Bio: Grottke Family, Henry C.
Transcriber: Stan

Surnames: GROTTKE REICH

----Source: Town of Fremont History - 1973

Grottke Family, Henry C.

There was very little unsettle land available when Henry C. Grottke desired to establish a farmstead. The first acreage of the farm located one mile south and two miles west of Chili, Clark County, Wis. was purchased from W. C. Daniel and Edward Ehrhardt in 1916. Additional acreage was added in 1942 from Matilda Schmitz, 1947 from Jeanette McFarlane (daughter of John McFarlane), and in 1955 from Dallman Agency.

Each plot of this beaver inhabited land had to be laboriously cleared of what consisted mostly of stumps from the virgin pine and brush, using dynamite and horse teams. They were then removed to the edge of the clearing and served well as fences for many years. Pine stumps were used as fuel in the maple syrup season, and still serve admirable in this capacity whenever syrup is made.

The barn was built in 1923, and the house was erected in 1926, shortly before his marriage to Clara Reich on June 4, 1926, at Zion Lutheran Church, Granton.

During the early years of their marriage, the milk was hauled by a one-horse light milk wagon 1 1/2 miles west to the John Young Cheese Factory. This factory was later sold to Hugo and Ella Kobs. Hugo began trucking milk and the two earliest haulers were Art Lindow and Art Hohenstein.

If in the "thirties and early forties" you were quenching your thirst at one of the taverns in Chili or Lynn, or enjoyed cooled refreshments at the annual Mission Festival at Zion, Mo. Synod at Granton, it no doubt was chilled with ice cut the previous winter from the ice pond on the farm. Perhaps you observed neighbor children drooling in anticipation of hand-cranked, homemade ice cream as they accompanied their parents in the Model T to get ice for the Fourth of July picnic. This holiday provided the greatest volume of business in one season.

The farm is currently owned by Henry C. Grottke's widow, and operated by his son and family.