John Birk Biography - Grant County Wisconsin

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Submitted by David W. Taft, dtaft @ cowtown.net

History of Grant County Wisconsin
Western Historical Publishing, Chicago, July 1881
Town of Muscoda, Biographical Sketches, Page 962

JOHN BIRK, farmer, Secs. 25 and 36; P. O. Muscoda; owns 200 acres of land; was 
born in Prussia near the Rhine in 1811 (the country then belonged to France); 
was a son of John and Mary Thomas, who were natives of the same place; he 
learned the tailor's trade with his Father, and worked at it until 21 years old, 
when he engaged in farming; he came to America in 1853, and located in Mahoning 
Co., Ohio, where for four years he engaged in coal mining; in July, 1865, he 
came to Muscoda and bought the farm where he now lives. He was married in the 
old country in 1839, to Miss Louisa Heints.  They had three children, two came 
to this country with him; she died in 1845; in 1846, he again married Miss 
Margaret Baker, by whom he had one child born in the old country, and eleven in 
this; one son, Peter, enlisted in the 15th Ohio Battery, and served with it 
during the war, participating in fourteen battles, he was but a little over 14 
years old when he enlisted.  Mr. Birk has been an energetic, successful business 
man.