- FRED W. RUSCHER, who has been engaged in agricultural operations in Outagamie county since 1903, now owns an excellent property in Grand Chute township, on which he carries on general farming and dairying. He was born in Center township, Outagamie county, Wisconsin, September 12, 1875, and is a son of Herman and Caroline (Tecklin) Ruscher. Herman Ruscher wa.s born in Milwaukee county, near Milwaukee, September 29, 1851, and his wife in Germany, September 18, 1840. In early life he worked as a farm hand and at the carpenter's trade, and when about twenty years of age came to Outagamie, county, where for a time he was employed by various farmers in Grand Chute township. Eventually he settled on the farm now operated by his son, which at that time belonged to Mrs. Ruscher, and here he continued to live until 1904, in which year he retired and moved to Appleton, and in that city Mrs. Ruscher died June 24, 1907. They were the parents of three children: Fred W.; Lizzie, the wife of William Schultz, a Ludington township farmer; and Anna, the wife of Ernest Ferg, a millwright of Appleton. Mrs. Ruscher had been previously married to Henry Witt, by whom she had four children, namely: William, who resides with Fred W. Ruscher; John, a farmer of Black Creek township; Henry, who is deceased; and Julius, a farmer of Grand Chute township. Fred W. Ruscher attended the district schools of Grand Chute township, and in his youth worked out among the farmers of his neighborhood until he had learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed in Hortonville, Appleton, Milwaukee and Shawano county, until he was twenty-eight years of age, at which time he settled on the old homestead. He now owns seventy-two acres of highly cultivated property in Grand Chute township, and thirty-eight acres in Greenville township, and engages extensively in dairy farming, keeping a fine herd of thoroughbred Holstein cattle for this purpose. On October 5, 1904, Mr. Ruscher was married to Miss Minnie Schraeder, born September 7, 1881, in Appleton, whose parents, Julius and Amelia (Witt) Schraeder, were both born in Germany, the former July 13, 1848, and the latter May 10, 1862. The father came to America when but seven years of age, and grew to maturity in Sugar Bush, Outagamie county, working out as a farm hand until he was able to purchase a farm in Center township, where he and his wife are still living. Mrs. Ruscher is the oldest of her parents' twelve children, and secured her education in district school No. 8, Center township. Mr. and Mrs. Ruscher have had four children: Martha, born August 29, 1905; Clara, born November 12, 1906; Herman, born July 22, 1908; and Viola, born July 8, 1910. They are consistent members of Greenville Lutheran Church.
|
1875 - 1938 (62 years)
Biography
