FRED FEYERHERM.
One of the most successful early settlers of Staunton county is the genial Fred Feyerherm, now retired, living in the county seat. He has been successful, not only as a landed proprietor, but as a merchant and honored county official as well.
Mr. Feyerherm was born in the town of Barwalde, province of Brandenburg, Prussia, February 26, 1852. Here he spent the years of his childhood and youth, as his parents, Frederick W. and Eleanor (Rindfieisch) Feyerherm, did not leave Germany until 1868. They sailed from Hamburg on the steamer "Utonia," and arrived in New York city after a voyage of fourteen days. The father settled with his family in Cuming county, where a brother had preceded him, and lived out his days on the farm.
Fred remained at home with his parents, working the farm for his father, until he was twenty-four years old. He was then married at Rock Creek to Miss Bertha Schultz, daughter of John M. and Sophie (Dewitz) Schultz, natives of Altruednitz am Oder, in the province of Brandenburg, who came to this country in 1867. After his marriage, Mr. Feyerherm took charge of his father's farm in his own right, living there some seven years or more.
In 1883, he removed to Staunton county, and bought a farm about five miles from the county seat, to which the family moved after a year's residence on the farm. Mrs. Feyerherm was a delicate woman, and her strength did not prove equal to the demands made upon it by the work on the farm in those early days, and it was hoped that a few years of the greater ease in town would fully restore her to health. Mrs. Feyerherm once had the unusual experience of reading her own obituary. A neighbor died when Mrs. Feyerherm was critically ill, and the report went out that she had passed away.
Coming to town, Mr. Feyerherm engaged in the implement business, continuing in that line for twenty-one years, until his election as county treasurer in the fall of 1905. He served the public in this capacity so acceptably that he was called upon to fill the position a second term, carrying every precinct in the county. This is an endorsement of his administration of which any official might be proud, when it is considered that he is a republican, while the county is strongly democratic.
Mr. Feyerherm passed through the vicissitudes of a pioneer's life in Nebraska, and has seen the country develop from the time when it was almost entirely wild, with flocks of antelope ranging over the prairies, to its present state. Indians gave them but little trouble, although when the men were away working, their incessant begging for bread or flour used to make the feminine portion of the household nervous.
Of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Feyerherm, seven are living. Their names are as follows: Ella (Mrs. Alfred Claus), of Lewiston, Minnesota; Fred; Clara (Mrs. Henry Schwartz), of Menominee, Wisconsin; Eric, Edith, Irene and Freda.
Mr. Feyerherm and his family are members of the St. John's Lutheran church of Staunton. This family is well known socially, their musical talents alone being sufficient to bring them into notice. All of the children have fine voices, and they are also pianists of no ordinary ability. The young ladies are members of an excellent female quartet, which has attracted more than local attention, being recognized as splendid talent in western Nebraska.