Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Sunderman, Fred L. 1866 - 
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Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

FRED L. SUNDERMAN.

    Fred L. Sunderman is one of the representative citizens and agriculturists
of West Creek township, and a man who, by his industry, honesty and integrity,
has proved himself worthy of the confidence of the public. He is a fine type of
the young and progressive farmer, and has been very successful in this line of
work, but he is also well remembered in the township for his excellent work as
an educator, and his influence and efforts are still cast strenuously for higher
ideals in all departments of civilization.

     He is a native son of the township in which he has played so important a
part since arriving at manhood. He was born April 9, 1866, and is the third of
the eight children, three sons and five daughters, born to Simon and Lena
(Moeller) Sunderman. Seven of the children are yet living, three in West Creek
township, and the others are as follows: Simon is a farmer of Vinemont, Alabama,
and is married; August, who is a successful rancher at Pilot Rock, Oregon,
having a wife and family, is also a minister of the Christian church, and after
his education in the public schools he took a theological course at Berea
College; Margaret, who is a resident of Chicago, is a successful teacher in the
city schools; Lena is a resident of Lowell, and wife of Peter Danstrom.

    The history of father Sunderman is most edifying to this generation. and
shows what German pluck and perseverance can do in this country. He was horn in
Lippe-Detmold, Germany, in 1831, and is still living in West Creek township,
being the owner of the estate of one hundred and thirty-four acres which his son
Fred now conducts for him. He was reared and educated in his native land, and
was there married to the good woman who so nobly assisted him through many
subsequent years. While in young manhood he emigrated to America, embarking on a
sailing vessel at Bremer-haven, and being on the ocean six weeks before he
landed at New York. He came at once to Lake county, Indiana, and about forty
dollars in cash was all the worldly possessions he had at the outset of his
career. He began wage-earning at thirteen dollars a month, and after continuing
this for a year came to West Creek township, where for three years he worked on
the shares. He finally purchased eighty acres, going in debt for it, but by
industry he cancelled the indebtedness and continued adding to his landed estate
until he now has one hundred and thirty-four acres, with all its excellent
improvements, forming a monument to his former diligence and prosperity from
small beginnings. He has never aspired to office, but is a stanch Republican and
supports the doctrines of his party. He is a member of the German Methodist
denomination at Cedar Lake. His good wife, who was born in the same part of
Germany as he, died in 1890, and she was an industrious and frugal woman. While
in Germany she worked for a money consideration of four dollars per year, which
in itself is a graphic illustration of the difference in economic conditions on
the two sides of the Atlantic.

    Mr. Fred L. Sunderman was reared in his home township. After he had
completed his training in the common schools, in the fall of 1885 he entered the
Valparaiso Normal, where he took the teachers' course, and came home from there
to engage in the teaching profession, which he followed in his home township
with great success for eight years. Besides his work in the teachers' course at
Valparaiso, he also graduated in the pharmacy, scientific and classical
departments of this well-known school. He still retains his enthusiasm for the
education of the masses and the increasing and broadening of the individuality
of every girl and boy in America.

    May 12, 1898, Mr. Sunderman married Miss Angeline Fleming, and a son and a
daughter have been born to them, named Ruth Bernice and Charles Fleming. Mrs.
Sunderman was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, December 12, 1868. Her father,
William Fleming, is still living, being a prosperous retired farmer residing in
Delavan, Illinois. Mrs. Sunderman was reared in Illinois, and received a fine
higher training at the Normal University of Illinois, also at a normal in Ohio,
and finished the scientific course at the Valparaiso Normal in the class of
1896. She was a very successful teacher for ten years before her marriage, one
year of the time being spent at Geneva, Indiana, and the other years in
Illinois. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sunderman are lovers of good literature, and in the
busy activity of life have not forgotten how to study and apply their minds and
thoughts to the things of the mental and the spiritual domains. They are both
attendants of the Lake Prairie Presbyterian church, and contribute in accordance
with their means to the benevolences. Mr. Sunderman by his uprightness in
conduct and integrity in all of life's relations has gained the confidence of
his fellow-citizens to an unusual degree, as is attested by the fact that he
received the nomination for trustee of West Creek township and, at the present
writing, is a candidate with absolute certainty of success at the hustings.


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


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