History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY 9
seventy-eight years. His wife survived until 1899 and passed
away at the age of seventy-two years. They were laid to rest in
the West Brooklyn cemetery.
Heur}^ P. Gehant acquii-ed his education in the public schools
of West Brooklyn, which he attended to the age of eighteen years,
from eight to thirteen weeks in the winter season being devoted to
the mastery of his studies. Throughout the remainder of the year,
or from the time of the early spring planting until the crops were
harvested in the late autunni, he worked upon his father's farm,
which he continued to develop and improve mitil he reached the
age of twenty-four years. He purchased his first farm when
twenty-two years of age and upon leaving the old homestead took
up his abode upon that place—a tract of one hundred and sixty
acres, in Viola township. The succeeding six years were devoted to
its cultivation and improvement, after which he pui-chased a
general mercantile establishment in West Brooklyn, carrying on
that business for three years. He then sold out and established
his present business in 1897. From the beginning the Henry F.
Gehaut Banking Company has enjoyed continuous prosperity. The
banking business is carefully organized and conducted along lines
of enterprise and progress and the reliability and trustworthiness
of its business methods are known to all. In addition Mr. Gehant
is president of the Farmers Elevator Company and is also the
owner of valuable property in the county, including the old homestead
and a tract of seventy acres near the village of West
Brooklyn.
On the 17th of October, 1888, at Sublette, Illinois, Mr. Gehant
was married to Miss Eliza Py, a daughter of Sylvan and Mary Py.
The father was a pioneer farmer who came to this county in 1848,
settling in East Grove township. Both he and his wife have passed
away and are laid to rest in the Catholic cemetery at Amboy. Mr.
and Mrs. Gehant have become the parents of six children. Oliver,
now cashier in his father's bank, was the first graduate of the West
Brooklyn high school and is also a graduate of the ISTotre Dame
University of Indiana, where he received a gold medal for having
made the highest percentage in his studies among the graduates of
that year. Julian is the wife of Joseph P. Soudgroth, a farmer of
Viola township, and is a graduate of the West Brooklyn high
school. Henry W., also a graduate of that school, is now a rural
mail carrier and also assistant cashier with the Henry F. Gehant
Banking Company. Mary and Albert are both high school pupils
and Ruth is a student in the public schools.