R.V. & Louise Froehlich

Select a yellow box to move around Lisa's paternal family tree.

R.V. was born in Mayville, WI and traveled by covered wagon with his parents and four older children to Nebraska in 1875. Louise also was born in Mayville, WI, but didn't meet R.V. until they lived in Nebraska. After the death of Louise's father, her mother moved the family to Nebraska and married Henry Englebart. They lived on a farm eleven miles southwest of Leigh in Platte County.

From 1880 to 1885, as was common for children of the day, R.V. herded cattle over the lonely prairie, working for the John Loseke family near Columbus, NE. He was confirmed in 1885 at Immanuel Lutheran in Columbus. His memory verse was I Timothy 6:12.

His father gave him a choice of professions between pastor and blacksmith. He chose blacksmith and apprenticed under Louis Schreiber, a pioneer blacksmith in Columbus, from 1885 to 1889. He worked his trade at an Omaha packing house, in Colorado, and in Humphrey, NE before buying a shop in April 1891 from Leigh's pioneer blacksmith, John Hall. He would continuously operate the shop for 53 years. He also served on the school board.

R.V. and Louise were married at St. John's Lutheran near Creston, NE by Rev. E. Holm. Herman Froehlich and Bertha Depe were witnesses.

R.V. and Louise traveled on 15 December 1918 to Rochester, MN, where Louise received a second goiter operation at the Mayo Clinic. Although she developed influenza and pneumonia afterwards in the post-war of epidemic that year, she seemed to be improving and R.V. went home, leaving son George with her. R.V. received word on Christmas night of her worsening condition and arrived back at Rochester two hours after her passing.

R.V. replaced the early building and equipment of his blacksmith shop in 1911. As he prospered, he acquired a farm six miles north of town. Leigh held a 50th anniversary celebration in his honor on 15 April 1941. He lived with son-in-law Oscar Wilk and daughter Elsie in Columbus for the last six years of his life, and died in a Columbus hospital.

Clara, Olga, George, & Elsie Froehlich (back), Louise & R.V. Froehlich (front)

R.V. Froehlich

R.V. Froehlich Blacksmith Shop Leigh, NE