Bio: Philipp, Michael (1865 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Philipp, Wiltgen

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

Philipp, Michael (1 April 1865 - 19??)

MICHAEL PHILIPP, florist, with greenhouse at No. 565 Grand avenue, Wausau, Wis., and office in the Rohde Building, No. 519 Third Street, is one of the enterprising and successful men in his line in this city, where he has been established for fourteen years. He was born in Luxemburg, a small province of Europe. April 1, 1865, and is a son of Peter Philipp.

Michael Philipp grew to manhood in his own land and as his father was a gardener he naturally acquired a practical knowledge of that business as a boy. He found himself naturally gifted in the management of plants and flowers and at the age of seventeen years chose the florist trade as his life business and has been engaged in the same ever since, and worked in Germany and France prior to coming to the United States. As a visitor to the World's Fair, at Chicago, Ill., in 1893, he came to the country which has ever since been his home, for here he found conditions that pleased him and abundant business opportunity. For some time he was in the employ of a wholesale florist at Chicago and spent one year at Valparaiso, Ind., but with this exception has spent all his time at Wausau, where he has built up a large and growing business. He has erected seven greenhouses on several acres of land and has more than 17,000 square feet of space under glass. These buildings are heated by a steam plant and he has installed all modern appliances known to the trade. He deals in potted plants and cut flowers and prepares designs for every occasion, and gives special attention to out of town orders.  

In the city of Chicago Mr. Philipp was married to Miss Anna Wiltgen, who had been born also in his province and had been brought in infancy to America, and the following children were born to them: Barbara, Harold, Peter, Lawrence, Marie, Theodore, Michael, Margaret, Emma and Eugene. Mr. Philipp and family belong to the Catholic Church.