Bio: Franzen, Christ (1845 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Franzen, Wegner, Lehman, Brinkman,

----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Franzen, Christ (11 December 1845 - 19??)

Christ Franzen, capitalist and a retired farmer living at Stratford, Wis., is one of the leading and representative men of Marathon County and has served in the office of village assessor since this organization was brought about. He was born in Holstein, Germany, December 11, 1845.

When only eleven years of age Christ Franzen went as cabin boy on a sailing vessel on the seas and while he remained a sailor probably touched the shores of every seaboard country in the world. After sailing for twenty years he was made mate of a fine vessel. Finally, in the port of New York he left his ship and came to the southern part of Wisconsin in order to pay a visit to some relatives at New Holstein, Calumet county, and when the wide expanse of the Great Lakes spread out before him, the old fascination of the water returned and in 1870 he began to sail the lakes and continued until his marriage in 1876 and for one year longer while living in Calumet county. He then settled as a farmer on forty acres in the town of Bergen where he had to clear the land of timber and here built a log cabin home and later added eighty additional acres. At one time he owned 240 acres. He sold his land including his old homestead in 1903 and then came to Stratford where he has a handsome modern residence and four acres of land.

Mr. Franzen has been a very useful and far sighted citizen of this section and probably served as chairman of the county board for a longer time than any other incumbent in Marathon County. When he came to Stratford he was serving as assessor in the town of Cleveland and resigned the latter office when elected assessor of Stratford; earlier he served many years as a justice of the peace and in that capacity performed many marriages. In the summer of 1912 he was appointed a jury commissioner, and for twenty-two years before coming here served as town school clerk. He at present represents The Wisconsin Farm Mutual Hall and Cyclone Insurance Company, of Juneau, Wis. He is one of the main stockholders in the Stratford Telephone Company and also in the Marathon County Telephone Company.

Mr. Franzen was married December 12, 1876, to Miss Fredrika Wegner, who was born in Prussia-Germany, February 9, 1852, a daughter of Christian and Frederika (Lehman) Wegner, who died in Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Franzen have four children: Irma, who is the wife of Charles Brinkman, of Rozellville, Wis.; Margaret; Herman, who attended the dairy school at Madison, Wis., married and is now in business at Ephrata, Pa.; and Walter, who was educated at Wausau, resides in that city. Since its organization Mr. Franzen has been vice president of the Stratford State Bank. With his family he belongs to the German Lutheran Church.