FRED GUECK. In our Album will be found sketches of the prominent citizens of Calhoun County, and none are of more interest than those which recount noble deeds and energetic efforts to achieve success. Everyone is more or less interested in the life of a successful man, who has benefited both himself and the community in which he resides. Many of the influential business men of the present day were born in foreign countries and came here seeking broader outlets for their talents, and greater freedom in every way.
Our subject is of foreign birth, and was born in Prussia, March 7, 1843. His father, Gothardt Gueck, was also a native of Prussia, where he passed his entire life. He was by profession a veterinary surgeon following this business many years. He married Miss Catherine Koch, who was a Prussian by birth and education and died in that country. Indeed, our subject and his brother John were the only members of the family who crossed the ocean to find homes in the New World, and they are both residents of Richwoods Precinct.
The subject of our sketch attended school until he reached his fourteenth year, and from that time until he was eighteen years of age was employed on a farm. He then joined the Prussian army and participated in the Hanover-Prussian War, serving a portion of each year for four years. In 1867 he was honorably discharged and came to America. He landed in New York and from that point went directly to the State of Indiana where he passed the winter in Indianapolis. He next went to Peoria, Ill., and after spending the summer there, removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa. After remaining in the latter named place for a few months, he came to Calhoun County and commenced his career here by working on a farm by the month, but by means of energy and strict economy he was soon enabled to purchase the farm upon which he now resides. This farm is on section 32, Richwoods Precinct, two miles north of Batchtown. He has built a house and two frame barns on his estate, and has improved the land from time to time until at the present writing his farm ranks among the finest in Calhoun County. Besides this property he owns four hundred and seventy acres of land on the Mississippi River bottoms.
Mr. Gueck was married in 1871 to Mrs. Wilhelmina (Kulp) Fiedler, who was born in Germany, and came to America with her parents when quite young. She first married Christ Fiedler, who like herself was a German by birth and came to the United States when young. He first settled in Gilead Precinct, and died there in 1869. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gueck are members of St. Mathews Lutheran Church.
Our subject belongs pre-eminently to the class of men usually termed self-made, and deserves great credit for the success he has achieved. He is a pleasant, companionable gentleman with many warm friends, and is well and favorably known throughout the county in which he makes his home. In connection with his personal sketch the reader will notice on another page a view of his neat residence with the various buildings necessary to the proper development of the farm.
Extracted 16 Mar 2017 by Norma Hass from Portrait and Biographical Album of Pike and Calhoun Counties, Illinois, published in 1891, page 608
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