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B. F. Ackerman, agent for the Payette Mills, Inc., at New Plymouth, is a representative of an old Swiss family. He was born in Switzerland on Sunday July 12, 1857, his parents being Antone and May Ann Ackerman, who came to America in 1883 and settled at Herman, Nebraska, where the father followed farming for four years. The mother then passed away and the father afterward returned to Switzerland, where his death occurred.
B. F. Ackerman remained in the Land of the Alps until 1880, when, crossing the Atlantic, he established his home in Nebraska, being then a young man of twenty-three years. There he followed farming for six years, after which he took up his abode at Blair, Nebraska, and became foreman of a horse collar factory, there serving for fifteen years. In 1903 he came to Idaho, settling at New Plymouth. He purchased ten acres a mile west of the town and followed farming for six years, after which he engaged in the furniture business in New Plymouth for a decade, when he sold out and retired. But indolence and idleness are utterly foreign to his nature and he could not content himself with out some occupation, so he accepted the agency for the Payette Mills, Inc., and is now capably filling that position.
In 1883 Mr. Ackerman married Miss Anna Wachter, whose parents are residents of Nebraska, and to this union eight children have been born. Marie is manager of the telephone office at New Plymouth. Arnold J., thirty-three years of age, has just returned from France, where he served as a second lieutenant in company D, Machine Gun Battalion, first Division, and was in a number of the fiercest drives. He has been in the United States army for three years and was on the Mexican border. Florence is the wife of E. F. Meyer and the mother of four children, Ruth, Phillip, Edna and Paul Eugene. Arthur P., twenty-six years of age, married Marilla Hannigan and they have one child, Betty Ann. Gertrude is a stenographer and has recently returned from Spokane. Margaret is taking training in nursing. Louis, seventeen years of age is at home. William is working in the elevator office with his father. The family occupy an attractive residence on West boulevard in New Plymouth and are most comfortably situated.
Mr. Ackerman has led a busy and useful life. Starting out independently in 1880, when he severed home ties and came to the new world, he has since been dependent upon his own resources and step by step he has worked his way upward, using his opportunities wisely and acquiring a handsome competence as the reward at his labors and judicious investments.