Bio: Means, Paris O. (1857 – 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Means, Nelson, Single, Dexter, Baker

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

Means, Paris O. (27 February 1857 – 19??)

PARIS O. MEANS, whose important business interests at Wausau, Wis., place him among the representative men of the city, has resided here for thirty-one years. He is president of the Wausau Ice and Fuel Company and also of the Wausau Canning Company, the latter being one of the great industries of this section. He was born at Burnham. Waldo County, Me., February 27, 1857, and is a son of Luther and Adeline (Nelson) Means.

In 1883 the Means family came to Wisconsin and settled on a farm in the town of Weston, near Schofield, Marathon County. There the father of Mr. Means died in 1895. The mother survived him for .two years, her death occurring at the home of her son, Paris O. Means, at Wausau. They were highly respected people, both coming of sturdy old New England stock.  

Paris O. Means came to Wisconsin in 1876 and worked at the lumber business at Stevens Point, where he continued for six years and then was in the dairy business with his brother, the late George R. Means, who died in 1894, in the town of Weston. In June 1888, he became a resident of Wausau, where for twenty-five years he has been identified with the ice business. He has been with the Wausau Canning Company since 1907, being president of the same. He is also identified with the Wausau Ice and Fuel Company, was one of the incorporators of the same and has been president since 1908.  

In 1887, at Wausau, Mr. Means was married to Miss Lutie L. Single, a daughter of Thomas and Harriet (Dexter) Single. Thomas Single was one of the pioneer settlers of Wausau. After his death Mrs. Single married D. B. Baker. She was born in Vermont eighty-one years ago and came to Wausau in 1849. She is one of the city's venerable and much esteemed residents. Mr. and Mrs. Means have three children: Zelda Jennie, Grace Esther and Gertrude Harriet. While Mr. Means is by no construction a politician, he is active as a citizen and for ten years the voters of the Fourth Ward testified to their confidence in him by electing him supervisor. He is identified with the Masonic fraternity — Wausau Lodge, No. 130; Wausau Chapter, No. 51, R. A. M.; and St. Omer Commandery, No. 19, K. T. He and his family attend the Episcopal Church.

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