Frederick Michaels, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Frederick Michaels
FREDERICK MICHAELS, merchant and Postmaster at Porter Post Office, was born April 27, 1829, in Prussia, Germany. He is the only child living of Frederick and Wilhelmina (Mix) Michaels, both natives of Germany. The elder Michaels had a trade, not common as a trade in this country, viz., the finishing and adjusting ornaments, crosses, etc. on towers. Mr. Michael's father died when the former was ten years of age; and four years later our subject began shoemaking in Breslau, and traveled in Germany until 1853, when he came to the United States and settled in La Porte, where he remained until 1855, engaged as tailor, shoemaker, etc. He then came to Porter Post Office without money, and engaged in railroading and carpentering, and took his present store, then very limited. He has been engaged as merchant, exclusively, for about twenty years, and has built all his buildings himself. He has two dwellings, store and dwelling, green house, windmills, etc., in "Old Porter," and nearly a quarter section of one of Westchester's finest farms, know as the Frayd farm, what is known as the "depot ground," and town lots, etc. He has a fine family vault in the Bailly Town Cemetery, value about $1,000. He was made Postmaster January 15, 1873, and has held the office ever since. He is a member of the Valparaiso Commandery, No. 28, and also of the Consistory. He owns a business block in Chicago, on Ogden and Central park avenues. Since the birth of the Republican party, he has been on of its stanch supporters. He married, after he came to Porter County, Mrs. Henriette Dedskind, a native of Saxony, now deceased. In 1876, he married his present wife - Bertha Fleming, a native of Saxony, and sister of his late wife. He has an adopted child - Paul F., and five step-children - Hilmar, Mrs. Franciska Faust, Mrs. Emma Lyon, Martha Fleming and Curt.
Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 305
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Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook