BIOGRAPHIES:  Frank DRAAK, Stanley Township, Barron County, WI

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:  
Vic Gulickson <vic@indy.net>  13 August 2000	
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Frank Draak, retired farmer of Sections 33 and 34, Stanley Township, now
living in Cameron, was born in Germany, April 14, 1865, one of the four
children of Carl Draak. The mother died in 1869. Frank was reared on a farm in
Germany and there lived to adult years. He came to America in 1888 and found
his way to Barron County, where he worked in the woods, in mills, and on the
railroads. In 1898 he bought 80 acres of wild land in Sections 33 and 34, but
little developed and with but an old shack on the place, He moved into this
shack with his bride and they started homemaking. They were in debt, they had
but little in the way of furniture and farm equipment, and for a while they
had to practice many denials. But as the years passed they won prosperity.
Their shack was replaced first by a log cabin and later by a frame house. The
farm was gradually improved until about half was cleared and under
cultivation. In 1918, after long years of hard work, they retired and moved to
Cameron, where they are reaping the well-deserved rewards of a useful life.
Mr. Draak was married at Sumner on Aug. 29, 1896, to Elizabeth Pieper, who was
born in Germany, April 26, 1872, the daughter of August and Henrietta (Bortz)
Pieper of this county. Mr. and Mrs. Draak have had three children: Edith, now
Mrs. Carl Wetzel of Maple Grove Township; Esther of Eau Claire, and Maynard, a
bright boy and the pride of his parents' hearts, who died at the age of
thirteen years. The family faith is that of the German Lutheran Church.

--Taken  from:  History  of  Barron  Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr.,
& Co., 1922, pg. 763.