USA > Wisconsin > Marathon County > History of Marathon County, Wisconsin and representative citizens > Part 71
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ELMER D. WIDMER, proprietor of the Wausau Business College at Wausau, Wis., which, through a steady and healthy growth is devel- oping into a potent educational enterprise of this section, was born at Rockton, Vernon county, Wis., March 5, 1879, and is a son of Arnold and Viola (Kellicutt) Widmer. Arnold Widmer was born at Richterswil, Switzerland, and lived in Switzerland, France and Germany until he was nineteen years of age, when he came to the United States. His parents, who were Arnold W. and Barbara (Backmann) Widmer, spent their
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lives at Richterswil, in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. After com- ing to Wisconsin, Arnold Widmer was married to Miss Viola Kellicutt, a daughter of David and Judith (Kelly) Kellicutt, who lived in Monroe county, Wis.
Elmer D. Widmer attended the state graded school at Rockton and secured a teacher's certificate and taught school for four years. In 1900 he became a student in the Normal School at Stevens Point, where he profitably spent four years. On March 1, 1906, as half owner, he embarked in his present enterprise, one that has met with a hearty re- ception and of which he became full owner on November 10, 1906, pur- chasing the building on May 23, 1911. This he has entirely remodeled and in its present condition, equipments and opportunities, it is a credit to the city. Mr. Widmer belongs to that class of earnest citizens who love their country and intend to closely watch the future in political trend, being no longer complacent to see either easily swayed holders of power, or untried politicians the guiding forces of the government. Formerly Mr. Widmer was a republican. He belongs to the Wausau Lodge, F. & A. M., of which he is junior warden, and belongs also to the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Widmer is unmarried.
ALBERT M. PETERSEN, funeral director at Wausau, with estab- lisliment at No. 307 Jefferson street, has been in business here for him- self since 1910, but during the greater part of his life has been identified with well known concerns of this city. He was born near the city of Thorondjem, Norway, June 22, 1879, and is a son of Andrew A. and Martha Petersen. The parents of Mr. Petersen came to Marathon county in the spring of 1881 and settled on a farm in the town of Stet- tin, which the father purchased and improved and the family lived there until 1890, when removal was made to Wausau. The father continued to be interested in farming and was a lumber scaler and dealer. He was accidentally killed in August, 1911, when his age was fifty-nine years. The mother survives and lives in the old home. They had four children, three sons and one daughter: Edward, who is a resident of British Columbia ; Lewis, who is employed at Wausau; Alma, who lives with her mother; and Albert M.
Albert M. Petersen attended the public schools and then became a clerk in a general store at Wausau, where he remained ten years and after that went into the furniture business with the John Kiefer Furniture Company. He owned an interest in the Esch Furniture Company, which
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became in 1901 the Littlejohn Esch Company, which plant was de- stroyed by fire in January, 1905, and at this time Mr. Petersen and Mr. Esch bought out that company's interests and erected a new building. The Wausau Furniture and Undertaking Company then bought out the Esch interest and eighteen months later the concern became the Kiefer Furniture and Undertaking Company, of which Mr. Petersen was man- ager until 1910, when he went into business for himself, having prepared for the same by taking a course in the Chicago Embalming School in 1901.
In June, 1903, Mr. Petersen was married to Miss Helen Hedstrom, a daughter of Nels Hedstrom, of Wausau, and they have one son, Melvin Sylvester, who attends the public schools. Mr. Petersen and family attend the First Methodist Episcopal church at Wausau. He takes no very active part in politics but his father was a republican. Mr. Peter- sen is a Chapter Mason and belongs also to the Knights of Pythias.
JOSEPH LAMER, who is one of the, leading agriculturists of the town of Holton, where his well improved farm of 120 acres is situated, was born in Bohemia, Austria, December 16, 1862, and is a son of Frank and Anna (Pfohl) Lamer.
Joseph Lamer grew to the age of nineteen years in Austria and Germany and then determined to seek his fortune in America as other of his countrymen had done. He was not very well equipped for such an undertaking and this he fully realized before he reached Marathon county, Wis., his objective point, and if he had possessed sufficient capital to enable him to do so, he no doubt would have purchased a return ticket to his old home. Thus he probably would never have developed the energy and enterprise which were natural to his nature and Mara- thon county would never have profited as it has done through his in- fluence and example of sturdy citizenship. He was, however, then just a homesick boy, with a sole capital of thirty dollars. His first resolve was to secure a month's work and when paid off to buy that coveted ticket for home and the old familiar surroundings, grown dear through the haze of absence. After one month of labor he decided that he could endure a little longer stay in Wisconsin and by the time that period of activity was over he had made friends and had commenced to like the country and concluded to keep to his original intention and make Mara- thon county his home. Although he anticipated hard work as a farmer he found it very laborious during his first three years, and then gave
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it up for three years during which time he worked in the iron mines of Northern Michigan. Then he returned to farming and through per- severance and very hard work developed what is acknowledged to be one of the finest farms in this part of the county. Practically it is all improved and here he carries on general farming and dairying. Mr. Lamer may feel justified in taking pride in his success as he has won it through his unassisted efforts and today is one of the representative men of Marathon county, possessing the esteem and confidence of all who know him.
Mr. Lamer was married to Miss Emma Denzine and they have five chil- dren : Elzie, Anna, Rosa, Joseph and Herman. At times Mr. Lamer has accepted public offices in his town and has served on the town board and as school director. At the time of the great Lewis and Clark Ex- position held at Portland, Ore., Mr. Lamer attended and while there enjoyed a visit with a brother and before his return to Wisconsin trav- eled all through the Pacific Northwest but came back well satisfied with Marathon county.
EMILE BERNARD QUADE. M. D., physician and surgeon, who has been in the active practice of his profession at Wausau for the past twelve years, was born in this city, October II, 1877, and is a son of Julius and Amelia ( Melange) Quade. The parents of Dr. Quade were born in Germany and came from there some forty years ago, locating first at Milwaukee, Wis., and coming from there to Wausau, when this city of wealth and culture was only a lumbering village on the border of a forest. Julius Quade was a wagonmaker and blacksmith and found plenty of work awaiting his skill for the place developed rapidly and its growth was substantial. Mr. and Mrs. Quade still reside at Wausau, the father having lived retired for the past twelve years. Their family contained four sons and one daughter: Martha, who is the wife of Gustav Scheide, of Wausau; Julius, who is a farmer in the town of Castle : Emile B .: Paul, who is scaler for the Mellin Lumber Company of Mellin, Wis .; and Bernard, who is engaged in the shoe business at Wausau.
Emile B. Quade attended the public schools at Wausau, the Wau- sau Business College and the Chicago Athenaeum for two years, study- ing stenography in the latter institution, and then became stenographer and bookkeeper for the F. N. Pease Coal Company of Chicago, subse- quently beginning his medical studies. He entered the Bennett Medical
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College and was graduated in the class of 1901, after which he practiced for two years in a private sanitarium in Chicago, and remained there one year following his graduation. For one year before coming to his na- tive city, April 28, 1903, he practiced at Ravenswood, Chicago. He is a member of the Marathon county and the Wisconsin state medical so- cities and the Wisconsin State Eclectic Medical Society and for the past two years has been corresponding secretary in the last named organiza- tion. Dr. Quade is the only native born practicing physician at Wausau, his birth having taken place at No. 503 Washington street. His present residence is No. 202 Clark street, while he maintains his office over the Citizens State Bank.
On May 24, 1902, Dr. Quade was married to Miss Magdalena Berner, of Chicago, a daughter of C. L. Berner, now of Topeka, Kans., and they have two children: Pearl, born March 3, 1903, and Madelon, born November 29, 1910. Dr. Quade commands an extensive practice.
BENJAMIN F. HAMMOND, one of the well known lumber op- erators of Marathon county, who came to Wausau in 1875 and has re- sided in this neighborhood ever since, has been associated with the Yaw- key-Bissell Lumber Company at Arbor Vita, since June 8, 1893. He was born at Adams, in Jefferson county, N. Y., November 17, 1853, and is a son of William and Julia (Sullivan) Hammond, who moved to Mani- towoc, Wis., in 1861.
Benjamin F. Hammond is largely a self-made man. He attended the public schools until sixteen years of age and then went to work in a saw mill far up the Manitowoc river. He came first to Wausau in 1875 but continued to work at different points, doing his last sawing at N. J. White's saw mill north of Colby, in Marathon county, in 1879, but from then until the present, his main interests have always been in connection with the timber and lumber business. He came to this section when the state was all covered with timber except right along the banks of the Wisconsin river, where it had been cut, and he worked at driving logs down the Wisconsin and its tributaries for a number of years. The Arbor Vita plant with which he has been connected for the past twenty years is one of the largest in the Wisconsin Valley and has an annual output of from forty to sixty million feet. In addition to his interests here, Mr. Hammond has a considerable amount of property to oversee including real estate at Wausau and a farm of 280 acres on East Hill, one mile from Wausau.
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In 1875 Mr. Hammond was married to Miss Lucy Bennett, who was born at Claybank, on the west shore of Lake Michigan, and died at Merrill in 1883, survived by three children: Susan May, wife of Charles Ray, of Marinette, Wis .; Maude, who lives with her father; and Ray Leroy, who is employed in a paper mill at Tama, Ia. In politics Mr. Hammond is a Republican. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and belongs also to the K. T. M. He has never desired political advance- ment but has always taken an interest in the larger questions of civic life.
CHARLES TESS, owner and proprietor of the Edgar Bottling Works, at Edgar, Wis., and village trustee since the spring of 1912, was born in Kewaunee county, Wis., September 1, 1879, and is a son of Christian and Rosa Tess. The father died in Kewaunee county at the age of sixty years but the mother still lives there. Of the eight children of the family three survive.
In 1904 Charles Tess came first to Marathon county as a logger and spent two winters in the woods, following which he came to Edgar and here bought the Edgar Bottling Works from Peter Pestien. He has a large territory, his patronage being widely extended, delivering some fif- teen miles in the rural regions and to all the small villages in this sec- tion. He gives employment to one man and keeps very busy himself, the product being all kinds of bottled soft drinks.
Mr. Tess married Miss Annie Mathieson, who was born in Mani- towoc county, Wis., and they have two children, Lester and Harvey. The family residence and also the place of business are on Redwood street. In politics he is an independent voter. Fraternally he is identi- fied with the T. I. C. and the Eagles.
A. J. LANG, who is serving in his third term as treasurer of his na- tive town of Cassel, Marathon county, Wis., was born June 6, 1875, one-half mile distant from his present farm of eighty acres, in section 21, and is a son of Erhard and Mary (Baumann) Lang. Erhard Lang was born at Pittsburgh, Pa., a son of George and Cora Lang, who came from Germany. Grandfather Lang followed the mason trade at Pitts- burgh for nine years and while living there five children were born: Erhard, Andrew, George, Joseph and Margaret. With wife and these children George Lang came to Wisconsin and after living for a few weeks at Marathon City settled on section 22 on land now included in
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FRED SCHUBRING, JR.
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the town of Cassel. It was an entirely wild region and he had to build a cabin and for a long time afterward unless some one of the family car- ried the flour from Mosinee on his back some days the family had to do without bread. He had two tracts of land, one of eighty acres and the other of thirty-five acres. Three children were born in Marathon county : Emil, Julia and Katie. Grandfather Lang died when aged sixty-nine years and the grandmother at the age of eighty-six years, and both were buried in St. Mary's cemetery. The youngest son, Emil, received the homestead.
Erhard Lang married Mary Baumann, who was of German parent- age but was born at Pittsburgh, and twelve children were born to them: A. J. ; Annie, wife of Anton Shilling. Jr. : Benedicta, wife of Jacob Knauf ; William and Conrad, both residing in the town of Cassel; Mary, wife of Frank Wathtl, of the town of Emmett; Edward, deceased; Carl; Leo, Henry and Helen; and a babe that died. Erhard Lang was a farmer and died on his farm in section 21, at the age of forty-seven years. He was a well known man and a leading Democrat of his town and served several years in the office of supervisor.
A. J. Lang was educated in the town schools and the parochial school at Marathon City and afterward learned the carpenter trade, also has engaged in farming and logging and has always led an active and busy life. After marriage in 1903, he settled on the present farm, having forty-five acres under the plough and about eight acres of his land he has cleared by himself. He carries on a general farming line and is pros- perous.
A. J. Lang married Miss Anna Fochs, a daughter of Mathias and Anna (Werner) Fochs, of the town of Cassel. Mr. and Mrs. Lang have seven children: Louis, Benjamin, Hilda, Anna, Agnes, Andrew and Adaline Mary. Mr. Lang and family belong to St. John's Catholic church of Edgar, Wis. In politics he is a Democrat and in addition to serving in his present office he has been supervisor of his town for some years.
FRED SCHUBRING, JR., who has been identified with the lumber industry almost his entire business life, is president of the F. Schubring Lumber Company, of Wausau, Wis., which was established in 1906. He was born March 17, 1868, in the town of Wausau, Marathon county, Wis .. and is a son of Fred and Amelia (Venteke) Schubring. The father came to Wisconsin from Germany in 1866 and was a farmer all his active life.
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Until he was twenty years of age the younger Fred Schubring remained with his father on the home farm and during these years had secured a pub- lic school education. He embarked first in the lumber business in the town of Hamburg, in 1897, where he operated a small saw mill for four years. After he sold that property he engaged with the B. Heinemann Lumber Company, which subsequently organized the Eau Claire Mill Company, with headquarters at Wausau, and of this Mr. Schubring became president; this company operated a mill in the town of Ackley, in Langlade county. After disposing of his interests there Mr. Schubring became connected with his present concern at Wausau, which was incorporated April 23, 1909, with a capital of $40,000, its officers being: Fred Schubring, president and treas- urer ; Mrs. Fred Schubring, vice president, and Carl Lotz, secretary. The business is one of large importance here and employment is afforded eighty men.
On October 25, 1894, Mr. Schubring was united in marriage with Miss Louise Bopf, and they have two children: Arthur and Elta. The family belongs to St. Paul's Evangelical church.
ALBERT THEODORE KOCH, M. D., physician and surgeon, who has been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession at Wau- sau for the past thirty-seven years, scarcely needs any introduction to the residents of Marathon county. He is also a veteran of the great Civil War, to which he dedicated two eventful years of his life, serving for the preservation of his adopted country, for Dr. Koch was born in Germany, May 9, 1839. His parents were Gotlieb and Regina Koch.
In 1856 the parents of Dr. Koch came to the United States and the father purchased a farm near Watertown, Wis. The youth was then sixteen years of age and his first duty was to assist his father in clearing and cultivating the homestead, in the meanwhile attending the local schools when possible. He was twenty years old when he went to Minnesota and there did some land speculating and also attended school in Field county and was a resident there when he enlisted for service in the Civil War, entering Co. C, 2nd Minn. Vol. Cav., contracting for three years. During the greater part of his time his regiment was made use of in fighting against the Indians in the Northwest, once getting as far south as Little Rock, Ark., but being recalled to suppress another uprising of the Indians and he received a wound in the leg on one oc- casion, at Wood Lake. He was honorably discharged on November 19, 1865, at Fort Ridgeley.
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After the termination of his military service, the young soldier spent almost one year with his parents at Watertown and then returned to Minnesota where he engaged in farming for a few years and then began the study of medicine and for two years had as his preceptor, Dr. E. Morehouse, of Owatonna, Minn., subsequently entering the Bennett Ec- lectic Medical School, where he was graduated in the spring of 1873, having also been a student at Rush Medical College, Chicago. Dr. Koch located for practice at St. Ansgar, la., where he continued for four years, when, through the efforts of August Kickbush and Jacob Paff, he was induced to come to Wausau and this city has been his home ever since. Dr. Koch is a member of the county and state medical organiza- tions and belongs to Custer Post No. 55, G. A. R. at Wausau. In his political life he has been in accord with the Republican party.
In 1860 Dr. Koch was married to Miss Martha A. Eastman, of Owa- tonna, Minn., a daughter of Hiram Eastman, a farmer in Steele county, and three children were born to them but early bereavement entered into the family circle. Helen, the eldest, lived only eleven years; and two sons both died from the effects of black measles, Eddie, at the age of eight years, and the other when but two and one-half years old. Dr. and Mrs. Koch are members of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church. He enjoys the distinction of being the oldest practicing physician at Wausau.
JOSEPH FRANKLIN SMITH, M. D., physician and surgeon, at- tached to St. Mary's Hospital, Wausau, with private office in the Wis- consin Valley Trust Building, came to this city in 1908 and is recognized as a very able member of his profession, commanding a fine practice and enjoying a large measure of esteem won by his personality. He was born at Huntington, Ind., and is a son of Aaron and Sarah (Caley) Smith.
Aaron Smith was born in Tuscarauwas county, O., but in boyhood was brought to Indiana, for a few years living in Wayne county but mainly in Huntington county, where he has been a general farmer and now lives practically retired. In the latter county he married Sarah Caley, a daughter of Samuel Caley, who was born in Pennsylvania and later moved to Wills county, Ind., and from there to Huntington county, where Mrs. Smith was born in 1845. They became the parents of four sons and three daughters : Joseph F. : Aaron Augustus, who is a farmer in Huntington county ; Arthur Delano, who is a teacher in North Da-
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kota ; John Samuel, who is a farmer in Huntington county; Edith, who remains with her parents; Effie, who is deceased; and Lola, who is the wife of Roscoe Griffin, of Huntington county, Ind.
Joseph Franklin Smith attended the public schools, the Methodist Episcopal. College at Fort Wayne . and later the Valparaiso Normal School, in the meanwhile occasionally teaching school and for one year was teacher of physics at the Valparaiso Normal School. He then en- tered Rush Medical College, where he was graduated in the class of 1900, for two years afterward serving as an interne in the Presbyterian Hospital, Chicago, and one year as resident surgeon, additionally en- joying the privilege of being assistant for one and one-half years to Dr. Arthur Dean Bevan, the distinguished professor of surgery of Rush Medical College. In 1906 Dr. Smith spent nine months in the University of Vienna and for two years after his return to America engaged in medical practice in Chicago, in the fall of 1908 coming from there to Wausau, where he devotes himself exclusively to surgery. He is a member of the Marathon County Medical Society, the Wisconsin State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Chicago Sur- gical Society and the Western Surgical Association.
In 1903 Dr. Smith was married to Miss Mary E. Smith, daughter of the late Dr. Theophilus and Harriet Smith, of. Wausau. Dr. and Mrs. Smith are members of St. John's Episcopal church. He is a Knight Templar Mason and belongs to the Wausau Club and to the Wausau Country Club.
FREDERICK BRADFISH, one of the well known men of the town of Rib Falls, who is well qualified to speak of the pioneer hardships that attended early settlement in Wisconsin, having lived here since he was eight years old, was born in Germany, December 27, 1844, and is a son of Frederick and Rosa Bradfish. His farm of 165 acres lies in sections 7 and 18, town of Rib Falls, and he resides in the former section, five miles north of Edgar, on the east side of the range line road.
The parents of Mr. Bradfish came to the United States with three children and as pioneers settled in Washington county, Wis., securing land which the father cleared and cultivated but subsequently sold. The mother died in Washington county, when aged forty-five years and her burial was at Trentontown, Wis. The father survived to the age of sixty-five years, dying at Lake Superior, and his burial was at Han- cock, Mich.
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Frederick Bradfish lived at home until he was twenty-four years of age, in the meanwhile having some educational opportunities in the town of Trenton. He went then to Lake Superior where he worked in the copper mines for three years and then became a quartz miner in Colorado. Deciding then to return to agricultural pursuits he came to the town of Rib Falls and here secured 1091/2 acres of heavily timbered land, through which he had to blaze his way in order to find his own cabin when he wandered away from it. All the clearing done on his land he has accomplished himself, one of the greatest of his early prob- lems being the making of roads, the most of them, to use a local term, having to be "underbrushed." For some time the only manner in which he could convey necessary provisions to his house was to carry them from Poniatowski. After he was well settled he returned to Washington county and there was married to Miss Helen Waldkircher, who was born at Newburg, Wis., April 7, 1861, and a daughter of Matthew and Appelonia (Gitzen) Waldkircher. The father of Mrs. Bradfish was born in Switzerland and the mother in Prussia and they were married in Washington county, Wis. Of their seven children, Mrs. Bradfish was the fourth in order of birth and she has one brother in Marathon county, Matthew, of the town of Halzen. The parents were early pioneers and when they passed through Milwaukee that city was but a village. Both died on their farm in Washington county, aged respectively sixty-five and sixty-four years, faithful members of the Catholic church.
Since marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bradfish have resided on the present farm and here their children have been born, seven in number as fol- lows: Josephine, an educated and talented lady, formerly a teacher in Marathon county but now filling a position as stenographer in Califor- nia ; Frederick, who assists in the management of the home farm, which includes the raising of dairy cattle; Rosellia, who also is a resident, with her sister, of. California, also is a stenographer and taught school for eight years in Marathon county; Annie, who has been a successful teacher in the county schools for six years ; Eleanor, who has been teach- ing at Hamburg, for the past six years ; Walter, who has been a teacher in the town of Rib Falls, for two years; and Laurence, who is yet a student. The family belongs to the Catholic church. A Democrat in politics, Mr. Bradfish recently resigned the office of chairman of the county board, in which he had served continuously for fourteen years.
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