Adams County Wisconsin Genealogy

Transcribed by Joan Benner
Source: Memorial and Biographical Record and Illustrated Compendium of Biography of Citizens of Columbia, Sauk and Adams Counties, Wisconsin, published 1901 by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1901, Pages 382 - 383

Franz Wohlfert, a son of the German empire, whose career in his adopted land has been crowned with success, is a prominent farmer of Jackson township, Adams county. He is an ex-soldier, who bravely defended our Union, and can look back on his service with justifiable pride. His home is one of comfort and he has added improvements until it is one of the first farms of the township.

Mr. Wohlfert was born in the city of Baden, Germany, February 23, 1823, and was the son of Matthias and Elizabeth (Krall) Wohlfert. His father was a lumberman and farmer who lived and died in Baden.

Our subject came to America about 1853, and resided three years in New York city, and then came to Wisconsin, and lived for a time at Sharon, Walworth county, and in 1855 removed to Adams county, settling in Jackson township on his present farm. He now owns two hundred acres of land with a good set of farm buildings, and carries on general farming. He enlisted in October, 1864, in Company D, Fourth Wisconsin Heavy Artillery, and served eleven months, and was discharged at the close of the war. He was stationed at Brazos City, Louisiana. On the occasion of the assassination of President Lincoln, while firing one hundred guns, our subject lost his hearing by the discharge of artillery. While in the service he also suffered from diarrhea and malaria for several months.

Mr. Wohlfert was married at Sharon, Wisconsin, October, 1853, to Dena Miller, daughter of George and Cornelia Miller. Mrs. Wohlfert was born in New Beiern, Germany, and came to the United States in 1851. Her father died in Germany, and her mother died in 1870, aged fifty-five years. Mrs. Miller married after the death of her husband, becoming the wife of Andrew Hoffman, who died in Adams county, July, 1890, aged over eighty years. Mr. and Mrs. Wohlfert were the parents of the following children: Irvin married Amelia Washburn; Wilhelmina, now Mrs. Horace Stalker of Oxford; Conrad married Mrs. Cora Ausbach, residing in Kilbourn; Andrew married Hattie Jones, daughter of Nelson Jones; Jacob married Esther Cartwright; George married Philadelphia Kelsey; John married Bertha Burnham; August married Kate Huffman; Walter, and Robert. All reside in Adams county, with the exceptions as noted. Walter carries on the homestead farm, and was married March 7, 1899, to Miss Millie Burnham, daughter of Theodore Burnham. Mrs. Wohlfert was born in Adams county. Our subject and wife have seventeen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Mr. Wohlfert was reared in the Catholic church, and Mrs. Wohlfert was reared in the Lutheran faith, in which most of the family are baptized, although they attend the Jonesville Congregational church, near their home. Mr. Wohlfert is a member of A. J. Miller Post, G. A. R. at Oxford. he is a Democrat in political sentiment, although his sons are all Republicans.He stands firmly for his convictions, is a faithful and earnest citizen, and has aided materially in the upbuilding of Adams county.