Biographical Sketch of

Charles F Roskie

Transcribed by Sandra Boudrou for the Marquette Co WI Pages


Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, 
published 1890 by Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, Pages 730 - 731 


Hon. Charles F. Roskie, one of the leading merchants of Montello, has been engaged in business in that city since 1866, 
and has built up a trade which numbers him among the substantial citizens of Marquette County.  He is a native of 
Prussia, having been born near Stettien, March 29, 1841.  His parents were Charles F. and Dorothy (Gede) Roskie.  He 
began attending school when six years of age and at the age of ten came with his parents to America.  The household 
consisted of father, mother and three children--Wilhelmina, Charles F. and Ferdinand, but our subject is the only one 
now living.  The party landed in New York City in the summer of 1851, and soon came to the West, locating first in 
Milwaukee, Wis., whence they came to Marquette County, in March, 1852, settling in the town of Harris, where Mr. Roskie, 
Sr., bought land.  He then turned his attention to farming, meeting with good success in that enterprise.  He endeared 
himself to all with whom he became acquainted by his upright and honorable relations in business and social circles.  
In the spring of 1869, he removed to Montello, where his son, Charles F., had established himself three years before 
and there he and his wife passed the remainder of their days, the former dying in 1874, the latter in 1877.
 
Our subject attended the common schools in the town of Harris and assisted his father on the farm and otherwise employed 
himself as profitably as he could during the earlier years of his manhood.  That his course was recognized as straightforward 
and his conduct praiseworthy is evinced by the fact that in 1862, when he had just attained his majority, he was elected 
Treasurer of the town, a responsible office, to which he was re-elected in 1863.  The following year he was the peoples' 
choice for Town Assessor.  Thus began an official career, which has been a credit to himself and the people who placed 
him in that office.  In the winter of 1864, since which time our subject has been sole proprietor of a large mercantile 
establishment, whose trade has not only assumed extensive proportions but is still constantly on the increase.
 
On the 28th of October, 1868, Mr. Roskie was united in marriage with Miss Myra A. Brooks, of Montello, daughter of William 
L. Brooks, who died in the Union service during the late war.  Their union has been blessed with a family of seven children:
Mary Louise, who became the wife of John Krieger, now of Oxford, Wis., in October, 1887; William Frederick, Charles Rodney, 
George Walter; Gracie, who died in infancy; Gertrude Agnes; and Eva, who died in infancy.
 
In 1876, Mr. Roskie was again called to public life by his election to the office of Treasurer of Marquette County, to which 
he was re-elected in 1878.  In 1880, he was elected to represent his district in the Legislature of the State and proved an 
able officer.  His views upon every measure of public importance were enlightened and liberal and he cast his vote with a 
conscientiousness that won him the respect and admiration of his opponents.  In 1885, he was elected County Clerk of Marquette 
County, and his faithfulness to duty led to his re-election in 1886, serving in that office four years as he had done in that 
of County Treasurer.  Mr. Roskie has always been known as a liberal and progressive citizen, ever ready to aid with his services 
and his means any worthy cause in which the public has been interested.  It is to such men that the West owes its wonderful 
development within the few years since it was considered on the very borders of civilization, representing as they do, the best 
order of citizenship in this country.  Though born under a foreign flag, in every relation which he has sustained to the land 
of his adoption, Mr. Roskie has proved the quality of his manhood and his sense of obligation to the Government under which 
his rights and privileges are equal to those of any other citizen, and under which his native ability and integrity of character 
have enabled him to take a position higher than that of a vast majority of his fellow-men.  In politics he is a Republican.  He 
is a friend of education, believing that general enlightenment is the underlying principle of popular freedom.   






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