Herman Joseph Pennartz

Herman Joseph Pennartz was born to Mathias Joseph Pennartz and Anna (JoAnna) Catharina Gielen Pennartz on 25 March 1876 in Weert, Holland.

• Immigration Date of Arrival:  3 March 1893
• Ship of Travel:  SS Waesland (Red Star Line)
• Port of Departure:  Antwerp, Belgium
• Manifest Line Number:  0132

He arrived in New York on 12 March 1893, accompanied by his father and two brothers, Jacob and Simon. JoAnna having died on 19 June 1881 eight days after Simon's birth on 11 June 1881 in Weert, Holland.

They settled in Windthorst, Texas where he lived with his father until he was about 18 years old, when he began working on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad.

In late 1904 or early 1905 he came to Charleston, Arkansas and found employment at the Nick Minden lumber yard as drayman. He held his job for many years.

On 28 November 1905, he married Theresia Woerner in Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Charleston, Arkansas. Theresia was born 25 November 1881, in Ratcliff. She is the daughter of Phillip and Eva Frei Woerner.

Herman and Theresia Pennartz were the parents of nine children. As parents they were loving, wanting the best for their children, but were also strict disciplinarians. They instructed their children in the Catholic faith and set a good example by participation in all services as well as working for the benefit of the Church through societies and organizations established within the parish.

The first death to break the family circle was that of Herman James who died of Sarcoma in 1933 at the age of 10.

Herman Pennartz died at his home in the Ursula community on 9 November 1933 on a Thursday night. Death resulting from a stroke of apoplexy some two weeks earlier. He had been in rather poor health, but was able to be about his farm work until the attack of apoplexy, after which he lingered until the end came.

There were no more honest and upright citizens than Herman Pennartz. He attended to his own affairs, and gave others the privilege of attending to theirs. He helped to rear a family of upright children, who was and is an honor to their father. While he left no vast fortune to bring strife and differences yet he left a greater heritage - an honorable name and an honorable family.

Burial was in the Catholic cemetery east of town, adjacent to Highway 22, funeral services being conducted at the local Catholic church, with Rev. Father Bonaventure reading the services. (Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Cemetery).

He was survived by his wife, Theresia Woerner Pennartz; two daughters, Mrs. John Geesing, Charleston, Arkansas, and Miss Eva Pennartz of the home; six sons, Phillip Pennartz, Cameron, Oklahoma, Julius, Sylvan, Conrad, and Lenus of the home; two brothers, Jacob (Jake) Pennartz and Simon (Sam) Pennartz of Texas.