Frederick Bohnert was born on February 24, 1857 in Germany and his wife Sophia Caroline Gessler was also born in Germany on March 3, 1859. Their first child Sophia Wilhelmina was born there on September 29, 1879. Frederick went to New York alone, found work and then brought his wife to America. The baby was left in Germany with the grandparents until she was three. Two children were born in New York, Lena and Henry.
The family moved to Antelope County in
1883. George was born in Neligh on
March 16, 1887 and Elsie on February 16, 1898. Frederick owned a Billiards-Pool-Bowling Store. Sophia and Lena worked as operators for the
Neligh Telephone Exchange. George
painted murals and also installed telephone lines. He married Lillian Halstreet. Sophia married Martin M Toousgaard and Lena married James Moore. Elsie left Neligh and went to California
with the family. She married Wyman C
Graves who served in WWI , Henry went to California and married Mary Peace.
Source Unknown: Originally submitted for this website in June 2007