Gerald Lulsdorff was born April 25, 1827, in Cologne, Prussia, where he attended school until the age of thirteen. He was apprenticed to the cabinetmaker’s trade and completed his training at seventeen. For several years thereafter he traveled extensively through Germany and Holland, working at his craft until drafted into the German army. Through the influence of friends he secured release from military service and returned to Cologne, where from 1847 until 1853 he was employed in one of the city’s largest factories.

He emigrated to the United States in 1853, landing in New York City on May 22. Soon after his arrival he found employment as a cabinetmaker, and the first piece of furniture on which he worked received a gold medal premium at the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition. In 1854 he entered shipbuilding, first in New York and later at Thomaston, Maine, then a noted shipbuilding center. An accident in which he severely injured his foot ended that occupation. Returning to New York, he worked briefly in a piano factory until the firm failed. He then traveled through the Southern States, wintering in New Orleans, before returning north in search of work.

By 1857 he had formed a partnership with Theodore Schroeder in the building trade, securing contracts in Illinois. While constructing a business block in Tuscola, both men were seriously injured when scaffolding collapsed. After completing the project, the partnership dissolved.

Mr. Lulsdorff arrived in St. Paul on July 15, 1858. The following winter he joined an expedition to the Red River country, where he assisted in building the Anson Northrop, the first steamboat to navigate the Red River of the North. He made the inaugural voyage to Fort Garry (now Winnipeg), then under the jurisdiction of the Hudson’s Bay Company. In 1861 he helped build the second Red River steamboat, the International, launched in the spring of 1862. During the Dakota Conflict of 1862, he remained at Georgetown to safeguard company property while many others fled to British territory.

In August 1863 he came to Mankato and established a hardware business. What began as a small tin shop grew, through perseverance and industry, into one of the leading hardware establishments in the city. In 1887 his son, John A. Lulsdorff, born November 14, 1866, joined the firm and later assumed principal management. Gerald Lulsdorff became one of the oldest merchants in continuous business in Mankato and was widely respected for fairness and integrity.

On February 16, 1865, he married Mrs. Jane (Rykerd) Mills, born February 4, 1824, in the Province of Quebec, daughter of Philip and Bridget (Teneyck) Rykerd. She had previously married Minard Mills in 1850 and came to Mankato on March 14, 1853. She is recognized as the first white woman to permanently settle in Mankato. Mr. and Mrs. Lulsdorff had one son, John A. Lulsdorff.

Gerald Lulsdorff died June 11, 1906, in Mankato and is buried in Section 3-3, Lot D, one of the oldest sections of Glenwood Cemetery — fitting for a man whose life was closely tied to the earliest commercial and frontier development of Minnesota.