John Frederick, born February 11, 1847, in Württemberg, Germany, was a successful farmer in Hooker Township, Gage County, Nebraska. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1854, settling in Maryland before moving to Illinois and Missouri. At fifteen, he enlisted as a drummer boy in the Eighty-second Illinois Infantry during the Civil War, participating in numerous significant battles and enduring sixty days in Libby Prison. After the war, he moved to Nebraska in 1870, purchasing land and gradually amassing 320 acres of well-improved farmland. On November 12, 1878, he married Elizabeth Gillett, and they had nine children. Active in the community, John was a Republican, a member of the Grand Army post at Adams, and attended the Methodist Episcopal Church.
John Frederick, one of the well-to-do and successful farmers of Hooker Township, Gage County, Nebraska, residing on section 16, has been in this part of Southeastern Nebraska for over thirty years. While now accounted a man of means, he began life poor, and his individual efforts have been crowned with a more than ordinary degree of prosperity. He is esteemed as one of the strictly self-made men of the county, as a foreign-born citizen who took loyal part in the Civil War, and as a man who can be relied upon for help and co-operation in all things affecting the public welfare of his county and community.
Mr. Frederick was born in Württemberg, Germany, February 11, 1847, a son of Lewis and Catherine (Francis) Frederick, who brought their family to America in 1854, settling first in Maryland, then in St. Clair County, Illinois, and later in Missouri. His father died in Keokuk, Iowa, but his mother is still living at the age of ninety-three, and retains the energy and vitality sufficient to walk two miles. The three children living are Mary, in Beatrice, John, and Lizzie, in Gage County, Nebraska. They were all Lutherans.
John Frederick was reared on a farm, and worked out by the month for several years after attaining his majority. He was only fifteen years old when he enlisted from Springfield, Illinois, as a drummer boy in Company F, Eighty-second Illinois Infantry, under Captain Weaver and Colonel Hecker. He was at Chancellorsville, Jackson, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, in the Georgia campaign, at Resaca, New Hope Church, Burnt Hickory, at Atlanta, and many other engagements. He was captured and held prisoner in the ill-famed Libby prison for sixty days, but was then liberated, and after a short time went home. It was after a three days’ march out of Savannah, Mr. Frederick and a companion went off from the regiment foraging, and while sitting in a log cabin about a dozen “Johnnies” came upon them. The doors of the cabin were instantly closed and a volley fired from the window, killing one man and a horse. The Johnnies started to run but finally decided to return, and did so, firing many shots through the door in a room occupied by several parties, three children being in the room, but no one was killed. Mr. Frederick and his companion were captured and later landed in prison. On the way several times threats were made to kill the prisoners but one level-headed man prevailed upon the rest not to kill them. For the last two years of his service he carried a gun in the ranks. He was honorably discharged at Springfield, Illinois, in January, 1865, having gained an excellent record as a soldier. He had some narrow escapes, and once had a comrade shot down at his side. He was frugal and diligent from early youth, and with what he had saved he came to Nebraska in 1870 and bought one hundred and sixty acres in Gage County for seven dollars and a quarter per acre. He now owns three hundred and twenty acres in this county, and it is worth sixty dollars an acre, and is finely improved with a good house, barns and a grove of seven acres. It is a model farmstead, one of the many pretty places of which Gage County can boast.
Mr. Frederick was married November 12, 1878, to Elizabeth Gillett, who came here from Rock County, Wisconsin, at the age of seventeen, a daughter of Hamilton and Margaret (Day) Gillett, the former a resident of Adams, Nebraska, and the latter deceased. Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Frederick: Margaret, Martha, William, Lydia, Andrew, Harrison, Jesse, Robert, and Laura. Mr. Frederick is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Grand Army post at Adams, and attends the Methodist Episcopal church.
Source: Lewis Publishing Company, A Biographical and Genealogical History of Southeastern Nebraska, 2 volumes, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904.