John J. Froebe was born in 1823 in Saxony in Germany. He was a miller and emigrated to the United States when he was eighteen years of age. First residing in Quincy Illinois, where he learned the trade of a carpenter, and from that city moved to Beardstown.
About 1858 he came to Pekin Illinois and worked at his trade for one year, when he moved to Danvers, where he was a general merchant. His first wife, Mrs. Maria (Shriver) Froebe, died in Pekin Illinois in 1859. He then married to Miss Sarah Gollia, a resident of Pekin, and by her he became the father of four children.
His next move was made in 1863 to Ora Labora near Bay port, Michigan. where he was engaged as a merchant. Jacob homesteaded on the Ora Labora colony. The following year, at age 41, enlisted in the Union army in Caseville, with the Twenty-third Michigan Infantry. After a service of about eighteen months he was discharged, and returned to the colony and his farm on until he died in 1885 when he was 62.
His wife Sarah returned to Illinois after John’s death.
