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Subject: Fred Dukescherer bio 1906
Date: 23 Oct 2004 19:38:04 -0600

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Surnames: Dukescherer Schous Ashoff Wert Carpenter Heyne Buhlinger
Classification: Query

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/mFB.2ACI/1168

Message Board Post:

FRED DUKESCHERER, who manifests a public spirited interest in local affairs relating to the welfare and benefit of his community, at the same time gives a due proportion of attention to his private business interests, carefully conducting his farm along modern lines of progress, was born in Nassau, Germany, on the 2d of May, 1844. His father, Wilhelm Dukescherer, was probably left an orphan in very early life, for at the age of seven years he was out with strangers and thus grew to manhood. He wedded Miss Dorothy Wert, who lived with a sister in her early girlhood, or until old enough to earn her own living. There were six children born of this marriage before the parents emigrated to the new world. The year 1846 saw the family embark for the United States and on the 2d of May of that year they arrived in St. Joseph, Michigan, on which date Fred Dukescherer was two years old. Michael Humphrey, an old neighbor in Germany, had already come to the United States and his family c!
rossed the Atlantic on the same vessel on which the Dukescherers had sailed and the two families came together to Michigan, arriving at St. Joseph on the day designated. Wilhelm Dukescherer purchased wild land in Bainbridge township, ten miles east of Benton Harbor and two miles north of the Territorial road, the farm extending to the north line uf the township. He came to this country with very limited financial resources. In Germany he had been able to earn nothing more than a living, working as a teamster, and discouraged at the prospect of ever improving his condition there he resolved to try his fortune in America, believing that better opportunities might be enjoyed in this country; Accordingly when he had reached the half century mark on the journey of life he sailed for the United States, spending eighty-six days on the water, and added to this was the trip from New York to the west by way of the lakes from Buffalo to Chicago and thence across Lake Michigan to Berri!
en county. He found a district largely unimproved and Benton Harbor co
ntained but one house. He settled upon that farm and there lived until his life's labors were ended in death in 1879, when he was eighty-six years of age. His wife died in 1870, in the seventy- third year of her age. His life was one of untiring industry and enterprise and he transformed one hundred and ten acres of his farm of one hundred and twenty acres from a state of barrenness into one of rich fertility. He made good improvements upon the place, erected substantial buildings and fences and set out good orchards. He also helped to build several schools and churches in the county and in all of his work whether as a citizen or private individual he was energetic and determined and his labors resulted ill the development of one of the best farms in Bainbridge township, He held membership in the Catholic Church, while his wife was of the Lutheran faith, and he was buried in Bainbridge cemetery within a stone's throw of his own home. He had been one of the charter members of!
the church which stood about a half mile distant from his home, While holding opposite views on religious questions Mr. and Mrs. Dukescherer never had any unpleasant discussions about the matter. She was as active in her church as her husband was in his, and the children were reared in the Lutheran faith, The members of this fam- ily are: Margaret, who became the wife of Jacob Schous, of Bainbridge township, and died at the age of seventy-three years; Elizabeth, who is the widow of Henry Ashoff, of Royalton, Michigan; Henry, a retired farmer of Bainbridge township, now living in Benton Harbor; Charles, who was a farmer in Watervliet township and died at the age of sixty-six years; Fred, whose name introduces this record; John, who is living on a farm near Benton Harbor; William, a carpenter residing in Muskegon, Michigan; and Louise, the wife of Charles Heyne, of Stevensville, Michigan,
Fred Dukescherer remained at home until twenty-five years of age, and during that period assisted in the arduous task of developing and cultivating a new farm as his age and strength permitted, giving his father the benefit of his services through the period of his boyhood and youth, He acquired his education in the public schools and gained from practical experience the knowledge which has enabled him to carefully conduct his own business interests in later years, When twenty-five years of age he left home and was married to Miss Elizabeth Buhlinger, of Bainbridge township, a daughter of Simeon Buhlinger, also a pioneer, who from an early day was connected with the substantial improvement and development of this part of the state,
Fred Dukescherer learned the butcher's trade in Chicago and followed that pursuit in St. Joseph and also in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for twelve years. He devoted a quarter of a century to the business in which he continued until 1896, when he came to his present farm in Hagar township. Here he has one hundred acres of land all now improved and he is engaged in the dairy business and general farming, keeping from eight to twelve cows and selling milk to the wholesale trade in Benton Harbor. His cattle are of the red polled variety. His fields are richly cultivated and he has upon his farm all of the equipments and accessories of a model property, indicating his careful supervision and determination as well as his business ability.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Dukescherer have been born a daughter and three sons: Sophia, now the wife of T. W. Carpenter , a printer of Chicago; Charles, who is engaged in the grocery business in Chicago ; Frank, a butcher of the same city; and Will, who is assisting in the work of the home farm. The father is a Democrat in his political views where there are party issues before the people but at local elections casts an independent ballot. He has spent almost his entire life in Michigan, having been brought to Berrien county when but two years old and save for the period passed in Chicago at the butcher's trade has always lived in this state. Whatever success he has attained has resulted from his own labors, for he has worked persistently and zealously at his trade and at farm labor in order to make a good start in life and secure a competence that will provide him with the comforts and luxuries of life and also give him a goodly sum for old age.

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