Brown County MN Archives Biographies.....Backer, William 1886 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 23, 2014, 7:56 pm

Source: See Below
Author: L. A. Fritsche

WILLIAM BACKER.

    William Backer, city clerk of New Ulm and one of the best-known and most
popular young men in Brown county, is a native son of that county, having been
born on a farm in Cottonwood township, June 9, 1886, son of August C. and Martha
(Pfisterer) Backer, the former a native of Germany and the latter of the state
of Wisconsin, former well-known residents of Cottonwood township, now living
comfortably retired in the city of New Ulm.

    August C. Backet [sic] was about seven years of age when he came to the
United States with his parents, the family first settling in Wisconsin. Besides
himself there were three other children in the family, he having two brothers
and a sister, Charles, Fred and Emma. Later the family came to Minnesota and
located at LeSueur, where Grandfather Backer and his wife spent their last days,
both living to ripe old ages. August C. Backer married Martha Pfisterer, who was
born in Wisconsin, third in order of birth of the four children born to her
parents, who were natives of Germany, the other children of the Pfisterer family
having been Henry, William and Louise, and in 1875 came to Brown county. He
bought a farm of two hundred acres in Cottonwood township and there he
established his home and reared his family, he and his wife remaining there
until 1901, in which year they retired from the farm and have since been making
their home in New Ulm, where they enjoy many evidences of the high regard in
which they are held by the whole community. In their religious persuasion they
are of the Evangelical faith and for years have been warmly interested in the
various beneficences of the church of that denomination. To them seven children
have been born, all of whom are still living, namely: Henry, of Sunnyside,
Washington; Esther, wife of William Humann, of Cottonwood township, this county;
Louise, wife of August C. Dahl, of New Ulm; Harry, of Jamestown, North Dakota;
Dora, wife of Michael Werner, of Cottonwood township; William, the immediate
subject of this biographical sketch, and Caroline, who is at home with her parents.

     William Backer lived on the old home farm in Cottonwood township during his
early youth, receiving his elementary education in the district school in that
neighborhood. He was about fifteen years old when his parents moved to New Ulm
and he completed his public-school course in the high school in that city,
supplementing the same by a course in a commercial school at Mankato, after
which he began clerking in a grocery store in New Ulm. He was thus engaged for
awhile and then took employment with the wholesale produce house of Stuebe
Brothers as a bookkeeper, remaining with that concern for five years, at the end
of which time he transferred his services to the offices of the roller mills
company at New Ulm and was engaged there until he entered upon his official
duties as city clerk of New Ulm, to which important public office he was elected
on the Republican ticket in the spring of 1914, and in which capacity he is now
serving in a most satisfactory manner.

     On June 20, 1911, William Backer was united in marriage to Hedwig Janke,
who was born in New Ulm, daughter of William Janke, a well-known wagon-maker of
that city, and wife, who have been residents of New Ulm for years. Mrs. Backer
is the second in order of birth of the nine children born to her parents, her
brothers and sisters being Helen, Martha, Louise, Herman William, Waldemar,
Hilding and Elda. Mrs. Backer is a member of the Lutheran church and both she
and her husband take a proper part in the various social activities of their
home town, being held in high esteem by their many friends there and throughout
the county generally.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY MINNESOTA
ITS PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS

L. A. FRITSCHE. M. D.
Editor

With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Old Families

VOLUME II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mn/brown/bios/backer393gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mnfiles/

File size: 4.6 Kb