Bio: Baesemann, Henry (No dates given)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Baesemann, Gruell, Baumann, Henricrets, Linder, Gabelain

---Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Baesemann, Henry (No dates given)

HENRY BAESEMANN. One of the highly respected retired citizens of Rib Falls, Wis., is a representative of a family that has had much to do with the development of this part of Marathon County. He was the third born in a family of seven children, to John and Ernestina (Gruell) Baesemann.  

John Baesemann was born in Germany and was eighteen years of age when he accompanied his parents to the United States. At first he lived at Columbus, O., and from there came to Wisconsin and later he bought eighty acres of land eighteen miles northwest of Milwaukee. In Germany he had learned the blacksmith trade, and he opened a shop on his farm. In Washington County, Wis., he married Ernestina Gruell, who was also born in Germany, and the following children were born to them: August, who lives in the Town of Weir on a tract of land received from his father, married Johanna Baumann; Frank, who is deceased; Henry; G. H., who is a resident of Wausau; Mary, who is deceased; Alvina, who is the wife of Henry Henricrets; and Albertina, who is the wife of Frank Linder, and they reside on Washington Street, Wausau. The father of the above family sold his eighty acres near Milwaukee and came to Marathon County, securing 200 acres in section 22, town of Rib Falls, all this land being then entirely unimproved. He spent his first year in the hard work of clearing; in the second year he built his dam to control the water power for the saw mill that he built in the third year; then was the disaster that has visited many other river men, a time of high water from freshets that washed the dam away. He rebuilt the dam and made it stronger than ever, and three years later had his saw mill operating and soon after added a flour mill. The former mill is now abandoned, but the flour mill is used to some extent. He was a busy man until the end of his life, his death occurring at the age of seventy-one years. His widow survived him four years, and both were interred at Rib Falls. They were members of the Lutheran church. In politics always a Democrat, John Baesemann at times held public offices and served as chairman of the county board.

Henry Baesemann with his brother G. H. Baesemann, under the firm style of Baesemann Bros., bought eighty acres of land of their father and continued together as lumbermen until 1903. Henry Baesemann owns twenty six acres, twelve of which are well timbered. Since marriage he has lived in the village of Rib Falls. He married Miss Louisa Gabelain, who was born at Milwaukee, one of a family of ten children and one of two survivors. Her brother Henry is a resident of Rib Falls. Her mother died at the age of seventy years and was buried at Fond du Lac, where her father still resides and is now in his eighty-third year. Mrs. Baesemann was reared in the Methodist Episcopal faith. Mr. Baesemann has taken much interest in public movements here and was a member of the committee of prominent citizens that brought about the locating of the creamery here, an important business enterprise of this section. He is financially interested in the Marathon County Tile Company. He was reared in the Lutheran faith, the church edifice being erected on his land.