Bio: La Certe, Isaie A. (1848 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: La Certe, Caron, Pregent

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

La Certe, Isaie A. (11 December 1848 - 19??)

Isaie A. La Certe, who has been a resident of Wausau, Wis., since 1878, is the leading photographer in this city, his studio being located at No. 125 Clinton Street, and is also financially and officially interested in many other business lines here. He was born north of Lake St. Peter's, in Canada, December 11, 1848, and is a son of Alexander and Mary (Caron) La Certe, both of whom were born and reared in Alsace-Lorraine, when it was yet a possession of France.

Until the age of sixteen years Isaie A. La Certe remained in Canada and there attended school; when he started out from home a possible love of adventure led him to go to the West and he spent two and one-half years in California. In 1878 he came from there to Wausau and here worked for several years at the carpenter trade during the summer seasons and in a logging camp in the northern woods during the winters. It was in 1887 that he started into the photographic business, in which he has been so very successful, although not more so than in other avenues of business, his business capacity and foresight, being evidenced in numerous ways. He carries a full line of photographic supplies and handles the Eastman Kodak goods in connection with his studio work. He was one of the first to engage in the automobile business here, which he continued for three years and also for a number of years dealt in bicycles and supplies. He is a stockholder in the Wausau Fixture and Furniture Manufacturing Company; in the National German-American Bank; in the Wausau Ice & Fuel Company, and in the Wausau Building, Loan and Investment Association, of which he has twice served as manager and for several years has been a director, has been district manager for the Security Mutual Life Insurance Co., for the state of Wisconsin as long as the company has done business in this state; and is also a director of the Cash Trading Company, and of the Wausau Commercial Club. To all of these enterprises he gives close attention and is justly considered a representative business man of this section.

At Wausau, in 1884, Mr. La Certe was married to Miss Celina Pregent, who was born in Canada, and eight of their nine children are living: Will, Victoria, Urben, Digneur, Clarence, Norman, Larence and Docilla. Mr. La Certe and family are members of the Roman Catholic Church. His fraternal connections include membership with the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Order of Foresters and the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin.