Obit: Trunkel, Anton (1884 - 1969)

Contact: Mary
Email: mafu51wi@yahoo.com

Surnames: Trunkel, Mertens, Stalzer, Snedic

----Sources: Marshfield News Herald (Marshfield, Wood Co., Wis.) August 1969

Trunkel, Anton (May 20,1884 - August 25, 1969)

GREENWOOD - Anton Trunkel, 85, Greenwood, died of an apparent heart attack at 1 p.m. Monday at the Memorial Hospital at Neillsville, where he was admitted Aug. 23.

Services will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Hill Funeral Home and at 10 a.m. at the Holy Family Catholic Church at Willard. The Rev. Michael Mertens will officiate and burial will be made in the parish cemetery.

Friends may call at the Hill Funeral Home beginning Wednesday afternoon. The general rosary service will be held there at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Mrs. Trunkel was born May 20, 1884, in Yugoslavia and came to the United States in 1906, spending a year in Illinois and Minnesota before coming to Willard in 1907.

His marriage to Anna Stalzer took place in Joliet, Ill., in 1906. The couple operated a farm at Willard until 1944 when they retired and moved to Greenwood. Mr. Trunkel served as supervisor for the town of Hendren for many years and was a member of the Holy Family Catholic Church.

Survivors include his wife, a daughter, Mrs. John (Ann) Snedic, Greenwood; three sons, Tony, John F., and Edward Trunkel, all of Willard; 15 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and a brother, John Trunkel, Greenwood.

He was preceded in death by a daughter and a sister.

----Sources: Greenwood Public Library, published biographies, original copy provided by Jean Rolstad

The Trunkel Farm

In 1900, Anton and Anna Trunkel purchased 40 acres of wooded land from Ignac Cesnik, the land agent, and moved to Willard. Only a railroad ran through the place. A road from Greenwood reached only as far as the Frank Abel (Albert Zorman) farm. Mr. Trunkel built a small log house, and in the fall, their daughter, Ann (Snedic) was born. She was the first child of Slovenian descent to be born in Willard and the Trunkels were the first Slovenian farmers in the community.
In 1910, he built a log barn and bought his first cow. In 1911, he bought a second 40 acres of land, and in 1913 built 80 rods of road to Willard with a shovel and grub hoe. They lived in this log house 8 years, and in 1914, built the present structure. In 1917, he built the barn which still stands, and in 1918 built the wood stave silo and added 20 more acres of land. One of the first tractors in the community was bought by Mr. Trunkel in 1919, and in 1925, he purchased his first automobile. By 1945, he had 180 acres of land, and sold his farm to his son, John F. and his wife Sophie.

The Trunkel family consists of Mr. and Mrs. John F., John W., Sgt. Robert (Alaska), Judy (Wessel), Jacob, Kathleen, and. Daniel.

The Anton Trunkel family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Anton, Ann, Tony, John F. and Edward.