Marshall-Nemaha County KS Archives Biographies.....Bergmann, Christian 1835 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 31, 2007, 12:23 am Author: Emma E. Forter (1917) CHRISTIAN BERGMANN. Christian Bergmann, one of Lincoln township's best-known citizens and an honored veteran of the Civil War, a well-to-do farmer, now living practically retired from the active labors of the farm on his well-kept place in Lincoln township, is a native of Germany, but has been a resident of this country since he was twenty-five years of age and of Kansas since 1877, being therefore very properly regarded as one of the pioneers of this section. He was born at Riemendorff, Germany, March 2, 1835, son of Christian Gottlieb and Johanna Christiana (Schneider) Bergmann, natives of that same country, who emigrated to America in 1860, entering the United States by way of Quebec. The family left Riemendorff on May 10, i860, and sailed from Hamburg on the 19th of that same month, arriving at Quebec on July 2. From that city they proceeded to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they established their home. Christian Bergmann was twenty-five years of age when he came to this country and upon arriving at Milwaukee he secured employment as a laborer. He was living there when the Civil War broke out and upon the President's first call for volunteers to suppress the rebellion of the Southern states he and his two brothers, Ernest and Ehrenfried Bergmann, enlisted their services in behalf of their adopted country and went to the front as members of Company E., Third Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, with which command Christian Bergmann served for three years and three months, seeing some of the most active service of the war. His brother, Ernest Wilhelm Bergman, was killed at the battle of Brandy's Station, Maryland, and Ehrenfried Bergmann was killed at the battle of Antietam. In this latter battle, September 17, 1862, Christian Bergmann received a severe bullet wound in the left leg. At the battle of Chancelorsville, May 3, 1863, he received another bullet wound in that same leg. In referring to the coincidence of being shot twice in the same member, Mr. Bergmann is wont to declare that the "Rebs" were trying to shoot his left leg off, but didn't have powder enough. Besides the important battles just mentioned, Mr. Bergmann participated in the battle of Winchester, the battle of Cedar Mountain and numerous minor battles and skirmishes, his regiment often being in the very thick of things. His war experience gave him an intensely patriotic regard for his adopted country, a regard that has only grown stronger with the passing years and he says he has reared five sons for Uncle Sam's army if the country should ever need their services. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Bergmann returned to Milwaukee and in the fall of 1865 was married. He remained in Wisconsin until 1869, when he moved to Nebraska and settled in Pawnee county, where he farmed until 1877, when he moved down into Kansas and rented a farm en the western edge of Center township, in the neighboring county of Nemaha, where he established his home and where he remained for twenty years, at the end of which time, in 1897, he moved across the road from that place and bought his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Marshall county, where he since has made his home and where he and his family are very comfortably situated. Upon taking possession of this latter place, Mr. Bergmann was confronted with the task of developing it from its raw prairie state, but that task has been performed most effectively and he now has a well-improved and profitably cultivated farm on which he is living in comfort, now practically retired from the active labors of the farm, although he continues to give the same his careful oversight. He has a neat home and well-kept grounds and takes much pleasure in the same. On October 26, 1865, in Dodge county, Wisconsin, Christian Bergmann was united in marriage to Augusta Krause, who also was born in Germany, in February, 1847. Of the children born to this union eight are still living, namely: William Frederick Christian, the owner of a farm adjoining that of his father on the north; Matilda, wife of John Daniels, a farmer, living one and one-half miles northeast of Vermillion; Emma Henrietta Louise Sophia, wife of Harvey Bishop, living near Vermillion; Henry, a farmer, of Lincoln township; Albert Conrad, who is farming in Cleveland township; Edward William, of Axtell, who owns a farm in Murray township; George Gustave, also a Murray township farmer, and-Bertha, who is at home with her parents. The Bergmanns are members of the Lutheran church and take a proper part in church work. Mr. Bergmann is a Republican and has ever given a good citizen's attention to political affairs, but has not been a seeker after public office. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of Marshall County, Kansas: its people, industries, and institutions by Emma E. Forter Indianapolis, Ind.: B.F. Bowen & Co. (1917) File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/marshall/bios/bergmann505gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ksfiles/ File size: 5.5 Kb