~ Biographical Sketch ~

     Fredrich Minger was born on Thursday, August 15, 1833 in Mulchi, Canton Berne, Switzerland, son of Johann Ulrich Minger and Anna Maria Hofer.¹

Fredrich married Maria Beer on November 10, 1856, in Guttenberg, Clayton County, Iowa. They were married by J. P. Kriebs, Justice of the Peace.^1,2 His and Maria's biographical sketch as written by Mae Brown Siemers Rand, reads --

Friedrich (Fredrick) Minger, born 15 August 1833 in Mulchi, Switzerland, was the fifth child of Johann Ulrich and Anna Maria (Hofer) Minger. Dates for his birth vary; the 15th of August seems to be the one more generally used.

He was batized in Messen, a neighboring village to Mulchi. Frederick was eleven years old when he immigrated to America with his family where they settled on a farm near New Philadelphia, Ohio. In the 1850 Tuscarawas County, Ohio census, Frederick is listed as being 16 years old and states that he had attended school during the year. In a book owned by Reuben White, Guttenberg, Iowa (grandson of Frederick's brother Johann) there is an entry which reads, "April 21, 1853, Working on the Railroad, Fredrick Minger-one day", with a similar entry for the following day. As a young man Frederick steamboated on the Ohio and Mississippi River, and also worked as a cable driver on a canal where he drove a horse or mule on the tow-path which ran along the side of the canal.

In the spring of 1856 Frederick's parents moved to Guttenberg, Iowa and it is thought that Frederick went with them at this time, although he may have gone a year earlier. On 10 November 1856, when Frederick was 23 years old, he was married to Maria Beer who had immigrated to America from Switzerland at the age of 18. The young couple made their home at Cassville, Wisconsin where their first child, Franklin, was born. The family moved back across the Mississippi River to Turkey River, Iowa, (directly across from Cassville). They took all their belongings across the river in a skiff. A second son, Adolph, was born in the Turkey River area. Land records show that by 1862 Frederick had purchased land on Section 21, Pleasant Valley Township, near Elgin, Iowa and here their third child, Emilie, was born.

On 14 August 1862 Frederick enlisted in the Civil War at Camp Franklin, Dubuque, Iowa. At the time his personal description was age 28; he was 5 feet 9 1/2 inches tall, and had a fair complexion, brown hair and blue eyes. On 29 June 1863, during the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Frederick was put on detail at night to go out towards the front and left of the company's front to position a large siege gun. He fell and struck his right knee, dislocating it, and causing a severe injury. The following year, November 1864, in Brownsville, Texas, he was taken with rheumatism in his right knee and leg, and more or less all over his right side; this was caused by exposure to swamp fever and because of scurvy. Nevertheless, Frederick remained in the service until 15 August 1865 when he was discharged to Houston, Texas. He returned to his wife and family in Elgin, Iowa and for a period of time he ran a woodyard supplying the river steamboats with wood to burn as they would ply up and down the river. Two more children were born in Elgin, Edward and Pauline.

In November 1869 Frederick, accompanied by Franklin, age 12, set out for Kossuth County, Iowa to file a land claim. Father and son loaded food, cooking utensils, a few tools, a crate of chickens and two pigs into a covered wagon and with a pair of oxen to pull the wagon and two cows tied to the back, they followed a trail along the Milwaukee railroad which had been built to Algona the previous year.

Frederick filed a claim on Section 9 Kossuth County, about two miles east of the future town of West Bend. Lott's Creek ran about 1/2 miles east of their claim. Frederick and Franklin built a sod house for the winter, heated by a little sheet iron stove. For a table they used a barrel with some boards across it; two boxes were their chairs and the spring seat from the wagon was their lounge. For light they used a large candle.

That winter the snow almost covered the little sod house and at times they would have to shovel their way our of the house to a shed which they had made from poles and hay, and where the stock was sheltered. Then spring came Frederick returned to the eastern part of the state to get his wife and other four children. The trip back to Kossuth County in a covered wagon was a difficult one and took about eight weeks. On the way seven year old Emilie became very ill with typhoid fever. One family source said that upon reaching their homestead the family continued to live in the little sod house, a type of home which was not all that satisfactory for when it rained there was always the danger that the house would cave in. Reportedly, this happened on at least one occasion when one wall did start to cave in, upsetting the china cabinet and breaking all the dishes.

In time the family built a log house on the homestead, hewing the logs from the Des Moines River timber; quite some time later they built a large frame house. Four more children were born between the years 1870 and 1877- Bertha, William, Mary and Alfred.

Tragedy struck the family in 1876 when their four year old son William died. In 1880 tragedy struck again when four more children - Edward, Pauline, Bertha and Alfred - all died from the dreaded disease, black diptheria. They all died within eleven days, two of them on the same day. Emilie and Mary also had the same illness but survived, although Emilie was very ill.

The story is told that Frederick's wife Maria felt sorry for a family who was traveling westward in a covered wagon. The mother and one child in the family had already died and the father was ill, all from black diptheria. Maria took the family into her own home, nursed all of them through the disease, only to lose her own four children. The two oldest boys, Franklin and Adolph, had escaped the disease as they were working at the time on their father's free farm at Turkey River, Iowa. They were ready to return to their home when they got word to stay until their father sent for them. They did not know what had happened to their four brothers and sisters until they got home later in the summer. In 1881 Frederick and Maria had one more child, a boy named Edmond Garfield, after James Garfield who was then president.

For Frederick and his family life was difficult and primitive in those early days in Kossuth County where the prairie grass stood as high as their knees, and where they had to break the virgin gound so that they could grow their crops. The wheat had to be taken to the Old Mill in Algona (16 miles away) and exchanged for flour, bran and midlings; the miller would take his pay out of the wheat.

In 1873 grasshoppers took all the grain to the bare ground. As time went on, Franklin, the oldest son, herded cattle on the land where the town of West Bend now stands. He told of riding over the endless prairie and hearing the hissing of a rattlesnake. Adolph was bitten by one of these rattlers. His mother Maria, to draw out the poison, quickly caught a chicken, cut it open and put it over the wound. Adolph survived the ordeal. At one time Frederick's nephew, John William Minger of Turkey River, Iowa came to work or to visit his uncle and the two of them went duck hunting in a boat. Unfortunately, they lost their gun when it fell overboard. Years later the gun was found.

About 1899 Frederick, then 66 years old, and Maria decided to rent their farm and move into West Bend where Frederick bought the skating rink and reconstructed it into the first theatre of the town. He was also a wheelwright and started a wagon shop where he repaired anything made of wood for the farmers. Eventually Frederick sold out everything in the West Bend area and along with his wife and son Edmund, moved to Eureka, Illinois where they thought the winters would be less severe.

Frederick died at age 72 on 4 January 1906. His widow Maria lived for four more years with her son Edmond in Roanoke, Illinois. She died at age 74 on 16 January 1911.¹

Fredrich died on January 4, 1906 at home at three o'clock in the morning in West Eureka, Woodford County, Illinois, at age 72. The cause of death was Apoplexy (stroke).¹ He was laid to rest in the Apostolic Christian Church Cemetery in North East of Eureka, Woodbury County, Illinois.¹ Fredrich's obituary reads --

Frederick Minger Dead
An Old Resident Died Friday and Was Buried Yesterday

Frederick Minger died at his home in the east part of this city last Friday morning at 3 o'clock in the 74th year of his age. Mr. Minger has been apparently as well as usual until last Thursday. On that day he ate his dinner as usual but during the afternoon he suffered from a stroke of paralysis and died the following morning. The funeral was held from the Apostolic Church, northeast of this city yesterday afternoon.

Frederick Minger was born Aug. 15, 1833, in Canton Bern, Switzerland. He emigrated to the United States with his parents, John and Mary (Hoffer) Minger in 1846. He went to Ohio, where he lived three years, then worked on steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers until 1854, at which time he returned to Ohio, where he lived one year. In 1855 he removed to Guttenberg, Clayton Co., Iowa, and kept a wood yard, supplying Mississippi steamers with wood. Mr. Minger was married Nov. 28, 1856, to Mary Beer. Mr. & Mrs. Minger have five children living.

Franklin A. lives at West Bend, Iowa; Adolph P. lives at Boise, Idaho; Mrs. John Martin lives north of Eureka; Mrs. Chas Anliker lives at West Bend, Iowa; Edward G. lives at Roanoke. They lost 4 children in 1880 within eight days of each other, with diptheria. In 1862 Mr. Minger enlisted in Co H., 38 Iowa Volunteers, being mustered in at Dubuque, and serving three years and two months. He was disabled at Vicksburg, and was mustered out at Houston, Texas.

He then returned home near Elgin, Iowa, and engaged in farming. In 1869, Mr. Minger went to Kossuth, Co., Iowa. He purchased land, which was then a new and wild country. He remained there 31 years. During that time, he took active part in building up and assisting in developing the country. In politics he was a republican.

In 1900 he came to Eureka and purchased a home located in the west part of the city.