Frank Becker, 1850

History of Clark County, Wisconsin (1918

FRANK BECKER, who is conducting a profitable farm in Section 2, Beaver Township, was born in Eure, Switzerland, Oct. 19, 1850, son of Joseph and Anna (Kompf) Becker. The father, born in Switzerland in 1822, was a farmer who spent his life in his native land. He and his wife reared seven children: Josepha, Rose, Kathrina, Joseph, Frank, Sophia and Antoine. Frank Brecker was educated in Switzerland and worked out until he was 27 years old. Then, in October, 1880, he married May Reddie, a native of Switzerland, like himself, whose father, John Reddie, was a farmer there. For six years after their marriage they remained in Switzerland and there three children were born to them--Anne, Barbara and Kathrine. During this time Mr. Brecker was engaged in farming. In 1885 he and his family came to the United States, locating at Bucondie, Wis., where he arrived with but two dollars in cash. There he rented a farm for a year and at the end of that time went to work in a sawmill, being thus employed two years. After that he rented a tract of wild land in Beaver Township, Clark County, which he and his wife cleared, spending six years on the place. At the end of that time he bought eighty acres in Section 2, Beaver Township, this being the place on which he now resides. It was then a wilderness, there being no road nor any house in the vicinity, but he commenced the work of civilization by erecting a log house and barn. His only stock was a pig that soon died. In the winter he worked in the woods and in the summer on his farm. There were so few conveniences that he had to carry water for half a mile. After awhile he procured a pair of oxen and then he made more rapid progress. When his family needed supplies he had to obtain them from Greenwood, driving a distance of fifteen miles by a round-about road.

Such were a few of his early difficulties, which, however, he has long ago surmounted. He now has forty acres of his farm cleared and has built a ten-room frame house and a barn 30 by 58 feet. For fourteen years they lived in the old log house, during which time four more children were born to them--Mary, Rosie, Adolph and Frank. The record of their children, in brief, is as follows: Annie is the wife of Mr. Molle and resides in Canada. She has four children: Edwin, Alvin, Alfred and Clara. Barbara, now Mrs. Mandle, of Beaver Township, has three children, Alfred, Arnold and Leo. Kathrine, now Mrs. Klessig, of Beaver Township, has six children, Annie, Alma, Leo, Cecelia, Irena and Eleanor. Mary is the wife of Mr. Molle, of Green Grove Township and has four children, Arthur, Arvin, Ernest and Esther. Rosie, who is now Mrs. Awe, of Green Grove Township, is the mother of three children, Alvenia, Alma and Lena. Adolph and Frank reside on the home farm, which is now in a profitable condition and on which Mr. Brecker raises Holstein cattle with good financial returns.