It is seldom; indeed that one has the pleasure of chronicling the events in the life of one who fought in the recent struggle for the freedom of the Boers. Such is the case, however with the gentlemen whose life’s career we now assay to outline.
William Brammer was born in Germany, on December 16, 1864, being the son of William and Sophia (Hiestermann) Brammer. The father was born in Germany in 1840, acted as forester there for a nobleman until 1892, when he came to this country. The mother of our subject was also born in Germany, the date being 1841, and died in 1899. William was educated in his native place, and when nineteen he determined to go to South Africa. His cousin was to accompany him but at the last moment he backed out and our subject was left to try it alone. He was of the metal that goes through and so as a British immigrant he went to the colony and wrought as a stock raiser.
At the opening of the gold fields, he imbibed the fever and continued to search for the treasures of the soil from 1885 until 1893, when a different fever seized him, the malarial fever, and he was obliged to seek a higher altitude. He learned the bricklayer’s trade in the Transvaal and worked at it from 1895 to 1899, at Standerton; when the war broke out he at once took up the cause of the Boers. While he could have gone to the field, he believed he could render better service for the country in acting as fireman on a locomotive that carried munitions of war and there he served until the English took him and all the officials of the road prisoners of war and he was deported to Germany. His stay was seventeen years in Africa and was a citizen of the Transvaal. In 1901 Mr. Brammer came to America and at the present time he is operating his father’s and brother George’s farms, three miles east from Lookout.
On August 6, 1894, Mr. Brammer married Miss Mary, daughter of Frederick and Christine (Eggers) Renner, the wedding occurring in the Transvaal. Mr. Renner was a native of Germany and went to South Africa in 1892, there working at his trade of brick mason. Mrs. Brammer was born in Germany, in 1867. She has three brothers in Germany, one brother and one sister in the Transvaal, and one sister in America. Mr. Brammer has two brothers, George, County commissioner of Nez Perces County; Henry, a farmer in the County. The following children have been born to our subject and his faithful wife, William and Frieda, born in the Transvaal, and Henry, born in Germany.
Mr. and Mrs. Brammer are members of the German Lutheran Church.
Back to: Nez Perce Biographies
Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903