FRED KOEHLER

KOEHLER, GORDELMEN

Posted By: Mona Sarratt Knight (email)
Date: 7/14/2009 at 20:30:33

Source: The History of Appanoose County, Iowa, Containing A History of the County, its Cities, Towns, etc., A Biographical Directory of Citizens, War Records of its Volunteers in the late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics, Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, History of the Northwest, History of Iowa, Map of Appanoose County, Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, etc.; illustrated; Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1878.

FRED KOEHLER, farmer, Sec. 11; P.O. Unionville; born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1835; emigrated to America in March 1850, and first settled in New Orleans, where he was employed as cart-driver until the following July, when he went to St. Louis, where he engaged to learn the cooper's trade, which he followed until 1854 when his father, Conrad K., came to this country, and with him he came to Nauvoo, Ill., where he again engaged in coopering for a few months; and, in 1855, he started overland for California, arriving in November; there engaged in mining; also visited British Columbia; in 1863, returned to Hancock Co., Ill., where he bought a farm and then engaged in that very honorable calling until 1875, when he came to this county, this township, where he owns 240 acres of land, valued at $25 per acre. After returning from California, in 1863, he married Miss Eva Gordelmen, a resident of Hancock Co., Ill.; she was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1843, and with her parents came to America in 1855; they have six children - George, Katy, August, John, Sarah and Mary. Republican in politics; members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Koehler enlisted in the 2d Cal. Inf., and was held in quarters for two weeks, then rejected on account of an over supply of men; in 1865, was drafted and mustered in, but not sent forward. Mr. Koehler landed in New Orleans with but twenty-five franc pieces, and by steady industry and attention to business, has accumulated a fine property, and yet paid one hundred cents on the dollar for all that he now has, or has had.