| Birth: | 1822 | | Death: | 1898 | 
Pioneer, Multi-millionaire. Frederick William Delger was born Mar 11, 1822 in the Kingdom of Saxony, Germany to Gottlieb Delger and Dorothea Wechtler. He immigrated to New York about 1847 and married Ernestina Blücher in New York in 1848. He, his wife and first born child Matilda set out for California by way of Cape Horn in 1852 and arrived in San Francisco in January 1853. He was a self made man, a boot maker by trade. He learned the shoemaker's trade in Germany, serving three years as an apprentice. He worked a short time for others in California before opening a retail shoe store in about 1855 and later expanding to Sacramento. He made his fortune by real estate speculation. He had bought several pieces of real estate in San Francisco (Third Street, Clay Street, the corner of Second and Silver Streets and Sansome Street). He sold some of those properties and in 1860 purchased 10 acres of land in what became downtown Oakland. He was reputed to be Oakland's first millionaire. The land he purchased encompassed Telegraph Avenue between Seventeenth and Twentieth Streets and running west in part to San Pablo Avenue. He eventually sold three and a half acres and subdivided the remainder laying out what he named Frederick Avenue (now Nineteenth), William Street (between Nineteenth and Twentieth) and Delger Street (now Twentieth). He reserved a portion on the north side of Frederick Street for his own estate into which he moved into and remained there until his death. He built on a large proportion of the lots in his subdivisions, later selling most of them. He was a stockholder and director in the Oakland Bank of Savings. The estate that he built on the north side of Frederick Street was known as the Delger Estate. It is sadly (in January 2004) now a parking lot next to Sears and in January 2004 was slated for a new uptown town home development. A nearby honeymoon cottage belonging to his daughter Lillie was rescued and moved to Preservation Park, where it was fully restored. He was one of the founders of Mountain View Cemetery in 1863. He has a Gothic mausoleum, complete with spire and stained glass window in the cemetery. It stands at the crest of the hill known as Millionaires Row. He and his wife had four children: Matilda who married Captain John Brown; Anna ‘Annie' who married William Moller; Edward Frederick and Lillian who became noted Freudian psychoanalyst Dr Lillian Powers and who married first Harry Trowbridge and second William John Sweasey Powers. He was the grandfather of noted engineer Dr. Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth. He was the great-grandfather of Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr and Ernestine Gilbreth-Carey co-authors of "Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Belles on Their Toes". He died at the age of seventy-six on April 25, 1898.
(bio by: eboss)
Family links:
Spouse:
Ernestine Blücher Delger (1829 - 1906)*
Children:
Matilda Delger Brown (1849 - 1920)*
Annie Delger Moller (1854 - 1930)*
*Calculated relationship
| | | Burial:
Mountain View Cemetery
Oakland
Alameda County
California, USA |
Created by: Shiver
Record added: Jun 02, 2004
Find A Grave Memorial# 8862155 |
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