BIOGRAPHIES: Bernhardt TANZ, Albany Township, Pepin Co., WI

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Submitted by:  oldstufn@hotmail.com  on  26 May 2005
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Bernhardt Tanz, a general farmer, residing in section 23, Albany 
township, Pepin county, is one of the successful and prosperous citizens 
of his township, his farm of 360 acres, with modern equipment, being a 
valuable piece of property.  He was born in Saxony, Germany, Sept. 11, 
1852, son of Caspar and Elizabeth (Bitner) Tanz, both natives of that 
German state.  The family came to America in 1872 and, locating in Pepin 
county, Wisconsin, resided in German Valley one summer, and then came to 
the farm now owned and operated by the subject of this sketch.  Here they 
took up their abode in a small log dwelling measuring 12 by 16 feet, and 
Caspar Tanz, undaunted by the heavy labor before him, started in to 
improve the land.  This work he continued for eight years or more and 
then relinquished it, his son taking the far, and he being called away 
by death in 1888.  He was already a widower, having lost his wife in 1886.  
Neither were able to speak the English language, as they mingled little 
with the English-speaking population. Bernhardt Tanz was the fifth born of 
his parents' seven children. He was educated in Germany and never attended 
an English school.  Working for his father until 1880, he then bought the 
home farm, on which he has resided since youth and which, as above stated, 
contains 360 acres of land.  He has put in a number of valuable improvements 
in the shape of modern buildings and machinery  and his reputation as a 
successful general farmer stands high in the community.  In addition to 
the money he has invested in his far, he is a stockholder in the creamery 
and in the elevator at Mondovi. Mr. Tanz's marriage occurred June 21, 1880, 
to Anna Ronneberger, who, like himself, was born in Saxony, Germany, her 
parents being Gottfried and Henrietta (Klopfiel) Ronneberger.  Coming to 
America in 1869, they located in Albany township, this county, where Mr. 
Ronneberger died at the venerable age of 95 years, in the fall of 1916.  
His wife was almost his equal in longevity, as she had passed away only 
two years before at the age of 90.  Such a long lease of life proves that 
both had come of healthy stock and had lived careful and regular lives.  
Mr. and Mrs. Tanz have had a family of nine children, the first born of 
whom died young.  The others are: Frank, a farmer in Eau Claire county, 
Wisconsin; Minnie and William, residing on the home farm;  Edward, who is 
a buttermaker, residing in Washington; Oscar, living at home;  Ida, a 
teacher, also at home;  Hilda, wife of Glen Hardy, a farmer near Mondovi, 
and Walter, who lives at Oshkosh, Wis. 

-Transcribed from the "History of Buffalo and Pepin Counties Wisconsin, 
1919," page 708

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