USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume II > Part 16
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Mr. Basten married in 1895 Miss Amelia Zimmerman and they became the parents of seven children, five of whom are still living: Irvin J., Almer L., Alfred Hubbard, Robert Jacob and Carl Joseph. The two chil- dren who have passed away are: Harriet Amelia, who died at the age of five; and one child who died in infancy. In 1911 Mr. Basten's first wife passed away and on April roth of the following year he married Miss Mary A. Peters. They belong to St. Killian's church at New Franken.
Mr. Basten has never been active in the political affairs of the village but has nevertheless been one of the dominating factors in its expansion. The work which he has done in this connection and the importance of the place which he has attained in business cireles is evidenced by the high regard in which he is held by his associates, who respect him as an able financier and one of the important forces in upbuilding and development. The position which he holds is a responsible one and calls for resource- fulness, cool judgment, energy and keenness and Mr. Basten has proved himself fully equal to the requirements.
HENRY GEYER.
The name of Geyer needs no introduction to the readers of this volume for it has been a prominent one in the business circles of Brown county since 1852. Henry Geyer, well known in connection with the Geyer- Wheelock Fishing Company and as the owner of one of the largest buffets in Green Bay, was born in the city in which he now resides, December 10, 1866, and is a son of Damion Geyer, a native of Baden, Germany. The father came at an early age to America, settling in one of the eastern states, where he engaged in business for a short time. In Baltimore he enlisted in the United States army and remained in the service for some time. In 1849 he went to California and the vessel on which he was a passenger was wrecked off the coast of Lower California and many lives were lost, Mr. Geyer being one of the few survivors. He worked his way back to New York state and later to Baltimore, where he remained intil 1852, in which year he came to Wisconsin, settling in Oshkosh. A short time afterward he came to Green Bay but in 1856 went to Sturgeon Bay, where he opened the first hotel in the city. Later he returned to Oshkosh and finally again took up his residence in Green Bay, purchasing the old Whitney place, which he operated for some time under the name of Geyer's
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Grove. In connection with this he conducted a hotel at the corner of Washington and Walnut streets and for many years was widely known as one of the most successful men in this line of business in the city. Gradually he became prominent in local democratic politics and in 1884 was elected sheriff of Brown county, serving with ability and distinction for a number of years. He died in 1886 when he was fifty-six years of age. His wife was in her maidenhood Miss Elizabeth Haas, a native of Germany and a daughter of John Haas, who was a pioneer farmer of Dodge county, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Damion Geyer had a large family of children, seven of whom are still living: Anna, the wife of Jacob Arends, who is engaged in farming; Damion Joseph, a retired business man of Green Bay ; Henry, of this review; Joseph, an inspector in Aurora, Illinois ; Anton, who conducts a saloon in Green Bay; John, who is engaged in the fishing business in the same city; and George, who is in business with his brother Henry.
Henry Geyer received his education in the public schools of Green Bay and after he had completed it took up the steamfitter's trade, which he followed for twenty-five years in Brown county. At the end of that time he established himself in the saloon business in partnership with his brother and has since conducted it with success. He has been interested in the Geyer-Wheelock Fishing Company since its organization in 1911.
Mr. Geyer married Miss Jeannette Lawrence, who was born in Seattle, Washington, and they have one child, Walter, who is five years of age. The family are members of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. Geyer is not active in politics, preferring to give his entire attention to his business affairs, which are capably conducted and intelligently carried forward, making him one of the prominent and substantial business men of Green Bay.
GEORGE E. BRUNETTE.
George E. Brunette is conducting on the European plan one of the finest restaurants in Green Bay. His business affairs are capably conducted along progressive lines and his success has placed him among the promoters of business activity in the city. He was born in Bay Settlement, January 17, 1864, and is a son of Charles and Philomen Brunette. The father was born in Green Bay and is living in this city at the age of seventy-seven years. The mother has reached the age of seventy-two. She is a daughter of Joe Allard and his wife, who was in her maidenhood a Miss La Fond. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Brunette became the parents of fifteen children, twelve of whom are still living: Moses, who resides in South Branch. Wisconsin ; Joseph; George, of this review; Albert, who resides in Duck Creek; Hattie, the wife of O. Carter; Emma, who married C. Cornell; Odeal, who married L. Dion; Eddie, of Duckcreek; Matthias, of Texas : Frank; Edith, now Mrs. A. Husson ; and Phoebe, now Mrs. Tony Chris- tensen.
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During his childhood, when not engaged with his books, George E. Brunette farmed and hauled logs and lumber for his father. He attended school until he was fourteen years of age and then was employed by his uncle as a teamster. His uncle built a boat, which he ran on Green Bay, carrying freight from this city to Escanaba and upon this vessel Mr. Brunette was employed as cook for a number of years but finally the boat was destroyed by fire and he engaged in stone-cutting for sixteen years, being employed for most of that time in the quarries of the Northwestern Company. Eventually, however, he abandoned that occupation and came to Green Bay, opening the restaurant which he conducts at the present time. In its management he has displayed excellent business ability, com- bined with the special knowledge required to cater to the popular taste and he has made his restaurant one of the finest and most profitable in the city. From the very beginning his success was rapid, for it was founded upon the excellent quality of food which Mr. Brunette handled and the efficient service.
Mr. Brunette married Miss Lucy Zoeller, a native of Oconto county, Wisconsin, and a daughter of Aloysius Zoeller, deceased. Her mother is living on the home farm. Mr. and Mrs. Brunette have three children : Jeanette, aged five; Norbert, aged four; and Dominic, who is two years of age. The family are devout adherents of the Roman Catholic religion and attend St. John's church in Green Bay. Mr. Brunette has no political affiliations, preferring to give his entire time to his business affairs, which are capably conducted, making him one of the representative and substan- tial business men of the city.
HERMAN H. FIEST.
Herman H. Fiest, the son of a pioneer of Brown county, has been asso- ciated with agricultural pursuits from his childhood. At the present time he owns and operates a fine farm of eighty-seven acres on section 2, Howard township, and has been successful in general farming and dairy- ing. He was born in this county, July 23, 1861, a son of Mathias and Fredericka (Miester) Fiest, natives of Germany, where the father was born in 1824 and the mother in 1825. Mathias Fiest came to America at an early date and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. One year later he came to Pittsfield township, Brown county, Wisconsin, where he bought forty acres of land and cleared it of the heavy timber with which it was covered. When he had finished this laborious task he was informed that the land upon which he was working was the property of another settler and he was obliged to buy another tract and begin anew the work of clearing. He was, however, given the use of the first property upon which to raise his garden truck until he had gotten his own place into tillable condition. He remained upon this farm until his death, which occurred in 1902, one year after his wife's demise. They were the parents of two children: Nettie, who married Julius Selling, a farmer, by whom she has eleven children, Emma, William,
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Carrie, John, Edward, Minnie, Clarence, Lillie, Elsie, Eleanore and Wes- ley ; and Herman H., the subject of this review.
Herman H. Fiest was educated in district school No. I of Pittsfield township and pursued his studies until he was sixteen years of age. After laying aside his books he worked for his father upon the homestead until the latter's death, after which the son took entire charge of the place and remained upon it until 1909, when he sold the property and purchased eighty-seven acres on section 2, Howard township, upon which he has since resided. He does general farming and dairying and has a herd of sixteen cattle and four horses. His methods are practical and consequently pro- ductive of good results, and he has now gained a good degree of success in agricultural pursuits and a growing prominence among his fellow citizens.
At Green Bay, August 3, 1891, Mr. Fiest was united in marriage to Miss Cora B. Mason, a daughter of J. D. and Catherine (Lawler) Mason, of Pittsfield township. Mr. and Mrs. Fiest have five children, Earl, John, Arthur, Minnie and Catherine. The family belong to the Methodist church.
In his political views Mr. Fiest is a consistent republican and served for seven years as road superintendent and as school clerk for two years. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and has many friends in his native county. In business he has been successful because his methods are practical and his standards of integrity high.
HERMAN A. GREILING.
The prosperity of any city and its progress along industrial lines is not so much a matter of individual growth and development as it is the result of the combined efforts of many men, and yet in every municipality there are certain men who dominate its business life to a large extent, direct its policies and are active factors in its progress. Such a man is Herman A. Greiling, president of the Greiling Brothers Company, gen- eral contractors of Green Bay, with offices at 124 Adams street. The company has grown from humble beginnings until it is now one of the most prosperous and successful organizations in this line in the city. Its operations extend beyond local limits and various departments of the business are scattered over several points on the Great Lakes. The gen- eral headquarters of the company are located in this city. Herman A. Greiling was born near Green Bay, in the town of Preble, August 8, 1869. His parents were August and Emily Greiling, natives of Ger- many. Coming to America in 1866, they located immediately in Green Ray, where the father followed the trade of cabinet making, which he had learned in his native country. He soon saved a sum of money suf- ficient to buy a home for his family and this house has only recently been sold. August Greiling died in October, 1908, at the age of seventy-three years, his wife surviving him until January, 1910, when she died in the seventieth year of her age, and both are buried in the family lot at Wood- lawn cemetery.
Norman. a. Sreiling
THE NAY YORI. PUBLICLIENTEY
MOTOR, IL
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Herman A. Greiling acquired his early education in the district schools of Preble and afterward attended a business college at Green Bay. He had opportunity to attend school only through the winter months be- tween the ages of ten and nineteen years, for about the time he completed his first decade he had to begin work at truck gardening and in assisting in clearing the farm. Early in the spring his labors began and continued until the late fall. When sixteen years of age he began learning the car- penter's trade, which he followed until twenty-one. On attaining his ma- jority he left Green Bay and went to Chicago, where his two brothers were engaged at the same trade. For four years he followed carpenter- ing in that city, acting as foreman for a contracting firm during the last two years of that period. The financial panic of 1894, largely causing a suspension in building operations, caused him to leave Chicago and he returned to Green Bay early in the year with the idea of engaging in busi- ness as a building contractor in his native city. He formed a partnership with his brother, Charles H. Greiling, and they were successful from the beginning. They were accorded the contract for the erection of the Rockstroh bakery and their excellent workmanship, honorable business methods and the rapidity with which they executed their contract won for them a reputation which soon placed them in the front rank among the leading contractors of the district. The brothers are today well known as prominent representatives of contracting and construction interests in the central part of Wisconsin. The firm specializes to some extent in harbor and submarine work and the volume of their business is indi- cated in the fact that they employ on an average of one hundred and fifty men. They have several branch offices at different points on the Great Lakes and their business is rapidly growing and developing with each succeeding year. Much of the progress and prosperity of the firm is due to the energy and business acumen of Herman A. Greiling, the president, who directs its policy and gives personal superintendence to many of its business transactions. In connection with his contracting business Mr. Greiling has surrounded himself with a corps of competent workmen and he follows the policy of letting those who are instrumental in making the business a success participate in the earnings thereof. If every em- ployer would follow this policy, the question of capital and labor would be forever at rest.
In addition to his other interests Mr. Greiling is actively connected with a number of other important business enterprises of Green Bay. He has been called to serve as a director and in other offices in connection with business interests of importance here, being now vice president of the Barkhausen Coal & Dock Company; president of the Hartman-Greiling Company, manufacturers of boilers and general machinery; president of the New Franken Telephone Company; the principal organizer and stock- holder of the State Bank of New Franken; a director of the McCartney National Bank; and a stockholder in several other financial institutions in which he has voice in the active management.
On March 8, 1899, Mr. Greiling married Miss Lillian DeVroey, a daughter of Daniel and Eleanore DeVroey, who came to Green Bay in Vol. II-9
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the early '50s and has been an honored citizen of this city since that time. Mrs. Greiling is entitled to share much of the credit for the success which has come to her husband, owing to her capable management of her home and family interests, her good business judgment in general and the ad- vice and encouragement which she has given Mr. Greiling in all his un- dertakings. They have labored with singleness of purpose with the same end in view and the result achieved is most commendable. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Greiling have been born three children: Robert Emerson, born Sep- tember 29, 1906; Ruth Eleanor, born September 14, 1908; and William Lloyd, whose birth occurred on the 18th of November, 1910. The fam- ily reside in a beautiful and tastefully equipped home at 2002 Main street.
In politics Mr. Greiling is a republican but beyond casting his vote at each election he takes no active part in local politics. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Elks lodge No. 259 of Green Bay. He is a typical Green Bay product and has un- bounded faith in the future of the city and the surrounding country- a fact which is well demonstrated by his efforts to improve his own prop- erties and his encouragement of others to do likewise. He is a broad- minded man who believes not only in living but in letting others live. He recognizes the fact that every person has a good chance if they will but avail themselves of their opportunities and he is ever eager and willing to aid those who show willingness to help themselves. His own business career has demonstrated the fact that the essential qualities of success are his. Enterprise, unfaltering industry and unabating energy have ever been numbered among his salient characteristics and gradually, there- fore, he has advanced until he occupies a creditable and enviable position among the contractors of his section of the state. .
PETER DITMAR LARSON.
Peter Ditmar Larson is filling the position of deputy county surveyor at Green Bay. He was born November 13, 1890, in the city which he yet makes his home, representing one of the old families of this part of the state. His grandparents were Peter A. and Dorothy Larson. The former has followed farming throughout his entire life and now makes his home at Miltonville, Iowa, at the age of eighty years, surviving his wife, who passed away in 1883. Their son, Sigurd Larson, well known to his friends as Jim, was born in Norway and was but seven years of age when brought by his parents to America, the family home being established in this county. His youthful days were spent in the usual manner of farm lads and he early became familiar with all the duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He continued at home until seventeen years of age, after which he engaged in driving a team for Christian Schwartz, of Green Bay. Later he turned his attention to the lumber business, becoming foreman for the Fort Howard Lumber Company, and for seven years he was with
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the Metropolitan Lumber Company at Atkinson, Michigan. He then returned to Green Bay, where he again became connected with the lumber business, in which he still continues, and his enterprise and energy have been the salient forces of his success. He now has a well equipped lumber yard and his straightforward business methods have constituted the basis of his growing success in this connection. He married Anna Jacobson, a native of Winneconne, Wisconsin, and a daughter of Nels and Catherine Jacobson.
The only son of this marriage is Peter Ditmar Larson, who, spending his youthful days under the parental roof, attended the public schools until graduated from the West high school at Green Bay, after which he entered Lawrence College at Appleton, Wisconsin, there continuing for three years. Since April, 1912, he has served as deputy county surveyor of Brown county and is also assistant city engineer at the present time. The credit- able record he has made in office has commended him for further political preferment and at the general election on November 5, 1912, he was elected to the office of county surveyor. He is a stanch advocate of republican principles and an ardent worker in party ranks. He was reared in the Norwegian Lutheran church. He is yet a young man but has made a creditable name and place for himself and the future seems to hold out alluring promises to him.
WILLIAM C. KRIESER.
Alert and energetic, carefully controlling business interests, William C. Krieser is winning a substantial measure of success as proprietor of the Green Bay Stock Fair and of the Cooperstown Hotel. Though he started out in life empty handed, he is gradually working his way upward and has already attained a fair measure of prosperity.
He was born in Green Bay, May 28, 1874, a son of William and Wilhel- mina (Schroeder) Krieser, both .of whom are natives of Pommern, Ger- many. Both are still living, the former at the age of seventy-four, the latter at the age of seventy-two. They are residents of Chase township, Oconto county, where Mr. Krieser follows the occupation of farming. He came to America in the year 1873, accompanied by his wife and three children, and, making his way into the interior of the country, settled at Green Bay, where for five years he was engaged at section work. He then removed to Chase township, where he purchased land and cleared a farm, converting the wild tract into richly developed fields. He landed in Green Bay with only a dollar and a half in his possession. As soon as possible he built a log house and at the same time, in order to obtain ready money with which to supply the immediate necessities of the family, he worked in a sawmill. His life has been one of untiring industry and determination and whatever success he has achieved has been attributable to his own labors. He certainly deserves much credit for what he has accomplished, for he is now one of the substantial farmers of his com-
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munity. He served in two European wars before coming to the new world. Unto him and his wife were born nine children, of whom five are yet living : August, who resides on the home farm and carries on the work of the fields; William C .; Henry, a farmer of Green Bay; Otto, at home; and Emma, the wife of Seb Steinacker, of Merrill, Wisconsin.
At the usual age William C. Krieser entered the public schools and when he put aside his text-books he concentrated his energies upon the work of the home farm, in which he had already had considerable experi- ence, working in the fields as soon as old enough to handle the plow. He was afterward employed as a laborer until twenty-six years of age and then entered the service of the Green Bay Street Railway Company, with which he continued for ten years. Careful expenditure during that period enabled him to save a goodly portion of his earnings and in 1911 he bought his present hotel and saloon, called the Cooperstown Hotel. This he is capably conducting and it is liberally patronized. He is also largely inter- ested in buying and selling stock, which activities he conducts under the name of the Green Bay Stock Fair, all stock in the neighborhood being brought for exhibition and sale to this city and placed in Mr. Krieser's hands for disposal. Both branches of his business are bringing him a good profit.
Mr. Krieser was married in 1901 to Christina Basten and they have become parents of two daughters, Gladys and Leona, aged respectively ten and seven years. MIr. Krieser was reared in the Methodist church. He belongs to the Moose Society and has many friends both within and without that organization. His earlier life was a period of earnest and unremitting toil and he has always been active in business connections which, carefully conducted, have won him a place among the valued and representative residents of his native city.
JAMES PETCKA.
James Petcka, well known as the popular and enterprising proprietor of the Wisconsin Hotel at Green Bay, was born in Bohemia, April 8, 1863. His paternal grandparents, Jacob and Theresa (Frank) Petcka, were natives of Austria and there passed away at an advanced age. The former was a farmer by occupation and thus provided for his family. His son, Thomas Petcka, who was born and reared in Bohemia, was there married and in 1870 came with his wife and children to the United States, settling in Manitowoc county. He began farming in the district now known as Rosecrans Corners. His wife, Catherine Petcka, was a daughter of Peter and Maria (Binder) Rosenmueller, the latter a daughter of Jacob and Theresa Binder, of Bohemia. The death of Thomas Petcka occurred February 22, 1903, when he had reached the venerable age of eighty-six years, and his wife, who was born May 12, 1838, died on the 3d of March, 1912, when about seventy-four years of age. In their family were eighteen children, twelve of whom are now living.
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When his school days were over James Petcka, who had been brought to America when about seven years of age, sought and secured employ- ment with the Hochgreen Brewing Company. In the winter months he worked in the lumber woods and in 1892, when about twenty-nine years of age, came to Green Bay. On the 15th of October of that year he opened a saloon in Fort Howard and for the past seventeen years he has been located at his present place of business. Here he not only conducts a saloon but also carries on the Wisconsin Hotel, which is one of the old and well known hostelries of the county. His place is also headquarters for farmers and he has here ample room for stabling their horses. He con- ducts a first-class hotel, giving careful study to the needs and requirements of his patrons, and he has met with substantial success as the years have gone by.
Mr. Petcka married Julia Kustka, a native of Green Bay and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Kustka, the former now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Petcka have five children: Albert; Mamie; Lillian and Julia, twins ; and Hattie. The son is now a student in the high school. Mr. Petcka was reared in the Catholic faith, to which he has always adhered. He belongs to two prominent Bohemian societies, the C. S. B. L. and the D. C. B. J. He is also a member of the Green Bay Brewers Association. For two decades he has been a resident of this city and has a wide acquaintance, his business activities and his social connections bringing him prominently before the public.
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