Bio: Craemer, John M. (1914)

Contact: Crystal Wendt

----Surnames: Craemer, Ney, Klaess, Schaaf, Zimmerman, Bergman, Morrow

----Source: History of Eau Claire County Wisconsin (1914) page 689

John M. Craemer, manager of the Milwaukee Elevator Company, of Eau Claire, was born in this city May 16, 1879, and is the son of Mathias and Anna (Ney) Craemer, both of whom were born in Oberleuken, Province Prussia, Germany.

His father came to America with his parents when six years of age, and when still a young man came to Eau Claire and for thirty-eight summers was pilot on the Chippewa river, thirty-five of which he was in the employ of the Empire Lumber Company, the other summers for other lumber companies. For many winters he drove ox teams in the woods for logging and lumber companies. He now lives retired at 740 Broadway, Eau Claire, Wis.

Of the six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Craemer, Mathias died when young; Mary married Peter L. Klaess, now deceased; Anna is a nun from the Notre Dame Convent and is teaching at Detroit, Mich.; John M., the subject of this sketch; Elizabeth married Mike J. Schaaf, grain buyer, at Truax, Wis., and Peter J., mail carrier of this city, married Helen Zimmerman, now deceased.

John Craemer, grandfather of John M., was born in Germany; he came to the United States in 1852 and spent most of his life farming in Dodge and Dunn counties, Wisconsin.

John M. Craemer was educated in the Sacred Heart Parochial School and graduated from Curtiss Commercial College at Minneapolis.

He engaged in the elevator business with C. H. Bergman and after a partnership of five years sold his interest to Mr. Bergman. He was employed one year as bookkeeper for the Milwaukee Elevator Company and in 1906 became local manager for this concern, a position he still holds.

In addition to his grain interests Mr. Craemer is stockholder and director of the C. W. Cheney Company, Eau Claire Concrete Company, and Eau Claire Vulcanizing Company. Mr. Craemer married in 1914 Catherine Morrow, daughter of Thomas Morrow, of Eau Claire. He is a member of St. Patrick's church and Knights of Columbus.

The Milwaukee Elevator Company, of which Mr. Craemer is local manager, deal in all kinds of grain, seeds, hay, straw, coal, land plaster, etc., and are agents in Eau Claire for Ceresota and Marvel flour, and in addition to the elevator in Eau Claire the company has an elevator at Truax, Wis.