Frederick Wilhelm

REV. FREDERICK WILHELM, director of Concordia Home, was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, July 29, 1840, son of Jacob, and Christina (Jeutter) Wilhelm, natives of the same place. He was educated in a school in his native town, and subsequently studied at a Theological Missionary Institution, at Chrischona, Switzerland. He immigrated to Michigan in 1868, and was ordained October 11th of that year. He became pastor at Albion, and subsequently at Kalamazoo, of a German Lutheran church, coming to Butler county in 1870, as pastor of the German Lutheran congregation of Jefferson township, known as St. Lucas Evangelical Lutheran church, of which he had charge for twenty-one years. He also preached at Freeport, Summit, and Little Germany, in Buffalo township, in connection with his regular pastorate. In 1891 he was elected to his present position, where he has charge of the orphans and aged people which this charitable institution succors. Mr. Wilhelm’s father died in 1877, and he went to Germany and brought his mother to this county, where she spent the remaining years of her life at his home, dying in 1888. He was married June 16, 1870, to Louis Krauss, a daughter of William Krauss, a German Lutheran minister. She was born May 2, 1837, and although they have had no children, they have reared three from infancy, viz.: Philip Wilhelm, a minister of the Lutheran church, now residing in Wisconsin; Edward Hahn, a teacher, and Frederick Lang, of Sharpsburg. In politics, Mr. Wilhelm is independent, always casting his vote for those whom he regards as best fitted for the office.