The subject of this sketch, John Girolt, a prosperous farmer of Northville township, LaSalle county, Illinois, is an American by adoption and is thoroughly identified with the interests of this country, having fought for the old flag and the preservation of the Union in the dark days of civil war.
John Girolt was born in Alsace-Lorraine, Germany (then France), January 21, 1839, a son of John and Magdaline (Bolder) Girolt. In the Girolt family were five children, three sons and two daughters, all of whom are living, and in this country, except one son, deceased. The father died in Alsace-Lorraine, and after his death, in 1853, the widowed mother and her children came to America and settled in Northville township, LaSalle county. She died here in 1892.
At the time of their emigration to this country John was a boy in his fourteenth year. He was reared to farm life, receiving only a commonschool education. The war of the Rebellion coming on, he was not long in deciding to enter the service of his adopted country. He enlisted in November, 1861, as a private in Company E, Fifty-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the fortunes of which he shared nine months. He was then transferred to the First Missouri Light Artillery, Company H, and continued in the service until the close of the war, when, in June, 1865, he was honorably discharged, coming out of the army with the rank of corporal. He was made corporal during the Atlanta campaign. Among the important engagements in which he participated were the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Corinth. He was in the Atlanta campaign and with Sherman on his famous march to the sea, and the last action in which he took part was the battle of Bentonville, South Carolina, going thence to Washington, D. C., to the grand review of the victorious armies. Mr. Girolt is a member of Clayton Beardsley Post, No. 674, G. A. R., and politically harmonizes with the Republican party.
At the close of the war he returned home and has ever since been engaged in farming in LaSalle county. He owns a fine farm of two hundred and thirty-five acres on the north bank of Fox river, in Northville township, and is successfully carrying on his farming operations.
Mr. Girolt was married in 1867 to Miss Louisa Bernard, and they are the parents of five children.
Extracted 26 Dec 2016 by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois published in 1900, volume 2, pages 441-442.
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