Bio: Leichtnam, Martin & Carrie/Gusta

Surnames: LEICHTNAM STAUSBERG SIMMON BUSHMAN

----Source: ABBOTSFORD, WIS. CENTENNIAL BOOK - 1973

Leichtnam, Martin & Carrie/Gusta

Martin Leichtnam, an ancestor of many well known local residents, was one of the earliest settlers in the territory. He was born in Canada in 1840 and in his young days followed the construction of railroad lines as a timber hewer and carpenter.

When he arrived in this territory, he decided to locate here, taking up a homestead in the township of Colby, Clark Co. in 1872. While living on his homestead, he bought forty acres of land in the wilderness just west of the present Abbotsford City Limits for $1 per acre. This was known as the Leichtnam farm for many years.

He married Carrie Strausberg at St. Natzen, Wis. in 1865. Nine children were born: Anna, Katherine, Joseph, Rose (wife of Mr. Simmon, the first barber in Abbotsford), Ida, Caroline, Elizabeth, Edward, Albert and Hermina. After the death of his first wife in 1889, he married Gusta Bushman.

The first buildings on the Leichtnam farm were log buildings constructed by Mr. Leichtnam and hewn out of the forest.

Leichtnam and his brother Joseph made a coffin for a neighbor girl, and carried her through the woods and buried her in the Colby Cemetery. This is reported to be the first burial in the present Colby Cemetery.

Mr. Leichtnam served for many years on the Mayville Township board and the Abbotsford school board. He was one of the first farmers to raise pure bred Holstein dairy cattle and also raised horse, sheep and hogs. He increased the size, buying several nearby pieces of land, and milked as many as twenty-eight cows, which was a large operation when milking was done by hand and the average size of a dairy herd was from eight to ten cows.

In 1908, Mr. Leichtnam retired from active farming, selling the farm to his son, Edward, and moving to one of his nearby farms where he lived until his death in 1928. Edward was a stockholder and active member of the Abbotsford Creamery and the Abbotsford Co-operative Mercantile Company. He organized the Farmers Shipping Association and the Deer Creek branch of the Shipping Association.