Brown County MN Archives Biographies.....Pfaender, William 1852 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 25, 2014, 11:10 pm

Source: See Below
Author: L. A. Fritsche

WILLIAM PFAENDER.

    William Pfaender, head of the Pioneer Nursery Company and proprietor of the
extensive horticultural nurseries operating under that name at New Ulm, this
county, and one of the most enterprising and energetic citizens of Brown county,
is a native of Ohio, having been born in the city of Cincinnati, September 26,
1852, son of the Hon. William and Catherine (Pfau) Pfaender, later pioneer
settlers in this community and for many years leaders in the common activities
of this region.

    The Hon. William Pfaender was one of the promoters of the German Land
Association, organized at Cincinnati in 1856, which came here and took over the
town site of New Ulm, shortly before that time laid out by the Chicago Land
Verein, and began the active work of developing this section of Minnesota.
Throughout his long and honorable career here he ever was a leader, a man of
strong and correct influence, whose name ever will be held in respect hereabout.
Commandant at Ft. Ridgely following the troublous days after the quelling of the
Indian insurrection in 1862, he occupied a dominant position among those who
were so wisely directing affairs here then and after that served in various
public capacities, having been mayor of New Ulm, for years active in the
councils of that thriving little city, member of the house of representatives of
the Minnesota Legislature, member of the state Senate, state treasurer, and all
the time helpful in pushing along the development of the industrial life of this
region.

      The elder William Pfaender was born and reared in Heilbronn, an important
town of Wurtemberg, forty-six miles southeast of Stuttgart, on the left bank of
the Danube, and was trained in mercantile pursuits. He was well educated and
when he came to the United States, as a young man, was well fitted to take his
place as a natural leader among his associates. For some time after coming to
this side he was located at Cincinnati, where he married, and while there became
connected with the newspaper, Republicana. While thus engaged he, in association
with a number of other persons of German birth or affiliation, organized the
German Land Association, with a view to the development of home sites for German
immigrants to this country. In 1856 Mr. Pfaender and the other leaders of this
association came to Minnesota and after a brief negotiation took over from the
Chicago Land Verein the town site of New Ulm and the lands adjacent thereto,
which the Chicago association had shortly before opened up, and straightway
began to promote the same in a systematic manner, it being but a short time
before settlers began pouring into this section from all parts of the country,
the German element naturally remaining dominant. William Pfaender selected as
the site for his home a tract in Milford township, which he presently enlarged
to the extent of two hundred acres, and there he reared his family. Upon the
outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in behalf of the Union cause as a member
of the First Minnesota Battery, Light Artillery, and was mustered into the
service with the rank of second lieutenant, presently being promoted to captain,
and was appointed to the recruiting service. While thus serving, the sad task of
directing the burial of the victims of the Indian massacre in 1862 fell to his
lot. Captain Pfaender then was transferred to the Mounted Rangers and was
appointed quarter-master at Ft. Ridgely, with rank of lieutenant-colonel, in
command of the fort. Upon retiring from the service in 1861, Colonel Pfaender
returned to New Ulm and resumed charge of his interests there, developing his
extensive farm and taking part in other enterprises. From the beginning of his
connection with affairs hereabout lie had been active in the public service; was
one of the first registers of deeds in the county and was one of the members of
Minnesota's delegation in the electoral college which elected President Lincoln.
He later was elected as representative from this district to the state
Legislature and served two terms in that capacity, later being elected state
senator, serving in the upper house of the General Assembly for two terms,
during which time he created so distinct an impression upon the politics of the
state that he later was elected state treasurer, serving in that important
office from 1874 to 1878. In local political affairs he was equally active and
for years served as city councilman in New Ulm, also having served very
effectively as mayor of the city. He opened up the first set of books in the
great flour-mill following the organization of the Eagle Roller Mills Company
and in all ways did what he could in the way of developing the industrial and
commercial life of the county. He was one of the leading lumbermen and real
estate and insurance dealers in the city and in the latter business remained
active to the close of his life, the well-known William Pfaender Agency still
being continued at New Ulm by the family. This energetic pioneer lived to a good
old age, his death occurring in 1905. His wife had preceded him to the grave
twelve years, her death having occurred in 1892. They were the parents of
fifteen children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest, the others
being as follow: Katie, who married Charles Albrecht, of St. Paul, this state;
Johanna, deceased, who was the wife of Carl Brauns; Louisa, widow of Dr. G.
Staumm of St. Paul; Josephine, unmarried, of St. Paul, who owns the old Pfaender
homestead in New Ulm, this county; Caroline, who died at the age of seventeen
years; Fred, postmaster at New Ulm; Amelia, wife of Doctor Fritsche, of New Ulm;
Albert, a well-known lawyer, of New Ulm, major of the Second Regiment, Minnesota
National Guard, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this
volume; Wilhelmina, wife of Hein E. Loenholdt, of Hamburg-vor-der-Hoehe,
Germany; Herman, of New Ulm, who is managing the old home farm; Emma, wife of
Charles Hauser, of St. Paul, and three who died in infancy. The father of these
children was one of the three children born to his parents. His father, who was
a cooper by trade, was a soldier in the Napoleonic wars. His mother's maiden
name was Johanna Kuenzel. He had a brother, Carl, who was a portrait painter of
distinction at London, England, and a sister, who died at the age of nineteen
years. The mother, Catherine (Pfau) Pfaender, came to America with her parents
when a girl, the family settling in Cincinnati, where Grandfather Pfau and his
wife for years conducted a boarding house. He died there in 1856, past middle
age and his widow lived to be more than ninety years of age. They were the
parents of seven children, three sons and four daughters, Philip, Charles, John,
who became a prominent figure in the life of the national capital, Washington,
D. C., and Josephine, Catherine, Wilhelmina and Adelheid.

     William Pfaender, Jr., was reared on his father's farm in Milford township,
this county, receiving his education in the district school in that neighborhood
and in the schools of New Ulm. When nineteen years of age he began helping his
father in the latter's lumber yard in New Ulm and two years later went to St.
Paul, where for eight years he was employed in the wholesale dry-goods and
notions house of Auerbach, Finch & Scheffer. He then returned to New Ulm, where
he married, and in 1881 took an interest in the New Ulm sugar works, with which
he was actively connected for a couple of years, after which, in 1883, he
returned to St. Paul, where he became bookkeeper for a cigar firm, later
establishing a book and stationery store in that city and was thus engaged for
seven years, at the end of which time he returned to New Ulm and became
associated with his father in the insurance business, continuing that connection
from 1890 to 1910. He was made deputy secretary of the New Ulm Building and Loan
Association and presently reorganized that institution under a new plan,
changing the name of the same to the New Ulm Savings and Loan Association, of
which he is still the secretary; the concern long having been recognized as one
of the leading institutions of the kind in this part of the state. During all
this time Mr. Pfaender had been giving close attention to the study of
horticulture along scientific lines and in 1900 started a forty-acre nursery,
which he presently increased to eighty acres and has long been one of the
leading nursery men in Minnesota. On April 5, 1915, Mr. Pfaender incorporated
his enterprise under the name of the Pioneer Nursery Company, with a capital
stock of fifty thousand dollars, and is the active head of the concern.

     On October 16. 1881, William Pfaender was united in marriage to Emelia
Kiesling, who was born in this county, daughter of Rudolph and Helena (Held)
Kiesling, the former a native of Saxony and the latter of Wurtemberg, who came
to this county with the colony promoted by the Chicago Land Verein in 1853, and
both of whom are still living, now making their home at Kiesling, Washington.
Their other children were Fred, Thekla, Sophia, Helen, Rudolph, Hugo, Erna and
Lydia. Rudolph Kiesling is the son of August Kiesling and wife, who were among
the original pioneers of this county, who had five children, Herman, Mina,
William, Rudolph and a son who was killed during the massacre in 1862. Mrs.
Kiesling was one of four children bora to her parents, Grandfather Held and
wife, the others being Fritz, Albert and Rosa.

     To William and Emeiia (Kiesling) Pfaender five children were born, namely:
Rudolph, who married Meta Hanschen and is now engaged in the insurance business
established by his grandfather at New Ulm, known as the William Pfaender Agency;
Max, a horticulturist and forester, now assistant superintendent of the
government experiment station at Mandan, North Dakota, married Hilda Peuser and
has two children, Robert and Elizabeth; Thekla, who died of diphtheria when nine
years old; Emil, who is associated with his father in the nursery business, and
Carl, who died at St. Paul when six months of age. The mother of these children
died on January 31, 1891, at the age of thirty years, and on October 10, 1893,
Mr. Pfaender married, secondly, Sophia Berndt, who was born at New Ulm, daughter
of Julius and Mina (Kiesling) Berndt, the former of whom was born in Silicia and
the latter in New Ulm. Julius Berndt and his wife, both of whom are still living
at New Ulm, are the parents of seven children, Ida, Sophia, August, Hugo,
Rudolph, Rosa and Julia. He is one of three children born to his parents, he
having had two brothers, William and Herman, and his wife is one of the five
children of August Kiesling and wife, pioneers of this county, mentioned above.
To William and Sophia (Berndt) Pfaender six children have been born, Wallie (a
daughter), Thomas, Carl, Catherine, Lottchen and Rosa. Mr. and Mrs. Pfaender are
members of the New Ulm Turnverein, of which he has been an active member for
forty-five years. They long have taken an earnest part in the various social and
cultural activities of their home town and are held in the highest esteem by all
hereabout.


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


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