Friedrich Gaukel

Biography

Early life

Friedrich Gaukel was born on either 9 June 1784 or 7 June 1785 in Württemberg. At the time, Württemberg was ruled by a duchy of the same name, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire and was predominantly populated by Swabian people. While living in Germany, Gaukel worked as a distiller. According to Gaukel's grandson, the historian Jacob Gaukel Stroh, he travelled to Amsterdam set to join an Arctic whaling expedition around 1800, but arrived after the fleet had already departed; one source lists 1800 as the date he left Europe. Subsequently, his name appears on a passenger manifest for a ship named the Rebecca which transported German immigrants from Holland to the Americas, which arrived at Philadelphia on 27 August 1804. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography suggests that he may have been attracted to Pennsylvania by the relocation to there of the charismatic preacher from Württemberg, John George Rapp, who sought to start a religious commune. Gaukel had indentured himself and, upon arriving in Pennsylvania, was bonded to a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer for a period of three years. After his term of indenture ended, he continued farming.

In 1812 or 1813, he married a woman named Polly Kaufman. Her parents had also been bonded servants, and when they died, she was adopted by a family and given the Kaufman surname. Oral family history holds that one of her grandparents was of Irish origin. Their oldest child, Nancy, was born in the early 1810s; though Stroh implies that he was born later. In 1815, Gaukel was living near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where another child, Emanuel, was born on 15 February. Two other children, Elizabeth and George, were also born in Pennsylvania. He was soon married to his third and final wife, Dorothea Weismiller, whom Stroh describes as Swabian and whom the Dictionary of Canadian Biography states was also from Württemberg.

With his new wife at his side, Gaukel and his inn became a part of the town's political infrastructure. They were the hosts to numerous political meetings, events held by social clubs, and other public gatherings in the village. In particular, the inn's wide veranda was a favoured spot for public speakers addressing crowds in the street. The inn was also the location where householders in Berlin and the surrounding area paid their taxes and nominated their representatives to the Wellington District Council.

During the early 1840s, Gaukel continued to expand his landholdings around Berlin, including a strip along King Street West up to the point of what later became Gaukel Street, a strip along Schneider's Road (later Queen Street), and lands along Weber Street East, including the lands that would later be used for the county courthouse.

Legacy

Frederick Street and Gaukel Street in downtown Kitchener are both named after him.