USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 21
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PAUL NEITZEL. There are found young men who at the opening of their business eareers deelare that in modern times there are no more real opportunities. Such may well consider the case of Paul Neitzel, who is one of Sauk County's men of wealth and importance, and thereby learn, perhaps, the secret of not only properly seeking for these obscure business opportunities but also of finding them. When a young man starts out, as did Paul Neitzel, with no superior educational advantages to help him, with no capital and no influential friends to further his eause, and yet far within the usual spaee of time covered by the activities of the ordinary man honestly accumulates a goodly portion of a town- ship's acreage, his methods may well be worth following and emulating.
Paul Neitzel was born in Germany, January 9, 1863. His parents were Frederick and Johanna Neitzel, who came to the United States and reached Sauk County, Wisconsin, in 1882, joining their son Paul, who had come here in the fall of the previous year. They were no longer young people and the strain of the long voyage and the severing of old ties proved too much for the father to bear and his death oceurred ten days after reaching Sauk County, his age being sixty-five years. The mother survived for five years, her death oeeurring July 2, 1887, also aged sixty-five years. They had twelve children, as follows: Bertha, Pauline, Julius, Augusta, Fred, Hannah, Paul, August, Franees, Emma, Richard and an infant unnamed. Of these three live in America, Paul, Fred and Riehard.
Paul Neitzel received his edueation in the publie sehools of his own country. It was his desire from boyhood to become independent as a farmer and this was not possible in his section at that time and thus it was that he turned his eyes to the United States and resolved to come here and through hard work, if need he, aequire some of the valuable
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land in Wisconsin that needed only careful cultivation to become unbe- lievably productive. In 1881 he reached Taylor County, in the following year settled in Sauk County and by 1884, though industry and frugal living, had saved enough to buy eighteen acres of land in the south- western corner of Baraboo Township. In 1894 he went to Greenfield Township and bought eighteen acres and lived on that property for seven years and then bought 200 acres, his present home place in Baraboo Township, to which in 1917 he added 120 acres adjoining, lying in Delton Township. Mr. Neitzel has not been satisfied with the mere acquisition of land, its highest possible improvement has also been his object. He has put up handsome, commodious buildings with modern conveniences installed and on his home farm he has had a silo con- structed that has a capacity of 120 tons. He carried on general farming, understanding his business in a scientific way, and gives a great deal of attention to his high grade stock. His Shorthorn cattle and Percheron horses are features at many exhibitions and command high prices on the market. The prosperity that has come to him is the direct result of intelligent industry and wholesome manner of living.
. Mr. Neitzel was married March 9, 1884, to Miss Bertha Mielke, who was born in Germany in 1862. Her parents were Ferdinand and Fred- ricka Mielke, natives of Germany who came to Wisconsin and settled in Baraboo Township, Sauk County, in 1870. The father of Mrs. Neitzel died in 1891, at the age of seventy-six years. Her mother spent her last years with Mr. and Mrs. Neitzel, dying here in January, 1904, when aged eighty-one years. Of their eleven children all died in Germany except three, William, Lena and Bertha, who is Mrs. Neitzel. To Mr. and Mrs. Neitzel the following children have been born : Richard, who is deceased ; Edward, who resides at home; Carl, who is a farmer in Delton Township, married Hazel Springer and they have two children, Kenneth and Doro- thy May; Alice, who married Albert Zimmerman, and they have one child, Esther; and Stella, Harry, Mabel, Paul, Catherine and John, all of whom reside with their parents.
As may be inferred, Mr. Neitzel has always been a very busy man, but has never been too much occupied with his own concerns to forget his responsibilities as a good citizen. He votes with the republican party and has served three years in the office of township treasurer and is serving his second year as assessor. With his family Mr. Neitzel belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
HENRY JAMES FARNUM. The County of Sauk has numerous citizens who have laid aside the cares of labor after long years of honorable effort and now are spending the evening of their lives in the peace and comfort that reward those who have been industrious during the period of their manly strength. Perhaps a large majority of these men have been enlisted from the ranks of the agricultural class, for during the prime of life the farmer gives to his work labors of the most strenuous kind that make him ready to accept with relief the quiet that comes with well-earned retirement. In this class is found Henry James Farnum, now one of the well known residents of Sumpter Township, and a resident of Sauk County for more than sixty-five years. During the greater part of this
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period he has devoted himself to the work of the husbandman. He has tilled the fertile soil of the county, has aided its advancement by good citizenship, has seen it grow and advance in prosperity, and during this time has succeeded in the accumulation of a property that allows him, now that his period of labor is over, to spend his remaining years in comfort and peacc.
Henry James Farnum was born in 1831 at Girard, Erie County, Pennsylvania, and is a son of William and Lydia (Randall) Farnum. IIis parents were agricultural people who owned a small farm in the Keystone State, but who felt that in the new places in Wisconsin they could better themselves and their fortunes, and accordingly, in 1851, left their eastern home and started overland for Sauk County. Here the father took up land from the United States government in Sumpter Township, and on that property he continued to operate industriously during the remainder of his life, both he and Mrs. Farnum passing away at the homestead which they had developed from the wilderness and where their children had been reared. They were the parents of the following children: William, Jr., Dexter, Henry James; Eliza, who became the wife of E. T. Kellogg; Jane, who married Daniel Barber ; and Anna, who is deceased.
Henry James Farnum came with his parents to Sauk County. He had commenced his education in his native state, and after coming to Wisconsin continued it here, but the county at that time had no excellent school system as at present and he was forced to be content with several months of attendance each year at the primitive school of his district. He was reared to the life of an agriculturist, and was but twenty-four years of age when he was married, in 1855, to Miss Elizabeth Shell, a daughter of David and Lavina (Kenter) Shell, of this county. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Farnum commenced keeping house on forty acres his father gave him. He continued to live in Sumpter Township, adding from time to time to his holdings, as his finances allowed, and always working industriously and managed his business affairs honorably. Thus, while accumulating a good property, he also gained a reputation for integrity and fidelity that has remained as one of his chief assets to the present time. At the time of his retirement Mr. Farnum did not sell his property, as so many have done, but rented it out to others, and thus he is still the owner of the farm which he developed through so many years of hard and earnest work. The members of his family belong to the Methodist Church. Mr. Farnum is a strong prohibitionist and has done much for the cause of temperance in his community. In local civic affairs, while not active as to seeking political preferment, he has done his share in bettering conditions, and while residing on his farm served as a member of the school board of Sumpter Township.
Mr. and Mrs. Farnum have been the parents of the following chil- dren : Ida, whose death occurred as a child of eight years; Charles H., who died October 21, 1916, at Baraboo, Wisconsin, married Ada Lyncck, who is a resident of that city; Emma Jane, who died in infancy; and Dr. Edward J., a graduate of Bennett Medical College, Chicago, who has been engaged in a successful medical practice for a quarter of a century.
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CHARLES STADLER. Of that service which means as much to the welfare of modern nations as any other department of activities, rail- roading, Charles Stadler is a veteran and after more than thirty years of continuous connection with the Chicago Northwestern road is now living retired in comfortable quarters in the City of Baraboo. Mr. Stad- ler belongs to Sauk County, which he claims as his native soil, and has always considered it his home, though his work as a railroad man required his residence in other centers.
Mr. Stadler was born in Greenfield Township of Sauk County Decem- ber 7, 1859, a son of Joseph and Lucinda (Fetter) Stadler. Both parents were natives of Germany. His father was born in the Kingdom of Wuer- temberg, February 22, 1822, while his mother was born August 7, 1827. They were married in Germany, and in 1854, with high hopes of bettering their fortunes in the New World, they crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived at Sauk County, Wisconsin, which was practically a wilderness. Buying land in Greenfield Township, Joseph Stadler applied himself to its clearing and development, and underwent many of the hardships and privations of existence. He and his wife lived in a log cabin for a number of years and gradually they were able to see the light of better fortune and surrounded themselves with many comforts for their declin- ing years. Joseph Stadler died in 1891 and his wife in 1899. After becoming an American citizen he was a staunch ally of the republican party and he and his wife were faithful attendants in the Catholic Church. Before coming to this country Joseph Stadler had served his time in the German army. The children were: John; Charles; Almena, who died in 1889; S. H., who lives in Canada; L. C., an engineer of the Chicago, Minneapolis and Omaha Road ; Joseph, also a resident of Canada ; and Lucinda, deceased, who married Edward Koerth.
The Sauk County farm was the early environment of Charles Stadler, and his education came through the public schools. When only eighteen years of age he entered the service of the Chicago Northwestern Railway as worker on a bridge gang. Later he became a locomotive fireman and was promoted from that to engineer. With steady hand and the poise and efficiency of the well co-ordinated mind and body he. handled the throttle of his engine for twenty-eight years, and had many of the impor- tant runs of the road. He was continuously with the company for thirty- one years and is now enjoying the honors of a position on the retired list. For eight years of his service his home was in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Mr. Stadler and family now reside at 227 Third Street, Baraboo.
Mr. Stadler has been active in the buying and selling of Baraboo real estate. He built a house next to the hospital and also bought another house, and has dealt considerably in local property, which he believes the best of investments. His prosperity is the direct results of his own labors and intelligent management. Besides his local property he has interests in Montana and he and his wife made a trip to that state in August, 1916. The old Stadler homestead of his father was owned by the family until 1914, when it was sold to Edward DeBoyce.
Mr. Stadler is a democrat in politics. The family attend the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with Baraboo Lodge No. 34, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Baraboo Chapter No. 49, Vol. II-11
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Royal Arch Masons, Baraboo Commandery No. 28, Knights Templar, and the Scottish Rite Consistory and Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Milwaukee. Mr. Stadler has been a Mason since 1893, and when he attained the Consistory degree he was the youngest in the state. While active in railroading he was also a member of the Brotherhood of Loco- motive Engineers. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stadler are members of the Eastern Star.
He was married March 17, 1901, to Miss Ella Wipman, of Baraboo. Mr. and Mrs. Stadler spent three months in California during the Panama Exposition and attended the opening of that great fair.
HERMAN GROTOPHORST, Baraboo, was born in the Town of Honey Creek fifty-nine years ago. He was appointed by Governor R. M. LaFollette as a member of the State Board of Control and served until 1904. He was named by Governor Philipp as a member of the State Board of Educa- tion, which office he now holds. He is a lawyer by profession.
NICHOLAS SCHNEIDER is one of the stirring and enterprising young farmers and business men of Honey Creek Township, where he carries on the old homestead farm of his father and is also a dealer in automo- biles.
He was born on the homestead where he still resides in 1876. His parents, Nicholas and Eva (Weaden) Schneider, were both born in Ger- many. Nicholas Schneider, Sr., came to Sauk County during the '40s, locating in Honey Creek Township when all that district was one vast and unbroken wilderness. He took up a claim or homestead from the Government, and with little more than his individual energy and ability had to undertake the heavy task of clearing and making a farm of it. He cut down the first trees, grubbed the first stumps and planted the first acres on that homestead. All his farming at first was done with the aid of ox teams, and gradually he reached the position where he could command more resources and farm more extensively. In the early days he hauled his potatoes and other produce to Madison. He and his good wife lived on that old homestead and long before they passed away they saw its fields blossom as the rose. The father died there only two years ago, while the mother passed away in 1898. There were six children : John, married and living in Sauk City ; Mary, Mrs. John Lamberty, living at Cross Plains; Clara, Mrs. Joseph Colts, of Dane County, Wisconsin ; Andrew, who is married and lives east of Madison; and Barbara and Nicholas, both of whom are unmarried and live together on the old farm. These children all grew up and received their educations in Honey Creek Township.
About ten years ago Nicholas Schneider, Jr., took over the manage- ment of the farm for his father, and has worked it ever since. His man- agement is along the lines of general farming, stock raising and dairying, with particular attention to the raising of hogs. Mr. Schneider has 340 . acres under his care and cultivation.
His father was a stockholder in the first creamery in Honey Creek Township. Mr. Schneider and his family are members of the Catholic Church, and in politics he votes independently.
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MARTIN MOELY, of Sumpter Township, has lived in close touch with the soil and its related activities all his life, and has gained a splendid prosperity well represented in his farm and its products.
He was born in Sauk County in 1866, a son of Conrad and Clara (Bernhard) Moely. His parents were both natives of Switzerland. Conrad Moely came with his widowed mother to Sauk County in 1855, when a young man, and they located in Prairie du Sac Township on what was known as the old Wolf Farm. Five years after coming to Sauk County Conrad Moely married. He began with eighty acres of land and gradually increased his holdings until he had a well developed farm of 120 acres at the time of his death. He deserves a place in the memory and gratitude of the people of Sauk County for what he achieved in pioneer work. He cleared up many acres, grubbed out the stumps, broke the land, and that this was a great achievement none who are familiar with the processes described will doubt. His early crops were chiefly wheat. Farm produce brought very little actual cash when sold. The father took his grain to be ground to Milwaukee or Madison, hauling it with ox teams, and frequently it required a week to make the journey. He and his wife had seven children: Lizzie, deceased; Barbara, Mrs. Anton Van Wald; Andrew, living at Prairie du Sac; Mary, Mrs. W. C. Cook, living in Texas; Lola, wife of Christian Ploety, of Prairie du Sac; Mar- tin ; and Conrad, who is married and lives in Prairie du Sac. The father of these children died in 1867 and was survived many years by his widow. The children all grew up on the home farm and acquired their education in the district schools.
Martin Moely had a rigorous farm training and took up the vocation as an independent means of existence with all the qualifications necessary for success. In 1891 he established a home of his own by his marriage to Emelia Diehl, daughter of Peter Diehl. They had three children : Clara, wife of Rudolph Shlog, of Merrimack Township; Diehl, aged fif- teen ; and Russell, aged eleven.
Mr. Moely began his independent career as a farmer in 1890, having a place on the prairie. Twenty-four years ago he bought his present farm in Sumpter Township from Uncle Joseph Johnson. His business as a farmer is an extensive one and involves the successful operation of 400 acres of land. He does considerable stock raising and dairying and is one of the stockholders in the Farmers' Creamery at Sumpter.
Mr. Moely has also been a leader in the public life of this section of the county, having served as chairman of the town four years, as member of the side board eight years, and was on the school board twelve years. He and his family are members of the Evangelical Church and in partisan politics he cast his vote according to the dictates of his independent judgment.
GEORGE WEIRICH. Now living retired at Baraboo, George Weirich, who is eighty-four years of age, has spent over sixty-five years of his lifetime in Wisconsin and most of it in Sauk City. He is one of the veterans of old time lumbering, log driving, forest clearing and the heavy tasks of winning the wilderness.
A native of Germany, he was born in Baden October 1, 1833, a son
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of Peter and Anna Maria (Treiber) Weirich. His parents, after most of their children were born, sought a home in the New World, soon after the revolutionary troubles of 1848, and came to Wisconsin in August, 1849. They lived about two years in Kenosha, but in 1849 Peter Weirich had made a trip to Sauk County and had located a homestead in Sumpter Township. This homestead comprised 120 acres, and in 1851 he moved his family to the new farm. They made the trip from Kenosha with two wagons and some young stock. Peter Weirich was industriously engaged in making a farm in Sauk County until his death in February, 1862. He was accidentally killed by a runaway team. His widow survived him until about 1882. They reared quite a family of children. The two oldest were Henry and George. Michael, who now lives at Augusta, Wisconsin, was born February 17, 1835, and is now eighty-two years of age. He served as a soldier in the Civil war in the Thirtieth Wisconsin Infantry, and much of the time was out on the western frontier guarding the settlements against Indians. John, the fourth child, was born in 1841 and was a soldier in the Ninth Wisconsin Infantry, afterwards became a farmer on Sauk Prairie and died at Baraboo in 1916. The only one of the children born in this country was Lottie, who was born at Kenosha.
George Weirich was about sixteen years of age when his parents came to America. Most of his education had been acquired in Germany and he attended two winters in Kenosha. In 1851 he walked from Kenosha to his father's new home on Sauk Prairie, and for many days swung a scythe cutting the wild hay so as to provide forage for the livestock during the winter. He remained on the homestead, and was busily engaged in clearing and cultivating and also worked in the lumber woods. He engaged in many of the river drives, which were notable features of the lumber industry of that day, and sometimes went on rafts of lumber down the rivers as far south as St. Louis. Out of his savings he bought 160 acres of Government land in Adams County, Wisconsin, and after keeping it a year sold it for $500 in gold, making a profit of $300 on the transaction. For two years following he was in Clark County, Wisconsin, where he worked on a farm in the summer and in the woods and on the log drives down Black River in the winter. About that time Mr. Weirich made a purchase in Eau Claire County of six 80-acre tracts, two for himself, two for his brother Henry and two for his brother Michael. Michael is still living on the quarter section thus acquired. Mr. George Weirich did not retain his land in Eau Claire County long, and after selling he bought eighty acres on Sauk Prairie in Sauk County. He also acquired ownership of his father's old farm, and improved both places. He has bought and sold several farms and his industry and good judgment gave him a competence when still in middle age.
In 1884 Mr. Weirich moved to Baraboo, buying twenty-six acres of land close to the city limits, and still owns all that except six acres. Here he engaged in the manufacture of brick, and conducted one of the leading brick yards of the county for six years. From the brick manu- factured at his plant he built in 1885 the brick store at Baraboo now occupied by his sons, Weirich Brothers. Mr. Weirich is now living retired at 417 Third Avenue.
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He cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln during the war. He has been a steadfast republican ever since. He and his wife were reared as Presbyterians but he is liberal in his religious views.
Mr. Weirich was married October 28, 1859, to Miss Wilhelmina Kuehn. She was born in Germany November 16, 1842, a daughter of Edward and Ernestine (Erbe) Kuehn, who came to Sauk City in 1853, and both of them died there in 1898. Her father was a musician and cabinet maker. Mr. and Mrs. George Weirich have six living children. Anna Maria, wife of Henry Adolph Ochsner, of Honey Creek Township, Sauk County ; Edward, living on the old homestead; Louis, of Baraboo; Emil, of Bara- boo; Lottie, wife of Fred Gollmar, of Baraboo; and Herman, a farmer in South Dakota. Three children died in infancy, George and Wilhelmina, twins, and another child named George.
Reference is made elsewhere to the career of Louis Weirich, active member of the firm Weirich Brothers at Baraboo. The other member of that firm is Emil Weirich, a son of George Weirich. Emil was born in Sumpter Township of Sauk County September 10, 1868, grew up an the old home farm, and gained his education in the public schools. He was still young when he moved to Baraboo with his parents, and in 1887 he engaged in the meat business. He and his brother have since conducted this business and have extended their operations until the firm Weirich Brothers is now one of the leaders in the commercial life of Baraboo. Emil Weirich is a republican and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Beavers and the Mystic Workers.
On May 20, 1897, he married Miss Mabel Young, of Baraboo. They are the parents of three children: George Michael, born in November, 1899; Monroe William, born in November, 1902; and Edith Ruth, born in November, 1904.
LOUIS WEIRICH. The active business association of Mr. Weirich with the City of Baraboo covers a period of thirty years. Throughout that time he has helped feed the people with a steady and reliable supply of good meats, and his is the oldest and the best known retail meat business of the city. The firm is Weirich Brothers, and his business associate is his brother Emil Weirich.
Mr. Weirich, who is a son of George Weirich, a notable Sauk County pioneer mentioned elsewhere, was born on Sauk Prairie in this county June 10, 1863. He spent the first twenty years of his life upon a farm. His education came from the old Kern school house. When it came time for him to make his own living and find his own opportunities he spent one winter in the pine woods and during one summer was employed in the lumber indsutry at Eau Claire. Returning to Baraboo, he found steady employment with his father in the brick yard, and in 1887 he put up the brick building which he has since occupied as his place of business. That building and business are reckoned as one of the chief landmarks of the town, and many families have steadily patronized Weirich Brothers for their meat supplies for over a quarter of a cen- tury. The business is located at 407 Oak Street.
Mr. Weirich is a republican, though he has never shown any desire for public office, but is well fitted for public responsibilities. He is affili-
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