Laramie County WY Archives Biographies.....Gerber, J. Frederick 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 June 19, 2009, 4:52 am

Author: Bowen & Co. (1903)

J. FREDERICK GERBER.

   J. Frederick Gerber, of Granite Canyon, Wyo., is a native of Switzerland, and
was born in that land of liberty on June 1, 1845, the son of John and Katheryn
(Ernst) Gerber, both natives of Switzerland. He grew to manhood amid the
mountain surroundings of his early home, receiving there a good education and
assisting his father in the work and management of his little farm. He remained
at home until he had attained to the age of twenty-one years, when reports of
the wonderful new world beyond the sea coming to him, he resolved to seek his
fortune there. Leaving the home of his childhood with little or no capital save
good health and a determination to succeed, he arrived in New York in March,
1866, and soon came west to Omaha, Neb., then a small town on the extreme
western frontier, and here he soon secured employment as a butcher. He followed
this occupation until June, 1867, when he accepted a position with the Union
Pacific Railroad, then under construction, on the station it was erecting in
Omaha, and was also employed in other work connected with the building
department of that company. In 1868 he returned to the meat business in Omaha,
and there followed that vocation until 1876, when he came to North Platte, Neb.,
and after a three months' stay went to Sidney, where he entered the employ of
the Pratt & Ferris Cattle Co., with which he remained until the spring of 1877,
working during most of that time as a teamster between Sidney and Fort Robinson.
In 1877 he was for five months engaged on a large beef contract at Fort
Robinson, then proceeded to Fort Custer, Mont., subsequently going to Bozeman,
where he worked at butchering for the company which had the contract for
supplying beef to the military post at Fort Custer, remaining there until May,
1878, when he returned to the south and came to Cheyenne, where he secured
employment at his trade for about three years. He then removed to Denver, Colo.,
where he followed the same occupation until 1893, then he located a homestead
about twenty miles north of Pine Bluffs. Wyo., and engaged in cattle-raising,
improving his land and steadily extending his business and increasing his herds.
Through hard work, habits of economy and careful attention he built up a
prosperous and successful business which gave promise of growing to large
proportions, but in the spring of 1902 his health, which had been failing for
some years, became so pour that he was compelled lo give up active business and
dispose of his ranch and stock. He has since been living a quiet and retired
life, making his home with his brother John A. Gerber at Granite Canyon.
Fraternally, Mr. Gerber is affiliated with the order of Red Men, being a member
of the lodge at Denver. Politically, he is a member of the Republican party, and
is a man of many admirable traits of character, and from his long experience on
the western frontier he can relate many interesting reminiscences of life on the
plains, especially of the early days of the construction of the Union Pacific
Railroad through Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF THE STATE OF WYOMING

ILLUSTRATED

A people who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors, will
never achieve anything worthy to he remembered with pride by remote
generations.—.MACAULAY.

CHICAGO, ILL.
A. W. BOWEN & CO.
PUBLISHERS AND ENGRAVERS
1903


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