Wendt, Henry

Born: 1823-12-18 Prussia

Died: 1879-01-29 Cook County, Illinois

Flourished: 1854 to 1879 Chicago, Illinois

Henry Wendt, soap and candle maker and real estate broker, was born in Mödlich, Prussia and was a resident of Chicago by 1854. He was a partner in 1855 with Charles S. Crosby in the soap and candle making firm of Crosby & Wendt. By the time of the 1860 census, he was working as a broker. Wendt, a Republican, was elected alderman of Chicago’s Seventh Ward in 1858 and represented Cook County at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention and the 1860 Illinois Republican Convention. In 1860 Wendt was a director of the newly-organized German Republican Guards, a German-American Wide Awake club in Chicago. The following year he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Board of Public Works. Upon the advent of the Civil War, Wendt was a supporter of Union and enlisted in 1861 in the Twenty-Fourth Regiment of Illinois Infantry, which was comprised of German-American volunteers, and he served in the regiment as quartermaster until 1864. Wendt was married and had several children.

Hall & Co.’s Chicago City Directory and Business Advertiser for 1854-’55 (Chicago: R. Fergus, 1854), 301; E. H. Hall, comp., The Chicago City Directory, and Business Advertiser (Chicago: Robert Fergus, 1855), 32, 152; The Weekly Chicago Times (IL), 4 March 1858, 2:1; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 16 June 1858, 2:2; Chicago Daily Press and Tribune (IL), 10 February 1859, 1:3; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 7, Chicago, Cook County, IL, 113; Wayne C. Temple, “Delegates to the Illinois State Republican Nominating Convention in 1860,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 92 (Autumn 1999), 291; The Press and Tribune (Chicago, IL), 9 June 1860, 1:5; T. M. Halpin, comp., Halpin & Bailey’s Chicago City Directory, for the Year 1861-62 (Chicago: Halpin & Bailey, 1861), 363; Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 16 March 1861, 4:6; 15 April 1861, 4:2; 16 April 1861, 4:1 19 June 1861, 4:2; Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; T. M. Haplin, comp., Halpin & Bailey’s Chicago City Directory For the Year 1863-64 (Chicago: Halpin & Bailey, 1863), 476; Illinois Statewide Death Index, Pre-1916, Cook County, 29 January 1879, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Gravestone, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, IL.