrence Zerr's handiwork can be found on buildings like this one in the village center of Stewardson, IL.

All these bricks were exciting, but I was interested in seeing his name somewhere, so I marched in vain through three cemeteries, Grace Cemetery, St.Pauls Cemetery, and Lower Ash Grove Cemetery. Certain names appear in all three of these places - names of large families that had long histories and numerous generations without leaving the county - mostly German Lutherans such as Kull, Weber, Storm, Ruff, Ulmer, Doering, Buesking - but no Zerr.

Lower Ash Grove Cemetery was my favorite setting. An abandoned church building with broken windows amidst the most peaceful hardwoods and not another soul in sight. But also no sign of Zerr's gravestone.At St. Paul's Cemetery, "high" on a hill above the plains (about 65 feet elevation!), you can see the flatness of the great midwest prairie landscape. Strasburg is about 1 mile off in the distance. Still no Zerr gravestone.

I thought the church might have records of their burials, so I went to visit the church secretary who was kind enough to show me the records. All of the burials were entered by hand into a journal. The sermon language was recorded as well (until the 20th century most of the sermons were given in German). But still no record that Lawrence Zerr was a member of this Lutheran church (Lutheran happened to be pretty much the only game in town for most of his life; although there were two churches of the same denomination).

The day was getting old and I had to drive to St. Louis. But on my way out of Shelby County I just decided to try and find one more cemetery.



By far the largest of all, Stewardson cemetery was also the best kept. In fact, a groundskeeper was mowing the grass when I drove up. It was daunting to have to walk all the gravestones since I had already logged a few miles in the other ones earlier in the day. Plus, given my strike-out percentage at those previous places, I wasn't very hopeful. So I decided to drive very slowly and never get out of my seat unless I spotted something promising. Only a minute into the drive I spotted it. Plain as day, prominent on a high corner was the name I came to see.

Made of chiseled and carved granite, simply engraved yet bold and prominent in its location for later generations to admire, I'd like to think that the gravestone somehow matches the lifestyle and spirit of the person it commemorates - but just as likely, the person who laid the stone determined its features - in this case I assume it was his son, E.M. Zerr. So many other gravestones I saw were gaudy or audacious, but Lawrence's really fit my own aesthetic. I felt a sense of correctness about Lawrence Zerr's, an odd sense of family pride that stems probably from certain similar values that I'd like to think have been passed on down the generations. His stone was solitary, without any family members around. In fact, I only surveyed one section, but I doubt that any other family members are buried in Stewardson at all. I also felt a great sense of satisfaction in that I accomplished my goal for the day, visiting the place where my Great Great Grandpa rests. Had he not lived, I wouldn't be here at all.