MICHAEL GRASSER: 1874 – 1961

On a 73 acre farm near St. Wendel in the Town of Centerville of present day Cleveland, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin was born to Stephan and Maria Grasser their thirteenth and final child whom they named Michael. His birth was in year 1874, occurring on the Thurday of the 26th during the wintry month of February. His godfather and namesake was his maternal uncle, Michael Wagner, who was the husband of Susanna Fischbach, the sister to Stephan Grasser's wife, Maria. 

Michael's parents were immigrants to this country. Although of German descent, Stephan came to America in 1846 from the Alsatian village of Auenheim, which was in the French department of the Lower Rhine. Maria on the other hand came with her parents and siblings in the year 1852 from the village of Leudelingen, which was located in the canton of Bettembourg of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. Both families came to this new land hoping to find a better life for themselves and their children. 

Stephan Grasser was sixty years old when he had Michael. And because of his elder years, much of Mike's time during his youth was engaged in practical labor on his father's farm. This was probably why Mike was able only to receive a third grade education.

When Mike was about sixteen, he moved with his parents to Sheboygan where they retired after selling their farm. Eventually Mike found employment at the Sheboygan Chair Co. where he made wooden chairs.

After reaching his majority, Mike headed for Chicago. He worked for awhile at his brother-in-law, Fred Heyden's hay, grain, and feed store. He also worked for a time as a cement finisher laying in new sidewalks. 

Eventually Mike returned to the land where he was raised, Manitowoc County and the Town of Centerville. He found work there by hiring himself out as a farm hand to local farmers. Wilhelmina Rades at that time was employed as a housekeeper in the next town over called Meeme. The two met by chance, and after Wilhelmina's conversion to Catholicism they married on February 20th, 1898 at SS. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Kiel, Wisconsin.

Wilhelmina was the eldest of eight children. She was born November 1st, 1876 near the Wisconsin community of Rockville, located in the Town of Schleswig and the county of Manitowoc to immigrant parents also. Her father, Friedrich Wilhelm Rades came to the United States in 1867 from the Prussian town of Jacobshagen in the district of Saatzig and the province of Pomerania, which is now a part of northern Poland since the end of the second world war. Her mother, Margaretha Stahmer, arrived from the Danish Duchy of Schleswig and the village of Schleswig, which is a part of modern-day Germany. The Rades, Stahmer, Grasser, and Fischbach families all came to this country looking, searching basically for the same thing, a chance to find and live the American dream.

After their marriage, Mike and Minnie, as they were commonly called, wound up on a farm in the Town of Eaton, which was also in Manitowoc County. Mike found work there as a farm hand. They received room and board plus wages. It was here not far from St. Nazianz on December 3rd, 1898 that Wilhelmina gave birth to their first child, a girl, whom they named Erna. Not long after that, they moved to the Town of New Holstein in Calumet County, Wisconsin and to the Claus Wichmann farm where Mike performed similar work. On December 21st, 1900 their second child was born, a son, Raymond. It is of interest to note that Mike Grasser was the only one of his three brothers able to carry the family name of "Grasser" to future generations.

Claus Wichmann was a well to do farmer in New Holstein. He took a real liking to Mike and his young family. He encouraged him that the only way for him to get ahead was by him owning his own farm instead of working for others. Claus and Mike even traveled to the Peshtigo area around 1901 on horseback to scout out some land that was being sold relatively cheap by the Peshtigo Lumber Co. Mike found a piece of land that he liked. It was a little over eighty-six acres and bordered the Peshtigo River. The only way that they were able to get to it was by an old logging supply trail that ran the whole southern length of the property by the river. 

On July 21st, 1902 Claus Wichmann helped Mike get his start in farming by buying this land for him from the Peshtigo Lumber Company at a price of $800. Once Mike was able financially, he had the option to buy the title from Mr. Wichmann at the going market price, which he accomplished twelve years later on April 23rd, 1914. He paid him $1,250 for the land.

In 1902 when the Grasser family finally moved to their wilderness home near Porterfield, they had to first rent for a while an old house which was about a mile and a half west of their new property. This house was on the Kingston farm, and here was where their third child, Sylvia, was born to them on January 7th, 1903.

Mike began the arduous task of building his family a home on their property, which he made from logs placed vertically in the ground. He also built a log barn and dug a well nearby. In 1904 the Grassers were finally able to move into their pioneer home. And later that same year, on December 3rd their fourth child was born to them whom they named Cyrill. Mike and Minnie eventually had eight more children while living on this farm, namely: Myron, born September 26th, 1907; Elmyra, born July 12th, 1909; Leona, born August 2nd, 1911; Sylvanus, born July 21st, 1913; and Everist, born March 1st, 1917. Another child plus a set of twins were also born to them, but they all died in infancy.

The Grasser farm originally was covered with abundant flora and fauna. Some trees had trunks six feet in diameter with an average size of three to four feet. It was a logger's paradise. That's why the Peshtigo Lumber Company owned this parcel. They owned vast tracts of land in that area, and during the 1880's and 1890's they commercially logged most of the prime timber leaving only the stumps behind. 

The first few years that Mike farmed his land, he had to plow his fields around these massive and numerous tree stumps. He was able to eke out only a meager subsistence in the beginning. That's why during the fall and winter months, he would hire himself out with his team of horses and sled to the lumber camps to cut and haul logs. In this way he was able to support his family until he could make his farm more productive and self-sufficient.

Mike was able to clear about half of the land himself and put it under the plow. He removed all the tree stumps and large rocks by using dynamite. It would take four or five sticks on an average to take care of one stump. Some of the bigger stumps took seven sticks. He would usually place a charge under five or six stumps at a time and blow them up all at the same time. Then with his team of horses, he would haul the stumps away and burn them. Next he would plow the ground where the stumps were. And by using a long flat board attached behind his horses which was called a slush board, he could fill in the holes and level the surrounding area.

During the year 1915, Mike hired two German immigrants to finish clearing the under growth on the remaining forty acres. They received $1 a day plus room and board. It took them two years to finally clear the rest of the land.

Mike was mainly a produce farmer, but later around 1913 he specialized in dairy farming. He grew potatoes, cabbage and carrots, which he sold commercially. He also raised chickens and sold eggs. His livestock consisted of horses, cows, pigs and sheep with the later two used only for family consumption. Mike also planted an apple orchard for family use, which included fifteen different varieties of apples. Other grains that he grew were used as feed for his livestock. His wife, Minnie, took care of the vegetable garden, which was solely for the family's use.

The last of four barns that he built on his property was constructed in 1913. This barn was the biggest and had many stanchions installed for his milking cows. All the stones used in the foundation were from his farm, and he used a lime mortar to hold themsecurely together. The wood for the barn was cut special from hand picked trees that he felled in the forest and hauled to the sawmill. He and the master carpenter utilizing a horse-powered capstan put all the planking and beams together. Upon the completion of the barn, Mike was able to commercially start his dairy operation. And his farm finally began to turn a profit. 

The Grasser family suffered a set back around 1918 when Mike was unloading a 300 lb. barrel of salt from the rear of a high-wheeled wagon. Normally he could handle such load by himself for he was a very big and powerful man. But the horses unexpectedly moved causing Mike to lose his balance. He fell with the barrel landing on his leg, breaking his thighbone. Cyrill had to ride bareback over to the town of Porterville so that he could call the doctor by phone in Marinette. Mike later had to have a silver plate put in his thigh so that the bone could mend. After convalescing for a while, he got anxious to get back to farming, but when he stood up on his bad leg, he felt something happen to it. His leg later swelled up. It was diagnosed as "Milk Leg". He also developed varicose ulcers on this leg. He suffered two years with this affliction and was totally unable to do any farming. His children and especially Cyrill, for he was the eldest boy still living at home, ran the farm while their father was laid up. In 1919 Raymond came home to help out with the farm work also.

In 1923 Mike had another serious accident that set him back. While cutting firewood with his power saw, the arbor which held the 36" saw blade in place broke and the blade spun off cutting Mike's left arm. He had to have fifty-two stitches, and his left hand partially became paralyzed. During his long recovery, Sylvanus and Everist ran the farm.
After forty years of hard toil, Mike finally sold his farm on December 19th, 1941 to his youngest son, Everist. Mike was sixty-eight years old when he retired from farming.

Mike and Minnie remained on the farm for a while but later decided to come to Chicago to live. They first lived with their daughter, Elmyra, and her family, but later around 1945 they lived with their son, Cyrill, and his family. In Chicago Mike found employment as a night watchman, and Minnie did assembly work for the Littel Fuse Co. They both worked for a few more years in order to supplement their income after which they finally retired. Their retirement was made somewhat financially easier after the tragic death of their son, Sylvanus, for he thoughtfully provided for them in a life insurance policy that he procured before going overseas to war.

During the month of September in the year 1947, Mike and Minnie left for Wisconsin and a visit to their old farm. They got as far as Sheboygan when Minnie became very sick. She remained in Sheboygan to recuperate while Mike proceeded to the farm. He wasn't there long before getting word that his wife's condition worsened. After returning to Sheboygan, his wife, Minnie, died on September 17th, at the age of seventy. She was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Upon Mike's return to Chicago, he took up residency at his daughter, Elmyra's home. During the summer months he usually stayed there, but during the winter months, he would travel to Phoenix or Tucson, Arizona. Walter Mills, who was Myron Grasser's father-in-law, often accompanied him on those trips. Sometimes Mike would travel to Hot Springs, Arkansas for the mineral baths there.

About 1958 Mike's health deteriorated to such a degree that his daughter, Erna, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin took him in and cared for him the last three and a half years of his life. He survived his wife, Minnie, by almost fourteen years. Dying on September 3rd, 1961 at the age of eighty-seven, he was buried next to his wife in Calvary Cemetery.

Michael Grasser Biography
Copyrighted © 2014 by Allen P. Grasser