Biography of Fred Gehlert
By Evelyn Gehlert
Fred. Gehlert Jr. - Born in Pembroke, Ontario, Ma'y 8, 1894 Parents Fred Sr. & Paule Gehlert (first cousins, were married in May 1891) moved to Pembroke from Lodz, Poland. A child was born in Poland but died. Fred Sr. came ahead while his wife stayed behind to bake care of funeral arrangements. Don't know dates they left Poland but likely around 1892 -1893.
The family moved to Hoboken., N.J. in 1895 and remained there until about 1906. Another son and two daughters were born there. Then they returned to Canada and lived for a short time in Petawawa Township and later purchased, a 200 acre farm with buildings in Fraser Township for the princely sum of $500.00, and this property remained in the family until 1996 when it was sold. after the death of Henry Gehlert.
Fred Jr. attended school in Hoboken. N.J. but don't know anything about schooling in Canada except that 'he did attend night school in Pembroke as a young man. He would have been 12 years old when the family left N.J. When he was 16 years old. he went on a "Harvest Excursion" to Saskatchewan.
August 27, 1919 he married Emma Heuer (who came to Canada at the age of 5 in 1905 with her parents - from Waldenburg, Germany). Fred worked at the Fischer Planing Mill at that time but shortly after the newly weds left Pembroke to work for the C.N.R. Fred worked for the Bridge and Building Gang, while Emma was the cook for the gang. They often mentioned such places as Hornepayne, Long Lac etc. When Emma became pregnant with their first child (a son who only lived for four days) they left the C.M.K. to move to Port Arthur where Fred worked at a Grain Silo; then they returned to the C.N.R. until Emma became pregnant again, then back to Port Arthur where Fred again worked at a Grain Silo. When Evelyn was born in March 1925, they left the North to homestead in Fraser Township on 100 acres adjacent to the property owned by Fred's parents.
They lived in a small log building on the parents farm until a house was built and then for a few years they tried farming and raised chickens which they sold. In 1929 Fred joined a carpenter friend to work at building construction in Temiskaming,.' Que. and in 1930 the job took them to Dalhousie, N.B. to work on building a pulp and paper mill. Emma and their two daughters moved there as well and when the job was finished in late 1930 they moved to Pembroke for a few months, then back out to the house in Fraser Township. This was the beginning of hard times for the-family. In 1931 Fred was employed for a while in Montreal doing carpenter work but when that job was finished he returned to the home in "the bush" and was unemployed, until the highway (#62) was built up to Round Lake where he had work for about a year. Somewhere around 1936 or '37 he built two homes for two brothers in Alice and after that started working for Harvey Coumbs Contracting in Pembroke until he retired long past the age of 65 but don't remember just when. He was foreman on such construction jobs as the Pembroke Memorial Centre, Calvin United Church Hall, Malcom & Deavitt Funeral Home as well as many homes in Pembroke.
His hobby was woodworking - inlay and carving.
He spent the last years of his life in Miramichi Lodge where he died in May 1987 at the age of 93.
