Dietrich, George

Born: 1816-02-19 New Jersey

Died: 1900-02-05

Flourished: Bloomington, Illinois

Sometime in the 1830s when abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy arrived in Bloomington, Illinois, for a speech, there was much opposition to his visit and a mob made an effort to keep him from entering the courthouse where he was to make his address. Dietrich was one of the individuals who ushered Lovejoy safely into the courthouse as the crowd threw eggs at them. Dietrich married Harriett Munsel on December 21, 1842. After her death, he married Elizabeth Munsell on September 11, 1861. In 1860, he was a successful merchant in Bloomington and owned $30,000 in real property, and $10,000 in personal property.

Gravestone, Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, Bloomington, IL; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, McLean County, 21 December 1841; 11 September 1861, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Bloomington, McLean County, IL, 4; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 2, Bloomington, McLean County, IL, 657; E. Duis, The Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois (Bloomington, IL: Leader, 1874), 507-8.