Jefferson County ArArchives Biographies.....Geisreiter, Sebastian 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 June 7, 2009, 11:52 am

Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

SEBASTIAN GEISREITER.
    Sebastian Geisreiter, an Arkansas pioneer, with a distinguished military
record for service in the Civil war and ranking with the honored and
representative residents of Pine Bluff, was born in Bavaria, Germany, May 30,
1840, his parents being Jacob and Elizabeth (Von Schmuck) Geisreiter. He
attended school in his native land to the age of fourteen years, when he came to
America in company with his father, who was a cabinetmaker by trade. They lived
in New York city for some time, the father working at his trade, and during that
period the son became a clerk in a cigar store and later a furniture salesman.
He afterward occupied a position as bookkeeper in Brooklyn, New York, but when
several years had passed he and his father removed to Iowa, where the father
died. Anxious to improve his education, Sebastian Geisreiter attended Washington
College in Iowa and eventually won a teacher's license. Later he moved to
Minnesota and it was during his residence in that state that he inaugurated his
military career by enlisting in the Second Minnesota Cavalry and participating
in the campaign against the Sioux Indians, who rendered life and property unsafe
on the western frontier. He was assigned to a detail to guard immigrant trains
across the plains of Montana and was made a sergeant. He was afterward ordered
to St. Louis and commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army of the Department
of the South. He remained on active duty not only until the surrender of Lee but
also continued in the service and in 1866 appeared before the army officers
examining board and was assigned to Fort Smith, Arkansas, on special service. He
was ordered to report to General Ord at Little Rock the same year and was
assigned to inspection duty in eastern Arkansas, with headquarters at Pine
Bluff. There were many delicate situations arising during the reconstruction
period and Mr. Geisreiter was called on to solve many perplexing problems
requiring skill and diplomacy of the highest order. He endeared himself to the
people of this community by his fairness and splendid sense of equity and he has
carried this esteem with him through the years that have passed since the
disturbed days following the civil conflict. His continued residence in this
community, honored by his fellow citizens, is a rare mark of distinction and is
in itself a splendid testimonial to the integrity and broad spirit of one who
came here to discharge a military duty at a period fraught with dissension.

    In 1868 Captain Geisreiter resigned from the service and embarked in the
insurance business. As the years passed he prospered in his undertakings and,
making judicious investments in real estate, is now the owner of two thousand
acres of cultivable land besides substantial holdings in city property. In all
things he has manifested sound judgment and marked enterprise and for many years
has been numbered among the men of affluence in this community, while in the
evening of life he is able to enjoy not only its necessities and comforts hut
many of its luxuries.

    In 1877 Mr. Geisreiter was married to Miss Mary Olive Merrill, a daughter of
James Merrill. She died in 1878 and in 1889 Mr. Geisreiter wedded Linda D.
Chinn, a daughter of Dr. Raleigh Chinn of Mason county, Kentucky. She died in
1920. Mr. Geisreiter has one daughter, Mary Merrill, who became the wife of J.
Hall Miller of Atlanta, Georgia, a representative of one of the old and
distinguished families of that section of the country.

    Mr. Geisreiter has served as a captain in the uniformed rank of the Knights 
of Pythias and in Masonry he has been accorded the honorary thirty-third degree 
in the Scottish Rite-a degree that is bestowed only upon those who have rendered 
signal service to the fraternity and exemplified in the highest measure the 
beneficent principles underlying the order. He has at all times enjoyed the 
friendship and confidence of many distinguished persons, including some of the 
leading figures in Arkansas' history, from Civil war times down to the present. 
To him have come "the blest accompaniments of age-honor, riches, troops of friends."

Additional Comments:
Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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