Fred Schoettlin is doing big things, even in this country where everything is measured by large standards. He is one of the prominent sheep growers of Fremont county, having thousands of acres of land, on which he is pasturing great flocks. He was born in Switzerland, August 2, 1869, and is a son of John and Margaret (Neukom) Schoettlin, both of whom spent their entire lives in the land of the Alps.
    The son, Fred Schoettlin, was reared under the parental roof, acquiring his education in the public and high schools, and in the fall of 1892, when a young man of twenty-three years, he left his native country and came to the United States. He did not tarry in the east but made his way across the country and took up his abode in Fremont county, Wyoming, where he began working for wages. In the years immediately following he engaged in farm work, rode the range and herded sheep. During: the panic of 1893 he was forced to work at whatever offered, for financial conditions so depressed business that any position was hard to obtain. With resolute spirit, however, he passed through this depressing period and by the fall of 1898 had managed to save from his earnings a small sum of money and started in business on his own account. He purchased a little bunch of sheep which he put upon the open range. Today he is the owner of eight hundred acres of land and leases thirty-five thousand acres of Indian land besides three additional sections, one of state land and two sections of school land. Thus more than forty thousand acres of land is under his control and upon the wide range he pastured in the winter of 1918 about four thousand head of sheep. This is today one of the important industries of the state, constituting a chief source of growing wealth and prosperity in Wyoming.
    In 1907 Mr. Schoettlin was married to Miss Elzie Keller, of Switzerland, returning to his native land for his bride, thus making his second visit to Switzerland after becoming a resident of America. To Mr. and Mrs. Schoettlin have been born two children, Margaret and Meta.
    Politically Mr. Schoettlin is a republican, having supported the party since becoming a naturalized American citizen. Fraternally he is connected with Lander Lodge, No. 10, K. P., and also belongs to the Woodmen of the World. He and his wife are members of the Congregational church and are highly esteemed in Lander, where their genuine worth has secured for them the hospitality of the best homes. Mr. Schoettlin is a member of the Lander Commercial Club and is one of the representative residents of his city, alert and enterprising in all that pertains to civic progress and municipal improvement, while at the same time he wisely and carefully directs his business affairs. which from a most modest beginning have developed into extensive proportions.