This week our ongoing series turns to a downtown bakery that was owned and operated by a German immigrant named Nicholas Garthoeffner (1821-1888), whose business was located on Court Street just east of Fourth.
On the old business card from the early 1870s featuring this business, the owner is identified as “N. Garthoeffner,” and his store is identified as a “Bakery and Provision Store.” The location is given as 105 Court St., east of the Court House Square.
Nicholas was born in Blankenborn, Bavaria, on 9 Dec. 1821, the son of Nicolaus and Magdalena (Lang) Gaerthoeffner. He probably came to Tazewell County around 1850, because Tazewell County marriage records show that he married Maria Magdalene “Lena” Glatt (1832-1916) on 13 March 1853. He and Lena had eight sons and two daughters.
Nicholas is listed in the 1861 Root’s City Directory of Pekin as “GAERTHOEFFNER NICKOLAUS, saloon, ss., 3d d. e. of Fourth ; res. same.” Two years later, in June 1863, he registered for the Union Army draft during the Civil War. His draft registration identifies him as “Gertheffner Nicholas,” age 42, saloon keeper, born in Germany, a Pekin resident.
By the following year, however, Nicholas had opened his bakery in Pekin, for his name appears in the 1864 Illinois State Business Directory list of bakers (page 610) as “Gaerthoeffner Nicholas, Pekin.”
The 1870-71 Sellers & Bates City Directory of Pekin shows him as “GAERTHOEFFNER NICKOLAUS, baker and dealer in groceries and provisions, ns Court 5 d e Fourth; res same, (up stairs).” His son Emil (1865-1926) is listed as a clerk living and working at the same address.
This directory’s business index shows Nicholas’ bakery at “No. 105 Court St.,” the same address shown on the business card. The number “105” for a business a few doors east of the courthouse is somewhat remarkable, since the 100 block of Court Street today is between Front and Second Streets,
Nicholas’ bakery and grocery store seems not to have been successful, but in the 1876 directory we find that he had switched from being a baker to being a hotel proprietor: “Garthoeffner Nicholas, propr Mansion House, ne cor Margaret & Second.” The directory that year also lists his sons Emil, a distillery worker, and Henry (born 1857), a painter, both living with their father at Mansion House.
Nicholas left Pekin a few years later, for we find him and his wife and children living in Roanoke, Illinois, at the time of the 1880 U.S. Census. They return to Pekin after that, though, for there we find Nicholas and his sons in the 1887 Pekin City Directory. It’s the last time Nicholas appears in Pekin city directories. The 1887 directory shows him as “Gerthoefner Nicholaus, 703 N. 4,” but with no occupation listed – apparently unemployed. The directory also shows his younger daughter Bertha (1870-1946) and youngest son Albert (1878-1942) living at the same address as their father (and it also says Albert worked for P. Weyhrich & Co.).
Nicholas did not live very long after the publication of the 1887 directory. Cook County death records show that he had moved to Chicago, where he died 8 Aug. 1888. His death record gives his occupation as “baker.” He was buried in German Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.
