Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Mandernach, Frederick W. 1864 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 2, 2007, 11:31 pm Author: T. H. Ball (1904) FREDERICK W. MANDERNACH. The American nation owes much to the thrifty and hardy virtues of the German race, for this class of citizens has been important factors in advancing every industrial enterprise. It is to this class that Mr. Frederick W. Mandernach belongs, and he has long since proved himself to be one of the most prosperous, progressive and public-spirited citizens of Lake county and Hanover township in particular. Mr. Mandernach was born in the house where he still resides, on October 15, 1864, and is the youngest of eight children, four sons and four daughters, born to John and Tena (Saak) Mandernach. All the children are living. John is married and is living as a retired farmer at Odebolt, Iowa. Caroline is the wife of Herman Raasch, a farmer of Odebolt, Iowa. Henry is a resident of the same locality in Iowa, and is married. Flora is the wife of Gottlieb Nitsche, also in this Iowa community. Louisa is the wife of Charles Sauter, a ranchman of Big Springs, Nebraska. Henrietta is the wife of Simon Sunderman, horticulturist at Cullman, Alabama. William, of Odebolt, Iowa, is married and is a farmer. And Frederick is the last. Father Mandernach is a native of Prussia, where he was born November 17, 1817, and is still living at Odebolt, Iowa, retaining the use of his mental and physical faculties although at the great age of eighty-seven years. He was about twenty-six years old when he bade adieu to the fatherland and came to America, and the voyage was of six months' duration. He came to America empty-handed, not having ten dollars to his name when he arrived. In a strange land, among a strange people, whose language he could not speak, he had to subsist on the little earnings he could get by daily work. He came to Lake county and in Hanover township began as a wage earner, and worked for the Rev. T. H. Ball's father at the munificent wage of eight dollars per month. He was one of the most energetic and industrious of men. The first land he purchased was forty acres, and he traded a pair of oxen for it. The first habitation the Mandernachs lived in was a log cabin. The father was one of the earliest settlers in western Lake county, and has seen deer and wild turkeys on his place. During his early years in the county he worked on the first railroad being built to Chicago. He has seen Chicago w7hen it was a village in size compared to its present immensity. He was a successful man in his active career, and had accumulated seven hundred acres of line land in Sac county, Iowa, and in Hanover township of this county. The home residence occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Mandernach was erected by his father, and the lumber for its construction was brought from Chicago by ox teams. The father was a true Republican. He and his wife were members of the German Methodist church two miles south of Hanover Center, and he aided very materially in its erection. Even the stove in the church was purchased by him. Mother Mandernach, a native of Lippe, Germany, was born January 13, 1827, and is still living. Mr. Mandernach was reared and educated in Hanover township, his early mental training being acquired in the common schools. He has continued a farmer and stockman during his active career. He remained with his parents until he was twenty-one years old, and he and his brother William then began as renters on his father's farm. He continued five years as a renter, and he then purchased the old homestead in Hanover township, consisting of one hundred and eighty acres. August 6, 1889, he married Miss Matilda E. Piepho, and five children, two sons and three daughters, have been born to them, four of whom are living. Elenora A. is in the seventh grade, being a bright student, and has also taken piano instruction. Elmer W., in the fifth grade, is well along in his studies and takes piano music. Nelson R. and Blanche D. are the youngest in the household. Mrs. Mandernach was born in Kankakee county, Illinois, May 29, 1867, a daughter of August and Wilhelmina (Breuscher) Piepho. There were ten children in the family, and eight are living. Mary, the eldest, is the wife of David Dippon, a farmer at Dwight, Illinois. John is married and lives on the old homestead in Kankakee county. Emma is the wife of Herman Meyer, a farmer of Scotia, Nebraska. Mrs. Mandernach is the next. Minnie is the wife of Herman Nichols, a painter at Blue Island, Illinois. Louise is the wife of Charles Sauerman, a farmer of Kankakee county. George is a prosperous farmer in Hanover township. Annie, the youngest, is the wife of Ruda Jors, a carpenter at Blue Island. Father Piepho was a native of Hanover province, Germany, and was born January 21, 1833, and died January 13, 1900. He came to America when a boy of sixteen or seventeen. He was a shoemaker by trade and at an early day had a log-cabin store in Chicago. He went to the Pacific coast and California in 1849, and dug gold for five years, at which he was very successful, bringing back three thousand dollars' worth of the precious metal. He went out to the Eldorado country by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The first land he purchased in Kankakee county was two hundred and twenty acres, and he bought and sold several times, and at his death he owned three hundred acres in that county and two hundred and eighty in Lake county, so that he was evidently a very successful man. He was a Republican in politics, and he and his wife were members of the German Methodist church. His remains are interred in the cemetery below Hanover Center. The mother of Mrs. Mandernach was born in Little Hanover, Germany, December 16, 1842, and is now living with her son George in Hanover township. Mrs. Mandernach was a girl of ten years when she became a resident of Lake county, and her education was acquired in the common schools. She and her husband are very cordial, genial people, and have hosts of friends. Mr. Mandernach is a Republican, and cast his first vote for Benjamin Harrison. Several times he has been selected as a delegate to represent his township at county conventions. In 1904 he was elected a trustee of the Hanover township, and thus broke a record of some twenty-two years during which no Republican had held that office. The people of the township recognize in him a safe and progressive man of affairs, and his election means that the business and educational administration of the township will be in good hands during the following term. He is a member of Council No. 23 of the Independent Order of Foresters at Brunswick, and he and his wife are members of the German Methodist church, of which he is a trustee. Additional Comments: Extracted from: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Genealogy and Biography OF LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA, WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 1834—1904 A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. REV. T. H. BALL OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO NEW YORK THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1904 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/lake/bios/manderna646gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 7.6 Kb