Wedertz Family Papers

Ludowig (Louis) Edmund Wedertz was born in Germany on May 22, 1824. He came to America around 1845 for both economic reasons and also to escape the compulsory German military service. He landed in New Orleans where he married Niklamine Wischmann in 1851. After the birth of their first child, they traveled to California reaching San Francisco in 1853. Louis became a merchant and operated a brick yard business there for many years before the riches in Nevada's mining towns prompted him to move the family in 1862.

Louis operated a stage station at Sulpher Springs, now in Lyon County, Nevada, on the Carson-Aurora road from about 1862 until 1866. He moved his family to Aurora for two years where he operated a hotel and stage stop. The family then moved to Burlington, Iowa, to be near other Wedertz relatives, but by 1874, they again were living at Sulpher Springs, moving to a homestead known as the Freidell Place, located on the West Walker River in Mono County, California. In 1879, Louis Wedertz moved the family to Bridgeport, California, where he opened a general merchandise store. After his death on November 29, 1881, his widow, Niklamine, took over the operation of the store until it was closed in 1883. Niklamine died in Bridgeport at the age of 83 on February 10, 1916.

Louis and Niklamine Wedertz had eleven children, but three did not live to adulthood. Those that did were: Louisa, 1851; Emma, 1854; Dorothea, 1856; Adela, 1858; Bertha, 1860; Charles, 1865; Clarence, 1873; and Frank, 1876. Wedertz family members settled in Bridgeport, California, and Smith Valley, Nevada.