Friedrich "Fred" S. Düsenberg (or Frederick "Fred" Duesenberg as his name was spelled after his arrival in the United States) was born on December 6, 1876, in Lippe, Lippe-Detmold, Germany, to Konrad (Conrad) and Luise Düsenberg. Fred and his younger brother, August "Augie" Samuel Düsenberg, were the youngest of the family's seven children (four boys and three girls). Fred's father died in 1881, and his older brother, Henry, immigrated to America in 1884. Fred's mother sold the family farm in Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1885 and joined Henry in Iowa with her other children, including Fred, who was nearly nine years old. The eldest son, Conrad, purchased a farm in Floyd County, Iowa, near Rockford, where the family finally settled.