Hi Nance Transcribed by Peg Lamkin, brinwood@chibardun.net. Edited and submitted by Victor Gulickson. Bernard J. Becker, repair foreman for the Thompson Auto Co., is an expert both in the automobile line and in general machinery. He was born in Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 7, 1894, son of Frank and Kate (Spurzem) Becker, natives respectively of Germany and Minnesota. Frank Becker came to America in the late seventies, and remained for a short time in Kansas City where he started railroading. In this line he traveled in nearly every state in the Union. Finally, determined to take up farming, he located near Minneapolis where he still lives. In the family there are eleven children, Frank, Hubert, Fred, Wilbur, Bernard J., Anna, Cecelia, Frances, Caroline, Margaret and Vernie. Bernard J. was educated in Minneapolis. He started work for T. M. Anderson in the automobile business in that city in 1908. Then for a while he worked with his uncle, Frank Spurzem, in a machine shop there. With this experience he started out, and was employed for a time in different cities in Minnesota as an automobile expert. He came to Barron City in 1914 and operated a garage here for two years. Then he went to Clear Lake and operated a garage there for a year. Returning to Barron he entered the employ of Ernest Nelson. He was inducted into the United States service Oct. 1, 1918, and served with the 15th Recruit Company at Jefferson Barracks, Mo. Dec. 5, 1918, he was discharged on account of illness and returned home. As soon as he was able he took up his present employment. Mr. Becker married Grace Hover, daughter of Albert J. and Barbara (Miller) Hover, of Maple Grove Township. This union has been blessed with one son, Albert F., born Sept. 20, 1918. --Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co., 1922, pg. 120.