My Genealogy Hound

Thaddeus S. Fertig is of German descent, a son of Peter and Francis C. (Stroop) Fertig, and grandson of Zachariah Fertig. The latter lived near Harrisburg, Penn., and was a cabinet maker by trade. The father was reared in Dauphin County, but learned the black-smith’s trade in Perry County. He resided in his native State until 1865, when he came to Sullivan County, Mo., and here died at the age of seventy-two years. He was generous to a fault, and honest and upright in every respect. His wife was a daughter of George Stroop, who was sheriff of Cumberland County, Penn. and was born in the county jail, at Carlisle, in 1806. She became the mother of six children: Helen M., Thaddeus S. William R., Franklin M., Matilda J. and Moses M. Thaddeus S. Fertig was born in Muffin County, Penn., in 1837, and worked on a farm and at the black-smith’s trade until the breaking out of the war, and in 1863 he enlisted in Company C, Forty-fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, as a private. He was at the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna and Cold Harbor. At the latter battle, of 609 men who went into the fight only 303 came out alive. Mr. Fertig was shot through the elbow, and had to have his arm amputated on the field while the battle was raging, and from August, 1864, until June, 1865, was in the hospital at Philadelphia. At the latter date he was honorably discharged, and came to Sullivan County, Mo., purchasing 200 acres of land, on which he located and lived until the spring of 1882, when he moved to his present farm of sixty acres. He is a Republican in politics, and is universally respected by his neighbors. Mr. Fertig married Susan, daughter of Abraham and Mary Boyer, and by her had five children, four of whom are living: Viola M., James A., Willie S. and Mary F.