History of Lincoln, Oneida and Vilas Counties

"History of Lincoln, Oneida, and Vilas Counties Wisconsin"

Compiled by George O.Jones, Norman S. McVean and Others. Printed in 1924 by H.C.Cooper. Jr. & Co., Minneapoli-Winona MN. ill. 787 pages. The first two hundred pages are history of the three counties, the remainder of the book is biographies.

Biography

Pautz, Charles the founder of a well established mercantile business in Rhinelander, which he is still conducting after a successful career of many years, was born in Germany, Nov. 3, 1853, son of Louis and Ernstina (KOHLHOFF) PAUTZ. The parents came to this country in 1872, settling near Watertown, Wis., where they spent the remainder of their lives in farming. Charles PAUTZ was educated in his native land, where he spent the first 16 years of his life. He then came to the United States, landing at New York and proceeding west to Watertown, Wis., where, or in which vicinity, he worked for the next two years as a farm laborer. He then set out on a wandering trip through several different states, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, stopping in various places where he obtained work. These experiences, which lasted several years, gave him a fairly good knowledge of the Middle West; but without stopping very long at any particular place, he finally wandered back to Wisconsin and got as far north as Wausau, where he went to work for the Stewart Lumber Company. While in their employ he was sent to Rhinelander to work on the big dam they were building here and remained until it was finished. He subsequently continued in the employ of that company at Wausau, until the spring of 1885, when he left them and, coming to Rhinelander, entered the employ of Brown Brothers, lumbermen, for whom he worked many years, in the woods during the winter and on the drives during the spring and summer. At the end of that time, Mr. PAUTZ, then about 48 years old, took one of the most important steps in his life by quitting the lumber business in which he had always worked for others, an going into business for himself as a merchant. In association with Ira CASS he opened a grocery store which they carried on together for something less than a year, when Mr. PAUTZ sold his interest to his partner, and in May, 1899, bought the grocery business of Adolph FIALY, located at 126 Thayer Street. As Mr. PAUTZ describes it, it was "a small business carried on in a small shack," but to an enterprising man it proved capable of expansion, and he bagan to build it up. As his trade grew he rebuilt and enlarged the building, and having since continued to make improvements whenever needed, and to enlarge his stock with the demands of his trade, he is today the proprietor of a fine general store, and is doing a large business as one of Rhinelander's most popular merchants. Mr. PAUTZ was married in Rhinelander, March 26, 1891, to Martha ERDMAN, and he and his wife are the parents of four children: Louis, who is in the employ of the "Soo" Railway at Rhinelander; Charles, who is with the Jackson Milling Co. at Stevens Point; Harry, now attending the Normal School at Whitewater, Wis.; and Walter, who is a high school pupil in Rhinelander. Mr. PAUTZ and his family are members of the German Lutheran Church and he belongs also to the fraternal orders of Odd Fellows and Maccabees.

Transcribed by Susan Swanson, from pages 323-324, History of Lincoln, Oneida and Vilas Counties Wisconsin; Compiled by George O. Jones, Norman S. McVean and Others 1924, H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.

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