The meaning of the name Wendt is "of the Wend." The Wend were a group of people descended from slavic tribes which settled in central Europe. More specifically, the Lusicia were a tribe of West Slavs which settled in the 6th century AD between the River Spree in the north and the Mittelgebirge Mountains in the south, in an area south-east of present day Berlin, and which became known as Lusatia. Also, there was a tribe of Milzeni who settled in the north near where the Spree intersected the ancient trade-route from Cologne to Kiev, with this area becoming known as Upper Lusatia. By the tenth century, a shared language emerged distinguished by an "upper" and "lower" variant dependant upon this geographical/tribal split. By the 19th century however, these people were largely absorbed as well as exterminated by surrounding cultures. The Latin-derived term wend became largely a derogatory term used by the surrounding Frankish, Saxon and other cultures to describe these Slavonic people. The more proper term now is Sorb, with the Lower Sorbian word for 'a Sorb' being Serb. Though the Sorbs of Lower Lusatia presently prefer to be called in German, Wenden, rather than Sorben.

The Sorbian culture and language still exists today but is little known outside of Germany. There are very few books in English available about them, these include The Smallest Slavonic Nation: the Sorbs of Lusatia, by Gerald Stone (1972), The Sorbs, Wends of Lusatia: the unknown immigrants, by B. Hall (1989), and In Search of a Home: Nineteenth-Century Wendish Immigration, by George R. Nielswn (1989). There is also a Sorbian Cultural Information website which has informative essays on the history, culture, and language of the Wend.

In 1832, with the passing of agrarian reform law in Prussia, an anti-minority pogrom was launched which dispossessed the Sorbs of their property and put them into serfdom to their Teutonic lords. They were implored to use the German language rather than their native Wendish. Also, they were forced to quit their indigenous Lutheran Wendish services and join the "new" evangelical reform churches. Sorbs believed that this would dilute their pure Lutheran faith along with extinguishing their native culture. Many immigrated to America, with a large community of Wend being formed in Texas. In such communities they had the freedom to continue to attend Lutheran church services in Sorbian and well as celebrate their culture.

In 1851, Frederick Wendt appears to have immigrated from perhaps Wiesbaden to America with at least his mother and his sister. The family settled in New Jersey. New Jersey was not really known as a Sorbish enclave at this time. Whether or not Frederick had a strong Sorbish heritage or that he belonged to a family which had once acted like the wend is not known. Information about his life in Prussia has not been discovered yet, and it is also quite possible that the family left its Sorbish roots many generations before.

Frederick Wendt was naturalized in New Jersey, November 1, 1858 according to the Great Register of Voters Sonoma County, California 1890 (Sonoma County Genealogical Society, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA: 1st Edition, April 1989). His step-father, William Baker, had come out to Sonoma County in 1855 to start up a blacksmithing business and then returning to New Jersey in 1860 (after the census was taken). He returned to Santa Rosa bringing back with him the rest of his family (which would have included at least Frederick, his wife Dorothy, his son Henry, his step-daughter Wilheminia, and her husband Leonard Schwan).

In the 1900 Census, a Willie Reid, "SR", b. Apr 1876, a. 24, CA is listed living with the Frederick and Paulina Wendt family. Leonard, Katherine, and Fred B. living in same household in 1900. According to the 1910 Census, Frederick's & Paulina's household was also occupied by their son Leonard, his wife Martha and daughter Gladys, Katherine Wendt, and Fred B. Wendt and his wife Mayme.

Listed in Sonoma County Marriages 1847-1902 (Sonoma County Genealogical Society, Inc., Santa Rosa, CA: 1st Edition, March 1980) as Frederick Wendt (Sonoma Marriages Book B Page 625, M. K. McCorkle, Officiant).

There is a short biography about him in History of Sonoma County, by J. P. Munro-Fraser (Alley, Bowen & Co.: 1880) p. 668:

Frederick Wendt
Farmer and stock-raiser. Born in Germany January 12, 1837, where he resided until fourteen years of age, when he emigrated with his parents to America, first settling in New Jersey, where they remained till 1860, when the subject of this sketch came to California and settled in this county, where he has since resided, with the exception of one year, 1863, which he spent in Arizona. He married Miss Paulina Lang on January 14, 1864. She was born in Germany September 6, 1838. The following are the names and births of their children: Willie, born October 27, 1865; Amelia, born August 26, 1869; Leonard, born September 1, 1870; Pauline, born May 4, 1872; Frederick, born February 1, 1875, died March 2, 1875; Catherine, born February 17, 1876.

He does not appear in the 1860 Census for Sonoma County. What was he doing in Arizona?

In volume 2 of General Nelson A. Miles recollections, Personal Recollections & Observations of General Nelson A. Miles about military actions in early Arizona, one finds:

In February, 1862, the Confederates took possession of a portion of the country "Arizona", but retreated in May on the coming of a column of volunteers from California. The presence of these inspired confidence, and settlers again ventured into the Territory. Gold was discovered on the Colorado, and business once more began to revive. It was not until 1863 that the country gained a political existence separate from New Mexico. During the following ten years its history was a bloody one, the Indians laying waste to the country and killing the white settlers whenever they could get an opportunity. But immigration still went on, the rich mines being the lodestone that drew crowds of adventurers in spite of the terror inspired by the Apaches.

He would have been 26 in 1863. I have looked at lists of Civil War solders from California and never have found a Frederick Wendt, however, I have not looked at all such lists thoroughly. I do not know how extensive the records are for California volunteers at that time either. Perhaps more likely, he went there in search of gold, but returned because of the problems with the Apaches.

Frederick Wendt transfered several pieces of land which I have extracted here.

In the Sonoma County Farmer's Directory 1887, it lists a Fred Wendt having a 360 acre farm. Further, in The Vineyards of Sonoma County: being the report of I. DeTurk, Commissioner for the Sonoma District, to the Board of State Viticultural Commissioners of California, 1893, there is a Fred Wendt of Santa Rosa listed with this entry: "Total, 7 acres, all in bearing; soil light gravelly; mountain; southern exposure; crop. 15 ton." In the Santa Rosa Rural Router 1911 (p. 115), a "Wendt Fredk" is listed on "rt 6 bx 63." Route 6 is described as: "This route runs north past Co. Hospital 10 miles to Mark West Springs, thence in an easterly direction past Mark West Winery to Fletcher's place, thence southwest 10 miles to Weatherington's place, thence west on Sonoma rd to city, covering all territory north of the city." These three books are in the Santa Rosa Genealogy Library.

Also in this particular library is a book titled Notes Made at the University of California Forestry Library on Lumbering Operations and Forest Fires in Sonoma County, by David F. Myrick, Southern Pacific Treasury Department, July 20, 1972 (634.9). In these notes, there is a reference to a March 1901 journal known as Pacific Coast Wood and Iron, which contains the following: "Herman A. Kimball and Frederick Wendt of Guerneville are starting up the Rule sawmill in Russian Gulch, north west of Duncan's Mills." Our Frederick Wendt supposedly did cut a lot of redwood trees out of his location in Alpine Valley but that is no where near Guerneville. I do not think this is the same Frederick Wendt which is our ancestor.
Later, I learned that there was another Frederick Wendt in Sonoma County at about the same time as ours. A few years ago, I received a somewhat disconcerting email from a Larry Wendt who lives in Santa Rosa. It appears he is a decendant of this Frederick Wendt's and what he knew of his family did not match mine in any way. It appears that his Wendt family came into the area in about 1870.
In the Index to Selected Sonoma County Obituaries which the Santa Rosa Genealogical Library keeps, there is a card for a Wihelmina Wendt who died on December 11, 1974 in Garden Grove. She was a former Santa Rosa resident and moved to southern California in 1966 after the death of her husband (whose name is not given). She left behind a step-son named Bill Wendt, who was living in Healdsburg at the time. This is perhaps from this separate line as well.

Newspaper clippings kept by my grandmother about the Wendt family:
The Press Democrat, Dec. 14, 1952
The Press Democrat, April 9, 1958

Having thought for a long time as the result of no contacts, that my own branch of the family was probably the only one which had continued to exist, I was surprised in November of 2002 by an email from a great grandson of Fred B. Wendt, Craig Harwood. I had known from my grandmother, that Fred and Mayme had a child, but we knew nothing else about what ever had happened to him. Craig had information about the family which I had never heard before, and his mother, the former Marcia Wendt, wrote a long message about the family, "The Frederick Wendt Ranch and the Fred Wendt Creek House/Cottage", and emailed it to me. My contact with this branch of the family was the impetus for me to finally cull together what little information I had about my Wendt family and finally launch this website.

Obituary for Frederic Wendt from The Press Democrat, Thursday morning, July 18, 1912, p. 7:

Funeral of Late Frederic Wendt Rites Under the Auspices of the Odd Fellows--Many Beautiful Floral Tokens.

To the memory of the late Frederick Wendt a fine tribute of respect was shown on Wednesday afternoon by a large gathering of the members of the Odd Fellows' fraternity and oldtime friends at his funeral which took place from the chapel of Welti Bros, 'undertaking' apartments. Ther were many of Mr. Wendt's neighbors from the Alpine Valley section present in addition to friends from this city. Among those present were a number of men who like himself were pioneers of this State and section. There were many, beautiful floral tokens, a whole wagonload of them, each one testifying in its tender sentiment to the esteem borne him whose casket and last resting place they adorned most beautifully. The funeral was under the auspices of Santa Rosa Lodge of the I. O. O. F. Charles F. Gamble was acting Noble Grand, asisted by Chaplain Hardesty.
The interment was in the local cemetery and there was a long line of vehicles containing relatives and friends in the funeral cortege wending its way to the quiet city of the dead.
The pallbearers were J. C. Maller, James Burgess, E. E. Morrow, August Ketterlin, Fred Hess and H. W. LeBaron.
The choir was composed of Miss Clara Shaw, William Shaw, Miss Nellie Coulter and George J. Reading.
Mr. Wendt was one of the oldest members of Santa Rosa Odd Fellows lodge, and in that organization of men as well as in his every day walks of life, he was known and recognized as a man of unswerving integrity to what he believed was right. He will be sadly missed in the home and family circles. His death has brought great grief to those near and dear to him. For forty two years Mr. Wendt was a resident of Alpine Valley.

A record exists for Frederick Wendt Dec'd. in the Sonoma County Probate File: Register 10, Page 221.

He died intestate. He owned two pieces of property when he passed away on July 15, 1912 (at the age of 75), one was at 926 Morgan street where he and his wife, Paulina had lived. A 100 feet x 156 feet section of property "conveyed by James B, Young and Mary L. Young, Sept. 17, 1889". Appraised at $4500. The other was "one lot with improvements on Fifth street... Lot No. 71 in Block No.3..." No purchase information on this property was given in the probate record. It was appraised at $1500. These appraised values it seems are almost always lower than what the property is believed to be worth. The Morgan Street property was listed as being worth $6000 before it had been appraised.

Frederick Wendt's personal property consisted of about seventy five dollars worth of necessary household goods, table and kitchen furniture, beds and bedding. At the Exchange Bank, he had a $1000 interest bearing (4% per annum) certificate No. 3893 that had been bought July 25, 1911. At the Savings Bank of Santa Rosa, there was a $500 interest (4%) bearing certificate No. 25775 dated July 13, 1912. There was another $1000 certificate No. 21379 at the Santa Rosa National Bank, dated Dec. 11, 1911, and $485.32 of cash in deposit in the Saving Bank of Santa Rosa. The dates on these certificate suggests to me that his passing had been expected. Frederick Wendt's total appraised estate was worth $9060. Paulina Wendt was declared "administratrix" to the estate. The probate record has her actual signature in several places. She spent $142.25 for the burial on July 15, 1912. The price included a black casket, black hearse, shirt collar, tie and cuffs. It is also stated, "...that said William Wendt, Mollie C. Leggett, Leonard Wendt, Paulina S. Fulkerson, Katherine B. Wendt, and Fred B. Wendt, aforesaid, did by their deed dated the 26th day of June 1913, give, grant, convey, alien and confirm unto said Paulina Wendt the said window, all the real and personal property belonging to said estate of said Frederick Wendt."

Cash was paid out to State and County taxes, undertaker, family allowance to Paulina Wendt, and attorney's fees to D. R. Gale ($3110.17). The estate was left with $1866.30 in cash. This and the property is transferred to Paulina.