- GERHARD LETTMANN, a prosperous German-American citizen of Bovina township, Outagamie county, whose sixty-acre farm is situated in section 35, is a son of Henry Gerhard and Margaret (Warns) Lettmann, who spent their entire lives in Germany. Gerhard Lettmann was born June 1, 1842, in Germany, coming to the United States in 1868, on July 4th of which year he landed in New York. He came directly to Wisconsin, and for one year worked on a farm in Ellington township, Outagamie county, the two years following being spent in work in a sawmill. During the second year thus spent, he bought sixteen acres of woodland at Stevensville, on which he built a one-room house, 12x16 feet, four years later building an addition 12x16 feet, in which he lived for about twenty-seven years, and during this time he worked at various occupations, one of his positions being that of mail carrier between Hortonville and Stephensville, for which he received $130 per year. He also worked in the sawmills and at other occupations during the winters and on the farms of the neighborhood in the summers, and in 1896 he sold his property and bought an almost wild farm, on which he now lives. He now has forty acres under the plow, and the remainder of the property, with the exception of four acres, all cleared and being used as pasture land. He is engaged in general farming and stock raising, has good, substanitial buildings, and his property is fenced with barbed wire, while woven wire will soon be put in. The little house which he built on his first property at Stephensville, is still standing and has been remodeled .
In 1871 Mr. Lettmann was married to Miss Minnie Lohrence, a native of Germany, who died in 1875, having been the mother of three children, of whom one is living: George, a resident of Colorado, who is married and has three children. In 1876 Mr. Lettmann was married (second) to Miss Sophia Heiden, who was born May 17, 1858, daughter of Joachim and Helen Heiden, natives of Germany. They came to the United States in 1868 and settled in Outagamie county, both dying at the home of Mr. Lettmann, the father in 1883 at the age of fifty-three years, and the mother in March, 1902, when eighty-two years old. Mr. and Mrs. Lettmann have had ten children: Matilda, who married Claud Earl, of New London, has two children; William, who married Catherine Callan, has three children; Henry, who married Grace Hazen, living in Spokane, Washington; Marie, who married Rudolph Schwandt, living in Shiocton, has two children; and Otto, Louis, Ella, Dorothea, Harry and Lydia, all single and living at home. The home farm is now being operated by Louis Lettmann, the father having been incapacitated for hard work. In politics Gerhard Lettmann is a Republican, and with his family he attends the Lutheran Church of Shiocton, of which he is an active and liberal member .
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1842 - 1919 (76 years)
1900 Census
