Bio: Lueck, Gust (1858 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Lueck, Marth, Plautz

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

Lueck, Gust (2 March 1858 - 19??)

Gust Lueck, who is the owner of the widely known Clover Belt Stock Farm, 600 acres of valuable land lying in the town of Rib Falls, is one of the most industrious, thrifty and successful farmers, stock raisers and lumbermen in Marathon County. He was born in Germany, March 2, 1858, and is a son of Peter and Wilhelmina Lueck. The parents of Mr. Lueck were natives of Germany and when they came to the United States in 1871, they were accompanied by their children, two sons and three daughters. It was in the fall of the year when they reached Marathon County, Wis., and they remained that one winter with Gotthilf Koehler, in the town of Hamburg, but by April, 1872, Peter Lueck had selected his farm of ninety-eight acres and the family moved there. At that time no clearing had been done and the Luecks had to cut their own road. Very few settlers had yet ventured here and the nearest neighbor was two and one-half miles distant. It was hard work for the father to handle an axe effectively and much of this labor fell to Gust Lueck, who, fortunately was of robust build. The father died on that part of the present farm, when aged sixty-three years, the mother still living on the homestead in her seventy-seventh year.

Gust Lueck attended school as all German boys do, but had few advantages after coming to Wisconsin. He is somewhat proud of the fact that he could be so useful to his father and on the pioneer farm cut the first and the last stump. At present he has 120 acres cleared for farming and attends to all his work himself. He raises Red Polled cattle and Poland-China hogs, and also has Scotch Collie dogs for sale, and on account of the abundance of clover grown here profitably, the pleasant name of Clover Belt was given the place. For the last twenty-one years he has sold his cream to the Hamburg Creamery.

Mr. Lueck was married to Miss Bertha Marth, who was born in Germany and was four years old when she was brought to America by her parents, Charles and Frediricka Marth. To Mr. and Mrs. Lueck the following children have been born, all in the town of Rib Falls; Henry H., who was married in Minnesota to Amanda Plautz; Martin C, who helps his father; Otto E., who is a merchant at Hamburg; and Paul F., Frank E. and Clara M. Mr. Lueck and family are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He is a stockholder in the Athens Telephone Company and in the Farmers and Drovers Store Company at Athens. In politics he is a Democrat and has served on the board of supervisors of the town of Rib Falls, and for twenty-one years has been clerk of District No. 2, Hamburg and Rib Falls.