Clay Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-Fred Wyss
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
FRED WYSS. The subject of this notice,
who is a leader among the Swiss population
of Bloom Township, Clay County, is a
man of much intelligence, highly respected in his
community and has held most of the local offices.
He owns and operates a good farm on section 9,
160 acres in extent, which he homesteaded and
settled upon in 1871. The land is naturally fertile
and well-watered by Mulberry Creek, and under the
wise management of the proprietor yields him
handsome returns.
Mr. Wyss is one or those men who came to
Northern Kansas poor in purse and who by the
exercise of industry and perseverance, have become
well-to-do. He was born in the Canton of Bern,
Switzerland, June 19, 1847 where he spent the first
nineteen years of his life. Upon emigrating to
America in 1866, he settled first, in Tuscarawas
County, Ohio, where he lived six years engaged
as a cheese-maker. He had been reared to habits of
industry, his parents being in moderate circumstances,
and his father, John Wyss, a cooper by
trade. The latter spent his entire life in his native
Canton of Bern, dying there in 1866 when sixty
years old. He was an honest man and a member in
good standing of the German Reformed Church.
The maiden name of the mother of our subject
was Margaretta Affolter. She likewise was born
and reared in the Canton of Bern, and survived her
husband a number of years, spending her last days
near the place of her birth. She died in 1885 at
the age of seventy-five years. The parental household
included eight children of whom Frederick
was one of the younger. After setting out for
America, young Wyss made his way to Havre,
France, where he boarded a sailing vessel, the
"Mercury" which after forty days on the ocean
landed him in New York City, April 16, 1866.
Hence he wont to Ohio and from there came to
this State.
After taking up his land Mr. Wyss, being unmarried,
kept bachelor's hall in a dugout. In due
time he made the acquaintance of Miss Caroline
Wyss, to whom he was married Aug. 17, 1876.
This lady was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio,
Nov. 10, 1858, and is the daughter of Christian
and Anna (Nicholas) Wyss, natives of Switzerland,
who came to America with their respective parents
in their childhood. The two families settled in
the above mentioned county, and there the young
people were reared and married. Afterward they
located upon a farm and the father of Mrs. Wyss
became well-to-do. He and his wife are yet living
in Ohio, being now quite aged and somewhat feeble.
They had a family of ten children, eight of whom
are living and with the exception of Mrs. Wyss
milking their homes in Ohio. To our subject and
his wife there have been born four children, viz:
Charles W., Anna M., Mary E. and Ida. Politically,
Mr, Wyss supports the principles of the Democratic
party. Mr. and Mrs. Wyss are both members of
the German Reformed Church. A handsome lithographic
view of the Wyss residence is shown on
another page of this work.