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Frederick Franklin Neudorff
1859 — 1940
Biographical Material
.png "newspaper ad")
Source: Advertisement in The Holt County Sentinel (Oregon, Missouri); Friday, 1 February 1889; page 4.
Digital copies accessed through Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (The Library of Congress) in November 2011.
.png "notification of incorporation")
Source: Notice in The Holt County Sentinel (Oregon, Missouri); Friday, 4 April 1890; page 1, column 7.
Digital copies accessed through Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (The Library of Congress) in November 2011.
Notes
It should be noted that within this very short notice, the surname of Henry and Anna J. Fiegenbaum gets two different spellings. This level of attention to detail in not uncommon in the source materials connected with genealogical research. In return, it requires a level of flexibility in the history that gets written.
Most of the readers of The Holt County Sentinel would have recognized the names found in this announcement and would have known that "Frederick Neudorff" was the owner of the Neudorff Hardware Company, another iteration of his business ventures in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri.
The stock holder identified in this notice as "Henry Fiegenbaum" is almost certainly Rev. Heinrich Hermann Fiegenbaum, who had served as the pastor of the German Methodist Episcopal Church at St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri and at Oregon, Holt County, Missouri. Heinrich had also been the presiding elder of the St. Joseph (Missouri) District of the church. In 1881, Frederick Franklin Neudorff married Lizette Clara Fiegenbaum (1862-1892), one of the daughters of Rev. Heinrich Hermann and Clara Catherine (Kastenbudt) Fiegenbaum. "Frederick Neudorff" and "Henry Fiegenbaum" were in-laws.
"Anna J. Fiegenbaum", another stock holder, was Anna Julia Fiegenbaum (1857-1942), another daughter of Rev. Heinrich Hermann and Clara Catherine (Kastenbudt) Fiegenbaum and therefore a sister to Lizette Clara Fiegenbaum. "Frederick Neudorff" and "Anna J. Fiegenbaum" were in-laws.
Stock holder "J. C. Steinmetz" is almost certainly Johann Carl Conrad Steinmetz (1842-1912). In 1873, he married Caroline Katherine "Carrie" Fiegenbaum (1852-1932), another daughter of Rev. Heinrich Hermann and Clara Catherine (Kastenbudt) Fiegenbaum and therefore a sister to Lizette Clara Fiegenbaum. "Frederick Neudorff" and "J. C. Steinmetz" were in-laws.
I am not familiar with "Charles H. Schatz," the last stock holder mentioned.
Frederick Neudorff, hardware merchant, 114 S. Fourth street, was born at Platte City, Mo., July 5th, 1859. His father, Louis Otto Neudorff, a jeweler, was born in Germany, and his mother, maiden name Arnold, was born in France. He came to St. Joseph in 1863 and attended the public schools. For twenty years Mr. Neudorff has been engaged in the same block, first with Koch, Chew & Co., wholesale grocers, then with R. H. Jordan & Co., hardware; for five years as manager of the retail department of Shultz & Hosea, hardware, and since, 1887, in business for himself, being at this time the leading retail hardware merchant in the city. Mr. Neudorff was for two terms a member of the school board and vice-president of that body for one term. He is positive in his political convictions, but affiliates with no party. Mr. Nudorff [sic] was married first to a daughter of Rev. H. Fiegenbaum, of the German Methodist Church. This lady died in 1892, leaving him two children, Julia W., now aged sixteen, and Clara May, now aged ten. In 1893 he was married at Kansas City to a daughter of F. and Agnes Bauer, by whom he has two children, Frederick Franklin, aged four, and Agnes Olive, aged two years.
Source: The Daily News' History of Buchanan County and St. Joseph, Mo.: From the Time of the Platte Purchase to the End of the Year 1898. Preceded by a Short History of Missouri. Supplemented by Biographical Sketches of Noted Citizens, Living and Dead. (St. Joseph, Missouri: St. Joseph Publishing Company, 1898) page 527.
Notes
This biographical sketch continues the use of various spellings for one person's family name - Neudorff and Nudorff. It also embraces another problem that genealogical research must overcome - wives and mothers who are left in the shadows.
Frederick Neudorff/Nudorff was indeed "married first to a daughter of Rev. H. Fiegenbaum" and Clara Catherine (Kastenbudt) Fiegenbaum. The dauther's name was Lizette Clara Fiegenbaum
Married in 1881, Frederick and Lizette were the parents of not two, but three children: Julia Winifred Neudorff, Franklin Grant Neudorff, and Clara May Neudorff. After an illness lasting about two weeks, Lizette died of malarial entercolitis on 6 February 1892. Franklin died from typhoid fever on 22 February 1892. Mother and son were buried together in Mount Mora Cemetery at St. Joseph, Missouri.
In March 1893, Fredrich Franklin Neudorff married again, to Mary Bauer, daughter of Frederick and Agnes Bauer. Frederick and Mary were the parents of the two children mentioned in the biographical sketch published in 1898 as well as two additional children: Vinton Robert Neudorff and Marian Ada Neudorff.
I do not know if it is significant, but in February 1885, a Mary Bauer was a guest at the wedding of Thomas Curry and Christina Wilhelmina Fiegenbaum, another daughter of Rev. Heinrich Hermann and Clara Catherine (Kastenbudt) Fiegenbaum (and therefore a sister to Lizette Clara Fiegenbaum). Fredrich Neudorff played a role in that marriage ceremony.