Lives

The following summaries of the lives of Ferdinand Willius and his wife, Clara Holterhoff Willius are from Frieda's scrapbooks.

Life of Ferdinand Willius

Ferdinand, the older brother of Gustav Willius, was born in Bremen, Germany and emigrated to the United States in 1853. He settled in St. Paul Minnesota in 1854. There he met and married Clara Holterhoff. 

The following brief biography was written by Henrietta Willius, Ferdinand's youngest child.

Family Chart: Ancestral Extended

Life of Clara Holterhoff Willius

Clara Holterhoff was born in Wesseling, near Cologne. She emigrated with her family in 1850. The family first settled in Cincinnatti. Later Clara moved to St. Paul to be with her younger sister. 

This is a wonderful story my grandmother, Martha Claussen wrote for me about her mother, Clara Holterhoff, and her mother's family. She called it "A Tree was Transplanted". It's interesting to compare it to Henriette's story which Clara Holterhoff wrote about her mother, Henriette Waldthausen.