This week we remember Frieda Lemke who was born 135 years ago today.

Henriette Clara Frieda Lemke was born on 11 February 1881 in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany. She was the first child for Clara Christine Elsabe Freese and Johann Carl Friedrich Lemke. As a very young child, she and her mother departed from Hamburg, Germany on 23 August 1882. They arrived in New York on 7 September 1882. Her father had traveled to America ahead of his family. They first lived at Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but then settled in Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.

Clara and Carl had seven more children, but tragically, many of them died young:

• Wilhelm Friedrich August Lemke (1883-1887)
• Carl Lemke (1884-1885)
• Auguste Bertha Else Lemke (1885-1886)
• Ferdinand Carl Heinrich Lemke (1886-1887)
• Clara Loese Pauline Lemke (1888-1918)
• Elsa Anna Emilie Lemke (1892-1973)
• Johannes Max Leo Lemke (1894- <1959)

For unknown reasons, Frieda’s dad disappeared in about 1895. Her mother filed for a divorce that was granted in December 1896. The mother, Clara, remarried to August F Boettcher. Together, August and Clara had one son, Lawrence A Bernhart Boettcher (1898-1957), who was Frieda’s half brother. A widower, August also had two children from his first marriage. These children, Otto Frederick Boettcher (1892-1946) and Ida Boettcher (1894-1966), became Frieda’s step-siblings.

On 5 August 1899, eighteen year old Frieda Lemke, married twenty-five year old Bernhard Richard R Krueger, son of Johann Krueger and Augusta Baumann. Incidentally, August Boettcher’s first wife Louise Krueger (1872-1896) was a sister to Bernhard, so Frieda married her step-father’s brother-in-law.

Frieda and Bernhard had six children:

• Sadie Clere Krueger(1900-1972)
• Arnold F Krueger (1901-1973)
• Bernhard R Krueger (1902-1969)
• Irene Clara Anna Krueger (1903-1949)
• Norman Arthur August Krueger (1904-1980)
• John F Krueger (1910-1992)

Frieda and Bernhard raised their family in Wausau, Marathon, Wisconsin.

Sadly, Frieda Lemke Krueger passed away on 21 April 1926 at the age of forty-five. She is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Wausau.

To learn more about Frieda Lemke Krueger, read the Krueger book.

Where is she in the tree?

The Krueger Family

• Publication date: June 2015
• Pages: 244
• Formats:
  • Hard Cover
  • Paperback
• This book covers our Krueger ancestry. Johann and Augusta Krueger left their native Germany to settle in Wisconsin. The book traces four generations of descendants of the immigrants. The stories of the families of their son Bernhard and their grandson Norman are told in detail.