Carl Schuelke, 1854

Posted4U@Charter.net on Thu, 15 Feb 2001

Surname: SCHUELKE, NESS, LAUTENBACH, MARTIN, KATH, SANSINGER

Source: 1918 History of Clark Co., WI, by Franklyn, Curtiss-Wedge

Mr. and Mrs. Carl Schuelke and their Residence

CARL SCHUELKE, until recently a well-known and prosperous farmer of Grant Township, and now living retired in Neillsville, where he located Oct. 1, 1917, was born in Germany, Mar. 3, 1854, son of Carl and Wilhelmina (Ness) Schuelke. Both parents were natives of Germany, the father being a carpenter by trade. The latter died in his native land when 75 years old; his wife died much earlier, at the age of 30, the subject of this sketch being then a boy of 11 years. There were five children in the family: Herman, Carl, Alvina, Ida and Ivlinnie, now Mrs. George. Martin, Hewett Township, Clark County. Ida, who also came to the United States, married Charles Lautenbach, but is now deceased. Carl Schuelke was the first of the family to come to this country, which he did in 1873, as a single man. He arrived in Chicago without resources but found employment in a lumber yard and resided in the city for one year.

He then came to Clark County, arriving here with a total capital of $3.50, which he loaned to a friend and never got it back. Going to work for Mr. Boardman of Neillsville, he handled lumber that summer and later worked in the harvest fields. He also did carpenter work or anything else he could get to do. In the fall of 1877 he bought forty acres of land in section 23, Grant Township, on which there were some improvements, including an old log house and barn, and he now settled on this land and began improving it. His marriage followed shortly after, on Mar. 29, 1878, when he took to wife, Matilda Lautenbach, who was born in Germany, July 20, 1858, daughter of August and Johanna (Kath) Lautenbach. She had come to the United States with her parents in 1866, there being three other children in the family: William and Julius, now living in Grant Township, and Otto who died at the age of 3 years. Afterwards two other children were born in the Lautenbach family: August, now of Granton, and Otto (second), who lives in Grant Township.

Mr. Lautenbach, who was a shepherd in Germany, located at Manitowoc, Wis., but after residing there four years, came to Clark County, and settled in section 23, Grant Township, where he and his family led the hard life of pioneers for a number of years, but finally developed a good farm. He died at the age of 85 and his wife at that of 76 years.

Mr. and Mrs. Schuelke began domestic life in the log house already mentioned and which contained but one room. He, himself, made the table from which they ate their daily meals. They had at first no team and but one cow and a few chickens. Mr. Schuelke grubbed in his first crop by hand and cradled his first grain. It was three years before he got a team of oxen, but he and his wife worked together in clearing the land and harvesting the crops. Often he walked to and from Neillsville, carrying home provisions. In the course of time he accumulated 440 acres of land and has become one of the substantial citizens of his township.

In 1896 he began the erection of his present brick residence, which contains nine rooms and the halls. He is a stockholder in the Farmers' Co-operative Elevator and Lumber Company of Neillsville, and in the First National, Bank of Neillsville. In 1902 he started a store in Granton and for a short time conducted a general mercantile business. He has held the office of township treasurer for a number of years, and has served as road commissioner and school director. He and his wife reared ten children: Amanda, who is unmarried; Henry, residing on the home farm; Anna, now Mrs. Fred Sansinger, of Waukesha; August, a railroad man; Laura, wife of Henry Paapa, of Milwaukee; Carl and William, who reside at Cobb, Wis.; Herman, of Waukesha; Alma, unmarried, and Alfred, residing at home. Two others, Almina and Bertha, are both deceased.