MANITOWOC COUNTY PERSONAL SKETCHES

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ANDREW URBAN This is a bio. sketch from "History of Manitowoc County Wisconsin" by Dr. L. Falge, 1911-1912, v.2, p.621-622. The enterprising town of Maribel finds a worthy representative of its business interests in Andrew Urban, proprietor of a meat market. He started out in the business world with no mistaken ideas that success was to be had for the asking or that the world owed him a living. He knew that he must earn his success and his close application and earnest effort to please his customers have been the potent elements in his advancement. He was born March 7, 1851, in Bohemia, Germany, his parents being Joseph and Barbara (Urban) Urban. The father was a son of George and Barbara Urban and carried on farming in his native country to the time of his death, which occurred when his son Andrew was only about a year old. His wife also died in the land of her birth. In their family were three children, of whom Eva and Paula are both at home. Andrew Urban attended school in his native country and afterward took up the butchering business, which he continued to follow until he determined to come to America, attracted by the favorable reports concerning this country and its opportunities. Accompanied by his wife and three children, he crossed the Atlantic in 1881 and with Manitowoc as his destination started for the middle west. In that city he engaged in the butchering business and also worked as a laborer. He afterward spent three years in Wausau, Wisconsin, and then returned to Manitowoc, where he was connected with the brewing business and also worked as a laborer. He afterward opened a saloon in Kaukauna, which he conducted until the 28th of June, 1909, when he came to Cooperstown township and at Maribel established a meat market, opening a store on the most prominent corner in that town. He has a well appointed shop, with a good cooling plant, and is enjoying a liberal patronage because he handles an excellent grade of meats, because his prices are reasonable and his dealings honorable. On the 8th of October, 1878, Mr. Urban was united in marriage to Anna, a daughter of Johann and Maria (Pindl) Schwarz, who was born April 15, 1848, in that section of Bohemia which was also the birthplace of her husband. The father was a merchant in his native town. In his family were eleven children but only two are now living, the sister of Mrs. Urban being Mrs. Eva Stubel. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Urban have been born four children. George Urban, who is a cigar manufacturer and teacher, married Alvina Kolancheck and they have two children, Richard and Leona. Catherina is the wife of H. Damm, a farmer, and they have three children: Rosina, Alma and Adella. Louis, born in 1881, is a musician and cigar manufacturer of Manitowoc and married Mina Meyer, by whom he has one child, Arline. Carl, born in 1884 and now living in California, married Grace Vogel and has one child, Hieronymus. The parents are members of the Catholic church on Green street and Mr. Urban holds membership with the Catholic Knights of Wisconsin. He and his wife are widely and favorably known in Maribel and theirs is a hospitable home, always open for the reception of their many friends. Mr. Urban has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to the new world, for here he has found the opportunities which he has sought and as the years have passed by has made for himself a creditable position in business circles.

ED AND FLORENCE URBANEK

Florence and Eddie Urbanek dig out after a huge snowstore West of Two Creeks. Photo taken about 1915. Photo compliments of Gary Omernick

WENZEL C. URBANEK This is a bio. sketch from "History of Manitowoc County Wisconsin" by Dr. L. Falge, 1911-1912, v.2, p.21-22. Wenzel C. Urbanek, senior member of the furniture and undertaking firm of Urbanek & Wattawa and one of Manitowoc’s well known business men, organized his present business in 1905 with Joseph L. Wattawa. The first location of the company was at the corner of Eighth and York streets, and in 1909 they removed to 109 North Eighth street, where they lease the ground floor and basement of a building ninety by seventy feet and carry on a general furniture and undertaking business. Joseph L. Wattawa was born in Franklin township, August 3, 1879, and is a son of Thomas and Mary (Konop) Wattawa, early settlers near Green Bay and natives of Bohemia. Jacob Wattawa, the grandfather of Joseph L., brought the family to the United States in 1871 and settled in Manitowoc county, where he and his wife both died. Thomas Wattawa was engaged in farming in Franklin township until 1907, at which time he retired. He had a family of eleven children, of whom five daughters and four sons still survive. Joseph L. Wattawa received a public-school education and for twelve years was in the employ of the undertaking firm of C. & W. Frazer, at the end of that time joining Mr. Urbanek in his present business. He is a member of the Elks, the Maccabees and the Royal League, and with his family attends the Catholic church. Wenzel C. Urbanek was born August 8, 1872, at Tisch Mills, Manitowoc county, Wisconsin, a son of John and Josephine (Kossa) Urbanek, natives of Pilsen, Austria, who came to the United States in 1868, the father buying wild land in Kewaunee county, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. They had four children: Anna, who married Thomas Hallada, a farmer; Frank, a merchant at Tisch Mills; Joseph, who is engaged in the mercantile business at Two Creeks, Wisconsin; and Wenzel C. Wenzel C. Urbanek clerked in a grocery and general store at Tisch Mills and as a young man entered the employ of 0. Torrison & Company, continuing with that concern for a period of seventeen years, and then, in 1905, organized the present business. He was married in 1900 to Mary Pruss, of Manitowoc, a daughter of Captain and Mary Pruss, the former a lake captain for many years. Two children have been born to this union: Paul and Marie. Mr. and Mrs. Urbanek are members of the Catholic church, and he holds membership in the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Catholic Knights and the Knights of Columbus. For four years he served as alderman of the fourth ward.

DR. OTTO UTECH From the Two Rivers Reporter, Saturday, July 4, 1914: UTECH - SAUBERT The marriage of Dr. Otto Utech of Jefferson and Miss Ida Saubert was solemnized Tuesday morning at 10 at the home of the bride's parents, Rev. Doehler performing the ceremony midst handsome, floral decorations with which the rooms were decorated and in the presence of many relatives and friends. After a sumptuous wedding dinner the bride and groom departed for Chicago where they will spend their honeymoon. They will reside at Jefferson. The bride is an esteemed young lady who has been teacher of the first grade in the St. John's School for the past four years. Among those present at the wedding from out of town were Mrs. Alvina Utech and daughter Minnie, Mr. Emmanuel Wetzel and family and Mr. Wm. Manthey and family.

THEODORE UTKE This is a bio. sketch from "History of Manitowoc County Wisconsin" by Dr. L. Falge, 1911-1912, v.2, p.363-364. Theodore Utke, one of the successful farmers of Manitowoc county, owns a good farm of one hundred and twenty acres on section 36, Maple Grove. He was born in this county, in the town of Liberty, April 22, 1859, being a son of William and Anstina (Ziglow) Utke. The parents were natives of Germany, where they married and later came to the United States, arriving here about 1855. They settled on one hundred and twenty acres of land in the town of Liberty. This farm continued as their home until 1869, when it was sold and they located on the farm now owned by their son, Theodore. Here the father died in 1903, aged eighty—one years, having lost his wife in 1896, when she was seventy—three years old. Both are interred in the Lutheran cemetery at Reedsville. Like so many of his countrymen in this country at the time of the Civil war, William Utke enlisted in its defense in Company F, Twenty—first Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, serving until the close of the war. Theodore Utke was the sixth in a family of eight children, and was brought up to hard work on the farm. He remained with his parents until their death. Prior to his fathers demise, the latter gave him the farm, feeling that he deserved it for his faithfulness and devotion. Mr. Utke has one hundred acres of his farm under cultivation, and his fences are of barbed wire, and in excellent condition. He carries on general farming, and markets dairy products, milking fifteen cows. His stock is graded, and his premises well fitted for his work. The frame barn, forty by one hundred and thirty-five feet, was built in 1882, but remodeled in 1909, with cement floor and patented stanchions. The two-story frame residence has a finished basement and attic, thus giving fourteen good rooms, not counting the halls or basement. It was built in 1910, and is well equipped with modern conveniences. In 1895, Mr. Utke married Anna Zahn, daughter of William and Amelia Zahn, natives of Calumet county, this state. Mr. Zahn died in Manitowoc county, in 1893, aged forty-seven years, and is buried in the Lutheran cemetery at Reedsville. Mrs. Zahn survives and makes her home in Reedsville, being now fifty-five years old. Mrs. Utke was the eldest of eight children, and was born December 20, 1874. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Utke: William, John, Walter, Leona, Emma, Harry, Clarence, and Elmer, who died in childhood. In politics, Mr. Utke is a republican, and served for nine years as superintendent of roads. He and his family are consistent members of the German Lutheran church of Reedsville, in which they are active. He is a man widely known and universally liked, and he is a good representative of the modern agriculturist of Wisconsin.