BioA: Wittke, Mr. and Mrs. Henry (Golden - 1959)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Wittke, Shummel, Evans, Hantke, Marg, Schultz, Hewett, Hauge, Bruley, Swenson, Krumrey, Foster, Bradbury, Parrett, Schultz, Wilms, Armitage, Darling

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) March 26, 1959

Wittke, Mr. and Mrs. Henry (Golden Anniversary - 27 March 1959)

The 50^th wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Wittke will be celebrated Saturday, March 28, at an open house in the American Legion Hall from 2 to 5 p.m.

Grace Shummel, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Shummel, and Henry Witke, son of Mr. and Mrs. August Witke, were married March 27, 1909, at the residence now occupied by Mrs. Lizzie Schultz on West 5^th Street, which was then a part of the Frank Hewett farm.  The ceremony was performed by the Rev. H. A. Risser, the Congregational minister.  The groom’s brother, Herman Wittke, and Myrtle Evans (later Mrs. Louis Hantke) attended them.

Henry Wittke was born on a farm near Decatur, Ill., on March 20, 1888, and when eight years of age he came with his parents to Neillsville.  In the fall of 1896, the Wittke family moved onto a farm in Weston, where Henry attended the Uncle Sam School.  Later the family purchased a farm in Pine Valley, near the present Kurt Marg farm, and Henry attended Grandview school, from which he was graduated from the eighth grade.

After their marriage, Mr. Wittke and his father-in-law, George Shummel, operated the Hewett farm for a year and then the Wittke’s moved to St. Paul, where he was employed on the streetcar line.  Later they moved to Milwaukee, where he was employed in a machine shop, and in 1917, they returned to Neillsville and hired out with the Oatman Condensed Milk factory that was then in the process of construction. 

Mr. Wittke worked 36 years with the Oatman and its successor, the American Stores, the last 32 years of which he served as fieldman.  In 1955, due to ill health, he took his retirement and was confined to his home for two years.  When his health improved he was elected justice of the peace for the city of Neillsville, in which capacity he has served for three years.

Mrs. Wittke, the former Grace Shummel, was born in the Martin Hauge residence on East 5^th Street.  She attended the Neillsville grade school and was graduated from the Neillsville High School.

Mr. and Mrs. Wittke lived for a period in the Bruley house on West 8^th Street, owned the home now occupied by the John Swenson family on West 5^th Street for 18 years, lived five years in the Krumrey house (now the office of Martha A. Foster), lived a year in Granton, a year in the Bradbury apartments, and the last ten years have owned their home of 419 Grand Avenue.

"Our wedding day in 1909", said Mr. Wittke, "was a very cold and stormy one.  Most of the highways were blocked with snow, there were no snowplows and some relatives coming for our wedding from Greenwood had to drive through the fields on a bobsled drawn by horses."

Three children were born to their marriage, all of whom plan to attend the golden wedding celebration Saturday with their families.  Nelda, Mrs. Jack Parrett, of Milwaukee, will attend with her husband and four children: Nita, Mrs. Victor Schultz of Eau Claire, will attend with her husband and son, Gary; and Daryl of Black River Falls will attend with his wife and three children.  One great-grandchild, Connie Jo Parrett, is expected to attend.

Other relatives expected are: his brothers, Ferdinand of Neillsville, and Herman of Clintonville; his sister, Mrs. Edna Wilms of West Allis; her sisters, Mrs. Nellie Armitage and Mrs. Asa Darling and her husband of Neillsville.  Many friends and neighbors are expected at the open house.