BIO: Frederick Wonderlich, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2010.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

                             CHAPTER XXXIX. 

                        BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.

441  BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.

  FREDERICK WONDERLICH, dealer in stoves and tin-ware, Mechanicsburg, 
was born four miles northeast of Carlisle, Cumberland Co., Penn., July 
13, 1828, son of Frederick (a farmer) and Catharine (Snyder) 
Wonderlich, also natives of this county, and members of the Lutheran 
Church; they had a family of three sons and three daughters, of whom 
Frederick and William (twins) are the youngest.  When Frederick was two 
years old his parents moved to Carlisle and kept hotel, and two years 
later (1833) came to Mechanicsburg and opened a hotel.  Our subject 
attended school and assisted his father in the hotel until he was 
seventeen, when he began to learn his trade with George Bobb, and two 
years later worked as journeyman at Carlisle, Churchtown; Landisburg, 
Perry Co.; Petersburg, Adams Co.; Columbus, Lancaster Co.; Allentown, 
Lehigh Co.; Catasauqua, Lehigh Co., Penn.; Staunton, Va.; then returned 
to Mechanicsburg, in 1852, and that year formed a partnership with his 
brother, William, and engaged in the stove and tinware business until 
1860, when he sold out to his brother and went to Mount Pleasant, Iowa; 
four months later he went to Rochester, Fulton Co., Ind., where he 
purchased a farm and engaged in agriculture until 1865, when he 
returned to Mechanicsburg, but that summer worked at his trade in 
Harrisburg, Penn.  In 1868 Mr. Wonderlich formed a partnership with 
George Hauck in the tinware and stove business, but at the expiration 
of two years sold out and formed a partnership in the same business 
with his brother George, who died in August, 1885.  Mr. Wonderlich was 
married, in 1852, to Miss Catharine Hartman (who died in 1858), a 
daughter of John and Susannah (Messinger) Hartman.  To this union were 
born two children:  Harry H., married to Miss Amelia Gross (is a 
butcher at Liberty Mills, Ind.); and George A., who died, aged four 
months.  In 1860 our subject married, for the second wife, Miss Jane 
Hartman, sister of his first wife, and they have two daughters:  Susan 
I., wife of George A. Edleblut, a painter, of Mechanicsburg; and Dora 
C., wife of James Koller, a manufacturer, member of the firm of J. B. 
Koller & Co.  Mr. Wonderlich is a member of the American Mechanics 
Association and Shiremanstown Benefit Association; his wife is a member 
of the United Brethren Church.  He is an enterprising business man and 
stands high in the estimation of all who know him.  His family is of 
German descent, his ancestors coming from Germany and settling in what 
was then Lancaster County, Penn., at an early date.