BIOGRAPHIES: Christopher KURSCHNER, Barron, Barron County, WI ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor, or the legal representative of the contributor, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Victor Gulickson 21 June 2000 ==================================================================== Christopher Kurschner, farm superintendent for the Inderrieden Canning Co., of Barron, and formerly sheriff of Barron County, was born in Saxony, Germany, Dec. 13, 1862, son of Martin and Anna (Kallanbach) Kurschner. The parents were poor people, the father being a laborer and being unable to make any progress in their native land, about the close of the American Civil War period they emigrated to this country, arriving at Mazomanie, Dane County, practically destitute. The father, however, found work as a laborer and they remained there a year. They then removed to Black Earth, in the same county, Martin Kurschner being hired as a section hand on the Chicago & Milwaukee Railway, at which work he continued for three years. He then came to Barron County to engage in farming, he and his family traveling by rail to Prairie du Chien, then up the Mississippi and Chippewa Rivers by boat to Durand, Wis., then to Dunnville on the Red Cedar River, and from there by team to Barron County. On arriving here he located on 160 acres of wild land in Prairie Farm, the tract being without buildings and there being at that time not more than five or six families in that community. His first task was to build a small log house with a shake roof, after which he commenced the laborious work of developing a farm. In time his circumstances improved, but his wife Anna was not long permitted to enjoy their hard earned prosperity, as she died about 1878, when her son Christopher was a lad of sixteen. Martin Kurschner subsequently married for his second wife Anna M. Specht. He resided on his farm in Prairie Farm Township until his death, which occurred Jan. 2, 1919. By his first wife, Anna, his children were: Oswald, who is deceased; Christopher, of Barron; Valentine, now a resident of Prairie Farm, Barron County; Nicholas, who lives at Washburn, Wis.; Mary, now Mrs. Lorenzo Wirth, of Appleton, Wis.; Anna, wife of Frank Wirth, of Prairie Farm, and August, also residing at Prairie Farm. By his second wife Martin Kurschner had two children: Louis, now Mrs. Herman Neck, of Prairie Farm, and John, who resides in the same locality. Christopher Kurschner was but two years old when he accompanied his parents to America, and about seven when he came to Barron County. He attended a log schoolhouse in Prairie Farm Township until the age of 15, and remained on the home farm for a year longer. He was then hired as chore boy for a lumber camp in the pineries, and for 17 consecutive winters thereafter he worked in the pineries as boy or "lumberjack," also taking part in fifteen spring "drives" for Knapp, Stout & Co. and John Quaderer, the drives for several seasons being on the Chippewa river. His summers he spent in agricultural work. He had become the owner of a farm of 80 acres in Barron Township, on which he resided two years, but his buildings were, destroyed by fire and he lost everything he had except the land. He then left the farm, which he soon afterwards sold, and started a dray line in Barron. In 1902 he built the Park Hotel, which he operated until 1907, when, on the first Monday in that year he assumed the duties of county sheriff, having been elected to that office, in the previous fall. After serving one term in it, in 1909 he entered the employ of the Waukesha Canning Co., of Barron, as farm superintendent, and so continued until 1911, in which year he became connected with the Wisconsin Pea Canning Co., of Turtle Lake. Then, in the spring of 1912, he took his present position as farm superintendent for the Inderrieden Canning Co. (successors to the Waukesha Co.). Mr. Kurschner has become prominently identified with the industrial interests of the city. He is a Republican in politics, and in addition to his service as sheriff he was for one term an alderman of Barron. His fraternal affiliations are with the Odd Fellows' lodge in Barron, Birch Camp, No. 1268, M. W. A., and the lodge of Mystic Workers at Rice Lake. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On May 12, 1891, Mr. Kurschner assumed the responsibilities of domestic life, being united in marriage with Ada M., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John R. Smith of Prairie Farm, this county, and a native of Indiana. --Taken from: History of Barron Co., Wisconsin, H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co., 1922, pp. 124-125.