San
Joaquin County
Biographies
FRED BAERWALD
Classed with the enterprising and
progressive businessmen of Lodi is Fred Baerwald, the proprietor of a grocery
store located at 427 East Locust Street, where he has built up a good paying
business. He was born in Vohlinien, Russia, February 16, 1861, a son of Ludwig and
Anna Baerwald, both natives of Russia.
Ludwig Baerwald was a school teacher in his native country and was the
father of seven children by his first wife, Anna Baerwald: Samuel, Fred, and Henry grew up; while John,
Martin and Edward all died while small children; the seventh died at birth,
when the mother also passed away.
Subsequently the father married a second time and there were eleven
children in the second family: Adolph,
Ernst, August, Reinhardt, Emil, Reinhold, deceased, Edward, deceased, Amelia, Ottilia, Agatha, and Mary, deceased. The father passed away at the age of
fifty-three.
Fred Baerwald attended grammar
school in Russia and after finishing the grade work continued his studies until
he received a teacher’s certificate to teach in the grammar schools of Vohlinien, where he taught the German and Russian languages
for three years. At the age of
twenty-one years he entered the Russian Army, serving from 1882 until 1888 as a
doctor’s aide in the hospital department; later he became a druggist in the
military hospital. After his discharge
from the Army he again taught school for seven years until 1895, when he came
to the United States settling in Towner County, North Dakota, where he homesteaded
a quarter-section of Government land; this he farmed for ten years when he sold
it and bought a half-section of land in the same county; this was located near Egeland and he farmed this until 1919 when he sold out and
moved to Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and engaged in farming on a 160-acre ranch.
The marriage of Mr. Baerwald occurred on October 20, 1888 in Vohlinien, Russia, which united him with Miss Emelia Lange,
a native of the same place, a daughter of Reinhold and Wilhelmina Lange. Her father was a teacher and a merchant in Vohlinien and was a soldier in the Russian Army during the
Turkish War of 1877. Mr. and Mrs. Baerwald are the parents of thirteen children: Elfreda, Mrs. L. Klebaum, resides in Egeland,
North Dakota; Mrs. Martha Ide resides at Braham,
Minnesota; Meta, Mrs. A. Klebaum, resides at Egeland, North Dakota; Mrs. Selma Filter and Mrs. Hertha Heath reside in Lodi; Mrs. Ella Peterson resides at
Bonners Ferry, Idaho; Irene, Gertrude, Rosamond, Ehrhard,
and Alfred all reside in Lodi; the next to the oldest child, Reinhold, is
deceased. The family’s residence in
Idaho was of only six months’ duration, when they came to Lodi in October,
1920. At that time he purchased a
ten-acre vineyard in Madera County devoted to Thompson seedless grapes and
alfalfa, which he only held for a year, and in December, 1921, purchased a
grocery store at 427 East Locust Street.
In politics Mr. Baerwald is a Republican and
he and his family are members of the Lutheran Church
of Lodi.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1568-1569. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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