Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Forkel, Frederick 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com November 10, 2007, 1:17 am

Author: Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County

FREDERICK FORKEL, foreman of Barrows' Lock Company, at Lockport, was born in 
Dresden, Germany, March 29, 1861, a son of Frederick and Christine Forkel, 
natives of the kingdom of Saxony. His father was a German soldier and served 
in the Schleswig-Holstein war of 1849; by trade he was a gardener and also a 
weaver. He died in 1877, and his wife in 1898. Of their three children, Adolph 
is foreman in a machine factory in Dresden; Bertha is married and resides in 
Dresden. Our subject, who was the youngest of the family, is the only one in 
America. He was reared in his native city, and received his education in the 
excellent schools there. At the age of fourteen, following the usual custom in 
Germany, he was apprenticed to a trade. For about four years he worked as an 
apprentice in a machine shop, after which he followed his trade successively 
in Bavaria, Bohemia, Vienna, Northern Italy, Switzerland, Wurtemberg, Baden, 
Alsace-Lorraine, Belgium and Holland. Afterward he spent a year at his old 
home, then went to Frankenstahl on the Rhine, and from there came to America 
in 1882. The first location of Mr. Forkel in this country was at Stamford, 
Conn., where he was employed as a locksmith with the Yale Lock Manufacturing 
Company for two years. For one year he was foreman of the scale department and 
machinist with the Automatic Scale Company. Upon the closing of the plant he 
returned to the Yale Lock Company as machinist, remaining for six months. Next 
he was foreman in the pattern department of the S. C. Linde Company, at South 
Newark, Conn. For three years he was employed at Cresskill, N. J., and when 
his employers moved to Cleveland, Ohio, he was given charge of the pattern 
department with the Perkins Lock Company. After remaining with them for some 
time, in 1889 he came to Lockport as superintendent of the Barrows' 
Manufacturing Company, which position he held for two years. When the firm was 
changed to the Barrows' Lock Company he was made general superintendent, with 
the oversight of the one hundred or more hands employed in the factory. He 
gives his attention very closely to the details of the position, and has 
proved a most valued employe, having, in addition to his regular work, also 
constructed a number of improvements on the locks and machines manufactured in 
the factory. The home of Mr. Forkel is situated on the corner of Hamilton and 
Sixth streets, Lockport. Here he resides, with his family, including his wife, 
Mrs. Maria (Herbeck) Forkel, and daughter, Mary Elizabeth. Fraternally he is 
connected with Lockport Lodge No. 538, A. F. & A. M.; Lockport Chapter, R. A. 
M., the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at 
Englewood, N. J. In politics he is a Republican. His religious views are in 
sympathy with the doctrines of the Lutheran Church, in which faith he was 
reared. 

Additional Comments:
Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County Illinois Containing 
Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present, Biographical 
Publishing Company, Chicago, 1900

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