Obit: Lewerenz, Otto W. (? - 1982)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Lewerenz, Hemp, Meinholdt, Mabie, Noble, Karstens, Mohr

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 2/11/1982

Lewerenz, Otto W. (? – 24 January 1982)

Otto W. Lewerenz, former long-time resident, businessman and politician in Neillsville passed away on Sunday, January 24, in a Virginia hospital. He had been hospitalized since January 3 when he broke his hip at the Elks National Home where he had resided for the past four years.

Lewerenz and his family will be remembered for the Lewerenz Sweet Shop next to Neillsville’s library. Home-cooked food and home-made ice cream were their specialties. The first frozen food locker plant in Wisconsin and an A&W Root Beer stand, Greyhound bus depot (six buses a day during the war years) and truck drivers’’ exchange were all a part of the operation. The building had been built by the Lewerenz’s in 1923 as a garage and Standard Oil Station on the corner of Hewett and Fifth Street where Hemp’s grocery store had been located.

In the 1920’s when Clark County was involved in fiscal mismanagement Lewerenz and others brought about reform. In six years, he and the other members of the county board brought about freedom from indebtedness.

Another contribution to the county and state by Lewerenz was the authoring of the Rural Land Zoning and Forest Crop Planting Act of 1932. Working with the University of Wisconsin and State Forestry Department, this project became the first known conservation and environmental model for the state and for the country. Present park and recreational areas were set aside during this time. On them he personally selected the sites and had built 15 flood control dams and also fire towers.

“Mr. Republican,” as he was known, was put in charge of all projects and manpower when the WPA was formed. He was also in charge of the relief committee before it became a federal responsibility.

Between 1925 and 1937 he was deputy sheriff under three sheriffs and also drove ambulances and hearses for three funeral directors. Those were also years in which he operated a restaurant behind the corner gas station and behind it, on Fifth Street an ice cream parlor. The latter he sold to Louis Meinholdt, who converted it into a tavern. Part of the restaurant became Milo Mabie’s “Barber Shop. On July 1, 1936, he and his family opened the Sweet Shop.

Lewerenz and his only brother, Carl were born near Stettin, Germany, and came to Wisconsin via Ellis Island as a young boy. His family were among the first homesteaders near Tomahawk. After clearing some of the land they built their first home there, a log cabin. His companions were Indians and wild animals.

His first wife Amy, moved from Neillsville to the Lutheran Home in Arlington Heights, Illinois, on December 31, 1980. His second wife Grace Noble Karstens, died in 1966. They lived together in West Palm Beach for eleven years.

He is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Frank (Marion) Mohr, Mt. Prospect, Illinois, and a son, The Rev. Arnold O. Lewerenz, of Pontiac, Michigan. There are also three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

His son, Arnold, conducted the funeral service in Bedford on January 27, which was attended by Marion and her husband. Interment was in the Elks Cemetery adjacent to the National Home.