Bio: Weinke, Julius (1852 – 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Weinke, Fritz, Buttke, Erdmann, Zunker

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

Weinke, Julius (8 March 1852 – 19??)

JULIUS WEINKE, a well known and highly respected citizen of the town of Stettin, a prosperous farmer owning 160 acres of valuable land lying in sections 28, 29 and 33, lives four miles northeast of Marathon City. He was born in Germany, March 8, 1852, and is a son of Fred and Anstein (Fritz) Weinke. When sixteen years of age he accompanied his father, brother and two sisters to America, his mother dying in Germany when aged forty years. The father brought his family to Marathon County, Wis., and secured eighty acres of land in section 29, all of which was then covered by heavy timber. He cut down the first tree ever felled here and to his first purchase later added forty acres more. After his active years were over he retired to the home of his son-in-law, William Buttke, and there passed away in his eighty-sixth year. He was a worthy member of the Lutheran Church.

Julius Weinke knew only the German language when he came to Marathon County, but he soon acquired the English tongue by conversation with others. When he was twenty-five years of age he married Miss Augusta Erdmann, a native of Germany, and they settled in section 29, town of Stettin, on a farm of eighty acres, which he improved and afterward added to his possessions. He bought eighty and forty more acres in sections 28 and 29 and in 1901 bought eighty acres in sections 28 and 33 already improved and since 1902 has lived on his farm in section 33, where he has improved the buildings. He has been a lifelong democrat and has the confidence of his fellow citizens, who have often chosen him to serve in public office. He was town clerk three years and for seven years was chairman of the town board. He has been one of the charter members of the Stettin Mutual Fire Insurance Company. To Mr. and Mrs. Weinke the following children were born: William, a resident of Wausau, who married Elizabeth Zunker; Matilda, the wife of Carl Zunker, residing in the town of Stettin; Julius C, who manages his father's farm; Otto, who resides in Wausau: Edwin, who is in the blacksmith business at Little Chicago; Bernard, residing at home, and a daughter who died at the age of one year. The family belongs to the Lutheran Church of which Mr. Weinke has been a trustee for seventeen years, and over twenty years school district clerk in said town.