Introduction to the 1923 Biographical Sketches
This biographical sketch was published along with many others in the 1923 History of Auglaize County, Volume II, edited by William J. McMurray and published by the Historical Publishing Company of Indianapolis. In most cases the subject of the biography was of the first generation born in this country to German immigrants. In some cases the subject may have been born in Germany and came to this country at a young age. In most cases the story tells of the immigrant parents of the subject and also the children and grandchildren of the subject named at the beginning of the story. In some cases comments have been added after the biography to explain the locations of the farms where the immigrants settled. New Knoxville did not have rural addresses until 1955, and therefore the settlers had rural route addresses of St. Marys, Botkins, etc.
Fred Haberkamp, a former trustee of Washington township and a well-known farmer of the New Knoxville neighborhood, proprietor of a well-kept farm lying just north of that village, was born on that place and has lived there all his life. Mr. Haberkamp was born on January 15, 1866, and is a son of Adolph and Elizabeth (Schroer) Haberkamp, both natives of Germany, who had come to this country with their respective parents in the days of their youth, the Haberkamps and the Schroers becoming early settlers of the New Knoxville neighborhood, in what is now Auglaize County, but which at the time of the coining of these families was a part Allen county.
Adolph Haberkamp was about seventeen years of age when he came here with his parents, the family locating in Washington township. Work on the canal then was in progress, and his father took the contract to excavate one mile of that project, a work with which he successfully carried out, and young Adolph went to work with his father on that job and helped him carry it through to completion, thereafter helping him in the equally strenuous job of clearing and developing the home farm in the woods there north of New Knoxville.
On July 19, 1848, Adolph Haberkamp married Elizabeth Schroer, and thereafter devoted his own time to farming on his own account, and became the owner of an excellent farm of ninety-nine acres, a part of the place now owned and occupied by his son, Fred. On that place Adolph Haberkamp died on January 9, 1885, he then being in his sixty-fourth year, for he was born on December 27, 1821, and his widow survived him for some years. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom but two are now living, the subject of this sketch and his brother, George Haberkamp, further reference to whom is made elsewhere in this volume.
Reared on the home farm there in the vicinity of New Knoxville, Fred Haberkamp received his schooling in the village schools, and from the days of his boyhood has been devoted to the affairs of the home farm. After his father's death he took charge of the place in his mother's behalf, and after her death he took over sixty-five acres of the farm, a holding which he since has increased to seventy-two acres, and has continued to live there, he and his family being very comfortably situated.
Mr. Haberkamp is a Republican and has rendered public service as a trustee of Washington township and as a member of the local school board. He and his wife are members of the First Reformed church at New Knoxville, and he has served as a deacon of the congregation.
Fred Haberkamp married Louise Mary Wiethoff, then a resident of St. Marys township, and to this union have been born five children, Hilda (who died at the age of twenty-three years), Leona, Gustave, Bertha and Arnold, but one of whom (Leona) is married, she being the wife of Harry Meckstroth and has one child, Margaret Mary. Mrs. Haberkamp was born in St. Marys township and is a daughter of Henry and Sophia (Kuck) Wiethoff, members of pioneer families in this county, who were married here. Henry Wiethoff was born in Germany and was about seventeen years of age when he came to this country with his parents, the family proceeding on out into Ohio and settling in this county.
After his marriage he established his home on a farm in St. Marys township, the owner of sixty acres there, and on that place spent the remainder of his life. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, four of whom are still living, Mrs. Haberkamp having two sisters, Mary and Anna, and a brother, Fred Wiethoff.
The Haberkamp home is pleasantly situated on rural mail route No. 4 out of St. Marys.