Gustop August Beilke, 1863

1918 HISTORY OF CLARK CO., WI

GUSTOF AUGUST BEILKE, proprietor of a farm of seventy-two acres in Section 18, Lynn Township, was born in Germany Jan. 18, 1863, son of Charles and Johanna (Monsky) Beilke. He was one of a family of five children, the others being Charles, Anna, Ainina and Augusta. The parents passed their lives in their native land, the father dying when the subject of this sketch was 11 years old. The latter had little chance for schooling. He grew up as a farmer and at the age of 23 years set out for the United States. He had an uncle and two sisters already in Clark County, the uncle, August Croze, residing in Grant Township.

Mr. Belike left Germany July 4, 1886, and arrived in Clark County with 50 in cash. After working a month for John Reidel he went into the harvest fields, where he was employed for the rest of the season, the winter being spent in the lumber camps. He continued in these alternate occupations until he bought a place of fifty-two acres in Section 18, Lynn Township, making the purchase from his father-in-law, Gottlieb Hanke, whose daughter, Augusta, he had married. His residence was a log house containing two rooms and a buttery, and he also had a log barn. Later, he purchased eighty acres in Section 28, it consisting of wild land which he cleared in part, and which he sold in the winter of 1915-16. He also bought forty acres more in Lynn Township, which he later sold. He then bought eighty acres in Grant Township, which has since been taken by his son, Harry. Mr. Beilke also bought twenty acres adjoining the home place in Section 18, on the east, thus increasing the size of the farm to seventy-two acres. On this tract he has built a basement barn 36 by 62 feet in size, and a good residence of nine rooms. He raises a good grade of Holstein cattle, and as a farmer has been successful through enterprise and industry. He is a member of the Farmers Co-operative Elevator Company at Neillsville, and has always been interested in everything calculated to promote the moral or material benefit of the community in which he resides. A member of the German Lutheran Church, he has served as trustee of the same for the last fifteen Years. Mr. and Mrs. Beilke have two children-Harry, who married Elsie Schaler, and Theodore, who is residing on the home farm.