But for the fate of a single letter, written in the early 1880s, the history of several Platte County communities could have been very different.  It is the pivotal piece in the storied history of the Frederick family, ranchers with a direct connection back to the days when frontier fortresses such as Fort Laramie and Fort Steele were part of the western landscape.

Hosted by the Sunrise Historic and Prehistoric Preservation Society (SHAPPS), members of the Frederick family recently presented a slide show and narration of how their family established a small settlement in Whalen Canyon, northeast of present-day Guernsey.  Nearly 100 guests crowded into Hartville’s Episcopal Parish Hall as Chuck and Doug Frederick shared their family’s historic journey. 

It began in 1852 when Charles Frederick, son of Gottlieb and Wilhelmina Frederick, was born in Strassfurt, Germany and raised in Berlin. Looking to travel to the United States, he worked putting lead into pencils, and by the age of 20 had acquired enough to secure passage on a ship, traveling alone.  He arrived in New York City but moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania, working in the coal mines.  He later moved to northern Wisconsin where he worked in the lumber mills for a time, then it was on to Chicago in 1878. 

He committed to a five-year enlistment with the U.S. Army and was originally stationed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, a member of Company K in the 7th U. S. Infantry.  Over the next three years he would serve at Fort Steele near Rawlins, Wyoming and Fort Shaw in Montana, then return to Fort Snelling.   While there, he met and married Minnie Wilkey.  Born in Pommern, Germany in 1860, she had come to America as a young child with her parents who settled in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Memorable moments began early.  Following their wedding ceremony, Charles or “Pep” as he was also known, found himself with empty pockets when it was time to pay the minister.  He turned to his new bride and asked if she might have some money to make the payment.  In that time, most ladies did not carry a purse, but customarily carried money in their shoe tops, hidden underneath the hem of their long dresses.  The family story goes that Minnie long wanted to be angry at Pep, in a polite way, for causing her to have to lift her green velvet wedding gown to pull out the bills to pay the minister.

Pep was sent back to Wyoming to Fort Laramie due to trouble with Indians in the area and the family has been told his company was in pursuit of Chief Sitting Bull.  Pep finished his service to the Army while at Fort Laramie, mustering out with an honorable discharge in 1883.   

While at Fort Laramie, Pep had found an appealing acreage northwest of the fort in Whalen Canyon.  Minnie and his infant daughter, Helena had remained in Minnesota during this time, so once he built a log cabin on the property, he sent word for them to join him in the “wide-open West”.  After traveling by train to Cheyenne, Minnie and Helena rode the stagecoach to Fort Laramie.  Pep had arranged for a soldier at the fort to meet them and bring them up to the ranch site.  Traveling in a wagon pulled by a team of donkeys, driven by a stranger, Minnie showed her displeasure with the situation by walking, but eventually agreed to ride when it grew dark and she had tired.  Entering the canyon, she was concerned about the large rocks that might roll down the hill. Her concerns     increased when they pulled up in front of the cabin that had a dirt floor and roof.  Wondering where the actual home was, it became clear when Pep came out of the building to greet her with a lantern, welcoming her to their “new home”.  It was certainly not what she was expecting.  Minnie was so upset that she wrote a letter to her brother back in Minnesota requesting that he send her the money she needed to leave Wyoming and return to Minnesota.  It was to be the point at which local history and the very existence of the Frederick family in the area for the next six generations would hinge.  For when Minnie gave the letter to Pep, asking him to mail it, he did not honor her wishes.  And because of his decision, the letter was never mailed, Minnie and Helena stayed and the Frederick family remained in the little cabin in Whalen Canyon.  They went on to establish a life that would include mining and cattle; two of the primary occupations that would be the foundation for three communities in the area.  Minnie or “Granny” as she was referred to, came to love the area and the family says that during the last 50 years of her life, it would have been impossible to drive her out of the “Little Grey Home in the West”.  She later said that in the early days, with Indian scares, inadequate home facilities, absence of neighbors and no medical resources; it all amounted to some very trying times.

Little is known of the life of Pep’s parents Gottlieb and Wilhelmina, but Gottlieb later left Germany and came to the United States to be with his son and family.  While here, he became ill and passed away in the Frederick home in 1886.  He was buried on the hillside near the original Frederick cabin.  The grave remains to this day and is marked with a fence the family later added.     

The Frederick family in Whalen Canyon grew.   In addition to Helena, Pep and Minnie had three sons, Henry (1884), Charles (1886) and George (1889), who were all born in the original log cabin, and Ruth (1895), the youngest, who was born in the house known as the Frederick Ranch Home, located just off of Whalen Canyon Road.  From those five children, the Frederick family grew substantially.  Helena and William Blake, married 1902, were parents to Woody, Minnie, Murph, Billie and Peggy.  Henry and Stella Trump, married 1912, were parents to Chester, Irene and Ethelyn.  Charles and Estella Butdorf, married 1916, were parents to William and Robert.  George and Ruth never married. 

The Frederick Wyoming Post Office was established May 15, 1894.  Minnie served as the first postmaster.  She operated out of her home until the first store, post office and dance hall structure was built in the early 1900s.  Although it was originally built for a saloon and dance hall, Minnie would not stand for the saloon, so the front portion was used for a store and post office and the large hall portion as a dance floor.  She held the postmaster position until she was forced to resign due to an injury that would later confine her to a wheelchair.  Her injury was due to a fall down “Uncle Sam”, one of rock-laden hillsides behind the ranch, and although she consulted area physicians who treated her for rheumatism and soaked in the thermal pools in Thermopolis, she had permanent damage to her spine.  Upon her resignation, Pep became the postmaster in 1909 and remained until the office was closed in 1923.  Thirty-five people who had been receiving mail at Frederick then had to pick up their mail at the mining town of Sunrise, Wyoming.

The Frederick children were no strangers to hard work.  Helena packed the mail many times from Fairbanks, located at the present-day Kelly’s Park, to the ranch.  Henry, Charlie and George were put out on the cattle roundups when they were barely old enough to climb on a horse.  Minnie was the driving force when it came to running the ranch, saying that Pep wouldn’t know the difference between a cow or steer.  Neither rode a horse so trailing the cattle was all done on foot until she was confined to the wheelchair.  Pep would make a grocery store run to Hartville on foot as well.  His interests were more focused on mining, education and government. Prospecting fascinated him and he had a hand in digging many of the prospect holes that dot the hillsides in Whalen Canyon.  He owned 11 mining claims which today are in the Sunrise Mine property.  C. A. Guernsey, the man the town is named for, purchased claims from many of the prospectors in the area, and then sold 76 of them to Bethlehem Steel for $400 per claim.  Minnie sold her claims which were in the vicinity of the Chicago Mine and used the funds to purchase cattle at $17 per head.  Pep served for many years on the school board and in 1910, he was elected as a democratic member to the Wyoming State Legislature.  In 1911, he introduced a bill to adopt a Wyoming state flag and also a bill dictating to the Legislature to divide Laramie County into three counties:  Platte, Goshen and Laramie.  When he sat down to write a letter, the dictionary was close by and although it may have taken him four hours to write the letter, every word was spelled correctly in beautiful script.

He attended the Louisiana Purchase Centennial at St. Louis in 1904 and was awarded the bronze medal for his work in gold ore and mineral paints.  He also received an award at the 1905 Lewis & Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon for his ore collection and mineral paints. 

The Frederick ranch holdings began when Pep homesteaded the original land in Whalen Canyon.  Over the years, he and Minnie and their children purchased neighboring homesteads and pastures on which to graze their cattle.  Although they don’t know the order of acquisition, Ruth Frederick later stated in an interview that the family owned 48,000 acres, the equivalent of 75 square miles.  It would include pastures located in place names known in later years as the Klueshner Place, Kline Place, Frederick Ranch, 4-J, Hell Gap, Brownrigg Place, Wild Cat and Peterson Place.   

The family ranched together as one unit for many years.  In 1917, the family was convinced to pasture their cattle around Winner, South Dakota.  The winter was severe and during a storm, the cattle were driven into the White River.  As a result, the ranch lost 1,400 head that succumbed in the freezing water and it broke the family.  At that point Henry decided to begin his own operation.  The remainder of the family continued to ranch in Whalen Canyon.

Chuck and Doug Frederick are the sons of Chester Frederick, the grandsons of Henry Frederick and the great-grandsons of Charles “Pep” Frederick.  Now retired, they also shared the interests that Pep and Minnie had in ranching, education and government.  Both have been heavily involved in raising livestock, local education, area government and service organizations. 

Familial heritage is a gift that should not be overlooked.  Faded photos, stories passed along through grandparents and parents, crumbling foundations and graveyards full of names and dates—it all speaks to the heritage and history each of us share with those that came before us.  For many, that past has been lost to time, the details buried with family members long since gone.  But for some, the links remain intact, kept alive by those who honor the value and lessons of their family’s generational journey.  Such is the story of the Frederick family.