History of Clark County, Wisconsin (1918)

HENRY A. FRANTZ, a successful farmer operating a good eighty-acre farm in Section 14, Washburn Township, was born on his parents' farm in Section 23, this township, Sept. 28, 1869. Henry A. was educated in the district school and trained to agricultural work from his early years. When he began working for himself it was as an employee in a brickyard at Neillsville, where, however, he remained only a short time, beginning work in the timber woods that fall for the Hon. F. D. Lindsey. At first he was engaged as sawyer, afterwards becoming a loader. During two springs he was foreman of the gang employed on the river drive and had charge of a skidding shanty one year, following this kind of work until 1896 or 1897.

In 1898, the Spanish-American War having broken out, Mr. Frantz entered the service of the United States, becoming a member of' Company A, Third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and taking part as a non-commissioned officer in the Porto-Rica campaign. He was honorably discharged Jan. 5, 1899, but on May 9, that year, re-enlisted in the regular army, being made corporal June 20, and sergeant July 25. This second enlistment was in Company B, 14th U. S. Infantry, from which, however, he was transferred in 1900, to Company L. As a member of that company and regiment Mr. Frantz saw service in the Philippine Islands for one year and eleven months and was in the Chinese campaign from July to October, 1900, subsequently returning to the Philippine Islands where he remained until July 14, 1901. He then returned to the United States, being stationed at the barracks at Ft. Porter, N. Y., until honorably discharged.

On his return home, or rather on May 20, 1902, he was married to Minnie Augusta Bartz, who came from Buffalo, N. Y., and was a daughter of Herman Bartz. On his return to Wisconsin he located with his wife on his present farm in, Section 14, Washburn Township, Clark County, the tract at that time consisting only of forty acres, of which five acres was cleared, the-rest being covered with stumps. He has since increased the size of his farm to eighty acres and has thirty-five acres under cultivation. He has built a silo, 12 by 20 feet, with a capacity of fifty tons, and raises a good grade of Holstein cattle.

Mr. Frantz is also a stockholder in the butter factory at Shortville and in the Farmers' Co-operative and Elevator Company of Neillsville. For thirty years he has been engaged in the threshing business with his brother Conrad, beginning with the old horsepower machine, but now using traction power. At presentable is conducting this business by himself, having dissolved partnership with Conrad.

Mr. Frantz has served on the township board and has also been supervisor several times and a member of the school board, helping to organize the school district and to build the schoolhouse. He belongs to the Odd Fellows' Lodge at Neillsville, also to the Mystic Workers the Beavers, and the Ancient branch of the Woodmen, of Lincoln, Neb.

He and his wife have five children: Helen, Oscar, Harry, Edward, and Harold Wilson.