This land of ours owes a debt of gratitude to the stalwart and hardy
European races whose sons came in large numbers in the early "twenties" and
"thirties" when there was a crying need of fearless men to assist in the
work of winning the western states from their primitive wildness. The people
of Switzerland who came at that time formed a goodly contingent and numbered
in their ranks the present subject of our sketch and his parents.
Frederick Seiler, son of Olrich and Anna Seiler, was born on the 15th of
December, 1830, in Switzerland. In 1852, his parents, his brother John, and
himself, bidding adieu to the Fatherland, sailed for the United States. Upon
landing they settled in Illinois, and the subject of this biography lost no
time in getting down to the work of making a living. For some time he worked
as a farm hand on different farms, covering corn with a hoe for twenty-five
cents a day and board. He also helped his brother for some time, assisting
him in his trade as carpenter. For this work he received fifty cents per day
and his board. He again returned to farm work. He next became an employe of
the old Ohio & Mississippi Railroad (now the Baltimore & Ohio) where his
rate of wages was one dollar and twenty-five cents per day and board. Here
his industry and frugal habits permitted him to save some three hundred
dollars, which enabled him to make his first start in life on his own
account. In August, 1856, he married Mrs. Barbara Biber (nee Friedley), in
Preston township. She was the daughter of Lawrence and Barbara Friedley, her
mother's maiden name being Stingley. Like her husband, Mrs. Frederick Seiler
was born May 30, 1830, in Switzerland, coming from there to the United
States with her parents when but thirteen years of age. The family settled
near Mansfield, Ohio, upon a farm, where they remained for twelve years. In
1848, she (Barbara Friedley) married Caleb Biber, remaining in Ohio till
May, 1852, when, together with her husband and her parents she came to
Richland county, Illinois, the journey being made overland in wagons. In
Richland county, they settled on a farm of one hundred acres, obtaining same
from government at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. Caleb Biber
died in 1854, having had two children born to him, namely: Mary and
Lawrence. Mrs. Seller's parents died on the farm, her father in 1861 and her
mother in 1864.
On his marriage Frederick Seiler settled in 1856
upon his wife's farm of two hundred acres, where they lived for about ten
years, when Frederick Seiler much improved the property, building a house,
etc., on forty acres adjoining which he now lives, which he had previously
bought. The family then moved into the new home where they lived until 1902,
when they moved to Dundas, where they lived until the death of Mrs.
Frederick Seiler in 1904, at the age of seventy-four. She closed a happy
married life and is buried in Preston township in the Lutheran church
cemetery.
In this short period up to 1904, Frederick Seiler had
acquired altogether two hundred acres of very choice land, one hundred and
sixty acres of this being mostly timber, sixty-five was cleared and
cultivated. In the early days wild deer and other game existed in large
quantities in the township; harassing wolves and wildcats infested the
timber.
Eight children were born to Frederick Seiler and his wife,
seven of whom grew to maturity and one died in infancy. Their names are:
Frederick H., lives on a farm in Oklahoma; John F. lives on the home farm in
Preston township; Lucy D. is in Pennsylvania and is the wife of a
Presbyterian minister; Christian R. lives in Evansville, Indiana, where he
has been for twenty years; Louise E. lives at Newton, Illinois. Henry E. and
Charles are both deceased.
Frederick Seiler, on the death of his
first wife, remarried, July 26, 1906, his second wife being Mrs. Sadie
Austin (nee Crane), the widow of James Austin. She was born in 1843, at
Bridgeport, Lawrence county, Illinois, and was the daughter of Ishmael and
Mrs. Crane. They were Easterners, the father being born in New York and the
mother in New Jersey. Frederick Seller's second wife had one daughter, Laura
(Austin) Hollingsworth, by her first husband; Mrs. Hollingsworth lives in
Ohio. The second Mrs. Seiler died in Sumner, Illinois, February 11, 1907,
and was buried in the county cemetery southeast of Bridgeport, where her
parents were also buried.
The subject of our sketch received a good
education in the canton in which he lived in Switzerland, and it may
surprise many to learn that at that early time the laws of the country
compelled all children up to the age of sixteen to attend school for the
period of eleven months in each year. He is well versed in the German
language and his early training has been of much advantage to him. As he was
not tall enough in his youth in Switzerland to drill as a soldier, according
to the constitution of the country he should have paid the sum of one dollar
and serve a conscriptive term in the home guards. He was able to evade this
law through coming to the United States.
In politics Frederick
Seiler has been a consistent Democrat. At one period of his life, however,
he voted the Prohibition ticket during the McKinley administration. In his
younger days he was very active in the township and county political
affairs. For a period of twenty years he was a School Trustee of the
township. He was also formerly active in fraternal and social affairs, being
at one time a member of the Grange lodge in Dundas, Preston township. He is
a member of the Lutheran Evangelical church. He has 'himself taken a very
active part in church work during the twenty-four years he has been
connected with it. He was for twenty years or over an elder in the church.
His wife during her long life belonged to the German Reformed communion.
Frederick Seiler is now in his seventy-ninth year and is enjoying the
fruits of a very successful though arduous life. Starting life and making it
a success in a new country, the language and customs of which were foreign
to him, was not an easy task. He has been through the mill, he suffered many
hardships and many privations at the beginning of his career, he has been
for many years a prosperous farmer. He has reared a large and intelligent
family, and now in his retirement the memory of those early years of
struggle makes his leisure years all the more appreciable.
Extracted 21 May 2019 by Norma Hass from 1909 Biographical and Reminiscent History of Richland, Clay and Marion Counties, Illinois, pages 456-458.
| Jasper | Crawford | |
| Clay |
 |
Lawrence |
| Wayne | Edwards | Wabash |
