USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 22
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ated with the Knights of Pythias of Baraboo. On April 3, 1890, he married Miss Annie Maria Falkenstein, of Lodi, Wisconsin. They have one daughter, De Etta Monetta, who was born December 23, 1900, and is now a student in the Baraboo High School.
HENRY CARL MANTHEY, township supervisor and treasurer of the school board of Excelsior Township for a number of years past, is suc- cessfully engaged in agriculture on an estate of 219 acres in the vicinity of Ableman. He was born in Prussia, March 31, 1848, and is a son of Carl Frederick and Wilhelmina (Heier) Manthey, who were born, reared and married in the old Fatherland, whence they immigrated to America in 1865. The Manthey family landed in New York City May 19, 1865, came to Freedom Township the twenty-ninth of May and on June 4th located in Excelsior Township. Mr. Manthey bought 160 acres of land on which was a frame shanty, and with the exception of a tract of five acres he chopped down the trees and cleared the land. He was engaged in general farming and stock raising until death called him from the scene of his mortal endeavors in 1905, aged eighty-eight years. His cherished and devoted wife died in 1899, aged seventy-six years. In politics he was a republican but he never aspired to public office of any description. He was a blacksmith in Western Prussia before coming to this country and after his arrival in Wisconsin he studied for the min- istry and was a Baptist preacher in addition to attending to his farming work. He preached at North Freedom and at Ableman and was one of the influential men in the erection of the Baptist Church in the latter place. The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Manthey : Matilda, who died in Chicago; Henry C., the subject of this review; August, engaged in farming in Excelsior Township; Mary, who died in Baraboo; and Pauline, the wife of Herman Wordleman, and they live in South Dakota.
In the schools of Prussia Henry Carl Manthey received his early edu- cational training and he was seventeen years of age when he accompanied his parents to the United States. He assisted his father in the work and management of the old homestead, and for three months was engaged in railroading. After reaching their majority he and his brother each received eighty acres of land from their father; they bought an addi- tional eighty acres and then divided the entire tract between them, making a farm of 120 acres for each of them. Since then Mr. Manthey has purchased additional tracts and his estate now comprises 219 acres. He is engaged in diversified agriculture and is well known as a breeder of Norman horses and Shorthorn cattle. Since 1915 he has rented his land to his son Arthur but he still gives it a general supervision. In his political convictions he is a republican and he has been supervisor of Excelsior Township for the past eleven years. He is also interested in educational work and has served as treasurer of the local school board for eighteen years.
In 1874 Mr. Manthey was united in marriage to Miss Amelia Schune- mann, who was born in Germany, March 6, 1857, and who is a daughter of Carl and Fredericka Schunemann. The Schunemann family came to Wisconsin in 1867 and settled first at Reedsburg, then at Loganville,
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then in Excelsior Township, and finally in Ableman, where both died Concerning the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Manthey the follow- ing brief data are here inserted : Carl was educated in the public schools of Ableman and now operates a farm of eighty acres adjoining his father's estate. He married Emma Panser and they have two children, Henry and Marie. August studied engineering in night school and is now foreman for a large construction company in New York City. He mar- ried Lucy Helen Grane and they had three children: Lawrence, Lucy Helen (died in infancy) and Helen. Louis is an engineer at Grand Junction, Utah. He is unmarried. Wilhelmina is a trained nurse in Milwaukee. George, a farmer in South Dakota, married Alvena Lange and they have two children, Amelia and Jack. Arthur rents the old homestead from his father. Albertina was graduated in the Baraboo High School and for a number of years taught school. She is now the wife of Chester Tyer, principal of Indian schools in South Dakota. Henry died in infancy. Rolland graduated from the Baraboo High School and is now a student in the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
MRS. HENRY GATTWINKEL represents in her own family and through her late husband some of the oldest settlers of Sauk County. Mrs. Gatt- winkel is now living at her old home in Sumpter Township at Prairie du Sac.
She was born in Germany in 1835, a daughter of Christian and Lucile (Schultz) Stiedtmann. Her parents were both natives of Germany and they came to America in 1848, the year that marked such a generous immigration of sturdy and thrifty Germans to this country. They located in the pioneer wilderness of Merrimack Township of Sauk County and secured a tract of Government land. Their first home was on an uncleared place of forty acres in the midst of the woods and surrounded with wild game and other conditions of frontier life. Christian Stiedtmann was a very energetic citizen, and his industry and wise business management . enabled him to acquire the materials for substantial prosperity. In time he owned three tracts of twenty acres each and had it all cleared and well developed as a farm. He and his good wife lived on the homestead the rest of their years. He died in 1877 and his wife in 1875. Christian Stiedtmann was a butcher by trade, and he followed that vocation during the winter seasons, farming the rest of the year. He and his wife had five children: Mrs. Henry Gattwinkel; August, who lives in Madison ; Louisa, deceased wife of Adam Frenzel, of Warsaw; Paul, who lives in Prairie du Sac; and Emilia, who married Richard Tyler and is now deceased.
Mrs. Henry Gattwinkel grew up in Sauk County from the age of thirteen, and in 1852, at the age of seventeen, she married Mr. Henry Gattwinkel. They then located where Mrs. Gattwinkel is still living. Their first home contained only two rooms and was built up from the ground on four blocks of timber. The rooms were not plastered, and the only protection from the outside elements was a sheet of weather boarding. In time many comforts and additional property came to them, and they also had ten children born into their household, nine of whom are still living. A brief record of the children is as follows: Elizabeth,
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Mrs. Paul Schlag, living in Baraboo; Edmund, who is unmarried and is manager of the home farm; Herman, married and living retired as a farmer in Prairie du Sac; Charles, who is unmarried and lives on a farm next to that of his mother ; Edward, married and a farmer in Merrimack Township; Rosalia, Mrs. Fred Waffenschmidt, of Sumpter Township; Emelia, Mrs. Christian Waffenschmidt, of Merrimack Township; Bertha M., widow of Henry Thoelke; Elmina, Mrs. Charles Brown, of Sumpter Township; and Laura, Mrs. U. C. Keller, of Prairie du Sac.
Mr. Henry Gattwinkel died on the old homestead in 1914, at the age of eighty-nine. He was one of the earliest settlers of Sauk County, and spent a career useful to himself and to the entire community. His name is one that is spoken with respect and esteem in many parts of Sauk County. For several years before he married he spent his winters regu- larly in the pine woods as a lumberman.
JOHN R. HOFSTATTER, who has been a resident of Baraboo since 1870, has been in the mercantile business for more than thirty years past. He has also been a public man, having served as alderman for twelve years and one term in the State Assembly. He is of German parentage, his father locating in Sumpter Township in 1855, and there. John R. was born three years later. The family came to Baraboo in 1870, where both the parents died.
JOHN H. ASTLE. One of the fine old citizens of Sauk County who have gone to their reward was the late John H. Astle, whose life was spent productively and usefully in the farming community and who, with an ample competence for his needs, finally retired to the City of Baraboo, where he died.
He was a native of Wisconsin, born at Merton, April 4, 1846, before Wisconsin became a state. His parents were both born in England. They moved to Sumpter Township in Sauk County when he was a boy, and he grew up in the country districts there, attended common schools, and chose the life of the agriculturist. He finally bought a farm in Sumpter township adjoining that of his father, and some years later sold that and bought the J. W. Wood farm. He was a man of great industry, of shrewd intelligence in the management of his farming affairs, and by many successive years of hard work and well directed efforts he prospered. When his children were grown and his own circumstances justified the move, he left the farm, and on October 27, 1909, bought city. property at 526 Second Avenue in Baraboo. He lived there quietly until his death October 23, 1910. Mr. Astle was a republican without political aspirations, was affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, and both he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He was married November 18, 1868, to Miss Flora Stone. Mrs. Astle was born in Maine September 13, 1850, but since early girlhood has lived in Sauk County. Her people have long been prominent in this county. Her parents were Thomas S. and Sarah (Treadwell) Stone, both natives of Maine. Her father was born at Albany, Maine, May 8, 1816, and her mother, at Waterford March 30, 1816. In 1855 the Stone family came to Sauk County and located at Reedsburg, where the father bought
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land, but had little opportunity to develop it since death called him away on June 3, 1857. His wife passed away July 24, 1888. There were ten children in the Stone family, and those still living are Mrs. Astle, of Baraboo, Mrs. W. D. Johnson, of Baraboo, and John P. Stone, who is president of the State Bank at Reedsburg.
Mrs. Astle, who makes her home in a comfortable residence at Bara- boo, is the mother of three children: Fannie was born February 12, 1870. Anna Bell was born November 15, 1875. Aimee Pearl was born October 31, 1881, and died February 16, 1885.
F. HENRY RISCHMUELLER. Around the village of Plain in Honey Creek Township may be found some of the most progressive and reliable farmer citizens of Sauk County. One of these is Mr. Henry Rischmueller, whose life has been spent almost entirely in this locality.
He was born there in 1860, on the land which his grandfather had acquired in 1845. Thus the Rischmueller family was of true pioneer stock. Grandfather Rischmueller paid $300 for an 80-acre tract contain- ing as its chief improvement an old log building covered with clapboard roof, a well and a log barn.
F. Henry Rischmueller is a son of Henry and Eva (Jigl) Risch- mueller. His grandfather was Henry S. Rischmueller. The early gener- ations of the family in the paternal line lived in Hanover, Germany, but Henry Rischmueller's mother was a native of Switzerland.
Henry Rischmueller, Sr., was eighteen years of age when he came to America with his parents. He had two sisters, and all of them were natives of Germany. Father Rischmueller was killed in a threshing machine the first fall he spent in Sauk County, and his son Henry then took charge of the homestead and married at the age of twenty. He lived on and cultivated the land until his death in 1905, being followed by his good wife one year later. Henry and Eva Rischmueller lad eight children : F. Henry, Anna, Caroline, Fred, Peter, William, John and one that died in childhood.
Besides the original homestead of Grandfather Rischmueller the father bought eighty acres next to the homestead and built a good house and barn. He did most of the clearing and grubbing with oxen and was a very prosperous and hard working farmer. In early days he hauled his produce to Lodi and Mazomanie until railroads were built in Sauk County. He was also an active citizen, serving two years on the town board. His children all grew up and received their education in Honey Creek Township.
F. Henry Rischmueller after leaving home worked out for eight years, and in 1895 he married Miss Caroline Steuber, daughter of Casper and Charlotte (Schulte) Steuber. Her parents were residents of Honey Creek Township. Mr. and Mrs. Rischmueller have four children: Ella, now the wife of Fred Heiser; Arthur, unmarried and living at home ; Ruth, also at home; and Oscar, who works out.
Mr. Rischmueller began farming for himself two years before his marriage, and has always lived on the place where he may now be found enjoying the comforts and prosperity of many years of consecutive endeavor. He has done much building and other improving and operates
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his 230 acres as a general farming, stock raising and dairying proposition.
Mr. Rischmueller is a stockholder in the Leland Creamery, has served three years on the school board, six years as road supervisor, and is one of the men of affairs in his community. The family are members of the Lutheran Church and in politics Mr. Rischmueller votes independently, according to the dictates of his conscience and judgment.
HENRY THOELKE. In Henry Thoelke is found a sample of that mate- rial which has brought Sauk County into the limelight as a prosperous agricultural center. Endowed at the outset with average ability and backed by shrewd business judgment and determination, this agriculturist has worked his way to the ownership of a handsome and productive farm in Sumpter Township, which he has owned since 1900 and which he is devoting to general farming and stock raising. There are indications of his progressive methods on every hand and of a struggle to attain to the best thus far achieved in agricultural science. Mr. Thoelke has a special leaning toward high-grade stock, and is particularly proud of his hogs, the raising of which is made a feature of his work.
Henry Thoelke was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1859, but has been a resident of the United States since he reached the age of nine years. His father was John Henry Thoelke, who was born in 1812, in Germany, and his mother, Adelheit Krenhopp, who was born in that country in 1822. They were married in 1841 and settled down to a life of hard and continuous work on a small farm owned by Mr. Thoelke in Germany, but as the years passed and they made no progress in their labor toward the attainment of a competence and the making of a home for their increasing family, they decided that no future lay before them in Ger- many and resolved to try their fortunes in the United States. The father, therefore, converted his property into money, and in 1868 the family embarked for America, arriving at Castle Garden on May 2d. After several days they started for Wisconsin, their destination being Grant County, and after their safe arrival the father rented a farm, on which he worked while familiarizing himself with the customs, methods and language of his new country. Three years later, in 1871, he brought his family to Sauk County and located in Sumpter Township, on the farm now owned by his son. For this land he paid $9,000, and it seemed that he at last was upon the high road to success, but he did not live to secure the reward to which he was so eminently entitled, for he lived only four years longer, his death occurring in 1875.
Henry Thoelke was given his educational training in the public schools of Grant and Sauk counties, and was but sixteen years of age at the time of his father's death. However, he had been brought up to industry and to a recognition of the value of hard work, and with his brother Herman undertook the management and operation of the home- stead. The brothers were successful in making the farm a paying invest- ment for their labor, and continued to conduct it for their mother until 1890, in which year the brothers bought the property. The mother's death occurred three years later. Henry and Herman Thoelke continued as partners in the operation of the farm for ten years, but in 1900 the first named bought his brother out, and since then has farmed it alone.
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The successful management of a farm of this size in a community where competition is rife and high standards prevail presupposes the possession of a thorough knowledge of agricultural science, as well as of shrewd business ability. When these requisites are met in the head of a farming interest and to them is added the progressive and inquiring tendencies of the present day, a harmony should result as gratifying generally as it is financially. Such a combination of interests is found on Mr. Thoelke's farm. He has erected substantial buildings and installed modern im- provements, making his property both attractive and valuable, and its ownership places him among the well-to-do men of the township. While he has devoted his interests generally to ordinary operations in the field of agriculture, he has also made somewhat of a feature of stock raising, and his hogs are always in demand and bring a good price in the markets. He belongs to the Guardians of Liberty, and adheres to the faith of the Lutheran Church, of which his parents were members and in the belief of which he was reared. While in political tendencies he has a leaning toward republicanism, he is apt to disregard party ties on occasion and give his ballot to the man whom he deems best fitted for the office, with- out taking party affiliation into consideration.
In 1900 in Sumpter Township, Mr. Thoelke was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Gattwinkle, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Gattwinkle, old and honored residents of Sauk County and well known among the agricultural element. To this union there were born two children, namcly : Henry, born in 1902, who died at the age of six years; and Harold, who was born in 1907, and is now attending the public schools of Prairie du Sac. Mrs. Thoelke died in October, 1907, and in 1909 Mr. Thoelke married Miss Louise Franke.
GUSTAV RUDY. One of the substantial and highly regarded citizens of Sauk County is Gustav Rudy, who is an enterprising and progressive farmer and stockraiser in Excelsior Township. He was born in Germany, February 7, 1865. His parents died in Germany. He attended school there until twelve years of age and then accompanied his uncle, Gottleib Jesse, to the United States and to Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Gustav Rudy remained with his uncle until he was eighteen years old and then went to work for Doctor Koch and remained in the physi- cian's employ for five years. After that he had considerable farm experi- ence in different sections. For a time lie worked in Minnesota and then came back to Sauk County for two years, after which he went to South Dakota and was a farmer there for five years. He had left good friends, however, in Sauk County and then returned here and has never seen any reason to leave this fine section of country since. Mr. Rudy has become a man of ample fortune here through his own industry and thereby has set a good example. For eight years after his marriage he rented a farm and then bought 100 acres in Excelsior Township. Subsequently he sold twenty acres of his estate but retains eighty acres and this land he has brought to a high state of cultivation and also has developed a valuable herd of Holstein cattle. He has taken pride in his surroundings and has erected fine and substantial buildings and keeps them in repair.
Mr. Rudy was married in 1891, to Miss Augusta Dahlke, who was
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born in Germany in 1867 and was a daughter of John and Henrietta (Henke) Dahlke, well known residents of Excelsior Township, Sauk County. Mrs. Rudy died December 23, 1915, a faithful wife, devoted mother and kind neighbor. Three children survive her: Elma, George and Martha. Mr. Rudy and family are members of the German Lutheran Church at Ableman. In politics he is a republican and at times has been elected to township offices, especially being identified with the public schools. He has been a member and clerk of the school board for thirteen years and through his careful, methodical methods, the school records are well preserved.
EDWIN S. CLINGMAN. A diligent and progressive citizen of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Edwin S. Clingman is an agriculturist of note in the vicinity of Reedsburg, his finely improved farm of 150 acres being located in Excelsior Township. Mr. Clingman was born in Monroe County, this state, May 6, 1862, and he is a son of Daniel and Maria (Siler) Clingman, both natives of Union County, Pennsylvania, where the former was born December 5, 1827, and the latter in the year 1833. The father passed his boyhood and youth in the Keystone state and in 1848, at the age of twenty-one years, went west to 'Illinois, where he joined his brother, Samuel, who had gone there some years previous. For a number of years Mr. Clingman was engaged in the general mer- chandise business at Port Clinton, Illinois, but in 1860 he came to . Wis- consin and located in Monroe County, where he bought a homestead of eighty acres. In the following year he began his life work as a Methodist Episcopal minister and from 1861 to 1889 was an itinerant preacher in Wisconsin, going from place to place and helping to build churches and to pay off old debts. In 1889 he was appointed a missionary to Mexico and Southern California, and he passed the closing years of his life on a fruit farm in the vicinity of San Diego. He died in 1900, aged seventy- three years, and his devoted wife was called to eternal rest in 1903, at the age of seventy years. The Reverend Clingman was a republican and later a prohibitionist. To him and his wife were born three children : Edwin S., of this notice; Theodore, who died at the age of three years ; and Clara, wife of George Wood, of California.
In the public schools of the numerous places in which the family lived during his boyhood Edwin S. Clingman received his educational training. In 1890 he bought a tract of 200 acres of land in Excelsior Township, subsequently selling fifty acres, so that he now owns an estate of 150 acres. On this land he has erected substantial and modern build- ings and in addition to general farming he is engaged in the breeding of Holstein cattle, keeping about thirty head on hand all the time. His political convictions coincide with the principles set forth in the repub- lican party, and for eight years he served with the utmost efficiency as township assessor. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and was reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1883 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Clingman to Miss Mary Brimmer, who was born in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, in 1864, and who is a daughter of William and Katherine Brimmer, who left Waukesha County in April, 1875, and located in Sauk County. Mr. Brimmer died in Reedsburg, January 16, 1908, aged eighty-six years, and Mrs. Brim-
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mer died in 1916, aged seventy-three years. They had eighty acres of land, formerly part of the Ira Smith farm in Excelsior Township. Ten children were born to them, as follows: Jacob H., of Madison, Wisconsin; Mary, wife of Mr. Clingman; Thomas, of Reedsburg; Wil- liam, of Reedsburg; Frank, of Lavalle; Catherine, wife of Robert Snyder, of Excelsior Township; Orland and Edward, of Reedsburg; Viola, of Reedsburg; and Raymond, who married Elsa Randall and lives at Reeds- burg. Mr. and Mrs. Clingman have six children, whose names and re- spective years of birth follow: Amy, 1884; Elsa, 1886; Myrtle, 1889; Earl, 1891, William, 1894, and Gertrude, 1896.
In 1912 Mr. Clingman helped organize the Reedsburg Farm Company, a general produce concern, and he has since served as secretary. He is a stockholder in the Excelsior Creamery Company of Baraboo, and in all his business dealings he has gained prestige as an honorable and upright man.
GORDON H. TRUE, son of John M. and Annie B. True, was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, December 14, 1868. He attended the public schools of Baraboo and being interested in the subject of agriculture continued his studies at the University of Wisconsin, taking the long course in agriculture. He was graduated in 1894 from the state institution and immediately took a position as instructor in dairying at Michigan Agri- cultural College at Lansing, Michigan. He remained there until 1898 when he accepted the professorship of agriculture and animal husbandry in the University of Arizona, where he continued until 1902. From 1902 until 1913 he occupied the chair of agriculture and animal husbandry and was director of the experiment station of the University of Nevada. Since 1913 he has been professor of animal husbandry in the University of California.
October 3, 1914, Professor True was united in marriage to Miss Eliza- beth S. Stubbs of Reno, Nevada.
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