Bio: Thielman, Julius (Commemorative Bio - 1895)

Poster: Crystal Wendt

Julius Thielman

Julius Thielman Among well to do citizens of Merrill, Lincoln County, not the least worthy of special mention in the pages of this volume is the gentleman whose name here appears, who is a thoroughly representatives, progressive German-American.

He is a native of Wisconsin, born in Watertown, Jefferson County, September 20, 1860, a son of Gottfried and Julia (Bram) Thielman, natives of Prussia, Germany, where the father as born, in 1829, and where they were married. They came to the United States in 1852, making their home in Watertown, Wis., where the father followed the business of contractor and builder, for many years also being employed on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad. In 1888 he came to Merrill, Lincoln County, where he and his wife are at present residing. To them were born eleven children, named respectively: Alvina, Louisa, Julius, Emil, Albert, Robert, Helen, Louis, Theodore, Amanda, and Mollie. Julius, the subject proper of this article, received his education at the commons schools of Watertown, Wis., and at the age of fourteen commenced to learn the trade of butcher. When eighteen years old, in 1878, he started in the same line of business for himself at Grand Rapids, Wis., which he continued until the spring of 1881, when he sold out there, and, coming to Merrill, opened out a first class butchering establishment, the business of which has since so increased that now he has two leading markets in that city, besides one if the city of Tomahawk, in the same county; these are, it is unnecessary to say, retail establishments, and in addition he does a lucrative wholesale business.

On April 20, 1879, at Grand Rapids, Wis., Mr. Thielman was married to Miss Minnie Plahmer, a native of Germany, whose parents, John and Carolina (Knutt) Plahmer, came with their nine children to America in 1870, settling at Grand Rapids, Wis., where the father followed farming pursuits. He is now living in the town of Grant, near Grand Rapids. To Mr. and Mrs. Thielman have been born three children: Amanda, Lillian and William. In politics out subject is a strong Democrat, active at all times in the workings of the party, and for three years he was chairman of the Democratic County Central Committee; was mayor of Merrill, an office in which he gives unbounded satisfaction, and each and every one of these incumbencies he has filled with scrupulous integrity. For six years he was secretary of the Central manufacturing Co., which establishment burned in May, 1894, and he is a director of the First National Bank of Merrill. In religious faith he and his wife are member of the Lutheran Church.

Mr. Thielman is a typical self-made man, one whose only capital, when at the age of fourteen, he vaulted into the arena of business life, was naught save a level head, a stout heart and a willing pair of hands, and bearing for his motto the words: “Fortuna favet fortibus?” he is now one of the leading business men of Merrill, is a power in his party, and a leader in the development of all enterprise tending to the growth and prosperity of the city of his adoption-a typical Western Man. Without ostentation, either in their manner or style of life, he and his amiable life partner always maintain a high social position, and are at all times in the enjoyment of the highest esteem and regard of the community in which they live.

---Source: Commemorative Biographical Record of the Upper Wisconsin Counties of Waupaca, Portage, Wood, Marathon, Lincoln, Oneida, Vilas, Langlade and Shawano. publ. 1895 by J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago 1110 pages, illustrated; Page 118-119