Warnsing, John W.

Born: 1802-01-12 Hanover (Germany)

Died: 1858-05-10 Petersburg, Illinois

Warnsing was educated in Germany and immigrated to America in 1828. He settled in Springfield, Illinois, and obtained a job in the land office. In June 1832, he earned a commission as a second surgeon's mate in the 4th Regiment of the Illinois Militia during the Black Hawk War. On May 8, 1845, he married Minerva Smith. In 1850, he was a merchant of a dry goods store in Petersburg, Illinois, where he lived with his wife. In 1858, Warnsing committed suicide by taking eight grains of strychnine, a highly toxic substance used to kill rats.

Gravestone, Rose Hill Cemetery, Petersburg, IL; Rev. R. D. Miller, Past and Present of Menard County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1905), 258, 263; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:355, 406; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Menard County, IL, 272; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 21 May 1858, 3:1.