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  • Veronica Kerler Frank Pined for Germany, But Made Milwaukee Her Home
  • Mary Humphreys Stamps, Undefeated Rebel with An Educational Cause
  • Sister Monica Is One of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Early Pioneers
  • A Love Story for St. Valentine's Day - Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen
  • Three Wisconsin Women of the Waves
  • Margaret Fox Kane and her Victorian Love Story
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Veronica Kerler Frank Pined for Germany, but Made Milwaukee Her Home

PictureVeronica Frank's Milwaukee, 1854































Veronica Frank wasn’t famous like her contemporaries Harriet Beecher Stowe or Louisa May Alcott, but her life symbolizes the courage and resilience of immigrant women.

During the 1850s, the immigrant trade to Milwaukee grew like the yeast in the new kinds of beer German immigrants brewed in the city. Almost 1.4 million Germans entered the United States between 1840 and 1860, making up about one third of all immigrants in these decades. Veronica Kerler Frank’s life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin illuminates the difficult adjustments that immigrant women had to make in their new country.

Veronica is Lonely, but Finds Comfort in Her Music

In 1849, John Kerler Sr., Veronica’s father, immigrated to Milwaukee from Memmingen, Germany, with his two daughters and three sons. Veronica then was 21 years old, the same age as her stepsister, Regina. Veronica's brother Edward was 22, Louis 19, and Herman was 10 years old. John Kerler Sr. bought a farm in Greenfield, about 2 ½ hours by horse and wagon from Milwaukee.

Life on the farm proved to be lonely for Veronica, even though she and her family had plenty of work to do. Eventually, Veronica became more accustomed to America. Music in the form of her portable organ provided her some comfort and she played every Sunday in the Greenfield Church that her father founded.

A Handsome, Blonde Stranger Walks out to the Farm

Then in June 1852, a handsome blonde, stranger walked out to the Kerler farm from Milwaukee and changed Veronica's life. August Frank came to Milwaukee in June of 1852, planning to open a dry goods business. He walked out to the Greenfield farm to find a place to stay while in Milwaukee and to investigate the possibility of marrying Veronica or her sister Regina.

August and Veronica fell in love and they were married on July 18, 1852, in Greenfield. She wore a black wedding dress, a white blond long shawl and a myrtle wreath in her hair. Veronica reported that August wore his good black pants and coat which he had brought from Germany, but had to have it taken in to about half its size. She wrote to pastor John Henry Frank, August's father in Germany, “My bridegroom pleased me very much with his nice blond beard.”

The day after their marriage, August and Veronica Frank drove their horse and buggy into Milwaukee where August owned a dry goods store on Market Square. August and Veronica lived in the rooms above the store.

Married Life in Milwaukee

Between 1853, with the birth of their first son John Henry, and 1864, with the birth of their only daughter Anna Veronica, August and Veronica Frank had eight children. Only John Henry, Louis Frederick, August Carl and Herman Otto grew to adulthood. Two of their sons, both named August, died in infancy and their son Otto, died of complications of what Veronica called “teething.”

In 1855 August bought a bigger house with a garden on three sides to meet the needs of his expanding family. According to Veronica the house was a two story frame house with a parlor, living room, bedroom and summer kitchen. In the kitchen Veronica had a pump with purified rain water which the family used for drinking. Next to the stove was an oven in which Veronica baked rye and white bread every week. Underneath was a roomy cellar. Next to the house was a flower garden and behind it a large vegetable garden. Veronica was very pleased with the house because she felt it was safe for her children, since it sat away from the street .

In 1862, Veronica gave birth to another boy that she and August named Herman Otto. August wrote to his father that Veronica suffered from lung trouble. Veronica’s lung trouble continued into 1863. In July 1863, Veronica wrote to Pastor Frank that her children were doing well. John advanced in school and so did Louis. “Gusti has nothing to do but to smash a few windows every week, pull off flowers, etc. The baby is the best one so far, and he cannot play any bad pranks yet…”

Buried Far Away from Memmingen, but at Home

In the summer of 1864, Veronica again stayed in Greenfield, enjoying the country air and improving in health. August usually visited her twice a week and other friends and neighbors drove out to the farm from Milwaukee. Often on Sunday afternoons the entire Frank-Kerler families, about 23 people in all, would congregate there in the open under the trees. They joked, talked politics, swapped stories about farming, and laughed. One Sunday, Veronica announced that she would have another baby in November and it was sure to be a girl this time!

When Anna Veronica Frank was born on November 27, 1864, Veronica finally had the girl she had wished for so may years as well as a namesake. But her baby girl, Anna Veronica died on December 5 and her mother, Veronica, died on December 6, 1864.

Veronica Frank is buried with Anna Veronica in Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She lived a quiet, ordinary life that some historians don’t deem “significant” enough, but she was one of countless ordinary immigrant women who created the backbone of America.

References

Milwaukee, at the gathering of the waters. Harry H. Anderson and Frederick I. Olson, Continental Heritage Press, 1981.

German-American Pioneers in Wisconsin and Michigan: The Frank-Kerler Letters, 1849-1864, by Dr. Louis F. Frank, translated by Margaret Wolff, Milwaukee County Historical Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1971.

 


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All of the material on this website is copyrighted.  You are free to link to any of the articles and to download any of the PDF books to read and use as long as you credit me as the author.       kathywarnes@gmail.com
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  • Home
  • Women's Rooms
    • Womens Rooms-Anne
    • Womens Rooms-Abigail
    • The Dead Baby in a Blue Blanket: The
    • Rena Rides the Raindrops
  • Women at Work-Blog
  • E Books and Print Books for Sale
  • Women of Historical Complexion
  • Rachel and Elizabeth Knaggs
  • Elizabeth Stiles, President Lincoln's Spy
  • Loyalist Lucy Flucker Meets Patriot Henry Knox at a Boston Parade
  • Queen Maria Amelia, the Last Queen of Portugal, Stood Her Ground
  • The Lady and the Patriot: Theodosia Burr Alston's Fateful Voyage
  • Margaret Agnew Blennerhassett - More Character Than Riches
  • Florence Nightingale- Nurse, Feminist, Statistician, Author
  • Mary Todd Lincoln Considered April Her "Season of Sadness"
  • Mrs. Santa Claus - A Strong and Supportive Woman for All Seasons
  • Elizabeth Turner McCormick, Woman Voyager
  • Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Fought for Human Rights
  • Mary Fields, Stage Coach Mail Driver, Sharp Shooter, Faithful Friend
  • Lucy Parsons, "More Dangerous Than A Thousand Rioters"
  • Lydia Maria Francis Child Travels 'Over the River and Through the Wood'
  • Anti-Suffragists Believed Women Didn't Need the Right to Vote
  • Finland's Alexandra Gripenberg Sought Universal Women's Rights
  • From Frances Slocum to Little Bear Woman and Back Again
  • Madame Elisabeth Thible is the First Woman to Ride in a Free Floating Balloon
  • Veronica Kerler Frank Pined for Germany, But Made Milwaukee Her Home
  • Mary Humphreys Stamps, Undefeated Rebel with An Educational Cause
  • Sister Monica Is One of Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Early Pioneers
  • A Love Story for St. Valentine's Day - Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen
  • Three Wisconsin Women of the Waves
  • Margaret Fox Kane and her Victorian Love Story
  • Francoise Marie Jacquelin, Lioness of La Tour, Lioness of Acadia, Woman in Her Own Right
  • Mary Breckinridge, Circuit Riding Nurse and Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
  • Women Bicyclists Break Their Glass Cages and Ride into Liberation
  • Maria Mitchell, America's First Woman Astronomer Demonstrated Female Scientific Aptitude
  • Queen Alexandra of Great Britain-Queen Victoria's Daughter-in-Law, Bertie's Patient Wife, and Her Own Person!
  • Chicagoan Kate Kellogg Meets a Ghost on a Train
  • Isobel Lillian Steele Went to a Party and Ended Up in a Nazi Jail
  • Madam Sophie Blanchard - "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration"
  • Women of Their Time and Place
    • Nadine Turchin Fights Alongside Her Husband in the Civil War
    • War Stories Along Lake Erie: Ordinary Women Experience the War of 1812
    • Katie Walker Tends Robbins Reef Light Near the Statue of Liberty
    • Maria Gulovich Joined the Czech Resistance
    • Pirate Fanny Campbell Freed Her Fiance and Fought the British
    • SOE Agent Andree Borrel Lived Several Lifetimes in Her 24 Years
    • Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and the First Mississippi River Steamboat
    • Sophie Kwiatkowski Served as a New Guinea Nurse in World War II
    • Clara Zetkin Spoke Against Hitler in the German Reichstag
    • Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, Female Fuhrer, Breathed Her Nazi Beliefs
    • Nancy Leo , the Only Woman Buried in Luxembourg American Cemetery
    • Dickey Chapelle, Journalist and War Correspondent
    • Lucena Brockway Adapts to Life in the Keweenaw Copper Mining Country of Lake Superior
    • Does Mary Surrat's Ghost Haunt the Senate Chambers Seeking Justice?
    • The Ghostly Cyclist in Brooklyn's Prospect Park
  • Women of Contemporary 20th and 21st Century Complexion
    • Clara Ward Chimay, Gilded Age Princess
    • Ruth Becker's Faith Helps Her Survive the Titanic and Beyond
    • Mildred Beltmann , Wartime Wife
    • The Courage of their Cultural Convictions - Women Missionaries in China
    • Light and Radiance - Laurence Owen and Her Sabena Fellow Travelers
    • Edna St. Vincent Millay, Passionate Poet, Candle-Lit Feminist
    • Fascinating Footnote: The Goose Down Divorce
    • Olive Higgins Prouty Juggles to Balance Home and Career
    • Mother and Daughter Journalists Agnes Meyer and Katharine Graham Shaped Journalism
    • Rose Friedman and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
    • Katharine Meyer Graham Leaves Her Mark on the Washington Post
    • Ida M. Tarbell, "Bachelor Soul," Transitional Woman, or Both?
    • Nurse Edith Cavell, the Courage to Die for Her Country
    • Sigrid Schultz Outsmarted Hermann Goering
    • Martha Dickie Sharp Saves Jewish Refugees from the Nazi Death Machine
    • Virginia Graham Pioneered in Early Television and Survived Cancer
    • Rose Conway, President Harry Truman's Secret Weapon
    • Nancy Green, Talented Entrepreneur, Transitional Symbol
    • "Surrender on Demand:" The Friendship of Mary Jayne Gold and Miriam Ebel
    • Julia K. Tibbitts - Closet Environmentalist
    • Lee Lawrence Ansberry Reconquers the World and Reshapes Her Life
  • Christmas Cheer