My Genealogy Hound

Hon. Frederick William Pehle, real estate agent, and a prominent farmer and stock raiser of Franklin County, was born in Prussia, in 1839, and is the fourth of nine children born to Adolph and Wilhelmina (Kerker) Pehle, who were born in 1796 and 1806, respectively. They were married about 1828, and came to the United States about 1840. They immediately settled in Gasconade County, Mo., seven miles south of Herman, on Government land, where they remained until 1845, when they removed to Franklin County, locating on the farm on which Mr. Pehle now resides, which is situated seven miles south of Berger, where the father died June 27, 1869. The mother died in 1885, at New Haven, at the residence of her youngest daughter, Mrs. S. H. Scleef. The father was a shoemaker, and one of the pioneers of Gasconade County. Soon after his settlement there in the woods he was crippled for life by a falling tree, and as the children were small, the entire support of the family devolved upon the mother. She was compelled to make rails and clear her land in order to raise a scanty supply of the necessaries of life for their sustenance. She was a woman of nerve and great determination, and endured the sufferings and privations as only a mother can. Our subject was reared at home, and what educational advantages he received are hardly worth mentioning, as he only attended eleven months in the English language, and his German education was limited to the Sunday-school. He put forth every available effort to obtain a knowledge of general matters, and has became a man of good business ability. He was married April 12, 1861, to Miss Hannah Altheide, who was born in December, 1838, and who is the daughter of Philip and Hannah Altheide, natives of Germany. Eight children were the result of Mr. Pehle’s marriage, three sons and four daughters living, viz.: Sadina (wife of Rev. G. W. Nolner, of Jefferson County), Annie, Henry, Gustave, William, Amanda and Alice. Since his marriage Mr. Pehle has resided on the homestead, which consisted of 140 acres, but now he is the owner of 4,000 acres in Franklin and Gasconade Counties, and has, perhaps, handled more real estate than any other man in the county. At one time he owned 10,000 acres, 6,000 of which he has disposed of. He began life as a public school teacher, and this occupation followed for eleven years during the winter season, and farmed during the summer. For about ten years he has been in the real estate business, and has made considerable wealth, having sold, perhaps, 15,000 acres in all. He served a short time in Company G, Fifty-fourth Enrolled Missouri Militia, as orderly sergeant. In 1866 he was elected constable of Boeuf Township, and served two years. He was then elected justice of the peace and re-elected in 1872. He served until 1874, when he was the choice of the Republican party to represent that county in the Lower House of the General Assembly, and was re-elected in 1876. Two years later he was elected as an independent candidate against three other candidates, and after having served his constituents honorably and satisfactorily for six consecutive years in the Lower House, he was then, in 1880, the choice of the Republican party to represent them in the Upper House. Since then he has devoted his time and attention to his domestic affairs. In 1870 he took the census of Boeuf and Lyon Townships. He is giving his children the advantages of a good English and German education. It is hardly necessary to add that Mr. Pehle is a stanch Republican in his political views. He cast his first presidential vote for A. Lincoln, in 1860, is a member of the A. O. U. W. and of the Select Knights. He and family are members of the German Methodist Episcopal Church North.