Bio: Vetter, Anthony (1862 – 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Vetter, Kiefer, Muhlbauer, Koller

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

Vetter, Anthony (17 April 1862 – 19??)

ANTHONY VETTER, general farmer who’s well improved tract of 260 acres is situated on sections 21 and 29 town of Marathon, three and one-half miles south of Marathon City, was born one and one-half miles west of his present farm, in Marathon County, Wis., April 17, 1862, a son of George and Julia Ann (Kiefer) Vetter.

George Vetter was born in Alsace, now in Germany, and was seventeen years old when he came to America and went to work in the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., where he married Julia Ann Kiefer. While they lived at Pittsburgh three children were born: George, Joseph and John, George dying before the family moved to Marathon County, where the following children were born: Victoria, Jacob, Frank, Anthony, Herman, Elizabeth, Any, Mary and Lena. Although George Vetter had only seventy-five cents as his capital when he reached Marathon County he was not discouraged for his previous life had been one of toil and more or less hardship and he and family knew that pioneering in an unsettled region would necessarily bring about occasions for much self denial. He entered eighty acres of government land and lived to improve it and also owned one lot in Marathon City. He had considerable business enterprise and he built the Vetter Cellars at Wausau, the first brewery there. He and wife were faithful members of the Catholic Church.

Anthony Vetter attended the public schools and afterward a business college at Wausau and prepared for the profession of teaching by attending the State Normal School at Oshkosh for five terms. For eleven years he then taught school in the towns of Marathon, Cassel and Emmett, after which he settled on his present farm, forty-five acres of which he cleared himself. He also buys and sells cattle in the town of Marathon and is a stockholder in the Central Creamery here. He belongs to the Marathon City Brewery Company of which he was secretary for two years. Since his first marriage he has resided on his present farm, first on the east end and later moving to the south side on the east and west road and here put up all the substantial buildings; his residence being largely modern and a fine system of furnace heating being installed.  

Mr. Vetter was married first to Miss Augusta Muhlbauer, who was a daughter of Joseph Muhlbauer, of Marathon County. She was a devoted member of the Catholic Church and her burial at death was in St. Mary's Cemetery. She was the mother of four children: Walter, Anthony and Ella and Laura, twins. Mr. Vetter's second marriage was to Miss Anna Koller, who was born at Minneapolis, Minn., a daughter of John Koller, a retired farmer of Marathon City. To the second marriage were born: Mary, who attends St. Mary's parochial school; Anna, who attends the public schools; Arnold and Sylvester, who are with their parents: and Mary, Anna and Arnold, all three of whom died in infancy. Mr. Vetter and family all belong to St. Mary's Catholic Church. He has been a lifelong democrat and has frequently been called to serve in public office. For four years he was a member of the town board of Marathon, and that entire time its chairman, four years was a justice of the peace, two years was town treasurer and for six years was clerk of the school board.