Enke Family History & Genealogy

HIRAM ENKE, is a farmer, residing on section 23, Chestnut Township, and is one of the reliable and practical men of Knox County. He is the son of John and Nancy (Pryor) Enke, natives of Pennsylvania. His father, who was of German descent, was born in 1800 and died in 1854, the same year he came to Illinois from Ohio. Hiram’s mother was born in 1810 and died in 1856, two years after coming to this State, of heart disease. She was of English extraction and birth and was the mother of 15 children.
The children of this family bear the names respectively of Edward, Lewis, Francis; John, deceased; Jessie; Josiah and Alford, who died in infancy; Josiah and Alford, namesakes of the little ones lost by death; Elizabeth, Sarah K., Hiram, our subject, Lydia, Mary, and one twin sister, who died in infancy unnamed.
Hiram Enke was the 10th child in order of birth in his father’s family, and united in marriage early in life with Miss Margaret E. Reece, Jan. 23, 1868. She was born in Ohio, Feb. 15, 1840, and died Aug. 27, 1885, of consumption of the lungs. She left to the bereaved husband two children, named Leva, born Jan. 23, 1872, and Lula, Sept. 28, 1876. Our subject is a man of considerable influence and marked ability in his special line of labor. To the work of farming he adds the breeding of cattle, and has proven his ability to succeed.
Mr. Enke enlisted in the hour of his country’s need in the 7th IL. Cav. Co. D., Capt. Reynolds, of Galesburg, having command. This was in August 1862, and Capt. Bradshaw was recruiting officer. He entered his regiment at Camp Yates, Springfield, IL, thence proceeding to St. Louis, Mo., where they remained for two weeks. They were then ordered to Columbus, Ky, and from there to Corinth, where occurred that pitiful struggle on the 4th and 5th of October 1862. The regiment came out of the fight without the loss of a single man, and Mr. Enke remained in the city of Corinth for the next three months, at the close of which time he was ordered to Bolivar, Tenn. At that place they went into camp, but were marched to La Grange for winter quarters, where they did picket and scouting duty during the winter. This was during the winter of 1862, and the next summer was spent in guarding the railroad from Memphis to Corinth, and in the former city, in the fall of 1863, they went into winter quarters for that year, remaining most of the season doing guard duty and in the spring went to Middle Tennessee, noting the movements of Hood, at Florence, Ala. That was in the fall of 1863, and in the battle of Franklin, Tenn, Mr. Enke’s regiment was situated on the left flank. Succeeding the battle they removed to Nashville, where they remained a short time, until the battle at that city. His brigade took two stockades and lost several men in the engagement. They next followed Hood to the Tennessee River, and at Tuscumbia all his regiment was dismounted and compelled to wade the swollen stream, which gave him a severe illness, from which he has never fully recovered. Mr. Enke was mustered out of service on the 1st day of July 1864, at Nashville, Tenn., with honor attending him as a courageous man and a soldier.
In politics he upholds the Republican party with word and deed. In theological belief he owns no “creed save that of common good,” but is of true and pure moral character, and in earnest sympathy with the doctrines of faith as shown by the Christian Church. United to his political belief he holds the principles of the Prohibitionist.