Jean Gier-Knight’s records show Catherine born in Neckarkries, Germany - same date.

Mindrum Family History shows Catherine born 7 Sep 1841 in Wurtemburg, Germany and was baptised 10 Sep 1841 in Evangelisch, Enzweihiingen, Neckarkreis, Wuerttemberg, Germany. It also has her death date as 27 Apr 1912 - same place.117

Of Utica, MO on 13 Jul 1906

From an interview with Dorothy Dietrich and Winnie (Bertha Winifred Dietrich) Marshall on March 18, 1998:
Granddad (Joseph Flavian Bonderer) saw her picture and decided that she was the one he wanted to marry. Catherine (Seitter) came from Germany to marry him. She said later that it worked out all right, but that she
wouldn't want that for her daughters.

From an interview with Teresa Dietrich on July 17, 1998:
Granddad saw her picture while he was staying in the house of the family. He was a travelling farmhand. He asked if he could marry her and Catherine came from Illinois, where she was helping relatives, to marry him.
This version may be more valid as the Seitters moved to Carroll County, Mo. from Adams County, Illinois about 1860.118,117

One of fifteen children, Joseph Flavian Bonderer was born to John Peter and Catherine (Probst) Bonderer on September 9, 1827, in St. Gallen Canton, Switzerland. In May of the year 1855 he sailed for America, landing at New Orleans. He traveled up the Mississippi River to St. Louis and secured employment working on a farm for which he was paid wages of $6.75 per month. After six months he left St. Louis, traveling up the Missouri River to Brunswick, and then overland to Utica. Here he established the business of burning lime, quarrying, and contracting rock. In 1860 he entered the military service and was stationed at Breckenridge, Missouri. After serving two years he came back to Utica and re-established his lime kiln and rock contract work which he continued for a period of twelve years. Several buildings still standing in Chillicothe were quarried and constructed by Mr. Bonderer. They include the county jail and the rock work of the St. Columban Church. (This quarry is still in the present Bonderer farm.)
In 1860 Flavian married Catherine Barbara Seitters of Alsace-Lorraine. Catherine’s family had settled in the "Low Gap" country near Plymouth about the same time Flavian came to America. The romance began when Flavian was visiting the Seitter family and saw a picture of Catherine. (Catherine was in Illinois with her sister.) Anyway Joseph remarked after seeing the picture, "Send for her to come home, I want to marry her." The wedding took place on December 18, 1860.
The farm was purchased in several different pieces from the year 1873 to 1878. It consisted of 182 acres plus the five acres of the quarry, which is a half mile from the rest of the farm.
To Joseph and Catherine fourteen children were born, six of whom survived. Joseph died January 25, 1900, and Catherine died on April 29, 1912. Both are buried in the Catholic Cemetery in Chillicothe, Missouri.
Lawrence Flavian, the eldest son, married Stella McMillen April 26, 1892, at the Catholic Church in Utica and they moved immediately to the farm. Their possessions were carried in one wagon and they led their one cow behind it. They lived on this same farm until 1941 where they reared eight children-six boys and two girls. One child, a boy, died in infancy. The farm, which they purchased from Lawrence’s mother and the rest of the heirs, became theirs in 1904.
The farm located one and one-half miles west and a mile and a half north of Utica on the south side of Grand River is about half bottom ground and the rest rough hill timberland. When Stella and Lawrence moved to the farm, there was one small house and barn, a small orchard and forty acres cleared. The family cleared the rest of the farm; put the bottom land in crops, the hill in pasture; raised cattle and hogs and constructed a large barn in 1909. Their home, a large two-story house consisting of 8 rooms, was built from lumber sawed from trees growing on the farm. It was built onto the existing house, making 11 rooms in all.
Gerald and Margaret immediately began to modernize the home. They put in running water, bathrooms, hardwood flooring, clothes closets, added a garage and family room and landscaped the yard. They expanded their flock of Corriedale sheep, which Gerald started in 1940. They kept 100 to 125 registered ewes and sold their sheep at purebred sheep sales, state and nation wide.
Lana Lee, their only child, was born March 8, 1946. Lana loved to work with her father and the sheep. She helped him show at all the county as well as the Missouri State Fairs. Their sheep were entered at the American Royal and several other State Fairs including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Texas. Lana had her own sheep project in the 4-H club, of which she was a member all the years she was eligible and lived on the farm. She, as well as her father, won her share of blue ribbons. Gerald was president of Missouri Corriedale Association for several years as well as a director from Missouri to the American Corriedale Association.
January 14, 1959, the farm home of the Bonderers was completely consumed by fire. Nothing was saved. They had been gone from the home only an hour when they returned to find it completely engulfed in flames. They built a small house at the same location, but they also bought a lot in Chillicothe and erected a home to live in, where they still reside. Margaret went back to the school room and Gerald continued operating the farm. They sold their sheep soon after this and increased the cow herd-mostly Charolais crossbred.
The farm has been increased in size and now contains 260 acres. One hundred twenty acres are in cropland and the rest is in pastures with two large lakes and two smaller ponds, one which is used for water to the house and barn.
Margaret is active in school and community affairs and Gerald’s pet project is Farm Bureau, which he helped to reorganize in the late thirties. He is a charter member and has held every office as well as having served on several committees. He has been an invited guest to the Governor’s Conference for Agriculture for several years.
Lana married Warren Henry of Evansville, Indiana, in March, 1971. They have just recently moved into a new home they had built in Gladstone, Missouri. Though Mr. Henry works as a systems analyst, he is connected with farming, being employed by Farmland Foods, Inc. The family hobbies, including Lana and Warren, are dancing, card playing, hunting, and fishing. Gerald attends the Catholic Church while other members of the family go to the Methodist Church.
The farm is very important to every member of the family and hopefully when the next centennial rolls around, this farm will carry on the heritage of the Bonderer family.
The children attended a little country school two miles from the farm which was called "Brush College." They walked this distance with the Sherman children who lived one-half mile west of them. The Bonderers were always active in school, church, and community affairs. Lawrence was Western District Judge of the County Court for six years from 1908-1914. During this time the present courthouse was constructed. He was active in extension work and helped get a county extension agent in Livingston County, was a charter member of the Farm Bureau which was formed in the county in the 20’s. Though the land was subject to overflow from Grand River and several crops were lost to floods, not nearly as many were lost as could have been, for the farm was all leveed by the family, using mules and a slip, as well as hand shovels. They worked with the Extension Service on fertilizer test plots for crops and pasture. The Bonderers, and a neighbor W. B. Merriman, shipped in a car load of limestone long before it was crushed and used in the county as a common practice. Gerald, next to the youngest son, stayed on the farm after the other children left and helped carry on the tradition of progressive farming. He first planted hybrid corn in the late 30’s and in 1940 sold Pioneer Hybrid Seed Corn to his neighbors and friends and really started the use of hybrid corn in the county. He got a ton of nitrogen fertilizer from Bob Garst and found out what it could do for his crops-he has used nitrogen on every acre of corn grown on the farm since that time. His corn has averaged over 100 bushels per acre for over thirty years, wheat between 40-50 bushels per acre, and soybeans over 40.
The farm, located 1½miles north of Highway 36, was always a problem as f ar as mud roads were concerned. During the depression, when W. P. A. was started, they let the W. P. A. open the quarry and crush rock. Their only pay was the g r a v e I i n g of this road. The Bonderers bought their first automobile in 1915-a Hupmobile-their next car was a Buick and somehow the Buick has been a tradition in the family since. Until the twenties farming had been done mostly with mules and "boys," then in the early 20’s a tractor was purchased, a Fordson. It rode harder than a mule and couldn’t pull much more but didn’t get tired.
In November, 1941, Gerald bought the farm from his parents, who moved into Chillicothe, Missouri. They lived at the Calhoun Street address until their deaths. Lawrence died in 1957 at the age of 88, Stella passed away in 1962 at the age of 92. They had celebrated their sixty-five years of marriage with a family gathering. Both are buried in the Catholic Cemetery.
Gerald married Margaret Grouse on January 17, 1942. Margaret’s family were also early settlers of the county. The Grouses settled in the Springhill Community three years prior to Bonderers coming to Utica. In fact, Gerald’s grandmother’s brother, Chris Seitters, married Margaret’s grandfather’s sister, Christina Grouse. The early Bonderer and Grouse families were friends and visited back and forth, traveling by buggy. They always remained overnight, for the distance between Springhill and Utica was too great to make in a day and get any visiting done. Lawrence Bonderer could remember families getting together in the fall of the year to make grape wine. - Gerald and Margaret Bonderer116