My Genealogy Hound

Fred Rufi, a farmer and stock-raiser of Benton Township, Osage Co., Mo., was born in Switzerland in 1841, and is a son of Abraham and Mary (Slapbach) Rufi, also natives of Switzerland, where the father, who was quite a wealthy lumberman and real estate dealer, died when our subject was about seven years of age. The mother afterward married Mr. Wittenbach, and immigrated to this country in 1851, being among the earliest German settlers of Osage County, Mo., where the mother died in 1873. Mr. Wittenbach afterward returned to Switzerland, where he still lives. Fred Rufi was about eleven years of age when he came to this country; he was reared in Osage County, receiving no education, as his stepfather never allowed him to go to school, and when eighteen he went to St. Louis, where he learned the tinner’s trade, at which he worked in St. Louis until the outbreak of the war, at the same time attending evening school, and spending all his spare time studying, obtaining a fair education in both German and English. At the outbreak of the war he enlisted in Company F, Fifteenth Missouri Infantry, and served until honorably discharged at Victoria, Tex., December 25, 1865. The last two years and seven months of service he was color-bearer through many battles; he participated in the fights of Pea Ridge, Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Resaca, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville, Tenn. A brother, Abraham Rufi, who served in Company E, Third Missouri Infantry, was killed in Arkansas at the capture of Arkansas Post. After the war Mr. Rufi returned to St. Louis, and for a short time worked for Mr. Niedringhaus, now a congressman from St. Louis. In the fall of 1866 he located in Osage County, where he married Mary D., daughter of Rev. Dr. John and Mary Gannemann, of Osage County, natives of Prussia, who were early settlers in Osage County, and both now deceased. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rufi, five of whom are living, viz.: Emma, Sophia, Mary, Samuel and Charley. Since his marriage Mr. Rufi has lived on his present farm, which consists of 200 acres, about eighty acres of which are improved, and upon which he has built a good house and barns. He devotes considerable time to raising thoroughbred stock, with which his farm is well supplied. He is a Republican in politics, and a member of the A. O. U. W. of Chamois.