"I was born at Schaffhausen, Switzerland on the 21st of November, 1879. My parents’ names are William Wilker, and Maria Kunzley Wilker. Father was born at Solothurn, Switzerland, and mother at Oberbaldingen in Baden, Germany.
"My parents joined the Church and emigrated to Zion in the fall of 1883, and made their residence in Paris, Bear Lake County, Idaho. Father was a painter, and with others painted in the Logan Temple, but as he was a sick man with consumption when he came here, the altitude was too high and he passed away in 1884 from the disease, and also dropsy. Mother did whatever she could to make to make ends meet, and with some help from the people, she was able to keep us all together, until the oldest girl, Emily, got married, and later my other living sister went to Salt Lake to stay with her. That left us three boys at home, and two sisters younger than I died before this time—Emma Julia, who was next to me, right after we arrived in Paris, and Frida Alice when she was about 5 years old of scarlet fever. There were seven of us children in the following order; Emily, Henry William, Albertina Hedwig, Ernest Herman, Frederick Charles, Emma Julia, and Frida Alice."The second ward in which we lived, paid for our tuition to the school, and we were taught and had what little education that was available in Paris at that time, but later things improved as elsewhere. The school-house was a little old log cabin and in the winter at times it got so cold that the teacher and pupils had to trot around the room to keep from freezing. We were all in one room. We as a family did whatever we could find to do to make a living. I weeded, worked for farmers, seven years at a brick yard, shingle mill, dairy, in fact whatever there was to do, and then we also trapped muskrat and mink.
"Our amusements were dancing, parties at different homes, a ball game called rounders, in which boys and girls played, as well as round sheep marbles, and in the summer fishing and swimming.
"In those days there was very little amusement on Sunday as people generally went to Sunday School, and afternoon and evening meeting. I attended primary, Sunday School, M.I. A. quite regularly as also ward choir practice. I belonged to a glee club conducted by Joseph R. Shepherd, Sr. and obtained a very good experience. I was baptized on the 4th of April 1889, by Robert Price, and confirmed a member on the same day by Elder James Oakey. I was ordained a Deacon, but I will have to get the information on the date and by whom from Paris."
"I was a deacon for a number of years, and then the President called me on a mission to Germany. In the spring of 1900, April to be exact, I with others went to Canada. I first worked on a canal, from where Raymond now is to Lethbridge, being a branch of the main canal running from Cardston to Sterling at that time.
"Later we worked on the railroad building from Sterling to Cardston, then we graveled the streets of Lethbridge—and just before Christmas we went with the same contractor, who was Hammond, from Logan, to British Columbia, among the ties. I the spring we, that is two of us, Ezra Wilcox and I, came down to Spokane, Washington and from there back to Paris, where I worked until I left for my mission to Germany. I was ordained an Elder by Bishop Price on the 21st day of October, 1901. I left home on the same day, which was a Monday, for Salt Lake.
"I sent a few days in the city making arrangements for my passport, going through the Temple, getting a Patriarchal blessing, and on the 29th in the afternoon we went to the Temple annex to be set apart for our missions. I was ordained a seventy, set apart, and given a blessing by Apostle Mathias F. Cowley."
"On the 31st left Salt Lake for Boston, our place of embarkation. We left Salt Lake at 7 P.M. in the night—we passed through Cheyenne in the night, arriving at Omaha 7 P.M. the next evening. We left the same evening and the next morning were in Chicago, and the next morning at Buffalo, and in the evening in Boston, where we spent some little time in the city and then embarked on the S.S. New England for Liverpool, England. It took us 8 days and 15 hours for the passage, and had some very rough weather. We arrived at Queenstown, Ireland on the 14th, and the same evening at 9 p.m. at Liverpool.
"I will not try from here on to give all the dates, but state that the next day President Francis R. Lyman assigned us to our field of labor. We were on the North Sea about 36 hours, and landed in Hamburg. On the ocean I had no trouble with sea sickness, but I very nearly got it on the North Sea, and to avoid it I went to bed. It took us about all day to make the trip from Hamburg to Berlin, and there we met President Hugh J. Cannon, who assigned us to Spandau, a city 20 minutes ride on the train west of Berlin.
"I labored in Spandau from November 21, 1901 to June 1902, and then in connection with Arthur Heppler of Richfield, Utah, I was called to make an experimental trip through North Eastern Germany without purse or script; but the law forbade it, but we had a very fire time all in all, although we slept in a rye field one night.
"Then I returned to Spandau, and from there was sent to Rostock on the Baltic Sea to open that city, Brother William Hubbard being my companion. I should have stated that Brother Otto Bergener was my first and Senior companion, he being about 40 and making the trip across together."
That was as much of his life story as he wrote. The next section was derived from his Missionary Journal."
Note: Frederick’s missionary journal has seemingly disappeared. I have not found any relatives living that know what became of his journal. Any information as to its whereabouts would be greatly appreciated. Contact Us.
Elders Wilker and Hubbard went to Rostock in July 1902. Missionary work there moved at a rather slow pace as they had been there three months before receiving an invitation to a meal. In November the missionaries were banished from Rostock and the whole Province of Mecklenburg. This was due to the action of the clergy in Schwerin. In spite of the efforts of the mission president, Hugh J. Cannon, and the U.S. Ambassador and other authorities, the banishment was enforced. They were then sent Stralsund to labor, but were unable to do any work for a while as they were not registered. They could not register until their passes were returned to them from the Ambassador. They labored in Stralsund until 23rd of February, 1903, at which time they received another notice of banishment. Soon after this all missionary work was prohibited in Prussia due to the efforts of the clergy. After being banished from Stralsund the missionaries went to Berlin. They stayed with different pairs of elders. Inasmuch as they were not to register it was necessary to change quarters often. They followed this procedure until the mission president could decide what to do with them. In March of that year Elder Wilker went on another walking trip. At this time in company with Elder Peter Allemann he walked from Weisensee (near Berlin) to Frankfurt on Der Order.
Soon after he returned from this trip Elders Wilker and Hunnard were sent to the Stuttgart Conference at which time they were assigned to labor in Frieburg of Baden. Frieburg was at that time about two-thirds Catholic. There they saw many Catholic churches and also witnessed some of their religious celebrations such as Ascension Day. While laboring in this place the elders went on another walking trip, the third for Elder Wilker. They traveled from Frieburg to Rottweil. Among the towns and villages visited on this trip was the little village of Oberbaldingen, where Elder Wilker’s mother was born. He visited with an uncle who was living there, Paul Wölfle, the husband of his mother’s sister. He also had a visit with some of his cousins in the nearby villages of Sunthausen and Schwerringen. He was happy to have had the privilege of seeing some of his relatives as he had not had that opportunity before. His father and mother had left their homeland to come to America and had no relatives here. He also traveled through Geislingen where his grandmother Kienzli died in 1891.
Elder Wilker left Frieburg in August of that year (1903) being transferred to Karlsruhe to work with Elders Willard Ballam and Merrill Nibley. He and Elder Hubbard parted after having worked together for over a year and being banished twice. After attending missionary conference in the forepart of September at Stuttgart he was sent to labor in Munich (Munchen) with J.F. Thomstorff. While in Munich they were able to take advantage of the many cultural institutions such as the opera, theater, museums, art galleries, etc. They were unable to do much tracting in Munich. However, there were quite a few saints living there and they had many invitations out to eat. Their meetings were held in the homes of the saints. They also conducted Bible and Book of Mormon classes and taught English.
Moses A. Zundel came to Munich to work with them in December, and the following January the elders went to Stuttgart to attend missionary conference. At the Sunday evening meeting January 24, 1904, Elders Thormstorff and Wilker with several others were honorably released. After returning to Munich they gave their farewell sermons Sunday, January 31, 1904.
On the 5th of February Elder Wilker left Munich to go to Switzerland in Winterthur to visit with his sister Emily and her husband, Julius Billeter. While in Switzerland he made a visit to Solothurn, the birthplace of his father. There he visited a short while with two aunts, sisters of his father. They were really surprised to see him, and were pleased to see the son of their only brother. Because of the inclement weather he was unable to do much sightseeing in Switzerland. However, he and Emily and Julius went to visit Schaffhausen, where Elder Wilker was born. While there they located the house where their family had lived and also met a neighbor who remembered them as children.
After leaving Switzerland, he went to Rotterdam and then to Liverpool. There in company with thirteen saints and elders he sailed on the Cretic for Boston March 17, 1904, closing his journal with this remark: “We did some singing in the evening and enjoyed ourselves and all felt happy.”