Frederic M. Wilhelm. When a boy in his early teens Frederic M. Wilhelm began working for himself and has risen from the position of an office employe to secretary of the Prairie Pipe Line Company of Independence. He has been closely identified with the present company and the Prairie State Oil and Gas Company at Independence for the past twelve years.
Thirty-three years of age, Mr. Wilhelm was born at Decatur, Indiana, January 6, 1883. His father, George Wilhelm, was born in Germany in 1854, and when ten years of age ran away from home and soon afterwards found his way to the United States, and located in Decatur, Indiana. On reaching manhood he became a farmer and later a merchant, and in 1884 moved to Lima, Ohio, where he died in 1897. He was a republican and a member of the Catholic Church. George Wilhelm married Elizabeth Mueller, who was born of German parentage in Ohio and is still living at Lima. Their children are: John C., who is connected with a pipe line and lives in Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Mary, wife of L. A. Feltz, secretary of the Citizens Savings and Building Association of Lima, Ohio, a very important institution with assets of $2,500,000; Catherine, at home with her mother; Frederic M.; Henry M., who was private secretary to the assistant general manager of the Prairie Oil & Gas Company when he died in Independence in January, 1914.
Frederic M. Wilhelm had a brief schooling in Lima, Ohio, but at the early age of fourteen left school to begin work in an office in Lima and was soon filling a position as stenographer. He continued there until 1904, when he came to Kansas and was made private secretary to the superintendent of the Prairie Oil and Gas Company at Neodesha. In August of the same year he came to Independence and by faithful performance of his duties and by a capacity for responsibility has been advanced until he is now secretary of the Prairie Pipe Line Company. The offices of this company are in the newly erected Prairie Oil and Gas Company Building on West Myrtle Street, probably one of the finest and most completely equipped office buildings of the state.
Mr. Wilhelm also owns his residence at 608 East Main Street. He is secretary and treasurer of the Independence Country Club, is a director of the Independence Building and Loan Association, and secretary and treasurer of the Sunflower Cigar Company. Politically he is a standpat republican and a member of the County Central Committee. His social affiliations are with Fortitude Lodge No. 107, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, and Lodge No. 780, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, both at Independence.
On June 15, 1908, at Neodesha, Kansas, he married Miss Helen Bauman, a daughter of August and Mary Bauman, of Neodesha. Her father is a grain merchant. They have two children, Virginia and Frederic B., the daughter being now a student in the public schools.