Wisconsin Genealogy

The following data is extracted from LaCrosse County, Wisconsin Obituaries. E. Stilson, aged 72, a pioneer of West Salem, died at his home there today of the infirmities of old age. He leaves a widow and three sons, Charles, Leroy and Willis in the State of Washington, and one daughter. Mrs. Quiggle of West Salem. The funeral arrangements will not be settled until his sons in the west have been heard from.LaCrosse Tribune, September 21, 1907Contributed by: Shelli Steedman

Henricksen & Jacobson is the firm name of a well known commercial enterprise of Racine, organized on the first of October, 1910, by Henry M. Henricksen and Jacob Jacobson. Although it has been in existence for but a few years its business has grown steadily and has now become of a very substantial character. The business was first located at No. 1309 Mound Avenue. On the first of September, 1915, a removal was made to No. 1200 State Street. The firm is wholesale jobbers in groceries of which they carry a large line, including butterine, butter, eggs and cheese, and…

Joseph S. Hartmann, president of the Hartmann Trunk Company, of Racine, was born in Germany, in 1846, and was a youth of sixteen years when he made the long voyage across the briny deep to the United States in 1862. He first settled in New York but afterward made his way- westward to Wisconsin, establishing his home in Milwaukee. A few years later he embarked in the trunk business there under the name of Carpeles-Hartmann & Company, and later removed to Chicago although he established his business in Racine. The Hartmann Trunk Company was organized in November, 1889, and the…

The Gold Medal Camp Furniture Manufacturing Company had its inception in a business started by R. B. Lang in 1890 and incorporated in 1892, its first officers being R. B. Lang, president ; William G. Gittings, vice president; and J. G. Teall, secretary. This company manufactures all kinds of camp furniture and outing outfits, although at the beginning the output included only six or seven articles, among which was the Gold Medal Cot invented by Louis Latour. Since that time the output has been extended in its scope until there is no accessory to camp furnishings that cannot be supplied…

The S. Freeman & Sons Manufacturing Company, one of the foremost business enterprises of Racine, was established in 1867 by S. Freeman, who in a small way began manufacturing and repairing boilers. A few months later he entered into partnership with William E. Davis and opened a little machine shop. In 1868 they admitted John R. Davies to a partnership, at which time Mr. Davies was operating a foundry in the old Star mills, located where the William Pugh coal yards are now found. At that time the firm name was Davies, Freeman & Davis. After a brief existence the…

There are not many hours in which the ring of hammer and steel does not waken the echoes in Racine and the name of the city has become to the outside world a synonym for unflagging industry. Various successful industrial concerns have contributed to the reputation of the city in this regard. The F. J. Greene Engineering Works have been in existence since 1892, when the business was established by Fred and George Hodges under the firm style of Hodges & Son. Two years later, or in 1894, Frederick J. Greene purchased an interest in the business and about 1902…