Frederick Adam Kloepfer 1857-1932

From "Joys and Tears of Yesteryears":

Freddie Kloepfer started school in Pinchem about 1863.

The Kloepfer children, Fred, Bernard, Louisa, and Mary were walking that long distance to Pinchem to attend school. It was a long and tiresome trip back and forth each day. Adelaide, the oldest, did not attend steadily as she tired too easily and bed rest was necessary at times.

In the early days, the soiled towel was assigned to a different child each Friday to be taken home and returned fresh on Monday. It eventually became little Freddie’s turn and as he trudged along behind the other boys on his way home a brilliant idea struck his inventive mind. Just before he came to the confluence of the Pinchem and the Weber, he decided to put this theory into practice. The Murphy, Jacobsen and perhaps the George Nelson and Joseph Fisher children were some distance ahead of him so there would be no interference there. Well, why not, as it seemed to be such a burden to carry that dirty towel up that steep hill, past his mother’s old garden spot, only to tote it back all that way on Monday when the job could be greatly lessened by letting Mother Nature do the work. All that work for nothing and with that thought in mind, he proceeded to place the towel on a boulder covered by Pinchem’s fast flowing waters. He then anchored it with several other boulders and with a feeling of great satisfaction, he left it for nature to do the work. He had seen the bachelor miners wash their clothes in the stream in Pinchem and perhaps he had also seen his mother do so; so he was certain that it would work for him. He was vastly overcome with thoughts of the esteem he would receive from his classmates on Monday. But Freddie had not reckoned with the elements. That weekend the lightning streaked and zigzagged, the thunder pealed and roared and the rains came down in torrents; the heavens opened and that was for sure, and the end result was something else again. Little Freddie gave one surprised look at the spot that Monday morning and moseyed on to school. He closed the incident with a shrug of his shoulders, but the teacher was not about to dismiss it quite so readily; not when he was paid his good salary to mold upright characters. No siree! The boy was dismissed to produce the towel. In due time the dejected looking boy returned with the article in question-hardly recognizable, muddy and literally torn into shreds. With a little lumping together and a few small sticks and gadgets added to the whole picture, it would have made a very interesting collage today. Regarding the disciplinary measure that surely was meted out it must have been more than a note to his parents and the usual sitting in a corner up front with a large dunce cap on that bright and inventive bead. Sorry, but the reflections in the rear mirror discerns nothing more than the above tale, nevertheless we are thankful for the little knowledge it affords us. So, so much for school days (and daze) and on to another facet of that era.

From "The 1892 Great Register Index, El Dorado County, California," courtesy of the Caldwell County, Texas Genealogical and Historical Society:

Name/age/ht/complexion/color eyes/color hair/visible marks/Occupation/ Nativity/Residence/ Precinct / PO Address / Naturalized / date

Kloepfer, Frederick Adam / 35 / 6' 3/4" / light / brown / brown / ... / farmer /California / Colom tp / Coloma / Colom / ... / 21 Sep 1892

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