Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Kraeft, Frederick ************************************************ 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 http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 2, 2008, 2:44 am Author: Past & Present Will County, 1907 Frederick Kraeft is one of the self-made men of Will county. No fortunate family or pecuniary advantages aided him at the outset of his career. On the contrary he started out to earn his own living when but a young boy and has since been dependent entirely upon his own resources. Obstacles and difficulties have confronted him but these he has overcome by determined efforts and, as the years have advanced, he has worked his way steadily upward. A native of Schaumburg Lippe in Obernworden, Buckeburg, Germany, he was born in 1845. His father, Henry Kraeft, was a native of the same place. He pursued a common-school education and was a soldier of the German army. As a business he followed the trade of a linen manufacturer. He belonged to the Lutheran church and died in his thirty-sixth year, in 1846. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Sophie Eberding, was also a native of Germany and died in 1850, at the age of thirty-nine years. She, too, was a member of the Lutheran church. After the death of her first husband she married again, but her second husband survived her only a few weeks. Her children were: Mary, who is the widow of Frederick Mensching and is now living with her daughter in Germany; Henry, also living in Germany; and Sophie and Caroline, twins. The former is now deceased, but the latter is living. Sophie married and at the time of her death left two children, while Caroline has four children. The other member of this family is Frederick Kraeft. He was only a year and a half old at the time of his father's death, was but four and a half years old when his mother passed away, and only a little lad of five summers when his stepfather died. He then lived with an uncle for about eight years. He acquired his education in the common schools of his native town, and when fourteen years of age hired out to a farmer for five dollars a year and board. In 1866 he drove a wagon for the Prussian army, but the same year came to America, settling in Crete township, Will county, Illinois. Here he found greatly altered conditions and secured what seemed to him princely wages. After working for one year at farm labor in Germany for five dollars a year, his wages were gradually increased until at the time he came to the United States he was getting thirty dollars per year. Coming to America, he worked on a farm for John Windheim for one hundred and fifty dollars and board. He was afterward employed in Crete township for two months and then came to the village of Crete. Later he was employed in grubbing stumps in a timber district about three miles from town and in the spring returned to the village, where he worked four months for Ernst Rhine in a brickyard which had just been established. On the expiration of that period, in connection with Mr. Rhine, he purchased a threshing machine and the fall was spent by them in threshing. The following summer Mr. Kraeft again worked in the brickyard and in 1869, with the money he had saved from his earnings, he purchased a half interest in the brickyard. He also rented Mr. Rhine's farm, purchased the personal property upon the place and took up his abode thereon. For five years it remained his place of residence and all this time, in connection with general farming pursuits, he was interested in the brickyard and the threshing machine and also dug wells. In 1874 he bought the hotel property of Ernst Rinne at Crete and for six years was proprietor of the hotel. He then withdrew from that line of business and while still living in Crete operated another farm near the village. In 1876 Mr. Kraeft purchased a farm of two hundred and twenty acres on section 27, Crete township, and for two years made it his home after which he traded the place for property in Crete where he now resides, taking the balance in cash. He bought an interest in the Crete Manufacturing Company and worked in the factory until the plant was destroyed by fire in 1895. He still owns fifty-five acres of land on section 9, Crete township, to which he gives his personal supervision. At different times he has owned several farms and has been a very prosperous man, gaining a competence through his industry and frugality. Arriving in this country when twenty-one years of age without capital and without influential friends to aid him, he went manfully to work and earned every dollar he now possesses. On the 17th of October, 1869, Mr. Kraeft was married to Miss Mary Claus, who was born in Waldringhausen Kreis Schaumburg, Germany, October 10, 1842, daughter of Conrad and Dorothea (Wehrhahn) Claus. They came to the United States in 1867 and settled on a farm in Crete township. Two of their sons, Henry and John Claus, had preceded them about a year and are still living in Crete township. Mrs. Kraeft's father died in 1876, at the age of sixty-six years, while the mother passed away in 1872, at the age of fifty- nine years. They had five children: Mrs. Kraeft; Sophie, who is the widow of George Huffman and lives in Crete with her two children; Dorothea, who became the wife of Conrad Rohe and died in 1888, leaving four children; and John and Henry, who are residents of Crete. Unto Mrs. and Mr. Kraeft have been born three daughters: Sophie, who is the wife of Henry Steiber and has six children; Maria, the wife of Herman Boecker, a farmer living in Crete; and Emma, who is at home. In 1900, accompanied by his wife and daughter Emma, Mr. Kraeft returned to the fatherland and spent some time also in Glasgow, Scotland, proceeding thence to Hull, England, by rail, and from that point across the North Sea to Bremen. They continued on their way to the home of his sister at Lindhorst, from which place they traveled on to different places of interest in Germany. Mr. Kraeft visited the old home place that his father had owned and ate cherries off a tree that was still standing and had borne fruit through his absence of fifty years. The family returned by way of Liverpool and Montreal. The daughter kept a dairy while in Europe, to which the family often refer with interest, thus recalling to their minds events and incidents of their trip. Mr. Kraeft has also traveled quite extensively in his adopted country and is familiar with the western states. Mr. and Mrs. Kraeft hold membership in the Crete Lutheran church and he is one of the directors of the German school. He is also a member of the village board and a director of the Crete Farmers Mutual Insurance Company. Those who read between the lines will learn much of his early struggle to make a living and of his determined purpose and unfaltering perseverance, which have characterized his entire life. He stands today a strong man, strong in his honor, his good name, and his success. Additional Comments: PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/kraeft2392nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 7.5 Kb