Heinrich Gottlieb Spiegel bio

Hunter and Old Settler: Written by youngest daughter, Clara Spiegel Schaper, 1970.
   I {Clara Spiegel Schaper}, being the youngest of a family of eight children, remember my father {Heinrich Spiegel} as a gray-haired man. His face in spite of age lines bore traces of him having been handsome.
   After his marriage to my mother {Johanna Schoengarth}, he bought eighty acres of woodland situated near Neillsville, Wisconsin. He also bought a team of oxen names Tom and Dinie. Clearing the woodland and building alog cabin, etc. was hard tedious work. Whenever he could get away from his work, he would take his gun and go into the woods to hunt. In this way he kept his family supplied with meat.
   At one time during the early years of his marriage, he fell from a tree and as a result his head was injured and some of his ribs were broken. This misfortune occurred when a peg which he had driven into the trunk of a tree had rotted. The tree was near a place where my father had placed salt for the deer. Previously, he often shot a deer while leaning on the peg.
   Because he was the only settler in his neighborhood who owned a gun he once was requested to shoot a skunk that had hidden under a neighbor's bed. At another time, he was requested to shoot a bear that was slowly eating the flesh from a pig while the pig was alive.
   My father {Heinrich Spiegel} was born and raised near Bresslau, Germany, Europe. It was there that he learned to use a gun. He often used the forester's gun while the forester was drinking beer and playing cards with my grandfather {Heinrich's father} in my grandfather's {Heinrich's father} kitchen.
   My grandfather {Heinrich's father} owned a lumber {business? mill?} and had a man working for him who lived with his wife on the grounds. My father {Heinrich Spiegel} often helped the man deliver lumber with my grandfather's team of horses and wagon.
   The gun was again brought to use when my father {Heinrich Spiegel} was called for military training. He was praised by the field captain for his good marksmanship and also for his grenadier appearance. While in training he was requested to accept a position as a butler and valet in a "Graff Schloss", occupied by General Herr Baron Von Viet, Berlin, Germany, Europe. My father's duties there were pointed out to him politely, never with a command. "The Gracious Lady" was especially polite to him in spite of the fact that he once ripped the train of her dress by stepping on it, while he was serving "after dinner coffee" at a reception.
   When he was approaching the age of seventy years, he built a hunting shanty about twenty miles from his farm home. While hunting he became lost for three days and nights. For food he shot a woodpecker and saturated it, with a so called "gun grease" and roasted it over a fire. He had but three matches left to ignite a clump of brush to keep himself warm. Two of the matches did not ignite. He earnestly prayed to God as he was about to ignite his last match. God heard him and also helped him find his way back to the shanty.
   He enjoyed relating his hunting experiences to anyone who would listen. Chippewa Indians who my father has often befriended were his most attentive listeners.
   I recall hearing him quietly sing lovely ballads with his fine Tenor voice, while he sat near the kitchen stove after having finished his chores in the barn.
   On the date of February 3, 1921 (my birthday){Clara Spiegel Schaper} he departed this life to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, but the memory of my father, Heinrich Gottlieb Spiegel's hunting life remains with me. {Clarifications by Sara Bader Hemp, 1998}.