BIOGRAPHIES: Eugene ANDRUS, Chetek, Barron County, WI

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:  
Vic Gulickson <vic@indy.net>  8 April 2002	
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Eugene Andrus, better known as F. E. Andrus, at one time a well known
business man, now deceased, was born in New York State, the son of Patrick
and Mary (Gilbert) Andrus, who came west in the early days and located at
Oregon, Wis. He received a good common school education and was reared to
farm pursuits. He was married June 9, 1881, to Charlotte Tate. About 1890
they came to Barron County and secured a farm about seven miles east of
Chetek. There they opened a place of refreshment, which became a well known
stopping point for the loggers and teamsters going from Chippewa Falls and
other points, to the camps in the woods. They also did an extensive
business in manufacturing buckskin mittens for the employees of Knapp,
Stout & Co., employing quite a few girls in this line. After a while they
bought an old cheese factory which had not proved a success, moved it to
the farm, and conducted it for several years, selling the cheese in
Superior, this state. In the meantime they were gradually developing the
farm. In 1893 they sold out, and bought 40 acres on Ten Mile Creek, in
Chetek Township, where they established a poultry farm. About 1900 they
sold out and engaged in the hotel business in Amery, Polk County, this
state. There Mr. Andrus died, Sept. 17, 1905. Mrs. Andrus then conducted
the hotel until 1910, when her daughter was married. She then traded the
hotel for her present property in Chetek, consisting of a house and an acre
of land. Here she has established a greenhouse business. She raises tomato,
cabbage, pepper, cauliflower, and other plants for the spring planting, and
deals in cut flowers for holidays and special occasions, as well as in set
pieces and other floral tributes for funerals. She has built up a good
trade, and being a woman of pleasing personality, is well liked in the
community at large. Mr. and Mrs. Andrus were the parents of two children.
Albert died in infancy. Bertha married Louis Hanson, a Chetek music dealer.
An adopted daughter, Minnie Priganda, better known from girlhood up as
Minnie Andrus, married C. A. Abbott, a Chetek druggist. Charlotte M. Tate
was born in Albany, Greene County, this state, July 30, 1862, daughter of
Walter and Susan (Greene) Tate. The father was born in England, and after
coming to America, found his way to Janesville, Wis., where he married
Susan Greene, who was born in Wilksbarre, Penn., and was brought to
Wisconsin as a child. After their marriage they settled in Greene County,
this state, where they made a specialty of dairying, having an unusually
large number of cows for those days. The father died on the farm, and the
mother subsequently came to Barron County, where she ended her days with
her children. In the family there were nine sons and daughters, Sarah Ann,
Nancy, Susie, Emily Florentine, Clara, Henrietta, Albert D., Charlotte and
Myron. Sarah Ann married Charles Covington, and died at Lexington, Ky.
Nancy is the wife of Theodore Schaefer, and lives near Twin Lakes, Wis.
Susie married John Schaefer, and died at Albany, Wis. Emily Florentine died
in Chetek. Clara married Frank Gilbert, of Chetek. Henrietta married Fred
Schaefer, and died at Barron, this county. Albert D. lives seven miles west
of Chetek. Charlotte married Eugene Andrus. Myron lives in the state of
Washington.

--Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.,
1922, pp. 944-945.