USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 64
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LOUIS DANGEL. In the business life of Sauk County progressive characters have never lacked for opportunities, and these opportunities
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have not signified so much as the men themselves, for the business prob- lems have been solved in many ways by the abilities of individuals. With the expansion of trade in the thriving communities, such as Reedsburg, there has arisen a need for concerted efforts, but the personal factor has always been potent. During the last quarter of a century the com- mercial enterprises of Reedsburg have played an important part, and one of the men of known and acknowledged business integrity is Louis Dangel, whose career has been interesting and is typical of modern progress and advancement. Alert and enterprising, he early utilized the opportunities offered, and has attained thereby notable success, so that today he is president of the largest department store in Sauk County, the Stolte, Dangel & Foss Company.
Mr. Dangel was born in the City of Oswego, New York, December 7, 1865, and is a son of Peter and Dorothea (Pereu) Dangel. His parents, natives of Germany, came to the United States as young people, at different times, and were married at Oswego, where they made their home for some years. In 1866 they left the East and came to Wisconsin, their first settlement being at Kilbourn, from whence they subsequently moved to Reedsburg. Here the elder Dangel was employed in the grist mills by the Mackeys, and later embarked in business on his own account in partnership with Paul Bishop, with whom he conducted an establish- ment for the sale of boots and shoes. After he had disposed of his interest in this business he bought the W. Roeckel meat market, which he operated in partnership with his son Peter, and continued in that business until his retirement, about one year before his death. He was a democrat and took an active part in political affairs, and as a man of integrity and substantial worth was called upon to serve his community in official posi- tions, being a member of the village board for many years. He and Mrs. Dangel attended the Lutheran Church, the latter being a member of Saint Peter's congregation. They were the parents of five children : Louis, of this notice; Peter, who is still a substantial business man of Reedsburg; Gustav; Lonisa, who died at the age of eighteen years; and William, whose death occurred in infancy.
Louis Dangel received his education in the public and German Luth- eran parochial schools, and when a lad of fourteen years began to clerk in the Harris & Hosler store. There he received the initial training for the business in which he was to gain success in later years, and there he continued to work until about the time that he attained his majority, when he went to Mauston, Juneau County. At that point he had an experience as the proprietor of a mercantile establishment, but after two years returned to Reedsburg and entered the employ of Webb & Schweke, with whom he remained two years. He was working in this firm's employ, in 1893, at the time he with Frank A. Foss and William A. Stolte founded the Stolte, Dangel & Foss Company, with which he has been connected ever since, in the capacity of president. From a modest beginning this concern has grown to be the largest department store in Sauk County, occupying a two-story building on Walnut Street running the entire block from Main to Second Street, and employing fifty people. A great deal of the success of this concern is due to Mr. Dangel's wise judgment, and his associates place the utmost faith in his advice, looking
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to him for leadership in many cases of importance. He is essentially a business man and has not looked for honors aside from those to be achieved through an honorable career in the commercial field; therefore his name has never appeared as a candidate for official position. In politics he maintains an independent stand, his vote being invariably cast for the men whom he believes best cquipped for the offices at stake, without regard for party adherence. With his family he belongs to Saint Peter's Lutheran Church.
Mr. Dangel was married May 10, 1895, to Miss Margaret Fix, of Reedsburg, and they have had two daughters : Dorothea, born September 27, 1898, who graduated from the Reedsburg High School in the class of 1916 and is now a student at the University of Wisconsin; and Mar- garet, who was born in 1908, and died in 1913.
CHARLES GASSER. A native of France, Charles Gasser came to America in 1871 and has been a resident of Sauk County during prac- tically all the intervening years to the present time. He is strictly a self- made man, having advanced from a destitute boyhood to a competent old age. His success in life is due entirely to his own efforts and for that reason is the more gratifying to contemplate. Mr. Gasser is now liv- ing retired in the Village of Ironton, where he is held in high esteem by all who know him. Born in Lorraine when that territory was an adjunct of France, Charles Gasser first saw the light of day April 21, 1851. He was bereft of his parents at an early age and in 1871, accompanied by his brother Felix, he crossed the Atlantic, landing in New York, whence he came immediately to Sauk County. His first work was that of chop- ping wood and later he was employed in a charcoal works. Subsequently he located in Ironton and worked in an iron furnace for some years. He then purchased a farm of forty acres near Cazenovia, Richland County, later selling that and returning to Ironton. Here he bought an eighty-acre farm, which he soon sold and then settled permanently on an estate a mile and a half west of Ironton. He cleared most of his land, erected some substantial buildings and resided on this place for a period of thirty-five years. He was very successful in his farming ven- tures and is now living in retirement, enjoying to the full the fruits of his former years of earnest toil and endeavor. Mr. Gasser is a repub- lican in politics and is a communicant of the Catholic Church. For a number of years he was chairman of the board of trustees of Ironton Township and as an active politician he has done much good for his home community.
In Ironton occurred the marriage of Mr. Gasser to Miss Sarah Buchant, whose birth occurred in Ironton, October 11, 1858, and who is a daughter of Frank and Caroline (Rebbity) Buchant. The Buchants were pioneer settlers in Ironton Township, where they were successful farmers and where Mr. Buchant was employed in the iron works for a number of years. Mrs. Buchant passed to the life eternal in 1906 and he died in 1909, in Colorado. Mrs. Gasser was called to rest December 6, 1907, and she is survived by the following children : John, Frank, Adelia, Evaline, Eugene, Arthur, Caroline, Charles, Frederick, Raymond, Marie, Omer and Sarah.
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In his prime Mr. Gasser was a man of unusual enterprise and initiative. Self-made and self-educated in the most significant sense of the words, he progressed steadily toward the goal of success until he gained recogni- tion as one of the foremost farmers of this section of Sauk County. He gained and retains the admiration of his fellow citizens, who respect him for his exemplary life and marked ability.
EDWARD GEORGE MARRIOTT. Of the men who have contributed to the development of business interests and the advancement of the civic welfare of Baraboo, few have held in greater degree the respect and esteem of the people than did the late Edward George Marriott. He was a resident of the city for a period of forty-seven years, during which time he rose from poverty and obscurity to independence and promi- nence, winning success and reputation as a business man and establishing a record for upright action and sterling integrity in the discharge of his duties as a public official. When he died, August 11, 1916, the community was deprived of the services and example of one of its most useful men.
Edward George Marriott was born at Wollaston, Northamptonshire, England, September 30, 1850, and was a son of Ebenezer and Rebecca (Green) Marriott. His father, who had been a merchant in England in a small way, came to the United States in March, 1870, and secured a position with the Northwestern Railroad at Baraboo, with which line he was connected for a number of years. In September, 1870, he was joined by his wife and several children whom he had left in England, and in later years he and his sons William and Henry were engaged in the hardware business. Mr. Marriott was an enterprising and industrious man and a citizen who was lawabiding and willing to do his share in assisting his community to grow. He rounded out a successful life and passed away at Baraboo at an advanced age, as did also his wife. They were the parents of the following children : Mary Ann, who is the wife of Benjamin Clark, of Baraboo; Elizabeth, who is the wife of W. Toole, a pansy specialist of this city ; Edward G., deceased ; Emily, who is the widow of Reuben Wilby, of Boulder, Wisconsin; Henry and William, who are deceased ; Eliza, who is the widow of Rev. Christopher Nitzel, of Stevens Point, Wisconsin ; and Ezra, a resident of Champaign, Illinois.
Edward George Marriott was reared in his native England, and received few of the advantages which boyhood at this time considers as its right. His education was a decidedly limited one, as he started to assist in making his own livelihood when he was but nine years of age, his occupation at that time being the scaring of crows from the farmers' fields. This vocation and similar ones he followed until he was thirteen years of age, at which time he was given a definite start in life by being apprenticed to the trade of shoemaker, a vocation which he mastered. In 1869, when a youth of nineteen years, he crossed the Atlantic for a visit to his uncle, Isaac Green, who had resided for some years at Bara- boo, and who was a partner in the shoe firm of Avery & Green. Mr. Marriott worked in this establishment for some time while learning the customs and business methods of this country, but subsequently went to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he followed the same line of work and
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further prepared himself for his career. In 1875, returning to Baraboo, he established a shoe business of his own, and in the fall of 1876, having been encouraged by a fair measure of success in his first venture, bought out the business of Joseph Dibble, which had been established some time before. This he built up and developed, eventually becoming one of the leading men in his line in the city, and continued to conduct the same establishment until 1913, when he left business to give his entire attention to the duties of assessor, to which he had been elected. He died while still in office, August 11, 1916.
A republican in his political views, Mr. Marriott took an active part in politics and wielded a distinct influence in the ranks of his party in Sauk County. He had held a number of offices, having been constable when it was still the Village of Baraboo, later becoming alderman of the second ward, an office which he held for twelve years, and finally being elected mayor, an office in which he served for four years. His official record was a clear and unblemished one, and through his energetic work in his public capacities Baraboo benefitted greatly. Mr. Marriott was an honorary member of the Grand Army of the Republic, which turned out in force at his funeral, and he and his wife were honorary members of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry. Fraternally Mr. Marriott was affiliated with the Masons, having reached the Knight Templar degree, the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His religious faith made him a Unitarian, to which belief Mrs. Marriott also belonged, and he was president of the Unitarian Society and had been for some years at the time of his demise. While he did not have great educational advantages in his youth, he educated himself through observation, study and much reading, and was particularly interested in history, national, state and local, being a member of the Wisconsin State Historical Society and the Sauk County Historical Society.
On May 2, 1876, Mr. Marriott was united in marriage at Baraboo to Miss Elizabeth Kelley, who was born August 24, 1857, in Chautauqua County, New York, and who was two years of age when brought to Wis- consin by her parents, Edward and Mary (MacPaque) Kelley, natives of County Antrim, Ireland. They were married in their native land, emigrated to this country and settled in New York, and in 1859 came to Wisconsin. Two years later, at the outbreak of the Civil war, Mr. Kelley enlisted in Company H, Seventeenth Regiment, Wisconsin Vol- unteer Infantry, the famous Irish Brigade, in which he served one year, then receiving his honorable discharge. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and died in 1885, his widow surviving until 1889. They had three children : Hugh; Ellen, who is deceased; and Elizabeth, now Mrs. Marriott. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Marriott : Isabella, who is the wife of J. W. Palmer, of Chicago, and has three children, Elizabeth, Marriott and Deane; William H., his father's successor in the shoe business at Baraboo, who married Catherine Eber, of this city; and Deane, who is a resident of Chicago. The late Mr. Marriott had a number of important business connections, among which was a directorship in the First National Bank of Baraboo.
Vol. II-32
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PATRICK DOWD. Everywhere in Dellona Township the name Patrick Dowd is spoken with that respect due to the practical achievements of the good farmer and the good citizen. The name is one of the oldest among the families of Sauk County.
Mr. Patrick Dowd was born in Dellona Township in 1860. His parents were among the earliest arrivals in the wilderness of Sauk County, locating here in 1848, the same year that Wisconsin was admitted to the Union.
Patrick Dowd grew up in Dellona Township, learned his lessons in the local schools and has successfully applied his efforts to farming. He is the owner of 200 acres, devoted to crops and stock. Dr. Dowd has also been a man of leadership in the democratic party and in public affairs for many years and for the past three years has been chairman of the town board of Dellona.
PATRICK F. HEALY. A practical farmer in Winfield township is still on the old homestead which was settled and improved by his honored father and altogether the name Healy is one that is spoken with much respect and admiration throughout that section of Sauk county.
The father was the late Patrick Healy, who came from County Cork, Ireland, to New York in 1850. For a few years he worked near Staten Island, receiving the paltry sum of $6 a month, but out of this meager wage he for some time saved money to send to his people in the cholera stricken district of Ireland. In June, 1855, he came to Wiscon- sin andªsettled among the pioneers of Winfield township. He lived a most industrious life, looked after his interests as a farmer and business man, and passed away full of years November 2, 1912. Prior to coming to Wisconsin he married Annie Egan, who died March 27, 1902. Their children were Katie, Mary, Nora, Maurice, David, Patrick and Annie. The daughter Katie became a Sister of Mercy in a convent in Milwaukee and died December 12, 1908. The daughter Mary is still unmarried. Nora married Timothy Kelly. Maurice married Jane Carroll LaValle. David married Mamie Kitson. Annie is the wife of Patrick Carroll. All the children were well educated in the public schools.
Patrick F. Healy was born on the old farm in Winfield township. His sister Mary is living with him and keeping house. Patrick Healy has made a success as a farmer and owns a hundred sixty acres which he uses intelligently and successfully for raising crops and keeping good stock. In 1904 Mr. Healy was elected town assessor and he also held other town offices for several years. He is a democrat in politics.
FREDERICK SCHROEDER. The successful agriculturist, like the man who makes a success in any other line of endeavor, must not only possess the knowledge necessary to keep abreast of the advancement of the times, but also the ability to apply this knowledge so that it will be productive of satisfying results. In Sauk county, where rapid progress is being made in farming and stock-raising, the average of intelligence and ability is more than ordinarily high, and one who is contributing to this prestige is Frederick Schroeder, who is carrying on operations in Reedsburg
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Township and is the owner of a property that is paying valuable returns for his labor.
Mr. Schroeder was born in Germany, November 10, 1864, a son of George Schroeder. When he was less than two years old his father, while serving in the German army, was killed, and in 1866 his widowed inother emigrated to the United States, bringing her two children, Frederick and Dorothy, the latter now a resident of Lakeland, Minne- sota. Mrs. Schroeder settled in Reedsburg Township, Sauk County, where she shortly thereafter was married to Peter George Meyer, a native of Germany and a veteran of the Civil war, who had settled in this county at an early day. They purchased a farm in Westfield Township and engaged in the growing of hops, but when the great boom burst they, like others, lost their all and were compelled to make a new start. After several years they purchased the farm in Reedsburg Township now owned by Frederick Schroeder, at that time consisting of seventy-eight acres, and built a long house, barn and outbuildings, continuing to make that property their home until their retirement and being successful in the development of a fertile and well improved property. Mr. Meyer died at Reedsburg, in 1901, aged sixty-three years, and his widow still makes her home here at the age of more than seventy-six years, having been born March 3, 1841. They were the parents of ten children: Mary, George, Annie, Emma, Ida, Bertha; Eddie, deceased; Adolph; Martha, deceased; and an infant son, deceased.
After completing his education in the district schools of Reedsburg Township, Frederick Schroeder began assisting his stepfather in the cultivation of the home farm, of which he became the owner by purchase in 1897. Since that time he has added to the acreage and erected new buildings, in addition to which he has installed improvements and appliances of the latest kind, making this one of the valuable farms of the township. Both as a general farmer and a breeder of livestock he has achieved success, and his high standing in the confidence of his fellow-citizens rests upon many years of honorable dealing and straight- forward transactions. He is a republican, but not a politician, while his religious connection and that of his family, is with St. John's Lutheran Church of Reedsburg.
Mr. Schroeder was married November 26, 1889, to Miss Catherine Richert, who was born in Germany, January 28, 1869, daughter of August and Catherine (Burmaster) Richert. Mrs. Richert died in Germany in 1871, leaving two children: Catherine and Henry, and Mr. Richert subsequently married Dorothy Spratz. In 1886 he came to the United States located in Reedsburg Township, where he first farmed on rented property and later on a farm of his own, and was successful in the accumulation of 200 acres, now owned by his son, Otto. Mr. and Mrs. Richert, who are now both deceased, had six children: August, Dorothy, Lizzie, Otto, Olga and Albert.
Mr. and Mrs. Schroeder now make their home at Reedsburg, although he continued to supervise the operations on his farm. They have had eight children, as follows : Rudolph; Pauline, who is the wife of Herman Biehl and has three children, Arthur, Florence and Harry; Irving, who was married May 12, 1917, to Louisa Redders, of Madison, Wisconsin ;
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Edwin, who is deceased; and Freddie, Emma, Florence and Walter, all at home ..
TIMOTHY F. HOWLEY, who has been actively indentified with the farm enterprise of Dellona Township for over twenty years, is a Sauk County citizen who has justly earned all the material prosperity associated with his name and also the esteem so liberally bestowed upon him in his home community.
Mr. Howley was born in Ohio in 1854, a son of Thomas and Margaret (Howard) Howley. His parents came to Wisconsin many years ago and both of them died in Juneau County, his father in January, 1907, and his mother on February 8, 1902. Their children were: John, who married Catherine Casey ; Timothy F .; Martin, who married Viney Costello; Thomas and Patrick, both deceased; Mary Jane, unmarried; Cornelius, deceased, and William who resides in Juneau County, Wisconsin.
Timothy F. Howley grew up as a farmer, learned the lessons of the local schools with his brothers and sisters, and in 1894 settled on his present farm in Dellona Township. He has a complete quarter section under his ownership and management, and is devoting it to general farming and stock raising. Mr. Howley is an active democrat in politics and with his family worships in the Catholic church.
On June 14, 1881, he married Catherine Kelly, daughter of Terence and Ellen Kelly, of Juneau County, Wisconsin. They are the parents of two children : Margaret M., who married Joseph Timlin and lives in Dellona Township of Sauk County ; and Thomas J., unmarried.
JOHN E. WADLEIGH has been successfully identified with the farming enterprise of Winfield Township for a great many years. He is a native son of Wisconsin and belongs to the pioneer element in this state.
His birth occurred in Dodge County, Wisconsin. His parents, Wil- liam E. and Sophie (Stevens) Wadleigh, came from New Hampshire in 1856 and settled at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. John E. Wadleigh grew up on his father's farm, acquired an education in the local schools and went to farming in Sauk County with limited means but unlimited energy. He has seen his resources grow until he is now owner of 251 aeres in Winfield Township, and is one of the leading general farm- ers and stock raisers of that section. His specialty is Shorthorn cattle, and he keeps from thirty to forty head of those fine animals.
Mr. Wadleigh married Jennie Blatchley, who died in 1898, leaving him four children, Earl, Elsie, Alice and Hubert. These children were all educated in the public schools. Mr. Wadleigh is a republi- ean, is affiliated with Lodge No. 5670 of the Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica, and is a Knight of Pythias.
DIETRICH G. SCHWEKE was for many years actively and prominently engaged in business at Reedsburg, has retired with a competence, but still exercises considerable influence over the business affairs of that community. He is one of the prominent early families of Wisconsin and is a brother-in-law of the present Wisconsin governor.
Mr. Schweke was born in Milwaukee October 12, 1862, a son of
.
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Deitrich and Bertha (Schuckart) Schweke. Both parents were natives of Germany. His father was born in the Kingdom of Hanover in 1826, while the mother was born at Dessau, Germany, December 19, 1841. Dietrich Schweke, Sr., came to America in 1845 with his parents, his father being also named Dietrich. Grandfather Schweke died soon after arrival in Milwaukee. Bertha Schuckart came to Milwaukee with her parents, Gustav and Fredericka (Ulrich) Schuckart, in 1850. Gus- tav Schuckart and wife spent the rest of their lives in Milwaukee where he died in 1852 and she in 1863. Dietrich Schweke, Sr., was aroused by the discovery of gold in California in 1848, and soon afterward left with a party of gold seekers bound across the plains with wagons and ox teams. After some experiences on the gold coast he returned to Milwaukee and was engaged in the grocery business for several years. In 1865 he removed to Recdsburg and was a merchant where the Stolte Hotel now stands. For a number of years he was associated with Mr. William Stolte under the name of Schweke & Stolte. They also engaged extensively in the hop business when that was an impor- tant industry in this section of Wisconsin. The senior Schweke made a business trip to New York City in 1869, and while in the metropolis - his death occurred on March 31. He was one of the founders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Reedsburg, and one of its first trus- tees. He and his wife were married in Milwaukee in 1861, and their children were: Dietrich G., Gustav C., Dora, now the widow of George Herner, and Bertha, wife of Governor Emanuel L. Philipp, himself a native of Sauk County. The father of these children was an active democrat. A brother of his wife, Albert Schuckart, was a veteran of the Civil war and spent his last days in Reedsburg.
Mr. Dietrich G. Schweke has lived at Reedsburg since he was a small child. He attended the public and parochial schools and also the parochial schools of Milwaukee. When twenty years of age he took a business course and since then has made his own way in the world. His first experience was as clerk with the firm of Kellogg & Harris. He was with them seven years, beginning in 1876, and gained a thor- ough knowledge of the fundamentals of merchandising before start- ing out on his own account. In December, 1883, he entered business for himself with Mr. H. H. Webb and his brother, Gustav C. The name of this firm was Webb & Schweke and it is a firm title that is still spoken in terms of respect over a large community. They were gen- eral merchants, conducted a large department store, and handled an immense volume of business every year. The firm was continued until 1908, since which time Mr. Schweke has lived retired, merely looking after his private interests.
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