My Genealogy Hound

FREDERICK FIRST, one of the oldest and most prominent settlers of Pipestone Township, Berrien County, Mich., has won his way in life unaided, and, an energetic and industrious man of a high order of practical ability, has accumulated a large and valuable property and is numbered among the substantial men and leading citizens of the county. A friend to educational advancement, he has, as an officer of the School Board, materially assisted to improve the grade of instruction and scholarship in the district schools. Our subject is a native of Germany, and was born February 2, 1828, in Westphalia. His parents, Frederick and Angeline (Shearman) First, were both born in Westphalia, the father in 1793, and the mother in 1798. Reared, educated and married in the Old Country, they passed many years of their life in Germany before they finally decided to emigrate to the land of promise beyond the sea. In 1849, they emigrated with their family to America, and, locating in Ohio, spent seven years in Hamilton County. They then removed to Michigan and made their home with our subject until their death.

The parents trained to habits of industrious thrift four children: Frederick, our subject; Henrietta Huklehan, a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio; Mrs. Krohne; and Mrs. Horsman, the latter well known in Berrien County. The father and mother were valued members of the Lutheran Church and actively assisted in religious work. Our subject received an excellent education in Germany, and crossing the broad Atlantic in 1847 passed ten years as a gardener in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. First is, however, a life-time general farmer and thoroughly versed in every department of agriculture. In 1853 our subject was united in marriage with Miss Louisa, daughter of Henry and Annie (Kuklehan) Kuklehan, both natives of Westphalia, Germany. Mr. Kuklehan, a farmer, had been a soldier and served in the wars of the Fatherland. He emigrated to America in 1841 and made his home in Hamilton County, Ohio, where he and his estimable wife both died. They were the parents of nine children, seven of whom are now living; one brother, Lewis, is in business in New York City. Mr. and Mrs. Kuklehan were devout members of the Lutheran Church and were highly respected by all who knew them.

Mrs. First was born in Westphalia, Germany, August 4, 1833. The pleasant home has been blessed by the birth of ten sons and daughters, five of the children yet surviving. Lizzie S., the wife of Charles Fuelling and the mother of one child, resides in Indiana; Sophia married Herman Grabamayer, and with her husband and one child makes her home in Pipestone Township; Henry, who married Miss Annie Varnan, lives in Silver Cree Township, and is the father of four children; Lewis and Frank complete the list. Financially prospered, Mr. First at one time owned over eight hundred acres of valuable land, and has himself cleared, cultivated and improved over four hundred acres, reclaiming the soil from its wild state. As his children married he gave each a farm, and now retains three hundred and twenty acres, nearly all under high cultivation and finely improved. There were originally one hundred and sixty acres more in the homestead, which our subject gave to his children. Among the costly improvements of the extensive farm are good roads which cross it, and a fine residence, erected at a cost of $4,000, one of the best and most attractive homes in the township. Mr. First has been for many years a prominent member and an officer in the Lutheran Church. He was long connected with the School Board and liberally aided his children to receive a good education. Politically, he is a Republican, and has ever taken a deep interest in local and national affairs, without aspiring to hold office. Energetic and enterprising, he has in all the various duties of life been true to himself, his friends and family, and is known as a man of unswerving integrity and steadfast purpose.