Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County,
Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of
prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with
portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States,
and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890;
page 490; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Ferdinand Weirather, a well-to-do farmer, resident of Lewistown
Township, was born in Baden, Germany, on January, 1825. His father,
Francis Joseph Weirather, was a native of the same place. He was a
shoemaker by trade, and spent his entire live in the Fatherland. He was
a descendant of an ancient family that emigrated from Italy to Germany
during the Roman conquest.
Ferdinand was the only son of his father, and was very young
when the latter died. He was cared for by his mother and stepfather and
received a sound education in the schools of his native land, which he
attended until he was fourteen years old. At that age he was
apprenticed to learn the trade of a cabinet-maker at which he served
two and one-half years. At the expiration of that time, as was then the
custom, he traveled and worked in different cities in Germany the
ensuing three years. He was ambitious to better his condition and in
March, 1846, emigrated to America to find what life held for him here.
He went first to Liverpool, England, and from there set sail on a
vessel bound for these shores and landed at New York after a voyage of
thirty-five days. A stranger in a strange land who could not talk the
language of its people and without money, our subject was in a forlorn
condition when he arrived. But with good courage he set out to find
work, and soon obtained employment at his trade in the city. He
remained in New York two years, and then went to New Orleans. After a
short stay there he ascended the Mississippi River to Quincy and worked
there for a time. He then boarded a steamer bound for Peoria, but on
his arrival at that place he was disappointed to find it a much smaller
village than he expected, so he did not land but kept on to Peru, and
thence went by canal to Chicago. That city was not then a very large
town and though he could get work there he could not get his pay in
cash, but had to take it in orders on a store. That did not suit him so
he concluded to go further eastward and pushed on to Buffalo by the way
of the Lakes and then by railroad and Hudson River, and finally found
himself once again in New York City. He secured employment in a piano
factory and remained there until 1855.
In that year our subject returned to Illinois, and for one year
worked at his trade in Peoria. During that time he visited Fulton
County, and bought the farm where he now resides which is pleasantly
located on section 6, Lewistown Township. He settled on the place in
1856 and has since made his home here. His farm is one of the choice
farms of the township, is under excellent cultivation and is provided
with neat and well-built frame buildings and everything for carrying on
agriculture advantageously.
Mr. Weirather has proved as capable a farmer as he has shown
himself to be a skilled mechanic, and has been well prospered in his
agricultural ventures. He is a man of sold virtues, sensible and
thoughtful in his views, and in him and his wife the Baptist Church
finds two Christian members.
Mr. Weirather was married in 1850 to Nathalie Weidensee, a
native of Saxony, Germany. They have been eminently happy in their
domestic relations and have been blessed by ten children: Ferdinand,
Edward J., Herman, Amelia, Charles, Mary, Ida, George, Sidney and
Harrie, all living.
