Pgs 805 – 806

HENRY J. BLOECHER, president of the village of Wittenberg, has been a resident, of Shawano county since 1880. Wisconsin would have reason to be very proud of her native sons if all were like this gentleman.
     
Mr. Bloecher was born in Forest township, Fond du Lac county, June 26, 1857, and is a son of Jacob and Eliza (Weil) Bloecher, both natives of Germany. On coming to this country the father located in Fond du Lac, Wis., where he worked at day's labor for a time, and after a few years removed to Forest township, where he purchased forty acres of land. He afterward bought another forty-acre tract, and transformed it from its primitive condition into a fine farm. Subsequently he sold, and removed to Friendship township, in the same county, where he bought an improved farm of eighty acres, on which he has since resided. His wife died on that place. He is a practical and enterprising agriculturist, and has achieved a well-merited success. In the family were eight children: Mary, wife of Charles Racow, a farmer of Dakota; Henry J.; Amelia, wife of Louis Ganger, of Oshkosh, Wis.; Ellen, wife of Frank Minske, a farmer of South Dakota; Louis, marshal of the village of Wittenberg; Lydia, wife of Henry Yaeger, an agriculturist of Wittenberg township, Shawano county; Emma, wife of Henry Heilman, of Oshkosh; and William F., who is living with his father.
     
Henry J. Bloecher acquired a common-school education, and obtained his first knowledge of farming under his father's direction, in Forest township, Fond du Lac county. He remained at home until seventeen years of age, when he began working in the lumber woods, and since that time has earned his own living. He remained in the vicinity of his native home until 1880, when he came to Shawano county, at which time Tigerton was the terminus of the railroad. Here he first engaged in railroading, and in 1881 purchased forty acres of land, upon which not a furrow had been turned, or an improvement made. He at once began to clear the place, and acre after acre was placed under the plow, and transformed into fertile fields. He has dealt, to some extent, in land, and today is the owner of 120 acres, of which twenty acres are under cultivation. Besides his land speculations, he has also been employed in the Gralapp sawmill. Mr. Bloecher erected a residence in Wittenberg, and in 1883 was united in marriage with Miss Amelia Gralapp, daughter of Charles Gralapp. Six children grace their union: George Henry, Tina A., Chester W., Esther, Tilda and Oscar L.
     
Mr. Bloecher is a warm advocate of Republican principles, and has served his town and township in various positions of trust with credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. He was town treasurer for three years, was elected a trustee on the incorporation of Wittenberg, in 1883, and the following year he served as assessor. He is now the efficient president of the village, and does all in his power to promote its educational, moral, social and material welfare. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church, and have many warm friends.