Biography of Henry E. Altenburg, pages 373/374/375.  History of DeKalb 
County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis,  1914.

Henry E. Altenburg

	The life history of him whose name heads this biographical memoir 
is closely identified with the history of DeKalb county, Indiana, which 
was long his home He began his career in this locality in the pioneer 
epoch and throughout the years which later came and went he was closely 
allied with its interests and upbuilding.  He was of a high type of 
progressive citizen and his life was one of untiring activity.  The 
cause of humanity never had a truer friend than Mr. Altenburg, who long 
since passed to the higher life.  In all the relations of life---family, 
church, society and business---he displayed that consistent Christian 
spirit, that natural worthy, that endeared him alike to all classes.  
His integrity and fidelity were manifested in every relation of life, 
and the example of such a life is always an inspiration to others.  In 
dealing with mankind, his word was his bond; deceit never entered into 
any transactions he had with his fellow men.  His plain, rugged honesty, 
his open-hearted manner, undisguised and unaffected, is to his descendants 
a sweet and lasting memory.
	Henry E. Altenburg, who was an honored early pioneer of DeKalb 
county, was born near Sandusky, Ohio, on April 23, 1838, and died at 
his home in Auburn in February, 1889.  He was a son of Daniel and 
Sarah (Latson) Altenburg.  Daniel Altenburg was a native of the Mohawk 
valley, near Buffalo, New York, and eventually moved from that locality 
to Sandusky, Ohio, where they lived two years. When Henry E. was a baby 
of about two months, the family came to DeKalb county, Indiana, 
following blazed trails through the interminable forest which then 
covered the country, no roads or bridges having been built as yet.  
The first bridge over Cedar Creek, between Waterloo and Uniontown, was 
then being erected, and they were compelled to ford that stream, which 
was so deep that the cows, which were tied beside the wagon, were 
compelled to swim.  Before reaching Auburn they became lost in the 
deep snow one night and called loudly for help.  They were heard by 
Isaac B. Smith, a farmer, who came to their rescue with a lantern and 
guided them to his house.  They were than between Waterloo and Uniontown 
and it took them all the following day to get to Auburn.  Upon reaching 
this locality, Daniel Altenburg entered a quarter section of government 
land two and a half miles east of Auburn, the tract being located in 
the midst of a dense forest, from which the only road to the little 
settlement at Auburn was a narrow and winding trail.  Here they 
established their permanent home and, amid the pioneer conditions of 
that day, they started to clear the land, build a home and plant the 
soil.  Here Daniel and Sarah Altenburg reared their family of nine 
children, six sons and three daughters, namely: Daniel L., Mary Jane, 
Henry E., Harriet E., David Cosper, Isaac L., Sylvia A., William J. and 
Frank F.  Politically, Daniel Altenberg was a staunch Republican, and, 
though too old himself to enlist, he sent four sons to the front to 
fight for the preservation of the nation.  He was an honored and 
respected citizen of his community and for many years served as justice 
of the peace.  In young manhood he lost an arm from the effects of a 
tree falling on it and from this wound he suffered during all the 
remainder of his life, the pain frequently being intense, but he bore 
his sufferings with patience and Christian fortitude.  He was public 
spirited to a notable degree and it is related of him that, having 
bought the old court house, which had been moved from it original site 
to make way for the new brickbuilding, he gave the old building to be 
burned in celebration of a Union victory during the war.  Daniel 
Altenburg’s first wife, the mother of the children before mentioned, 
died in 1863, and he afterwards married Susanna Seibert, whose first 
husband had been killed in the war.  She now resides northwest of 
Auburn, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years.  About 1870 Mr. 
Altenburg moved into Auburn, where he spent his remaining days, dying 
in January, 1887.
	Henry E. Altenburg was reared on the paternal farmstead, east of 
Auburn, living there until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he 
enlisted in Company G, Nineteenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry.  
He was in constant and active service for eighteen months, taking part 
in the first battle of Bull Run and the other great battles of which 
the Army of the Potomac participated up to the time he received his 
honorable discharge.  In the fall of 1864 Mr. Altenburg again enlisted, 
this time in the First Indiana Battery of Heavy Artillery, with which 
he saw service along the Mississippi river and at the battle of Mobile 
Bay.  He received his final discharge from the service in November, 
1865.  His two brothers, Daniel and Isaac, were in the service with 
him during his second enlistment.
	On January 27, 1864, while at home between his two enlistments, 
Mr. Altenburg was married to Sarah C. Bodine.   She was born near 
Plymouth, Ohio, and came to DeKalb county in 1861 with her mother, 
Elizabeth E. (Chamberlain) Bodine, her father, John Bodine, having 
died  in August, 1860. Elizabeth Chamberlain was born in Cayuga county, 
New York, and was there married, her husband also being a native of 
that county.  They moved to Plymouth, Ohio, where he engaged in farming, 
and later ran a shoe store.  After his death, his widow and her six 
children came to Auburn, where she resided until all of her children 
were married.
	After the war Henry E. Altenburg made his home in Auburn, where 
he took up the vocation of a carpenter, becoming a contractor and 
erecting a number of houses, some of which are still standing.  In 
1876 Mr. Altenburg became a railway postal clerk, which employment he 
followed for nearly twelve years, when he resigned and moved too Kendall, 
Hamilton county, Kansas, where he engaged in the feed business.  He 
remained there a little over two years, when the extreme and long-
continued drought caused a wide-spread failure of crops, entailing upon 
him a loss of all his capital.  He then brought his family back to 
Auburn, and during the following winter he was taken sick, his death 
occurring in February, 1889.
	To Henry E. and Sarah C. Altenberg were born four children, as 
follows: Harry Q., who lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is connected with 
the Burroughs Adding Machine Company; Clara E., is the wife of John 
Zimmerman, of Auburn, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work; 
Eugene C. is advertising manager of Zimmerman Manufacturing Company; 
John D. is a successful dentist at Findlay, Ohio.
	Religiously, Mr. Altenburg was an earnest, faithful and consistent 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in the prosperity of which he 
was deeply interested.  Fraternally, he was for many years an appreciative 
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  In his domestic relation, 
Henry Altenburg was a faithful husband and a kind father, affectionate 
in his home relations, while in the community he was a conscientious 
man and a good citizen in the broadest sense of the term.  Quiet and 
unostentatious ever seeking the sequestered ways of life rather than 
its tumult and strife, he ever attended strictly to his own affairs and 
made better all who came within range of his influence.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn,  Indiana.
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com