Bio: Kneer, Matthias (1881)

Contact: Crystal Wendt

----Surnames: Kneer, Betz, Hoeffner

----History of Northern Wisconsin (Eau Claire County, Wis.) 1881, page 325

MATTHIAS KNEER, Eau Claire, was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, March 4, 1831, and came to America in 1852, residing in New Jersey till 1855, when he came to Watertown. In April, 1856, he visited Eau Claire, but returned to Watertown, and Sept. 15, 1857, located in town of Brunswick, Eau Claire Co., where he engaged in farming until the Fall of 1828, when he removed to Eau Claire and was employed at general work. In 1863, he opened a saloon, and soon began taking boarders. In 1867, he opened a hotel, called the Chippewa House, and in 1873 changed the name to the Kneer House. He now carries on his hotel and a grocery and liquor business, and owns a farm in the town of Seymour, which he employs men to work. Mr. Kneer was Supervisor and Village Trustee for two years. He was married in Philadelphia, April 29, 1855, to Barbara Betz, who was also born in Wurtemburg. She died in December, 1864. They had four children — Louisa, Julia, Annie and Frank. He was married to his present wife, Louisa Hoeffner, in Watertown, March 8, 1865. She is a native of Prussia. Four children have been born of this marriage — Emma, Dora, Herman and Ernest. Mr. Kneer is a member of the I. O. O. F., and of the Grange.