Frederick Becker, 1864

1918 HISTORY OF CLARK CO., WI

FREDERICK BECKER, a well known stock and dairy farmer of Beaver Township, is a native of Germany, having been born in the village of Blaumtin, province of Pommerania, May 19, 1864, d son of Frederick Becker. He is unable to remember his mother, as she died when he was 3 years old, leaving, besides himself, a young daughter named Amelia. The father subsequently married again and emigrated to the United States, bringing his daughter with him, but leaving young Frederick in Germany. The latter was then 15 years of age. His schooling was limited, as he had to begin industrial life at an early age. After remaining in Germany until he was 27 years old, he then came also to this country, being still a single man. Locating in Milwaukee, he found work there as a mason's laborer and remained two years. At the end of that time he came to Clark County and went to work on a farm in Green Grove Township and was thus occupied until about 1897, when he bought a tract of wild land in Section 4, that township. There were no buildings on it, but he put up a frame house and, procuring a horse team, began to clear the land. He was at this time a married man, as he had been united in Milwaukee, Feb. 7, 1892, to Wilhelmina Tetzlaff, who was born in Germany, Jan. 3, 1870, daughter of Theodore Tetzlaff. She also had lost her mother when young she had a brother and sister--William and Bertha, the latter of whom was married in Germany and, with her husband, accompanied Wilhelmina to Milwaukee in 1891. The father, Theodore, and the brother, William, remained in Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Becker remained in Green Grove Township for three and a half years, after which they lived for nine months in Colby. In 1904 Mr. Becker bought his present farm of eighty acres. It was then covered with timber, except that five or six acres had been chopped. There was a frame barn on the land and a small frame house--a mere shanty of two rooms. Since then Mr. Becker has made good progress and now has a fine frame house of ten rooms and a substantial barn, 30 by 60 feet. He raises graded cattle and Chester-white hogs with good success and has a good dairy business. A German Lutheran in religion, he helped to build the church of that denomination in Green Grove Township. Mr. and Mrs. Becker are the parents of four children: Paul, Elsie, Marie and Otto. Paul, who was born in Milwaukee, Nov. 20, 1892, was formerly a teacher in Dakota. He now resides in Two Rivers, Minn., where he is a bookkeeper in the Hamilton furniture factory. Elsie, born in Milwaukee, March 10, 1894, is the wife of Albert Schuh of Colby and has one child, Raymond. Marie, born in Green Grove Township, Clark County, May 20, 1896, is unmarried. Otto, born in Green Grove Township, July 14, 1902.