Frederick Stohler, Sr.

Frederick Stohler was born in Bern, Switzerland in 1858.  He migrated to America as a young man.  He applied for United States citizenship on February 13, 1899 and became a citizen on February 15, 1901.

Frederick was living in St. Louis, Missouri when he met Maria Seitz (Zeitz) who was living in Bunker Hill, Illinois.  They married in St. Louis on August 13, 1899 and had five children, four boys and one girl.  The oldest was Frederick following were Adolph “Otto, Emma, Emil and Leo.

Frederick Sr. brought a two-story hotel in St. Louis being a few blocks from the Mississippi River.  He drove a horse drawn beer wagon earning $14.00 a week to help pay for the hotel.  This was considered good pay in the late 1890’s.  There was a bar in the hotel where Frederick worked nights after his daytime job.  He worked very hard and was a very honest trusting person as his daughter, Emma, told me.

After selling the hotel in 1910 or 1911 the Stohler family moved to California by train and lived for a short time in Santa Rosa.  Frederick was looking for a small hotel to buy in San Francisco and found one….the only thing was that the man did not own the hotel and Frederick paid for it in cash with all his savings.  He lost everything, as was heart broken that anyone could be so dishonest.

Frederick died of pneumonia in 1917 in San Francisco and interred here.  Emma (my mother) always told me she believed her father died of a broken heart.