On this date (January 13) in 1843, Dale’s great-great-grandfather Peter Joseph Rademacher was born in Olpe, Germany. Known to friends and family as Joseph, he emigrated to the United States with his wife and children in 1878 and settled in Crete, Nebraska, where Joseph’s younger brother Frank had already established successful businesses.
Joseph and his wife Josepha had thirteen children, ten of whom survived into adulthood.
Family lore is that Joseph worked in a foundry as a child. He and Josepha took up farming when they came to Nebraska. Joseph died in 1921 and, according to his obituary,
had gained the love and respect of all who knew him, by his square dealings and upright Christian life
