Ferdinand GOFFART; Biographical Sketch; DePere Township, Brown County ************************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ Kathleen Race krace@uwsi.com *************************************************************************** Excerpt from Commemorative Biographical Record of the Fox River Valley Counties of Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago by J H Beers Co publishers 1900 Chicago, IL. Ferdinand Goffart, justice of the peace, and one of the most extensive farmers of De Pere township, Brown county, was born November 18, 1836, in Belgium, son of Peter J. Goffart. The latter was a gardener and store-keeper, and also followed the business of dyer, besides various other occupations. He had eight children---five sons and three daughters---of whom Ferdinand is the second child and eldest son. Our subject first attended the village schools, and then for two years went to a graded school, receiving a very fair education, all in French. It was the intention of his parents to educate him for professional life, but, his father dying when he was sixteen years old, he was obliged to leave school and assist in the support of the family. Concluding he could better his condition by coming to the United State, he bade farewell to his home and friends, and in the spring of 1857 sailed from Antwerp on the 'John Elliot', landing at New York after a voyage of fifty-six days. His destination was Green Bay, Wis., and thither he proceeded from New York by rail and water, arriving August 8. The first work he did in the New World was on a piece of land in the town of Scott, Brown Co., Wis., which he abandoned after some time, and hard work, and later he went to Bay Settlement; proceedin to Red River township, Kewaunee county, he prospected for land; but not being satisfied, he returned to Green Bay. In the following spring (1858) he came to De Pere township, Brown county, and here purchased about one hundred acres of land, paying therefor eleven hundred dollars. On this tract he erected a round-log house, 14 x 16, which was the first building on the place, and the only other house between it and De Pere. He immediately set to work to clear up the land, which was densely covered with timber, principally beech and maple, but he also found some pine, black birch, elm and ash trees; on one part of the land was a heavy growth of 'sugar bush'. After much hard work he succeeded in clearing space enough to put in a crop, the first being rye, and as the years passed the entire tract gradually became a well-cultivated farm. In June, 1858, Mr. Goffart's widowed mother had come hither, bringing the remainder of the family, but the greater part of the responsibility rested on Ferdinand. She died in Rockland township, Brown county, in 1888 and was buried in De Pere cemetery. On March 9, 1861, Ferdinand Goffart was united in marriage in Fremont county, Iowa, with Miss Julia E. Frederickson, who was born in Burlington, Racine county, Wis., and to this union were born twelve children, eight of whom are now living, viz.: Sylvester, a resident of the State of Washington; Mary C., now Mrs. Oscar Barkman, of St. Paul, Minn.; Adaline, a Sister in the convent at Detroit; Noah, residing in the State of Washington; Isabella, Sister in the convent at Chicago, Ill.; Sedonia, at home; and Emily and Julia, both of Detroit, Mich. Those deceased are Christiana, Charlotte S., Mary S. and Francis B. The mother of these died in 1882, and was buried in De Pere cemetery. On September 24, 1882, Mr. Goffart was married in De Pere, for his second wife, to Pelagie Bell, who was born December 31, 1851, in Belgium, daughter of Remy Bell, and came to the United States in 1865. To this marriage were born children as follows: Vicot B. (deceased), Rachel, Isaac, Rebecca, Moses, Zipporah (deceased), and Aaron. Immediately after his marriage to Julia Frederickson, Mr. Goffart went to South Dakota and took up a homestead at Elk Point, on the Missouri river, where he remained for nearly two years. He then removed to Iowa City, Iowa, and while there enlisted, on August 9, 1862, in Company G, Twenty-second Iowa V. I., for three years. He served to the close of the war, and was discharged in July, 1865, in Savannah, Ga., being mustered out at Davenport, Iowa, and during his entire service he was never on the sick list, and was never wounded. Upon his return home from the army he went back to Dakota, and thence, after a residence of two years more, removed to Detroit, Mich., and for one summer acted as superintendent of a farm near that city. Then, in 1868, he came to his present farm in De Pere township, Brown Co., Wis., which at that time was in a totally unimproved condition, and here he has ever made his home. He now owns 225 acres of excellent land, and is one of the most extensive agriculturists of his section. He has labored much and endured many hardships in the clearing and subduing of his land, and during his residence here he has seen the entire surrounding country transformed from a wilderness into fertile farms. He and his estimable wife are now about to live a retired life. During his service in the Civil war Mr. Goffart saw a great deal of the South; he is a well-read man and an observer, and is possessed of no small stock of general information. During the war he was a Republican, but he has since been a member of the Democratic party, and is a strong supporter of its principles, always voting that ticket in State and National elections, but in township and county affairs he exercises his franchise according to the dictates of his own conscience. He has been elected to various offices in his township, has been member of the school board, clerk of same, and is at present serving as justice of the peace, an office he has held with eminent satisfaction to all for the past fifteen years. He and his wife are members of the Catholic Church.