Fisher, Dorothy Canfield (1879-1958). American novelist; educational and social reformer. Dorothy Canfield and Willa Cather became friends in 1891 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, where Canfield's father, James Canfield, had come to serve as Chancellor. The family moved to Columbus, OH, in 1895 when James Canfield assumed the presidency of Ohio State University, from which Dorothy graduated in 1899. She then followed her father to New York City, where he became Librarian of Columbia University, and she pursued graduate study in Romance Languages at the University of Paris and Columbia, from which she earned a PhD in 1904. On Cather’s first trip to Europe, she spent time in France and England with Canfield, including an awkward visit to the home of poet A.E. Housman. Cather derived the central character of “The Profile” (1907) from Canfield’s friend Evelyn Osborne, whom Cather had met in Europe. Cather and Canfield became estranged for more than a decade because Canfield objected to the story’s planned inclusion in The Troll Garden (1905). Canfield married John Redwood Fisher in 1907, and their primary residence was Arlington, VT. Canfield Fisher had spent 1916-1918 in France engaging in war relief work, and Cather’s consultation with her about the accuracy of her depiction of wartime France in One of Ours (1922) led them to reconcile. In 1925 Canfield Fisher became a founding member of the Book of the Month Club selection committee. She published her novels (most of them very popular) under the name Dorothy Canfield but her various nonfiction works as Dorothy Canfield Fisher.

Westermann, Fritz (1865-1934). American attorney. Born in Illinois to Louis and Emma Tyndale Westermann, Fritz and his twin brother Max came to Lincoln, NE, in 1885, where he worked first as a bookkeeper and then as an attorney from 1890 to 1893, when he apparently left Lincoln. He and his brothers bought the Lincoln Evening News in the early 1890s, hiring Cather to report on the Crete Chautauqua in 1894. Around 1913 Fritz returned to Lincoln, selling real estate before he joined the city treasurer’s office where he worked until 1929. He died in Miami, FL. Cather portrayed the Westermann family as the Ehrlich family in One of Ours (1922). In 1898 she reacted strongly to news of Fritz’s enlistment as a private in the 2nd Nebraska Infantry during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Before the publication of “Double Birthday” (1928), she sent Fritz a copy to see if he objected to her portrayal of his uncle Dr. Julius Tyndale as Uncle Albert Engelhardt and was pleased by his approval.

Westermann, Louis A. (1876-1936). American businessman. Born in Illinois to Louis and Emma Tyndale Westermann, Louis Westermann came to Lincoln, NE, in 1885 and was a fellow student of Cather's at the University of Nebraska. He and his brothers bought the Lincoln Evening News in the early 1890s, hiring Cather to report on the Crete Chautauqua in 1894. He moved to New York in the early 1900s and later became the head of L. A. Westermann Engraving. He married fashion artist Anna Burnham in 1903 and the couple had two daughters, Jane and Helen. He married Indria Giddings in 1935, and died in a car accident the following year in Miami, FL. Cather portrayed the Westermann family as the Ehrlich family in One of Ours (1922).

Westermann, Julius. (1871-1935). American physician. Born in Illinois to Louis and Emma Tyndale Westermann, Julius Westermann came to Lincoln, NE, in 1885. He and his brothers bought the Lincoln Evening News in the early 1890s, hiring Cather to report on the Crete Chautauqua in 1894. After receiving a medical degree from New York University in 1896, he practiced in New York for some time before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War I. He later moved to Miami, FL, where he continued to practice medicine. Cather portrayed the Westermann family as the Ehrlich family in One of Ours (1922).