- CHARLES F. PLOEGER, farmer, stock raiser and large land owner of Seymour township, is one of Outagamie county's leading agriculturists, and has been identified with various business enterprises and public movements during a period covering the last decade. Mr. Ploeger is a native of Outagamie county, born in Ellington township August 4, 1870, a son of Ferdinand and Fredericka (Hendricks) Ploeger. Ferdinand Ploeger was a native of Germany, who came to Ellington township by way of Green Bay and located on fifty acres of wild land, being one of the earliest settlers of this section. He built a log house and log barn, and with the rude instruments at hand started to claim the property from the wilderness, and after having put that tract under cultivation, bought seventy-three acres in Greenville township and eighty acres in Center township, all of which he eventually cleared. He erected a good house and barn, but left these in 1882 to come to Seymour township, locating on a partly improved property, now the home of his son Charles, on which at that time there was a small house and barn. He continued to reside on this place until 1890, in which year he turned over the management to his son and retired from active life on account of failing health. He passed away in the faith of the Lutheran Church, October 7, 1895, aged sixty-four years, and was buried in the cemetery at Stephensville, in Ellington township. Ferdinand Ploeger had served in the German army prior to coming to the United States, and during the closing years of the Civil War was a soldier in Company F, Second Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry. Mr. Ploeger was married to Fredericka Hendricks, daughter of Fred and Prudence Hendricks, and she died December 18, 1872, aged thirty-four years, eleven months, eighteen days. Mrs. Ploeger had one brother, Fred, a pioneer of Grand Chute township, who is now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Ploeger there were born five daughters and one son: Charles; Adolphenia, born April 9, 1857, who is the widow of D. D. Chapman of Bangor, Michigan; Bertha, born October 4, 1860, who is single and resides in Milwaukee; Lovina, born November 13, 1868, who died January 3, 1888; Lucy, born July 12, 1867, who married Ferdinand Muller, of Seymour township; and Minnie, born December 15, 1872, who married August Bunkelman, and died September 24, 1895, leaving one child, Vernon Leroy Bunkelman. Charles F. Ploeger attended the district schools at Seymour and Ellington, and at the age of twenty years took charge of the home farm, his father's health having failed. On the home farm of 120 acres he rebuilt the house; built a new barn, 36x166 feet, with a silo capacity of 400 tons; a stone hog barn, 18x65 feet; a tool shed, 90x36 feet; a granary, 18x42 feet; chicken coop, 12x38 feet; corn crib, 30x48 feet, with 3,000 bushels capacity. When Ferdinand Ploeger first located on this farm his livestock consisted of a team of horses and a few head of cattle and pigs, and now the farm stock boasts of a large herd of thoroughbred Holstein cattle, 70 milch cows, high-grade Percheron horses, 500 Shropshire, Oxford and Southdown sheep, and produces Poland China hogs, while the chickens include the Silver Spangle, Leghorn and Plymouth Rock breeds. In about 1901, Mr. Ploeger added to the acreage of the home farm by purchasing eighty acres near Isaar, Seymour township, which is now under cultivation, and during 1903 bought forty acres of partly improved land, adding to this tract by a forty-acre purchase two years later, all of this property now being under cultivation. He also bought, in 1903, another tract of eighty acres in Seymour township, now all improved except twenty acres, and then purchased forty acres which is located in the town of Seymour, thirty acres of which are improved, and two acres of which he sold for the Seymour City Cemetery. He successively purchased eighty acres adjoining his property, eighty acres of cultivated land at Isaar, the Hebner place of eighty-one acres, and in 1909 the Armitage place adjoining the old homestead, a tract of forty acres, there now being 320 acres of land under cultivation on the old homestead, making a total of 668 acres, all in Seymour township. Mr. Ploeger is a Republican in politics, and he has never missed an election. He served as township clerk during 1899 and 1900, has been township chairman for the past two years, serving in this capacity at present, and was district school clerk for nine years. He was a charter member and helped to organize the Cicero Mutual Fire Insurance Company in 1897, at which time he was elected treasurer, an office which he held twelve years, and was then made president, serving in that capacity at the present time. He was a charter member and has been president of the Seymour Mutual Hail and Cyclone Insurance Company since its incorporation ten years ago, was one of the organizers of the State Bank, of which he has always been a director, and is now serving his third year as president of the Seymour Driving Park Association, having formerly been vice-president of .that organization. Fraternally, he is connected with the E. F. U. of Neenah and the F. R. A. of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. On December 25, 1893, Mr. Ploeger was united in marriage with Miss Ida Bunkelman, who was born at Kewaskum, Washington county, Wisconsin, March 22, 1876, daughter of William and Fredericka (Leiter) Bunkelman, natives of Germany. Mr. Bunkelman came to Seymour township in 1881 and settled on a wild farm, which he improved, and there spent the remainder of his life in agricultural pursuits, his death occurring August 1, 1893, when fifty-eight years, eight months and twenty-one days old, while his widow survives him, she having been born in September, 1845. By a previous marriage Mr. Bunkelman had two children: William and ------ . His marriage with Fredericka Leiter was blessed by the birth of ten children, as follows: Matilda, born April 27, 1864, married William Buddenhagen and resides at Neillsville, Clark county; August, born January 3, 1863, who died in August, 1909, married (first) Minnie Ploeger, and (second) Anna Warner; Sarah, born May 6, 1870, married Art Flint, a farmer of Neillsville; Albert, born April 6, 1868, married November 4, 1896; Herman, born March 5, 1875, residing at Fond du Lac, married May Singbush; Ida, who married Mr. Ploeger; Louie, born November 4, 1882, is single and resides in California; Emma, born September 22, 1883, married Thomas Sickles and lives in the State of Washington; and Elmira, born March 6, 1885, died single in January 1910. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ploeger: Sylvia B., born March 27, 1897; and Wealthy E., born December 6, 1900. Mr. Ploeger's family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Ploeger employs a competent foreman and by thoroughly systemizing his work he is able to spend most of his time at his Waldorf farm, just three miles north of the city, where the visitor will find him with his genial wife always ready to welcome the coming guest.
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1870 - 1916 (45 years)
1910 Census
