Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. PARENTAGE AND FAMILY. Father, his Position and Character?Mother?Number of Children: Werner, Hans, Ferdinand, William, Friedrich, Carl, Walter, Otto ?Daughters?Business Relations between the Brothers?Family Customs?The
Siemens Stift. THE name of SIEMENS has been made famous by others bearing it, as well as by the subject of this Memoir; indeed it would be difficult to find a modern instance of a family comprising so many individuals whose intellectual powers and technical genius have come prominently before the world. And having regard to the fact that close relations existed between William Siemens and several of his brothers during his whole career, it is desirable to give a somewhat full notice of the family generally. The father, Christian Ferdinand Siemens, was born in 1789 at Wasserleben, on the northern edge of the Harz Mountains. He was the youngest son in a large family, and his ancestors had, for three centuries before, been country people, engaged in the cultivation of the land Ferdinand, as he was called, married early, and settled in the same line of life, at a small place called Lenthe, a few miles from Hanover, where he held the position of Domanen-Pachter, the title given to those who farm and cultivate Government lands. He had received, in common with all his father’s children, a liberal education, and one of his brothers became Professor of Mathematics at the University of Halle. In a document written by William in 1873, he says that his father had a good healthy organization; was energetic and of a restless disposition; was passionate, but tender-hearted; that his impatience was easily and forcibly excited; that he actively pursued historical studies, and had an excellent memory for historical events, including dates and n…