History in Minnesota, U.S.A.

Dahlheimers of Minnesota, 1855 – present

Frank Dahlheimer

Click here for photos of Frank Dahlheimer’s Family.

Frank Dahlheimer was Henry and Mary’s youngest child. He was born in the log cabin on Henry's original homestead in Dayton, Minnesota. Frank was the only child born with red hair. All the rest of his brothers and sisters had dark hair. This red hair has continued to appear in the Dahlheimer family at various times throughout the years. Those born with it are oftentimes referred to as the “Red Dahlheimers”.

In 1892 at the age of 24, Frank married Catherine (Kate) Scherber who was 19 years old at the time. Kate was the sister of Mary Scherber, wife of Frank’s first cousin, John Dahlheimer.

Frank and Kate lived with Henry and Mary on the farm until 1897 when Frank bought the homestead from Henry for $2,000. Henry and Mary then moved into Anoka as previously mentioned.

One year later on November 4, 1898, Kate died of tuberculosis. She and Frank had no children so Frank’s niece, Anne Stenglein, kept house for him until April 1900, at which time Frank decided to do some, traveling. He visited The Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. In November 1900, Frank traveled to Jefferson County, Missouri. On November 28, 1900, he married Sarah Magdalene Duffner Racker, widow of Henry Racker.

Sarah was born November 7, 1868, in Fulton, Stark County, Ohio. On November 9, 1892, in Jefferson City, Missouri, at the age of 24, she married Henry Racker. They lived on a 160 acre farm and had two children, Anne and Mary. In 1897, Henry Racker died of blood poisoning. Not long after that, Sarah moved into Jefferson City.

In 1900 she married Frank, at which time she was 32 years old. Between 1900 and 1912, Sarah and Frank had eight children: Mary, Cecelia, Bernadette, Joseph, Clement, Margaret, Francis, Lawrence and Vincent.

Because of his interest in business, Frank acted as his father Henry’s agent in investment transactions. Between 1903 and 1907 Frank was involved in a number of land transactions in Anoka County, as evidenced by the multitude of entries in the Anoka County Courthouse land records. Leonard Dahlheimer told of a time around 1912 when Frank and his brother-in-laws, John Stenglein and John B. Weber, invested money in land near Lake Wales by Tampa, Florida , supposedly containing orange and grapefruit groves. After Henry died in 1917, Frank sold the land because the property taxes were too high and he couldn’t afford to pay them. He received $1,500 plus a contract for deed for the land from a man who later caught pneumonia and became delinquent in paying the property taxes. As a result, the land was going to be sold by the government to pay the back taxes. Frank traced the man from Florida to a hospital in New York only to find the man could not complete his contract. Frank finally found another buyer for the land and was able to sell it for around $8,800.

On March 1, 1905, Frank and his family moved to Anoka and rented the old homestead until they returned in April 1918. On September 1, 1942, at the age of 74, Frank died of cancer. Sarah lived until the age of 81 and died on September 9,

1949. The old homestead that Henry bought in 1860, which Frank subsequently bought in 1897, eventually became the property of Lawrence C. Dahlheimer, Frank’s youngest son. It then became the property of Lawrence’s son, Adrian V. Dahlheimer (who continues to own it in 2006).