BIOGRAPHIES:   John LATSCH, Latsch Valley, Trempealeau Co., WI

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Submitted by:  Nance Sampson, Trempealeau Co. WIGenWeb CC on 26 October 2003
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**Posted for informational purposes only - poster is not related to the 
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John Latsch, founder of the firm of Latsch & Son, Winona, Minn., and the first 
settler in Latsch Valley, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, was born in Wald 
Canton Zurich, Switzerland, March 18, 1832, and was educated in the public 
schools of his native country.  After completing his schooling he was employed 
for about six months in the drug business at Frankfort-on-the-Main.  Later he 
was engaged in Paris at the Chocolet Menier factory.  He remained in Paris 
three years and then decided to emigrate to America.  He had heard of the 
wonderful opportunities in the new country, and had planned to cross the 
mighty Atlantic and cast his lot with the great republic whose form of 
government appealed to the liberty-loving native of the free land of lofty 
mountains.  Therefore, in 1854, he sailed for this country, coming by way of 
the Great Lakes to Green Bay.  From there he went south, determined to look the 
country over before making a permanent settlement.  The new country thrilled 
him with its prospective enterprise, and the horizon loomed large with 
undeveloped resources, while the atmosphere was vibrant with the spirit of 
adventure.  The wanderlust seized the Swiss youth and he went from place to 
place, drinking in the strange sights of the land and seeking an opportunity 
for his brain and muscle in the rich regions of the Gulf states.  During his 
first year in America he traveled some ten thousand miles, and at last found 
desirable employment in the cyprus swamps of Louisiana cutting timber for barrel 
staves.  He had been at work but a few months when he was taken down with 
malarial fever and was removed to a hospital in New Orleans, where he was 
confined for some time.  When he was convalescent he returned north in 1855 and 
located in Dakota, Winona County, Minn.  After remaining there about a year he 
decided to look over Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, with a view to locating land, 
as the new country was being rapidly settled by homeseekers from the East, and 
by people from southern Wisconsin.  In 1856 he pre-empted government land in 
Trempealeau County, in a valley three miles northeast of Dodge.  He settled near 
a creek at the mouth of this valley, and purchased some state land adjoining his 
claim, in the same county, as well as some state land in Buffalo County.  After 
his marriage in 1859 he continued to improve his farm land in Trempealeau County.  
He also taught a few terms of school and served for a while as justice of the 
peace.  Feb. 27, 1864, he enlisted in Company C, Twenty-fifth Wisconsin Infantry, 
was mustered in at La Crosse, and was transferred the following spring to Company 
E, Twelfth Wisconsin Infantry, in which command he participated in Sherman's 
famous march to the sea.  At the close of the war he was mustered out at 
Louisville, Ky., and resumed farming in Trempealeau County.  But in 1866 he met 
with an accident, which compelled him to abandon agricultrual pursuits.  His foot 
was badly cut with a breaking plow, and the injury left him a cripple for several 
years.  In 1867 he moved his family to Winona and there engaged in the retail 
grocery business, which he conducted until 1887, when he, T. J. Preece and John 
A. Latsch established the wholesale grocery business of Preece and Latsch Company.  
This was the beginning of the business which is now one of the largest of its kind 
in the Northwest.  In 1892 he purchased Mr. Preece's interest and the firm became 
Latsch & Son.  Mr. Latsch's activities were not confined to this business, which 
he was instrumental in building up, but extended to other lines.  For many years 
and up to the time of his death he was director of the First National Bank.  He 
also served a term as alderman of Winona.  He revisited his native country three 
times -- in 1873, 1882 and in 1900.  Mr. Latsch was highly esteemed by all in his 
wide circle of acquaintances and his death was sincerely mourned by many.  The 
subject of this sketch was married in Buffalo County, Wisconsin, in 1859, to Anna 
Buol.  Four children were born:  John A. Latsch; Nettie, who died in 1887; Emma, 
who died in 1873, and Edward G. Latsch, who died in 1909.  Mrs. Anna Latsch died 
in 1898.  In October, 1899, Mr. Latsch married Mrs. Ursula Ruedy of Bangor, Wis., 
the wedding taking place in Minneapolis.  Mr. Latsch passed away May 21, 1909.  
An extract from a former history of Trempealeau County, regarding Latsch Valley, 
is well worthy of preservation in this sketch.  The history says:  From 1865 to 
1870 a number of Polish and Hungarian settlers located in the main portion of 
Latsch Valley, and in honor of these Hungarian pioneers the valley was called 
Hungary Valley, from their native land.  But this long narrow valley that sets 
back from the Trempealeau River will live in history of Latsch Valley, and the 
Trempealeau County Historical Society is glad to honor the memory of a man whose 
life history reads like a romance -- a man who came here and used his energetic 
brain and capital in wresting a part of our fertile territory from the wilderness.  
The wild rough country did not discourage this Swiss youth; he was used to the 
mighty Alps, and could see the great possibilities in agriculture in this land of 
cozy valleys and wooded hills.  With the energy characteristic of his race he set 
to work and accomplished things.  Others followed, and if there used to be anything 
in the saying that a person would get hungry wandering through Hungary Valley (on 
account of its length and meager settlement), it is not true today, because there 
is abundance written on every farm in this sequestered glen.

- Transcribed from the "History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917," 
pages 785-787


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