Person:Friedrich Hitzemann (1)

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Friedrich Hitzemann
d.14 Nov 1949 Lake County, Indiana
m. 14 Mar 1852
  1. Sophia Hitzemann1853 - 1880
  2. Anna Hitzemann1855 - Aft 1868
  3. Maria Hitzemann1857 - Aft 1882
  4. Wilhelmine Hitzemann1859 - 1901
  5. Karl Hitzemann1862 - 1935
  6. Otto Hitzemann1864 - 1940
  7. Heinrich Hitzemann1867 - 1919
  8. Friedrich Hitzemann1871 - 1949
  9. Emma Hitzemann1873 - 1890
m. 8 Feb 1894
  1. Alvin Hitzeman1894 - 1971
  2. Edwin Hitzeman1896 - 1943
  3. Walter Harry Hitzemann1898 - 1900
  4. Dorothea Maria Hitzeman1900 - 1952
  5. Bernice Emma Hitzeman1905 - 1993
  6. Alice Sylvia Hitzeman1909 - 1973
  7. Wilhelm Friedrich Hitzeman1910 - 1929
Facts and Events
Name[4] Friedrich Hitzemann
Alt Name Fred Hitzemann
Gender Male
Birth? 1 Jan 1871 Hanover Township, Lake County, Indiana
Baptism? 22 Jan 1871 Dyer, IndianaZion Evangelical Lutheran Church
Marriage 8 Feb 1894 Dyer, IndianaZion Evangelical Lutheran Church
to Sophia Seegers
Census Jun 1900 Dyer, Indianawith Sophia Seegers
Occupation? Farmer, Railroad Worker
Death? 14 Nov 1949 Lake County, IndianaCause: cirrhosis of the liver
Burial[3] 20 Nov 1949 Dyer, IndianaZion Cemetery

Fred Hitzemann was born on his parents' Indiana farm (on the Illinois state line near Dyer), the eighth child (and fourth son) of Carl and Maria Hitzemann. In 1894 he married Sophia Seegers, the girl next door; her parents owned an adjacent farm. Fred took up farming on the Seegers farm, probably shortly after the wedding. The 1900 census shows Fred and Sophia living on the farm with sons Alvin, Edwin, and Walter (and also with Sophia's widowed mother). Diptheria struck the family that summer, including all three sons, and baby Walter died of it. Three daughters were then born, Dora, Bernice, and Alice, followed by another son, Bill.

When World War I came, the oldest two sons were drafted into the army. After the war, they settled in Nebraska and in South Dakota to farm. Fred and Sophia sold the farm in 1920 and moved with the younger children to a house on Carroll Street in Hammond, Indiana. Fred took up work with the railroad. When Edwin's wife died after childbirth in 1922, Edwin and his two young children returned from South Dakota and moved in with them. Sophia died in 1928 following surgery, and Bill in 1929 of spinal meningitis.

Bernice's husband Ed Helmer died in 1941, and sometime after this, Bernice bought the Carroll Street house. Fred then went to live with daughter Alice Beckwith, who also lived in Hammond, and stayed with her family for the remainder of his life. He had problems with alcoholism, which was the cause of his final illness and death.

Fred is remembered for his sense of humor. His grandson Gene once recalled a typical example:

Grandpa was sitting in church waiting for the service to begin, with two of his young grandsons, Gene and Dale, on either side of him. Bored, he reached into a pocket, pulled out a cigar, and began slowly to unwrap it. The boys looked at him in horror. Was Grandpa really going to smoke in church? "Well," he told them, "I don't see any 'No Smoking' signs in here." But he immediately put the cigar back in his pocket.

References
  1.   Edwin C. Friedrich and Karen Rowe. Church Records: Dyer, Indiana (Zion UCC). (Zion UCC Records).
  2.   Donna Graves and Ronna Lounsbery. Graves/Lounsbery Genealogy (Hitzemann and Seegers). (unpublished).
  3. Find A Grave: Fred Hitzemann
  4. Baptized as Fredrich Hitzemann, he was called Fritz in his youth, and in various documents Fred or Frederick. He was commonly called Fred, at least later in life. Buried as Fred Hitzemann, which is the last known time the double-n form of the name "Hitzeman" was used by the family.

    Some genealogies give him a middle name of Gotheb or Gottlieb, but there seems to be no evidence for these names in the records, except in his son Edwin's WWI discharge paper, where there is a semi-legible scrawl in the box for his father's name that could be interpreted as "Gotheb" (but might just as easily read "Father").