USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume II > Part 8
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Madison in Dane County, Wisconsin, February 21, 1857, and is a son of Christopher and Christina (Ensh) Luhrsen.
Christopher Luhrsen was born in Germany, in 1822, and was there married to his first wife, with whom he came to the United States about 1851. There Mrs. Luhrsen died, and in the metropolis Mr. Luhrsen was married a second time, to Christina Ensh, who had been born in 1826, also in Germany. In 1855 they came to Wisconsin and settled in Dane County, near the City of Madison, residing there until 1857, when they removed to Westfield Township, Mr. Luhrsen there purchasing a farm. After some years passed in agricultural pursuits in Sauk County he removed his family to Loganville, where for a period he was engaged in merchandising, but eventually returned to agricultural pursuits, buying a farm one mile east of the village mentioned, where he passed the remain- der of his life and died in 1906, at the age of eighty-four years. Mrs. Luhrsen died September 22, 1917, having reached the remarkable age of ninety-one years. They had a family of eight children: Elizabeth, Nicholas, Fred W., Anna, Emma, August, William and Edward, of whom all are living except William.
Fred W. Luhrsen was reared on the home farm and received his education in the public schools of Westfield Township and the parochial schools of the German Lutheran Church, of which faith his parents were devout members. When he was nineteen years of age he learned the blacksmith trade. In 1876 he came to Reedsburg, and in 1884 he estab- lished a business of his own, since that time having built up a prosperous business. During forty-one years Mr. Luhrsen has not lost in time over two months, a remarkable record and one which speaks well for his great industry and energy. The present blacksmith shop of Mr. Luhrsen is one of the busiest and best managed establishments of its kind in Sauk County. Its forge and anvil have been in almost constant operation since 1892, when the present shop was built, and the trade which rewards the owner's enterprise and skill in continuous and appreciative, being recruited both from the city and county. He has the most modern and practical appliances of his trade, and his work is invariably well done and satisfactory. In addition to his shop he has a comfortable and attractive residence, located at No. 628 Main Street. Politically Mr. Luhrsen is a prohibitionist. He has never cared for public office, although always a good citizen and a supporter of public-spirited movements. He and Mrs. Luhrsen are faithful members and supporters of the Church of God.
Mr. Luhrsen was married in 1880 to Miss Sarah Colling, who was born at Mckeesport, Pennsylvania, December 14, 1850, a daughter of Daniel and Sophia (Gerss) Colling. Mr. and Mrs. Colling came to Westfield Township, Sauk County, in 1855, and here spent the rest of their lives on a farm, the former dying in 1881, at the age of seventy-four years, and the latter in 1891, when eighty-one years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Luhrsen have five children : Agnes, who is the wife of Walter Thomas, living near the City of Milwaukee, and has had four children, Beatrice, who died in infancy, Glenn Douglas and Marshall ; Walter, of Red Lodge, Montana, who is married and has two children, Richard and Gertrude; Josie, who is the wife of P. J. Smart, of Carthage, Missouri, and has had
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four sons, Howard F., Stanley (1), deceased, Stanley (2) and Russell ; Vernie, a traveling salesman for an automobile company, with head- quarters at Missoula, Montana, who is married and has one son, Robert; and Lillie, who is the wife of Victor Seagraves, of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and has two children, Richard and Gerald. Mrs. Luhrsen has one half-sister: Sophia, of Avada, Colorado; and two sisters: Sarah; and Nancy, the wife of Charles Schulte, now living on the Colling homestead.
Mr. Luhrsen has acquired a competence through his labor, and, what is better, has won the regard of hosts of friends and the confidence of the entire community. His patrons come from many miles in the country, and for many of them he has been doing work for more than a score of years. His life is a lesson of industry, frugality, honesty and good humor.
C. F. HENRY MEYER, now retired, was for many years a prominent factor in business and civic affairs at Sauk City, and still exercises a large influence in that community. Mr. Meyer is of German birth, but has lived in Wisconsin for about fifty years.
He was born at Nordenbeck, Waldeck, Germany, August 29, 1846, a son of Frederick and Mary (Berges) Meyer. His father and uncle had made a brief trip to the United States as early as 1846. While liere they spent a short time in Louisiana, but then returned to Germany. As a boy Henry Meyer heard his father tell many of the interesting things about America and it was those stories heard from the lips of his father that eventually caused him to seek his own fortune in the New World.
Thus it was that in October, 1865, C. F. Henry Meyer, then a boy of nineteen, landed at New York City. A few days later he was a new arrival at Sauk City. In the old country, after the thorough apprentice- ship required of all mechanical trades there, he had learned millwright- ing. At Sauk City he was unable to find employment in that line and instead he worked two years as a carpenter for Charles Ross. He then entered the service of Martin Lodde, millwright, and was in his employ steadily until 1872, making good wages as wages were measured at that time.
In 1872 Mr. Meyer returned to the old country and remained there about four years, finishing the learning of his trade. While there he attended a Barschule, the German name for an architectural school, at Halzminden, an institution attended by several thousand students.
On March 16, 1878, after returning to this country, Mr. Meyer mar- ried Miss Emma Boller. Her father, Kasper Boller, owned a general merchandise store at Sauk City. He continued active in the business until 1891, when he sold out to Conrad Kuoni. In 1892 Mr. Meyer and his father-in-law, Mr. Boller, built a cold storage building at Sauk City. Mr. Boller was active in business affairs until his death on February 6, 1907. He was born August 29, 1828. After Mr. Boller's death Mr. Meyer continued the business until 1913, when he sold the establishment and has since lived practically retired. They built up a large and prosperous business.
Mr. and Mrs. Meyer had five children, three sons and two daughters. Doctor Arno, who was born January 8, 1879, is now successfully prac-
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ticing medicine in Chicago. He has been married thirteen years. Lena, born January 31, 1881, is the wife of Theodore Crusins, of St. Louis. Edgar C., born March 10, 1883, is now conducting a general merchandise store at Sauk City and was married two years ago. Freda, born May 11, 1890, was married three years ago to Walter Pune, foreman of a machine shop in St. Louis. Ralph, born July 18, 1892, is unmarried, lives at home and works in the store with his brother. All the children attended school at Sauk City.
Mrs. Meyer's parents were members of the Free Congregation of Sauk City and Mrs. Meyer has affiliated with the same church. Politically he was always a stanch republican until in recent years, and he supported Mr. Wilson for the Presidency. He has kept the machinery of good gov- ernment moving in his home community, served as village president seven years, and for twenty-six years has been secretary of the fire department. He was school clerk four years and has two years yet to serve in that position. He was president of the society of his church for fifteen years.
Mr. Meyer's three sisters lived in Germany all their lives. His brother, Fred Meyer, who was born in Germany in 1833, came to America in 1866 and after landing in Sauk City took up the trade of millwright. In 1869 he went back to Germany, but returned to this country in 1870. He then conducted the new United States Hotel at Sauk City until his death on February 8, 1894. This hotel is now known as the Curtis Hotel. He also ran a livery stable in connection. Mr. Fred Meyer made three trips back to Germany and the hotel was managed by his wife during his absence. He served several years as mayor of the village, and was a very active citizen. In the early days he drove the stage from Sauk City to Mazomanie. Fred Meyer married Ottilie Boller, who was born February 8, 1850, daughter of Kasper Boller. They had two children : Ida, who was born January 6, 1872, and died May 23, 1888, at the age of sixteen ; and Meta, who was born Mareh 17, 1882, and is now living at home with her mother.
GEORGE ISENBERG. There is no vocation to which men devote their energies that has a more important bearing upon the growth and develop- ment of any community than that which has to do with building and its allied interests. The calling which has to do with the erection of build- ings which house large enterprises is one of the oldest known to mankind, and in its ranks are found individuals who have risen to high places in the world. The community which includes among its citizens able and energetic workers in this field seldom lacks enterprise and civic zeal. These men create a need for their services, and while advancing their own interests promote the community's growth. Among the leading representatives in building work in Sauk County George Isenberg holds a deservedly high place, for he has been connected in this line of endeavor at Baraboo and in the surrounding territory for more than a quarter of a century, and has been interested in the erection of many of the leading structures there.
George Isenberg was born at Berndorf, Waldeck, Germany, Septem- ber 9, 1867, and is a son of William and Marie (Schultz) Isenberg, who passed their entire lives in Germany. William Isenberg, who was a
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carpenter by vocation, died when his son George was a small boy, while the mother survived for many years, dying in 1912. There were seven sons and three daughters in the family, George being the youngest son and the third oldest child. Of the sons three came to the United States : Karl, of Baraboo; Christ, and George.
George Isenberg was educated in the public schools of Germany, and as a youth was apprenticed to the trade of carpenter, in which he spent an apprenticeship of three years. In 1885 he immigrated to the United States, whence his brothers Karl and Christ had preceded him. He at once came to Sauk County, in the following year taking up his residence . at Baraboo, which has been his home without interruption ever since, although at various times, in the interest of his business affairs, he has resided for short periods at other places. For three or four years he was employed as a carpenter by his brother Karl, with whom he eventually formed a partnership, and the firm of Isenberg Brothers has since that time steadily grown to be one of the leading contracting and building concerns of this part of the state. During this time the brothers have erected many of the largest buildings erected at Baraboo, including all the Ringling buildings, and in 1912 George Isenberg went to Florida, where he erected the winter home of Charles Ringling. His life has been one of continuous activity, in which she has maintained a high standard of business ethics, and has been accorded due recognition of labor. Few have shown greater activity and few have been more greatly interested in Baraboo and its affairs, business and civic. He is at present one of the directors of the First National Bank of Baraboo, and is also a director of the Baraboo Commercial Association. In politics he has always been a stanch republican. Since 1909 he has been an alderman, being now in his third term in that office, and for the past two years has been president of the council. He likewise belongs to the Baraboo Water Commission. His official record is an excellent one, and has been characterized by his sympathetic support of all measures tending to advance the city's inter- ests. With his family he belongs to the German Lutheran Church, and at present he is a member of the board of trustees.
In 1892 Mr. Isenberg was united in marriage with Miss Emma Bender, who was born at Baraboo, Wisconsin, August 11, 1871, and has resided here all her life. She is a daughter of Carl and Grace (Kunzelman) Bender, the former born in Southern Germany, October 4, 1842, and died at Baraboo, June 19, 1911, and the latter born May 22, 1849, and died July 10, 1908. Carl Bender came to the United States as a small boy with his father, Christ Bender, locating in the Town of North Freedom. At the beginning of the Civil war, with his brothers Ehrenreich and Adolph Bender, he enlisted in Company K, Thirteenth Regiment, Wis- consin Volunteer Infantry, and fought with the Union army until the war closed and victory rested with the forces of the North. With a splendid record as a soldier he returned to Wisconsin and established himself in business as the proprietor of a blacksmith shop in Baraboo, and for twenty years followed that trade. He also engaged for a time in farming near the city limits, but finally located at Baraboo, where he founded a cement business and continued to be interested therein during the remainder of his life. He was one of the well known and highly
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esteemed business men of the city. Mr. Bender was also actively inter- ested in civic matters, and for some years was the incumbent of important public offices. After serving as alderman for several years and as com- missioner of streets, in 1910 he was elected mayor of Baraboo and was acting in that capacity when his death occurred. Mr. Bender was the father of the following children : Mary, who is the wife of Rev. F. P. Papp, pastor of the Lutheran Church at Ableman, Sauk County; Emmna, who is now Mrs. George Isenberg; Nettie, who is the wife of Charles Goethe, of Baraboo; Carl, a resident of Madison, Wisconsin ; and Hilda, who is the wife of Edward Cuch, of Baraboo.
Mr. and Mrs. Isenberg are the parents of four children: Ernest August, who is bookkeeper for the First National Bank of Baraboo; Elsie Marie, who has completed a course in home economics at Stout Institute, Menominee, Wisconsin ; Lydia Grace, a graduate of the Baraboo High School, class of 1917; and Louis Christian, who is attending the Baraboo public schools. The family is well known in the city, where its members are all recognized as sound and reliable citizens, the kind of material that has helped the city to grow and develop.
LONGFELLOW TURNER. Since its establishment in Sauk County in the early '60s the Turner family has unfailingly sustained the most prac- tical and intelligent interests of the community and has manipulated with equal courage and ability the implements of the husbandman and the franchise of the citizen. Its men have demonstrated the worth of indus- try and integrity, and its women have kept their houses in order and taught their children to be fair, honest and considerate in their dealings with their fellow men. A worthy representative of this honorable family is found in the person of Longfellow Turner, who is engaged in farming in Fairfield Township. It has been his fortune to have realized many of his worthy ambitions in the working out of his career and to have attained at the same time material prosperity and the esteem and confidence of the people among whom his life has been passed.
Longfellow Turner was born in Fairfield Township, Sauk County, Wisconsin, December 8, 1866, and is a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Saxe) Turner, the former a native of the State of Maine and the latter of Germany. Samuel Turner was reared in his native New England locality, but when a young man developed a desire to see the West, and in the early '60s came to Wisconsin seeking his fortune. Here he met and married Elizabeth Saxe, who had been brought to this country by her parents as a child, and they began their married life on a farm in Fair- field Township. They were industrious and hard-working people and were well on their way toward the attainment of their ambitions, the establishment of a comfortable home and the making of arrangements for the proper rearing and education of their children, with a possible competence for their own old age, when Mr. Turner died suddenly in 1876, and the mother followed him to the grave within a short time. The children thus left orphans were: Verona, Longfellow, William, Mary and George, all of whom are still living, and all of whom have been suc- cessful in life.
Reared on the home farm, Longfellow Turner grew up amid healthful
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country surroundings, and was attending the public school in Fairfield Township when his parents died. The ten-year-old lad was then taken into the home of his maternal grandparents, John and Catherine Saxe, pioneers of Fairfield Township now both deceased, who gave him the best advantages that they could and kept him in school until he had secured a thorough rudimentary education. He remained with his grandparents until after he had attained his majority and then embarked in agricultural pursuits on his own account, and from that time to the present has been constantly growing in prosperity. About the year 1897 he secured, by purchase, the farm which he now occupies in Fairfield Township, a tract of 170 acres of productive and well cultivated land. Here he has installed the latest improvements and has erected substantial buildings, including a comfortable dwelling and two good barns. While general farming has received the major part of his attention, he has also been gratifyingly successful as a breeder of standard Holstein cattle, and is a stockholder in the Excelsior Co-operative Creamery Company of Baraboo. Mr. Turner is one of the best known of the agriculturists of the seetion, one who is alive to the possibilities of his vocation and who makes the most of his opportunities. He is one of the largest hay producers of the region, and furnishes great amounts of this commodity annually to the Ringling Brothers at Baraboo. In polities he favors the prohibition candidates, but has not been exceptionally aetive in public affairs, although he has served very acceptably as overseer of roads. With his family he attends the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Mr. Turner was married in 1894 to Miss Mabel Bell Herron, of Fair- field Township, Sauk County, who was born in 1873, in the State of Iowa, daughter of Theodore and Susannah Herron, who were early settlers of Sauk County and for many years engaged in agricultural pursuits here. Mr. Herron is now deceased, but his widow still survives and resides in Fairfield Township. To Mr. and Mrs. Turner there have been born seven children, namely: Bessie, who is the wife of Christian Callisch, a farmer of Fairfield Township, and has one child, Genevieve; Ray, who married July 4, 1915, Edna Smith, of Delton Township, daughter of Thomas Smith, who has resided in that township for about thirty years, and has one child, Lynn; and Gladys, Myrtle, Edith, Elmer and Esther, at home.
JOHN B. WEISS has been a factor in the business life of Sauk County for many years, and is especially well known and a factor in the affairs of Franklin Township, where he is cashier of the Plain State Bank and has had much to do with civie affairs .:
Mr. Weiss was born in Germany, January 28, 1868, a son of John and Theresa Weiss. He immigrated to America at the age of fifteen and he finished his education in the high school at Hillside, Wisconsin.
Mr. Weiss took up a business career as a merchant, but since November, 1911, has been a banker at Plain and his ability and personal popularity have been the chief factors in the success and influence of the Plain State Bank. He also owns considerable real estate, and his fellow citizens have a number of times called upon him for the performance of those duties which are an indication of general public esteem and confidence. Mr.
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Weiss served as postmaster at Plain from 1893 to 1897, during Cleve- land's second term, and during the same period he was also town treas- urer. Mr. Weiss is a member of the Catholic Knights.
July 28, 1897, at Plain, he married Miss Mary Machreiner, daughter of John B. and Emily ( Voelkel) Machreiner. They have a household of six children, named Esther, Marcus, Martha, Julius, Carl and Paul.
FRANCIS N. PECK, register of deeds of Sauk County from 1880 to 1886, is one of the oldest and most prominent residents of the Town of Excelsior and City of Baraboo. A Connecticut man, he came to Excelsior in March, 1856, then in his twenty-eighth year, and has been a farmer ever since. Aside from this, the main business of his life, he has given most of his time to the public affairs of his town, and during the many years of his residence therein was usually serving as town clerk, chairman of the town board, supervisor of the county board, or justice of the peace, often holding several offices simultaneously. Mr. Peck is a veteran and a rock-ribbed republican, and has voted for seventeen presidential candi- dates, from Gen. Winfield Scott to Judge Hughes. He has been a resident of Baraboo for a number of years.
GEORGE T. MORSE is one of the leading bankers of Sauk County, and banking has been his chief experience throughout his career. He is now president of the Citizens Bank of Reedsburg and has been actively identi- fied with that institution for over thirty years.
Mr. Morse was born in Schoharie County, New York, a son of Hiram A. and Mary (Mackey) Morse, both of whom were natives of New York State. Hiram A. Morse was for a number of years a merchant at Albany. In 1864 he enlisted for service in the Civil war, and was killed before the conclusion of his service. His widow spent her last years in Reedsburg.
George T. Morse lived in Schoharie County, New York, until he was fifteen years of age. He attended school there and also at Reedsburg, Wisconsin, where he had his first business experience in the bank of his uncle, Joseph Mackey. He was made cashier of the old Reedsburg Bank during the second year of its existence, and then for four years was connected with the First National Bank of Lincoln, Illinois. On returning to Reedsburg Mr. Morse resumed his connection with the Recdsburg Bank while J. W. Lusk was its president.
Mr. Morse organized the Citizens Bank of Reedsburg in 1887, and its first president was Charles Keith, after whom Mr. Morse took the execu- tive management of the institution and has directed its welfare and con- served its resources now for a great many years.
Mr. Morse has one of the attractive homes of Reedsburg on Locust Street. He served several years as alderman and fraternally is affiliated with Reedsburg Lodge No. 157, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Reedsburg Chapter No. 56, Royal Arch Masons, St. John's Commandery No. 21, Knights Templar, with the thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite Consistory, at Milwaukee, and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine in that city.
Mr. Morse married Miss Belle Ward, of Dubuque, Iowa, daughter of Hiram and Emma Ward. Mrs. Morse's mother gave the ground for the
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Reedsburg Public Library. Mr. and Mrs. Morse have two children : Ward Stone Morse, who is now manager of the Hotel Leamington at Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Emma, wife of W. H. Broekmann, of Chieago, Illinois.
PETER HENRY. An example of that kind of thrift and well applied energy which enables a man to retire from aetive life at a comparatively early age is found in the career of Peter Henry, who is now living in a fine modern home at 941 Main Street, Reedsburg. Reared a farmer, for many years Mr. Henry was engaged in the pursuit of the tilling of the soil, and for a short time after coming to Reedsburg was connected with a business industry at this place, but since 1913 has lived quietly, enjoying the fruits of his early years of toil. He has always been one of the helpful and publie-spirited men of his community wherever he has lived, and at various times has been called upon to aet in positions of publie responsibility, in which he has discharged his duties in a manner that has always acted for the benefit of the general public.
Peter Henry was born on a farm in Walworth County, Wiseonsin, November 16, 1863, and is a son of John Henry and Mary (Priemer) Henry. His father was born in Switzerland, July 16, 1824, and was a young man when he came to the United States and arrived in Walworth County, Wisconsin, in 1848. There he started his eareer in a modest manner, farming a small tract of land with crude implements until he could afford better ones, living in a rude home until he could build one more commodious, and gradually building up a reputation for sobriety, integrity and worth in his community. In Walworth County he met and married Mary Priemer; a young lady newly arrived from her native Germany, where she had been born February 4, 1839, and together they labored industriously in the building up of a home. In 1866 they changed their place of residence from Walworth County to Woodland Township, Sauk County, where Mr. Henry purchased a farm of some proportions. To his original purchase he continued to add from time to time until he was the owner of 440 aeres in that township and 35 acres in Richland County, and on his farm the remainder of his life was passed, his death occurring there September 24, 1894, when he was past seventy years of age. Mr. Henry was a demoerat in his political views, but was never mixed up in political matters save as a voter, preferring the quiet life of the farm to the strenuous one of public affairs. He was a faithful member of the Lutheran Church, to which Mrs. Henry, who survives him, also belongs. They were married October 25, 1862, and had the following children : Peter, of this review; Anna, who is the wife of Theodore Moll, lived on the homestead place until April, 1916, and then removed to her present home at Wonewoc, Wiscon- sin, where she lives with her husband and four children, Joseph, John Henry and Mary and Kate, twins; Dorothy died in infaney.
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