| Fingerle Newsletter Number 2 |
| March 1995 |
Christian Fingerle - A hale and hearty man, bearing with ease his burden of nearly four score years, Christian Fingerle has long been prominently identified with the advancement of the agricultural prosperity of Jasper county, for forty-seven years having owned and managed his large farming estate, on section eight, twenty-seven and thirty, Union township. A native of Germany, he was born in Wurtemberg in 1833, and there received his rudimentary education.
Left an orphan when but twelve years old, he came directly to America, landing in New York city after an ocean voyage of thirty-five days. Going directly to Ohio, he lived first in Tiffiin and later in Sandusky, in the meantime becoming familiar with the customs and manners of his adopted home. Adventurous and daring, he subsequently joined a little party bound for the distant West, and journeyed with ox teams to Iowa and Kansas before there were any railroads west of the Mississippi. At Westport, now Kansas City, Mr. Fingerle joined a large party of gold hunters, with whom he made an overland trip to the Pacific coast, being four months and nine days en route, suffering privations and hardships on the way and oft times encountering bands of hostile Indians.
After mining in California for two and a half years Mr. Fingerle ventured northward to the Washington Territory in search of the precious metal, and had the distinction of being the first to find gold in the near vicinity of the Columbia River. One of the very first to mine gold in Idaho, he located on the present site of Boise City before there had been even a log cabin there erected. Having through his vigorous efforts accumulated twenty-seven thousand dollars in gold, Mr. Fingerle deposited it in a San Francisco bank and spent two years in traveling, during which time he visited Old Mexico, South America and China.
Returning to San Francisco, Mr. Fingerle bought twenty thousand dollars worth of goods, packed his stock on mules, thirty-eight in number, and started for the mining regions of Idaho, Bannock City being his point of destination. On the way Indians stampeded his mules, captured his goods, and Mr. Fingerle, with his nine men, continued their journey to the Idaho mines. Subsequently, while looking for a place in which to settle permanently, Mr. Fingerle came to Missouri on a prospecting tour. Not exactly content to stay at that time, he went to Portland, Oregon, but at the end of four months in that locality returned to most honored and respected citizens. In 1874 he bought his present farm, and has since devoted his time and energies to the raising of stock and grain, in his labors meeting with genuine success. He has made improvements of value on the place, having a conveniently arranged dwelling house, substantial farm buildings, and a windmill to furnish water for the stock, the place as a whole being a credit to his sagacity energy and wise management.
Mr. Fingerle married, in 1867, Catherine Spencer, who was born in Indiana, and they are
the parents of three children, namely: Mrs. Jane Moss of Carthage; Mrs. Ellen Mitters, of
Arkansas; and George H. George H. Fingerle married Ella Robertson, and their son Kermit
Roosevelt Fingerle, lives on the Fingerle Stock Farm, with his grandfather. Mr. Fingerle is a
stanch Republican in politics, and a most faithful, law-abiding citizen. He has had varied
experiences in life, suffering all the privations and tribulations of frontier life, and having many
serious encounters with the Indians, his body still bearing scars of wounds received in battle
with the savages, but notwithstanding all this he shows little trace of his burden of years,
appearing much younger than most men of his age.
Alfred A. Fingerle 1564 Dalton Ct. Sarasota, FL 34234 Allen Fingerle 321 Mayberry St. Toledo, OH 43609 Carl F. Fingerle 8460 Bardwell Ave. Panorama City, CA 91402 Dallas W, Fingerle 17625 Devall Road Spencerville, IN 46788 Eugene Fingerle RR1 Downington, PA 19335 Gary W. Fingerle 5444 Potter St. Sarasota, FL 34232 Ida (Fingerle) Price 315 E. 6th St. Rochester, IN 46975 K. Fingerle 5332 Mars St. R22 Fort Wayne, IN 46825 Mary Ann Fingerle 2344 Bee Ridge Road #109 Sarasota, FL 34239 Paul Fingerle E. S Road 14 RR2 Silver Lake, IN 46982 Ralph Fingerle 69 5th Ave. New York, NY 10003 Robert H. Fingerle Ripon, CA 95366 Sarah Fingerle 34 Medfield St. Boston, MA 02215 Tony Fingerle 1120 N. Altadena Dr. Pasadena, CA 91107 William Fingerle 35 Midbrook Lane Old Greenwich, CT 06870 William Fingerle 28548 Perryville Way Farmington, IL 48018
I was informed that Albert G. FINGERLE listed at 8130 Mammoth Ave. in Panorama City, CA. 91402 had pasted away. I do not know the date. I was told that his son Carl F. FINGERLE may be living at that address.
The FINGERLE HOLLISTER LUMBER CO. and the FINGERLE HARDWARE are no longer on the mailing list. They were both address’s for the FINGERLE LUMBER CO. in Ann Arbor, MI.
I have also lost contact with Peggy WILSON of Midland, TX. She had a lot of info about the Fingerle’s and her mother still lives in Esslingen, Germany. After several phone calls I got ahold of Peggy. New address and phone number in Midland, TX.
I got a phone call from Todd FINGERLE in Bloomington IL. and letters from Colin FINGERLE, and John FINGERLE in Ann Arbor, MI. Arlene McGONIGLE in Tampa, FL. and Frances FINGERLE in Hudson, IL. I called John FINGERLE in Ann Arbor, MI., Ernest FINGERLE in Daytona Beach, FL. and Marlin FINGERLE in Roann, IN
I got a chance to stop in and visit with Kathy (Fingerle) McCOLM and her Husband Mike. The live in Santa Barbara, CA. They live in a beautiful old home in the oaks just north of the Old Santa Barbara Mission. They have Three lovely children, a boy and two girls. They also have a great German Shepherd named Amadais.
I got a letter form Fred FINGERLE in Southold, Long Island, NY. Fred and his family were the owners if the FINGERLE BAKERY in NY. My Dad told me the his father used to get baked goods from the FINGERLE BAKERY in Jamaica, NY. I sent a letter back to Fred asking for the address’s of his son Micheal a Police Officer in Southold and his daughter Linda. and his Cousin Doris. If the don’t make it in this Newsletter they should be in the next.
My wife Rachel and I took a trip to San Francisco on Feb. 23rd. We went to see Ruth
CARROLL. She manages a beautiful old apartment building. She took us to lunch and we returned
to her apartment and looked thru her fathers genealogy paperwork. What a find, her father Christian
C. FINGERLE had great handwriting. She let me take some of it to photo copy. She also told me that
her brother Clarence O. FINGERLE passed away last year. Her sister Joice WIGGINS is in a
retirement community in Apple Valley. It was a GREAT day and Ruth was wonderful.
Well so much for the drought......... It rained 25 day in January in the Sacramento area. One night we got 2 1/2 inches in two hours and a total of 4 inches over night. We had about 8 inches of water running off the back field, going between the mobile home and the horse barn. The horse barn stayed dry and the mobile home is up so the water ran underneath. This is only the second time this has happened in the 14 years we have been here. The last time was in Feb. of 1986. The next day I was at work for the Fire Dept. doing water rescues in the morning. In the after noon things were quiet.
We watched the flooding in Rio Linda and Roseville on the T.V. Rio Linda is in our Fire District but we were not moved up at all. The rescues were all over by noon and then it was just wait for the water to go down.
When I went south for a picture framing show in Pomona the last weekend in January I stayed with my parents in Thousand Oaks, in Ventura County. Santa Barbara and Ventura Countys were hard hit by the same bunch of storms. Mud slides on Interstate 5 between Bakersfield and Los Angeles. Some of the Highways in Ventura County were closed and I took me about an extra hour to get to my parents house.
There was no damage to my parents or any of my sister’s. A friend of ours did have a large oak tree go down but it missed the house. On the way to Santa Barbara to see Kathy (Fingerle) McColm and her husband Mike, Highway 101 from Ventura to Santa Barbara had lots of mud slides but the roads where clear. At the Ventura River and Highway 101 there were rocks all along the highway from the river. This was the area were several homeless people lived and lost their lives when the water washed through.
Gee last year an Earthquake and Fires. This year Floods.
On Feb. 2nd, Willa FINGERLE, mother of Sue (Fingerle) Taunton, and Kermit Bruce Fingerle, fell and broke her right hip and right shoulder. She is now beginning physical therapy at the Buena Vista Care in Carthage MO. I think it would be nice if everyone sent her a get well card. We could flood her room with card and cheer her up. She may be there for 100 days or so.
The address is:
Willa Fingerle c/o Buena Vista Care 1901 Buena Vista Ave. Carthage, MO. 64836
If you know of a Fingerle who could us a get well card let me know. I will
send one, and put it in the newsletter.
I am working on the Fingerle Genealogy and have many Fingerle’s on my computer. The program I use is called Brothers Keeper 5. I have put may of the Fingerle’s who have sent me some of their family history. If you would like please send me what family history you may have. Father’s full name, birth date and place. Mother’s name, birth date and place. Children, brother’s, sisters, aunt, uncles, grandmothers, grandfathers, any info you have would be helpful. What I am trying to do is see where the different Fingerle families are related. I found out that Ruth Carroll in San Francisco is a Third cousin, once removed. I got a lot of Fingerle info from her which was her fathers. I am entering it into the computer as fast as I can.
The hope is the put it all in a binder some time next year and have it available to the Fingerle’s who want it. If you have an MS-DOS compatible computer and would like the Brother Keeper 5 program with the Fingerle’s in it just send me enough disks of what ever size you use (3 1/2” or 5 1/4”) to hold about 2 megabytes of data, like 2 (1.44 meg. or 1.2 meg.) disks, along with stamps to cover the return postage and I will send you the program. (it is a shareware program). I got it off a genealogy bulletin board.
This will have some of my wife’s family history too. You can add in your family if it is not in the data or if you send me the family info I will add it to my computer and send you back what is called a back up disk. You then add the files to the program (I will send you the instruction on how to do this). This will keep everyone up to date with the same data in their program. This program allows you to print family group sheet, family trees, and to find out how is related to who and how. If you have any questions send me a letter and I will get back to you.
I have about five lines of Fingerle’s going back. My family has been traced back to Hans Fingerle (Fingerlin) about 1550. I have the Fingerle’s from the Fingerle Lumber Company going back to August Fingerle but very few birth dates and spouse names. I have Kermit and Sue Fingerle Taunton side going back to Christian Fingerle (the one in the front page story) back to 1833. I have partial info on Henry and Ethel Fingerle from Todd Fingerle and Frances Fingerle, but not much on spouses and the dates for Henry and Ethel. I have lots of info in Christian C. Fingerle (not the one in the front page article) from Ruth Carroll, this is the one that I found the connection to my family.
All info would be a help. If you have a family story please send it I will put it in the newsletter. Next months story will be about the Fingerle Lumber Co. history.
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