Frederick Konz (August 5, 1841 – ?) was an American farmer, manufacturer and insurance company office from

Calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

who served a single term as a member of the 1881 session of the

Wisconsin House of Representatives The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, e ...

Background

Konz was born in the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

on the 5th of August, 1841, son of Mathias and Helena Konz. The Konz family came to Wisconsin in 1847 and eventually settled in Calvary, a community in the

Town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

of Marshfield in

Fond du Lac County Fond du Lac County is a county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 104,154. Its county seat is Fond du Lac. The county was created in the Wisconsin Territory in 1836 and later organized in 1844. Fond du La ...

. Frederick received a common school education, leaving school in 1855 to go to Green Bay, where he trained as a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

. He was joined in Green Bay by his older brother John, who studied wagon-making. Fred returned to Calvary in 1860, and became a farmer. In 1862, he and John founded Konz Brothers, a wagon and general repair shop, where they repaired and manufactured buggies and

wagons A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...

. In 1876 Fred became president of the Marshfield Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which he was a co-founder. On November 25, 1869 Fred married Mary Wolf, daughter of Ludwig and Anna K. Wolf (her sister Gertrude had married John Konz five years earlier). As of 1880, they had had nine children.

Public office

Konz held various local offices, and in 1876 became chairman of the town board. A

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

, Konz was elected in 1880 to succeed fellow Democrat Ignatius Klotz (who was not a candidate) as assemblyman for the 4th Fond du Lac County district (the towns of Ashford,

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

Calumet Calumet may refer to: Places United States *Calumet Region, in northern Illinois and Indiana **Calumet River **Calumet Trail, Indiana ** Calumet (East Chicago) * Calumet, Colorado *Calumet, Iowa * Calumet, Michigan *Calumet, Minnesota * Calumet ...

, Eden,

Forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

, Marshfield,

Osceola Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Muscogee language, Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a S ...

and Taycheedah), receiving a vote of 1881, to 543 votes for

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

William Hausman and 79 votes for Greenbacker J. W. Hale. He was assigned to the

standing committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

on privileges and

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

. He was not a candidate for re-election, and was succeeded by another Democrat, Louis Eidemiller. In 1884, he was elected as county

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

.McKenna, Maurice, ed. ''Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin, Past and Present (Volume 1)''. Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1912; p. 96

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konz, Fred 1841 births Year of death unknown 19th-century American politicians Farmers from Wisconsin Mayors of places in Wisconsin Prussian emigrants to the United States Wisconsin Democrats Wisconsin sheriffs People from Marshfield, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin Businesspeople from Wisconsin American blacksmiths American manufacturing businesspeople American businesspeople in insurance