Bio: Loschky, John F. (1923)

Contact: Stan.

Surnames: Loschky, Jordan, Schmidt, Kauffman, Kegler, Bishop, Weber, Whittingham, Wilson, Bramm

----Source: History of Wood County, Wis. (1923) pages 552-553

John F. Loschky, an enterprising and successful merchant of Arpin was born in Union Township, Union County, Ohio, Nov. 9, 1878, son of Mathias and Barbara (Jordan) Loschky. The father was a native of Bavaria and the mother of Saxony, Germany. They were married in Germany and came to America about 1867, settling on the farm on which their son John was born, and which section Mathias Loschky had visited on a trip to this country five years before. They had six children, the eldest of whom, Lena, accompanied them to the United States. She is now Mrs. John Schmidt of Milford Center, Ohio. The next child, and only son, was John F., subject of this sketch; the other children bring: Margaret, now Mrs. Henry Kauffman of Milford Center, Ohio; Barbara, wife of Paul Kegler of Wis. Rapids; Elizabeth, wife of William Bishop of Milford Center, Ohio; and Anna, who is the wife of William Weber of Columbus, Ohio. John F. Loschky remained on the home farm until he was 21 years old and acquired his education in the district school. In 1899 he went to Athens, Marathon County, Wis., where he spent two years employed in sawmills. He then returned to Ohio and for the next two years worked on the home farm. In 1903 he returned to Athens, spent two years more there, working as a carpenter and in sawmills, after which he spent a few months in Milwaukee. Then for the third time he became a resident of Athens and was clerk for two years and a half in the Athens Farmers store. It was thus that he entered into the mercantile business and it was there that he learned it. On leaving that place he became manager of the Farmers store in Edgar, Marathon County. His next move was to start in business for himself and he chose Wausau, the county seat and a city of 18,000 inhabitants, as the scene of his operations. In 1912 he sold his business there, and in March that year came to Arpin, Wood County, where he bought the general mercantile business of Byron Whittingham which he has since operated. He has a well appointed store with an up-to-date stock of groceries, dry goods, shoes and other commodities in popular demand and has built up a good trade. He served six years as clerk of the Arpin public school district and was six years postmaster of Arpin under President Woodrow Wilson, in politics being a Democrat. Mr. Loschky was married June 21, 1904, to Laura, daughter of Christ and Hannah Bramm, of Athens, Wis., where she was born March 27, 1884. Of this union three children have been born: Lester C., Oct. 7, 1907; Lawrence, Nov. 26, 1912; and Dorris, Oct. 27, 1913. Lester C. is a student in Concordia College, Milwaukee. Lawrence died at the age of three months.