Frederick Henry Bentler was born on Jun 13, 1895. Fred is related to the family through the Wellman side of the family.

Frederick was the second of 5 children born to John and Mary Schnitker Bentler. The family lived near Houghton in Lee County, Iowa. They had a farm in Marion township. I found a delayed registration of his birth in the county records. It even states that he was born at 11 pm!

He registered for the draft in WWI, but I found no record of service. The card states he works in “Agriculture” for himself in Salem, Lee County, Iowa. I do note that this gives his birth year as 1896. His WWII draft card is the same, but every other document says 1895.

The 1920 census has him working on the family farm. Shortly after the census was taken, Frederick married Magdalene Menke. Magdalene is the daughter of Herman and Catharina Spexarth Menke. I was unable to find a specific wedding date.

Fred and Magdalene continued to farm in the same general area as his parents. They had 7 children together.

Frederick Henry Bentler died on June 25, 1974. He is buried in Saint Johns Cemetery in Houghton. Magdalene died in 1988.

I wrote about Frederick’s cousin Mary Bentler Menke in this post.