USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 22
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JOSEPH CHESAK.
Joseph Chesak was born in Pilsen, Bohemia, Austria, on December 8, 1854; his father emigrated to Wisconsin and settled in the town of Trenton,
RESIDENCE STREET IN EDGAR, WIS.
WAUSAU GAS CO.'S OFFICE AND GRAND OPERA HOUSE
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Washington county, when Joseph was three years of age. He received the common school education in that town, and later took a course in the Spen- cerian College at Milwaukee. He engaged in mercantile business and hotel- keeping and held the office of town clerk for the last three years in that town, before his migration to Marathon county in 1881. It was at the time that J. M. Smith and Fred Rietbrook, through intelligent and judicious advertising brought many new settlers to Marathon county, mainly in the present town of Rietbrook, the majority being Polish people coming from Milwaukee. Mr. Chesak built a store and engaged in general merchandise business; was appointed postmaster, the postoffice being named "Poniatowski." When he arrived there, some roads had already been opened, but they were new and impassable at times ; the settlers were all beginners and poor, of course, and it took a long time and hard work to make a farm. However, Mr. Chesak had faith in the industry and honesty of these hard-working, frugal beginners, and assisted them to the best of his ability by extending credit to them, and was their advisor in a general way. The fact that he could speak four lan- guages made his store the center of intelligence in that community. He was elected and reelected town clerk for years, and school treasurer and justice of the peace. His faith in the new country and the people was fully justified by events. His business was carried on under some difficulties first, he having to bring his merchandise from Wausau out by wagon or sleigh over poor country roads, take all sorts of farm produce in exchange and carry them in the same way to Wausau and market them; but the settlement grew, the farms became larger, and his business too grew up to big dimensions and brought him prosperity and honors.
When his sons had grown up, he turned his business in Poniatowski over to them, and with his two brothers, John and Frank, built and still operates a saw mill and engaged in general lumber business in the village of Athens, where he took up his residence. He is also interested in the Athens Bank. He has done his full share in the upbuilding of that part of Marathon county, and can look back with contentment upon his achievements. Affable, kind and courteous, he is an excellent companion and enjoys society and is held in the highest esteem by the people of that section and his many acquaintances throughout the county.
M. P. BEEBE.
M. P. Beebe was born in Pottersville, New York, and came to Wausau when it was in its infancy, in 1852; was a millwright by trade and was busy as such in the mills in and around Wausau, and in 1862 took up his residence
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and charge of the Pine River mill under his brother-in-law, Edw. Armstrong. The mill passed into the possession of John L. Davies in 1868, but Mr. Beebe was retained as general manager of the sawing and logging depart- ment until 1877, when he returned to Wausau and engaged in the lumber business on his own account. He associated himself with J. E. Leahy and they built the saw mill now known as the Mortinson and Stone mill. Mr. Beebe withdrew from the concern in 1890, and took a homestead near Minoc- qua, on the so-called "Water Reserve Lands," Vilas county, where he kept a summer resort on Tomahawk lake, well patronized by Wausau people. He sold his resort in the year 1900, and returned to Wausau, where he died Octo- ber 27th, 1901.
M. P. Beebe had many noble qualities of mind and heart ; he was confiding and trustworthy, but suffered losses by relying on representations of men who betrayed his confidence. With his employees he was always on the best of terms and deservedly popular with all classes of people. He left only a moderate competency for his wife, who did not long survive him, and one child, a son. now in business in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
THOMAS O'CONNOR
has been mentioned as the pioneer settler of the town of Mosinee, or rather the Irish settlement. He was born in Kings county, Ireland, on December 21, 1815. He emigrated to the United States in 1846 and settled in Pennsyl- vania, where he worked in the rolling mills for several years; then went to Michigan, continuing in the same occupation. In 1856 he came to Wau- watosa, now Milwaukee, working in the same occupation, but seeing no future for him and for his family in that employment, he concluded to take up farming. From his meager earnings in the rolling mills he had saved up a little money, which he invested in one hundred and twenty acres of land in Marathon county. It has already been told how he cut out a road to his land for nine miles from Mosinee, Little Bull at that time. For many years he lived alone in the wilderness with his family, until some settlers arrived in the neighborhood. He had his full share of privations and hard luck as, for instance : In the winter from 1870 to 1871 there was an unusual fall of snow, even for this part of the state ; it lay from four to five feet high in the woods, and logging had to stop when the last storm came, about the middle of March. Mr. O'Connor was then still living in the log house, 16 by 24 feet in extent, with his wife and nine children, when six of them were taken down with scarlet fever at the same time; and the nearest neighbor, Joseph Free-
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men, full one mile off. He had Dr. Root from Stevens Point to attend to his sick children, who came once or twice a week on horseback to see them. It was a trip of thirty-five miles to make for the doctor, and there was little or no communication with neighbors. All the children recovered fully, with no trace of sickness afterwards. The good constitution of their parents and good nursing and care evidently more than medicine brought them through. It is another instance that the pioneers were a strong and healthy race, or they and their children could not have survived the hardships incident to pioneer life. Mr. O'Connor was a splendid specimen of manhood; he was a little over six feet tall, strongly knit and muscular. He took to farming as if he had done nothing else in his life, and his farm soon became the model farm in the settlement. He was seventy-five years of age when nomi- nated to the assembly, but hale and hearty, and canvassed his district actively like a young man. He was known by every man, woman and child in the Irish settlement, and loved and respected by all. He died December 15, 1901, surviving his wife by about one year, and left five children to mourn his death : Maria Freeman, Edw. O'Connor. Frank O'Connor, Christopher O'Connor and Thomas O'Connor. The last one mentioned died January 25. 19II.
A. B. BARNEY.
A. B. Barney was born at Mayville, Dodge county, Wisconsin, June 2, 1835; attended the public school of his native town, one term at the White- water Normal School, and for a short time the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, then studied law in the office of A. K. Delaney in Mayville ; was admitted to the bar in 1878 and removed to Spencer, Marathon county, after his admission, where he practiced his profession and dealt some in real estate. He had natural ability, but found no opportunity in the little village to make a mark in his profession, his law business being confined nearly entirely to justice court practice. He died in 1910, having been at different times in the last years of his life an inmate of the state hospital at Winnebago, Wisconsin. He left no family.
ROBERT PLISCH.
Robert Plisch was born in Silesia, Austria, April 7, 1845. His father emigrated to the United States in 1856, coming directly to Marathon county, where he settled in the town of Berlin, and where the family has ever since resided. Robert Plisch had attended school diligently in the old country and
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eagerly availed himself of every oportunity which the early schools of the town of Berlin offered. Before he was twenty-one he passed a teacher's examination and taught school in the winter months, working on his father's farm in the summer, but attending lectures and reading books to cultivate his mind. When he took his father's farm over about 1880, he dropped teaching and devoted himself wholly to agriculture and working the fine 160-acre farm in the town of Berlin. He has a good herd of milk cows and was one of the first farmers who saw that the dairy business was best adapted to Mar- athon county. For eight years he was chairman of the town board of the town of Berlin, and also a member of the executive board of the Marathon County Agricultural Society. He was instrumental in having a cheese fac- tory located on one acre of his farm, which does excellent and profitable business-profitable to the factory as well as the farms in the neighborhood. Being a pioneer settler, he saw the county emerge out of the wilderness to its present fine agricultural condition, and is familiar with the needs of the county as well as the towns. He married Miss Augusta Mathwig. and twelve children are living to bless their union.
GEORGE WERHEIM.
George Werheim in another of the sturdy race of the pioneers of Mara- thon county. He was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, January 6, 1834, and re- ceived his education in the common schools of that little country, which had probably the best school system at that time in all Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1852, worked in New York and Chicago, and came to Wausau in 1855, a carpenter and joiner by trade. The early frame build- ings were all joined-timber frame and only boards were nailed. The join- ing together of the frames was a job which required great accuracy, and it was George Werheim's reputation this his frames always fitted. Many of the old houses and buildings are his work. In 1872 he associated himself with F. W. Kickbusch, under the firm name of Werheim & Kickbusch, and they built the first sash, door and blind factory in Wausau, a little north of where now stands the Northern Milling Company. The partnership continued successfully until 1880, when it was dissolved by agreement, Mr. Kickbusch carrying on the business alone, and Mr. Werheim building another similar factory on Third street. Later on he organized the Werheim Manufacturing Company, under which name the business was carried on until 1911, when George WVerheim sold his interest therein and the business is now carried on under firm name of J. M. Kuebler Company. Mr. Werheim held many
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offices in Wausau and acquitted himself honorably of the trust confided in him. He was city treasurer four terms, village trustee, alderman, under sheriff, and three times the candidate of the Republican party for the assem- bly and twice elected. He enjoyed the confidence of the Wausau people to a high degree ; he had no superior in his profession as builder ; personally, his joviality, coupled with his personal honesty, made him a favorite in Wausan. When the drift was strongly with the Democratic party in 1884, he was nom- inated by the Republicans for member of assembly, and defeated after making a very creditable canvass, running three hundred votes ahead of the presiden- tial ticket. He was elected to the assembly as a Republican in 1895 and 1899.
HENRY M. THOMPSON.
Henry M. Thompson was born in Dover, Maine, December 20, 1861; was educated in Milwaukee public schools and Milnor Hall, Gambia, Ohio. He came to Wisconsin in 1868; resided in Milwaukee until 1888, and was a clerk in the Wisconsin Marine & Fire Insurance Company Bank from 1882 to 1888. On March 1, 1888, he was married to Stella Dessert, and then took up his residence at Mosinee, and with Louis Dessert, a nephew of Joseph Dessert, attended to the large lumber interest of the Dessert Lumber Com- pany, in which he took a share. He was elected supervisor of the village of Mosinee in the years from 1891 to 1897, and was elected a member of assen :- bly as a Republican by a slight majority over his Democratic opponent.
Henry M. Thompson belongs to the younger generation, which made its influence felt in Marathon county. His stay in Marathon county was of short duration. When the timber owned by the Dessert Lumber Company was all cut in 1902, the mill ceased operations, was dismantled, and Mr. Thompson removed to Milwaukee.
M. H. BARNUM.
M. H. Barnum led a long and varied life. He was a native of Syracuse, New York, born March 14, 1834. After spending a little over a year in Rosendale, Fond du Lac county, Wisconsin, he came to Wausau in 1857, and for a while managed a mill boarding house. He conducted religious services in the Methodist church; was admitted to practice law, and for a little over a decade practiced this, his profession, at the same time running the river, and at least on one occasion piloted out a fleet. He at one time had a furniture store and shop on Mcclellan street. He left Wausau to look up another location, but returned after a short absence and edited the II'is-
14
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consin River Pilot for two years; then, in 1877, founded a paper of his own, The Torch of Liberty, of which he was the editor and manager until he sold it in 1894. It was first advocating the principles of the Greenback party, but after a few years became a stalwart Republican newspaper. He enlisted in the Civil war from 1861 to December 2, 1862, serving in the Potomac . Army; participated in the siege of Yorktown, the battle of Williamsburg, and the seven days' fighting before Richmond. About 1897 he took up a homestead in Vilas county and opened a summer resort on Lake Shishebo- gama, a short distance west from Minocqua. M. H. Barnum was a fluent speaker and his knowledge of the ways, feelings and manners of the pinery boys made him a valuable adjunct in the political battles in the ninth and later the tenth congressional district. He was married in New York Decem- ber 6, 1854, to Phoeba T. Reynolds, who with their six children, Charles, Ada Gearhard, May Barry, William, Mark H., and Bessie, survive him. He died at Wausau July 31, 1904.
GILBERT E. VANDERCOOK.
Gilbert E. Vandercook was born at Newberg, Washington county, Wis- consin, and after receiving a common school education, entered the county printing office and served an apprenticeship. He edited several papers in northern Wisconsin, one of which was the Spencer Tribune, in Spencer, in Marathon county; was appointed chief clerk in the state department at Madi- son in 1895, and afterwards assistant secretary of state. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1896. He had severed his con- nection with the Spencer Tribune when he went to Madison, but still claimed a residence there, it was said for political purposes. Certain it is, that after his election as member of assembly he never returned to Spencer to reside there, which gives color to the charge that his claim of residence was a ficti- tious one. He was employed in the Milwaukee Sentinel after the assembly adjourned and reported for Chicago papers at the same time, and held high rank as a newspaper writer.
ALFRED COOK.
Alfred Cook was born in Lloyd Town, Canada, West, October 4, 1850; came to Wisconsin with his parents in 1854, settling on a farm in Calumet county, where he attended high school in Fond du Lac. He came to Mara- thon county, bought land and cleared a farm, giving some attention to lumber business while the timber on that part of the county traversed by the Wis-
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consin Central Railroad lasted. He is still farming, devoting himself to stock raising. He has been postmaster in the village of Unity, chairman of the town board of the town of Brighton, and also supervisor of the village of Unity, which municipalities he represented in the county board of Mara- thon county. He is one of the pioneer settlers of the western part of the county, coming to Unity as the right of way was being cut out, and when only one little shanty stood at the site of Unity, which had been built only a few weeks before to give shelter to the workmen on the railroad. He was a Republican, but claiming to be an independent and acting independently, he was nominated by the Democrats and elected over his Republican opponent, G. E. Vandercook, whose claim of residence in the county was looked upon as a spurious one and only made for political purposes.
HERMAN MILLER.
Herman Miller must be classed among the pioneers of Marathon county. He was born in Pommerania. Prussia; received a high school education, and emigrated to the United States in 1856, coming to Marathon county in the fall of the same year, where he served as clerk in the little country store of Charles Mante, opened a short time before, which was situated about one mile west from the Armstrong farm, in the present town of Main. This store has already been mentioned as being opened when the first farmer settlers came to the county, and that after a few years it had to close for want of business.
Herman Miller then came to Wausau, where he worked as occasion offered, either as a clerk or in a mill. He made shingles, bought them and sold them down on the Mississippi. When the town of Wausau was estab- lished with the village included, he was elected the first town clerk of the town, the polling place at that time being "Poor's House," on the west side of the river. He was elected register of deeds in 1865, and reelected in 1867 and 1869; was chairman of the county board in 1876 and held many other minor offices, such as member of the village board, supervisor, which last place he held for more than ten years in succession. He also kept a general store, and dealt in lumber during the years from 1867 to 1880. He was appointed assistant supervisor of the census for the eighth congressional dis- trict of Wisconsin in 1900. In the decade from 1890 to 1900 he erected the spacious Delmonico Hotel and conducted it for a few years, but the times were not propitious and he sold it at a great sacrifice. He has since been elected three times in succession for assessor for the city of Wausau and
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twice for member of assembly. Herman Miller was an enterprising, hard working man; personally honest, he met with many misfortunes in business, but he was honored for his grit and perseverance, with which he overcame adversities which would have discouraged almost any other man. Like most pioneers, it was not his good fortune to acquire wealth, but he did his share in upbuilding the country.
WILLIS F. LA DU.
Willis F. La Du was born in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, on July 2, 1856, and belongs to the second generation of Marathon county. He came with his parents to Marathon county in 1866; they settled in Mosinee in that year and have ever since resided there. His father, Edward La Du, wrote a history of the village of Mosinee, which materially assisted this writer in citing old history. Willis F. La Du received the common school education at that place, but broadened his mind by reading and studying books after school years. He engaged in mercantile business in Mosinee in 1880, which he still conducts in a flourishing state. For some time, from 1888 to 1900, he engaged also in logging and lumbering. He took much interest in bring- ing the comforts of city life to his native village, and was elected vice presi- dent of the Marathon County Telephone Company; he was chairman of the town of Bergen for 1888-89-90; also president of the village of Mosinee in 1900, and postmaster from 1904 to 1908. Mr. La Du has been a consistent Democrat through all the years since he became of voting age, and it was only his hard work and personal popularity, based upon his good work done as an officer in his village and in the county board, and his personal worth as a citizen, which gave him his majority for member of assembly when he was elected. He held many other minor offices and was a delegate to every Dem- ocratic county or state convention since 1886.
FRED PREHN.
Fred Prehn was born in the city of Manitowac, Wisconsin, on the 5th day of May, 1860, and brought up on a farm, and after graduating from the common school, attended high school in the city of Manitowoc; he then learned the trade of harnessmaker and saddler and after coming to Marathon county in 1881, established a harnessmaker shop in Marathon City, to which after a few years he added a hardware and furniture store. He was appointed postmaster under the Harrison administration in 1889 and held the office until 1893. He was village president for three years; for two years a mem-
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ber of the county board, and for three years a member of the village school board. His large store building caught fire in 1905, and building, together with contents of hardware and furniture, was a complete loss, with only an insurance of $5,000, which did not cover one-fourth of the loss. But Mr. Prehn was undaunted by his hard luck, and carried on his business with his son in another store at Marathon City. He also owns a farm of two hundred and forty acres in Jackson county, Wisconsin; stands well as a business man and citizen and is working hard to recoup his loss. His first wife died, leaving him two children, and he has five children by his second wife, a Miss Erdmann, of Settin, Marathon county, and also an adopted child.
NICOLAS SCHMIDT.
Nicholas Schmidt was born in Germany on the 8th day of November, 1860, where he received the common school education for which that country is noted. While learning the trade of a machinist he attended an evening school to make up for his deficiency of a high school education. He traveled extensively in Europe, working at his trade before he emigrated to the United States in 1880, settling first at Chicago, where he worked five years at his trade, and again attended evening school to acquire the English lan- guage. An injury received in the line of duty in his profession forced him to seek other employment, and for the next six years he was busy in the flour, feed, coal and wood business, dealing also some in real estate. He bought the Marathon City Brewery, reorganized it as a corporation and was made its president. He took up his residence in Marathon City soon afterwards and managed the business himself. He served the village as member of the board of trustees for five years, is president of the State Bank of Marathon City, and has been elected three times as member of assembly in succession from the first district. His strict attention to his legislative duties, his per- sonal courtesy and gentlemanly bearing, his sense of fairness and justice endeared him to his party friends and gave him a large circle of acquainances throughout the state, which resulted in his nomination for the office of state treasurer on the Democratic ticket in 1912.
AUGUST F. MARQUARDT.
August F. Marquardt was born at Bandekow, Pommern, Germany, Jan- uary 8th, 1850, and came to the United States in 1866, settling at Wausau on the Ist day of July. For many years he was engaged in logging, lumbering
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and teaming, in mercantile operations and contracting. He owns now a fine farm in the northwestern part of the city of Wausau. He is a director of the Citizens State Bank of Wausau; has represented the ninth ward in the city council for eighteen years; was president of the common council from 1900- 1901; was a member of the county board for sixteen years; president of the Marathon County Agricultural Society for two years, and vice president of the State Agricultural Society in 1899: was elected by the common council as member of the board of water commission May I, 1905, for a term of three years; was appointed as a member of the park board of Wausau for a term of five years; was elected sheriff of Marathon county in the fall of 1900; and was elected as member of assembly in 1904-1906 and 1908, and was appointed by the governor as member of the national river and harbor convention sitting at Washington, District of Columbia, in 1912. From the time of his appearance at Wausau up to the present time, he was hard work- ing and an industrious man, shrinking from no hardship in the way of honest labor. He settled upon his farm in 1876 and has continually resided thereon, and with the sole exception of two years while attending to the duties of sher- iff, has cultivated it himself, bringing up the land to a high degree of cultiva- tion. He has behind himself a life of honest toil and activity such as few people can boast of, and he can now enjoy in contentment the fruit of his labor of former years.
ARTHUR J. PLOWMAN.
Arthur J. Plowman was born in Waupacca county October 28, 1872; reared on a farm and is a graduate of the high school of the city of Wau- pacca. He came to the town of Eldron, Marathon county, in 1897, and has since resided there, farming, cattle raising and logging. He has been very active in promoting the rise of that section of the country from a pinery slashing to a flourishing farmer settlement. His work in that respect is highly appreciated by the people of that community, as is shown by his elec- tion for thirteen consecutive years as school district clerk, and four years chairman of the town. He owns a herd of as fine Guernsey cows as any in the state, and is treasurer of the Marathon County Breeders Association. He is president of the Eland State Bank, president of the Eldron Light & Power Company, president and treasurer of the Eldron Telephone Company, and treasurer of the Eldron Cooperative Creamery Company. He was chairman of the county board in 1910. His general information as to the needs of the newly settled parts of the state, and his sound views on state affairs gave
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