Bio: Mehl, Hon. Anton (1845 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Mehl, Schuetz, Falch, Fehlhaber, Genshin

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

Mehl, Hon. Anton (12 June 1845 - 19??)

Hon. Anton Mehl, who has been a resident of Wausau, Wis., for full forty years, was born June 12, 1845, Dornholzhansen Kreis Wetzlar Rheine, Germany, and is a son of John and Katrina Mehl, whose lives were passed in Germany. Anton Mehl has long been a very prominent citizen of Wausau and has been identified largely with its commercial development. He was reared and educated in his native land and there provided for future self support and independence by learning the shoemaking trade. America became the goal of his ambition but before emigrating he served in the German army and took part in the Franco-German War of 1870-71, spending almost an entire year on French soil. Shortly after its termination he set sail for the United States with the intention of joining a cousin, Henry Mehl, who was already established at Wausau, and after reaching here worked at his trade, in which he prospered through industry, and in the course of several years was able to open a retail shoe store and conducted it for twenty-five years, in 1880 erecting his own building.

In 1893 Mr. Mehl was elected county treasurer, when he retired from the shoe business, and served two terms in that office. As early as 1876 he was elected a member of the city council and served also in 1877, and from 1887 until 1888, was mayor of Wausau and his thorough business administration advanced many of the important measures that benefited the city. He still has numerous business interests, being vice president of the Wausau Building and Loan and Investment Company, of which he was the first president; is a director of the Citizens State Bank, and a director of the Ruder Brewing Company. Mr. Mehl was president of the board of trustees of the Marathon County Asylum for six years and has frequently served on other charitable boards and benevolent committees. He is president of the German-American Alliance.

In 1873 Mr. Mehl was married to Miss Mary Schuetz and five children were born to them: Mary, who is the wife of George Falch, of Merrill, Wis.; Elizabeth, who is the wife of Otto Fehlhaber, cashier of the Wisconsin Valley Trust Company; Annie, who is the wife of Hans Mehl, who lives at Milwaukee; Lena, who is the wife of Charles Genshin, a wholesale leather dealer; and Hattie, who conducts a millinery business in this city. Mr. Mehl and family belong to St. Stephen's Church.