ANDREW SENTEL. The soil of this county being very fertile and the market facilities excellent, a great number of agriculturalists secure a competence by the cultivation of a moderate acreage. One of these successful farmers in Moultrie County is he whose name introduces these paragraphs. He owns and operates eighty acres in Lowe Township on section 9, and by close attention to his business, wise management and industry, he makes of his farm a more remunerative piece of property than do some who have many more acres. In all his enterprises he receives the cheerful co-operation of his amiable wife, to whom his success is largely to be attributed.

The natal day of Andrew Sentel was March 7, 1836, and he was born in Ross County, Ohio. He is the son of the late John Sentel, a native of Pennsylvania, and Catherine (Reedy) Sentel, who was born in Ross County. In the fall of 1815 the parents removed from Ross County, Ohio, to Coles County, Ill., whence five years later they came to Moultrie County and settled in Sullivan Township. Their family comprised eight children, our subject being next to the oldest. He passed his younger years in Ross County where he gained the rudiments of his education. Later he attended school in Coles County, although his educational advantages were limited to the district schools of those days.

Mr. Sentel was first married January 3, 1858, to Miss Mary Montgomery, a native of Ross County, Ohio, who died July 22, 1881, in Lowe Township. The present congenial companion of Mr. Sentel, who has been his devoted helpmate, was born in England January 1, 1848, and was known in maidenhood as Anna Dalton. She was first married to Joseph Winskill and by that union became the mother of one child -- John D. Mr. Sentel and his estimable wife were united in the holy bonds of wedlock in Sullivan, Ill., September 19, 1882, and their union has been blest by the birth of one child, a son, Elmer A.

When Mr. Sentel began life for himself he settled in Sullivan Township, this county, where he lived several years. Next we find him operating a farm in Douglas County, but after sojourning there four years, he returned to Moultrie County, and settled in Lowe Township on section 9, which has since been his home. In his political affiliations he is a Republican and has served the people in various official capacities, although he prefers domestic quiet to the turmoil incident to a public life. He is greatly interested in the cause of education and everything pertaining thereto, and has served acceptably as School Director. Public spirited and enterprising, it is not strange that his position among his fellow-citizens is an enviable one and that he is regarded as one of the most prominent agriculturists in the community.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, 1891 - p. 317

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