Upon his return, he briefly worked as a tanner, then spent a year in a polytechnical school based in Berlin.

[2] Fendler initially found work as a tanner in Philadelphia, then moved to New York City and pursued lamp manufacturing.

Suddenly driven by the desire for a solitary life, he settled in a dilapidated log cabin on an island on the Missouri River near Wellington.

[2] Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer, professor of botany at the University of Königsberg, convinced Fendler that he could make a profit collecting plant specimens.

On his return to St. Louis, he found a fire destroyed all his possessions, personal collections, and travel journals.

The Fendler brothers, running low on funds, opened up a gas lamp business in Memphis, Tennessee.

Although initially hoping to settle in Caracas, the expensive cost of living in the city prompted them to purchase a small farm near Colonia Tovar.

[4] After two years of collecting in Colonia Tovar, Fendler was forced to take longer excursions to find new specimens.

[3] The Fendlers returned to St. Louis in 1864, and they purchased a densely wooded tract of land in Allenton, Missouri.

Fendler accepted a short-term offer from Asa Gray to work as his curator in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[3] The brothers initially settled in Wilmington, Delaware, with Fendler finding employment arranging herbarium specimens for William Marriott Canby.