Bio: Zemke, Carl A. (1881 – 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Zemke, Hansel, Marquardt, Tress, Schuetz, Sternberg

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

Zemke, Carl A. (27 January 1881 – 19??)

CARL A. ZEMKE, who is serving both as town clerk and as school clerk, of the town of Wausau, belongs to one of the old and respected families of this section and lives on his farm of eighty acres, situated three and one-half miles east of Wausau. He was born January 27, 1881, on the old Zemke homestead in Marathon County, and is a son of John G. and Christianna (Hansel) Zemke.  

John Gottleib Zemke came to the United States with his parents, in 1858, locating first at Watertown, Wis. He worked as a laborer in various places all through this section until 1861 when he came to Marathon county and settled on 120 acres of land in the town of Wausau, clearing and improving the same and as long as he felt able continued to carry on his farm industries, since when he has lived with a son, being now in his seventy-seventh year. Many changes have been brought about in farming methods during his lifetime and he is yet interested although no longer making any personal experiments.

 He married a lady in 1864, who also was born in Germany and accompanied her brothers and sisters to the United States while young, and ten children were born to them, namely: Mrs. John Marquardt; Mrs. Frank Tress, of the town of Texas; Herman; Mrs. Charles Schuetz, deceased; Carl A.; Fred; Lewis; and Amelia and Ida, both of whom died young.  

Carl A. Zemke attended school in boyhood as opportunity offered and afterward worked around saw mills and made him self generally useful until he bought a farm and then turned his attention to an agricultural life. He settled on that farm, five miles east from Wausau, in 1900, and resided there for four years and then came to his present place which he afterward greatly improved. He built a new barn and practically rebuilt the house and made all his surroundings comfortable and well adapted to the demands made by his farm industries.  

Mr. Zemke married Miss Frances Sternberg, a daughter of Gustave Sternberg, proprietor of the Park Hotel at Wausau. They belong to the Lutheran Church and as Mr. Zemke is musical he assists in the church choir. Although an Independent voter he was chosen by his fellow citizens as a dependable man in the office of town clerk in the election of 1912, and reelected in 1913 and does his full duty irrespective of any political interests.