Bio: Bellis, Mark G. (1862 – 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Bellis, Hagemann, Bardeen, Young, Schoonover

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

Bellis, Mark G. (14 September 1862 – 19??)

MARK G. BELLIS, the president of the Bellis Hotel Company, is a young man, coming to Wausau with his parents in 1873. He graduated with honor from the Wausau High School and then acted as bookkeeper for the Bellis Hotel, which had assumed large proportions by this time. He might be named as the founder of the baseball sport in Wausau, he being the first to organize a club, and play with such amateurs as Rev. Hagemann, C. V. Bardeen and other professional men, until the play had become popular and a permanent club was organized at Wausau. It was through his efforts mainly that Wausau entered into the state league with Illinois and later with Minnesota and Illinois again, having a professional team for over ten years, and he is now again the president of the Wausau team nicknamed "Lumber Jacks." Thoroughly devoted to clean sport, he is one of the most popular men of Wausau and also an adept with rod and line, an expert in luring the subtle trout from the depths of the creek. As a member of the noble fraternity of Elks he has taken a prominent part in the varied entertainments staged by this order. But not only in recreations is he found in the foremost ranks, but in everything appertaining to the welfare of the city he takes a prominent part. As a citizen he has the courage of his convictions and has always acted with the Democratic Party in state and national affairs. As a landlord he has no superior and this city is justly proud of the Bellis Hotel with its excellent accommodations.

 Mark G. Bellis was born in the city of Berlin, Wis., a son of George F. Bellis and his Wife, Mary Jane (Young), on the 14th day of September, 1862, and became manager of the Bellis Hotel Company in 1898, when it incorporated, and has been its president since the death of his father. George F. Bellis, in December, 1905. On September 13, 1903, he was married to Miss Alberta Schoonover, of Oshkosh, Wis., and two children were born to them: Margaret and Mary Jane.