Grundy-Kendall County IL Archives Biographies.....Burkhardt, Frederick March 5, 1830 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com February 20, 2006, 6:45 am Author: Bio/Gen Rec LaSalle/Grundy Counties 1900 Illinois owes much to her German population, which has long been large, influential and helpful to public prosperity. Among the German settlers in Grundy county no family is more favorably known than the Burkhardts, of whom Frederick Burkhardt, of Good Farm township, is a worthy representative. Frederick Burkhardt was born at Bion, Bavaria, Germany, March 5, 1830, a son of Leonard Burkhardt, a well-to-do farmer who owned forty-one acres of good land and whose first wife bore him children named Margaret, Barbara, Michael, Leonard, Christian, Hans, Frederick, Andrew, Christina, Mary, Martin and Sophia. The mother of these children died and he married again, but had no offspring by his second wife. He died on his place at sixty-five, leaving an enviable reputation as a man of honor and ability. He served his country in the capacity of a teamster during an interesting portion of the Thirty Years' war, and was a consistent member of the Lutheran church. Frederick Burkhardt was reared to the arduous but health-giving and morality- encouraging work of the farm, attending the public schools from the time he was six years old until he was thirteen, with good results, for he was a diligent student, and was well educated in the Bible. When he left school he began to work out at farm labor and learned to mow with a scythe, to cut grain with a sickle and to thresh with a flail. He was thus employed until he was twenty years old, and even then could get for a whole year's service but ten dollars in cash, with no allowance for clothing. Notwithstanding his paltry wages he was able to save a little money and his father helped him to some more, and he was thus enabled to seek fortune in America in better environments and under more favorable circumstances. He left Bremen Haven on board a sailing vessel, May 10, 1850, and made a voyage to New York which consumed twenty-eight days, and upon his arrival was quarantined for three days more, there having been some cases of small-pox on board. He was thus a full month on the water. He came at once to Illinois, making his way to Buffalo by the way of the Erie canal, thence to Chicago by lake steamer, thence to Oswego, Kendall county, Illinois, where his brothers, Michael and Leonard, and John Hahn, his sister Barbara's husband, had settled with their families. Later all his other brothers and sisters came over from Germany and settled in Illinois. Mr. Burkhardt began his active career in America as a farm laborer and later was employed in a tavern at Oswego. July 15, 1853, he married Mary Frehwirtd, whose parents were Leonard and Barbara Frehwirtd. He owned forty acres of land in Bion, Bavaria, where he lived out his days and died at the age of seventy years, more or less. In 1852 the widow of Leonard F. came to the United States with her brother Frederick and settled at Oswego, Illinois, sailing from Havre to New York and making the journey from New York to Oswego, Illinois, in the manner then in vogue. In August, 1853, four or five weeks after her marriage to Mr. Burkhardt, they located on Mr. Burkhardt's present farm, in Good Farm township, not far from Dwight. The homestead then consisted of eighty acres of Prairie land, absolutely wild and unimproved. When it is stated that this land was not only improved and put under cultivation but also that, by subsequent purchases, it has grown to be a valuable tract of eight hundred and eighty acres of fine farm land, some adequate idea of Mr. Burkhardt's industry, economy and excellent business ability will be afforded the reader. The home farm is provided with a substantial frame house and large and fine barns and out-buildings. Mr. and Mrs. Burkhardt both worked hard, early and late, both planned and both saved, and the means by which Mr. Burkhardt became one of the largest land-owners of Good Farm township were such as have advanced honest and industrious Germans, and others as well, ever since the beginning of general settlement in the middle west. When he arrived at his brother's in Oswego, after that long and memorable journey from the Fatherland, he had but one dollar left, and during the first five months in America he worked for six dollars a month and literally saved all his wages, carrying his economy to the point of mending his own clothing, until he married. As he began to prosper he continued his saving and never had any money for whisky, tobacco or foolish recreation. He had no time for anything but work, and he worked with a will and, to good purpose. His career is an illustration of what may be accomplished in this country by a man of determined purpose, with hard work, careful economy and good management. Mr. Burkhardt had no aid but his careful, thrifty and industrious wife, and together they have acquired a handsome property, the value of which approximates one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. and Mrs. Burkhardt are members and liberal supporters of the Evangelical church, and Mr. Burkhardt has for many years been a church trustee. In politics Mr. Burkhardt has always been a stanch Republican, and it is a matter of local history that he was one of the original Republicans of Good Farm township. The following facts concerning the children of this worthy couple will be found of interest in this connection: Barbara, the first born, died in infancy. Amos died at the age of thirteen years. Others were named John Andrew, John Frederick, Thomas, William, Barbara, Caroline, Sophia and Mina. Source: Biographical and Genealogical Record of La Salle and Grundy County, Illinois, Volume 11, Chicago, 1900, p588-590 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/grundy/bios/burkhard174nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 6.2 Kb