Bio: Wagner, Mathew (1867 – 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Wagner, Menzner, Kohler, Kastel, Imhoff, Vebelacker, Kutchenreter

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

Wagner, Mathew (25 December 1867 – 19??)

MATHEW WAGNER, who is one of the substantial and representative men of the town of Cassel, of which he has been supervisor for the last four years, resides in section 14, where he owns 120 acres of valuable land, situated three miles southwest of Marathon City. He was born in Dodge County. Wis., December 25, 1867, and is a son of John M. and Catherine Wagner, the former of whom lives on the above mentioned farm. The mother of Mr. Wagner was born in Germany in 1826 and came to America in 1864 and in December of that year was married to John M. Wagner, at Chicago, Ill., after which they moved to Dodge County. Wis. She died December 31, 1911, at the age of eighty-six and her burial was in the Catholic Cemetery at Marathon City.

Mathew Wagner has three brothers: John, who has been a widower some eight years and has three children, follows the trade of scaling and working in the woods, and makes his home in the town of Cassel; Peter, who lives in Edgar and also follows lumber scaling and works in the mills, is married and has six children; and Nick, who lives in Canada, is a thresher.  

Mathew Wagner attended the public schools until about twelve years of age when the family came to Marathon County and since then his activities have been farming, threshing and work in the woods. For twenty-three years he followed threshing during the season, worked at lumbering and in saw mills in the winter time and on farms as opportunity offered. During the last three winters he has been engaged in log scaling, for two years being with the Wausau Lumber Company at Rib Falls and one year at Marathon City for Philip Menzner. He carries on general farming on his seventy acres of cleared land, the rest being in timber. Mr. Wagner is considered a man of excellent judgment in the management of his own affairs and as reliable and trustworthy as a public official. He has been a Democrat in politics since he cast his first vote.  

Mr. Wagner was married to Miss Mary J. Kohler, who was born in Elmore, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, June 4, 1866, a daughter of Joseph Kohler and his first wife, the latter of whom was born in Switzerland, was married in Germany, where Mr. Kohler was born. They came to America in the year 1865 and settled in Fond du Lac County, Wis. They had three children: Mary, Annie and Joseph. The mother of Mrs. Wagner died when she was nine years old and afterward the father married Catherine Kastel, who was also born in Germany, and they had the following children: Katie, who married a Mr. Imhoff; Maggie, who is the wife of Anton Vebelacker; Susanna, who is the wife of William Kutchenreter: Grace, who is the wife of August Kutchenreter, and Rose, who is the wife of Herman Kutchenreter. The mother of the above children died in her forty-third year and her burial was in St. Mary's Cemetery. The father was a wagon-maker by trade but later became a farmer and a pioneer in the town of Cassel, Marathon County, where he died, November 23, 1912, when aged seventy-three years. Mrs. Wagner attended the public and parochial schools at Elmore and New Castle, Wis., and was twelve years old when her parents came to Marathon County. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner have the following children: Raymond P., Gertrude K., Andrew N., Thaddeus J., Mathew J., and Robert W. The family belongs to St. Mary's Catholic Church, and Mr. Wagner belongs to the St. Leo Court, No. 795, Catholic Order of Foresters, and Germania Lodge, No. 44. He served efficiently as supervisor in 1899.