Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 4 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 40

Since 1907 Henry Charles Schranck has been associated with the H. C. Schranck Company, Incorporated, as president and his keen business insight and executive ability have won for him a place among the foremost business men of Milwaukee. He was born September 3, 1853, in Block 56, and has been identified with that community throughout his life. He is a descendant of an old and honored Bavarian family and nis grandfather was born and died in that country. His father, Valentine Schranck, passed away in 1864. He was a native of Bavaria but left his native land in 1848 and came to the United States, locating in Milwaukee. He soon became one of the representative citizens of the community and in addition to being a member of the council for a number of years, held other public offices in Milwaukee. Mrs. Schranck was born in Hessia, Germany, and came to this country in childhood. She settled in Milwaukee and there met her future husband to whom she was married in 1852. Mrs. Schranck passed away in 1904.

Henry Charles Schranck is indebted to the St. Mary's parochial school in Milwaukee for his education until he was twelve years of age, when he entered the old German-English Academy from which institution he was graduated in 1868. Upon putting his textbooks aside he went into the drug business as clerk for William Ritmeier and for four years continued in that connection. He then went to New York and entered Columbia University, where he specialized in chemistry and graduated in 1876. Subsequently he returned to Milwaukee and with Francis Ladwig established a drug business, conducting it under the name of Ladwig & Schranck. This partnership continued until 1907, when Mr. Schranck bought out his partner and incorporated as the H. C. Schranck Company, of which he has been president ever since. Three of his sons are also in the organization. The company manufactures all kinds of flavors for soda water bottlers and ice cream and candy manufacturers and its trade is an extensive one, extending from the Ohio river to the Pacific Coast and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. It maintains agencies in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Winnipeg and Montreal. Upon the incorporation of the company the capital stock amounted to twenty-five thousand dollars and it has since increased to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and is readily conceded to be one of the largest concerns of its kind in the United States.

Mr. Schranck has been twice married. His first marriage occurred on the 22nd of May, 1877, to Bertha Fernekes. a daughter of Charles Fernekes, a well-known confectioner of Valparaiso, Indiana. Mr. Fernekes was born in the same Bavarian community as Valentine Schranck, the father of Henry Charles Schranck, and as a young man came to this country and located in Indiana. Mrs. Schranck passed away in 1913. On the 22nd of September, 1915, Mr. Schranck was married to Elise Wohlgemuth of Des Moines, Iowa, a daughter of Richard Wohlgemuth of that place. To the first union three sons were born: Valentine E., Henry C, Jr., and Walter. The eldest son is treasurer of the H. C. Schranck Company and has charge of the laboratory. He is unmarried; Henry C. has charge of the bakery and confectionery end of the business. He married Lillian Esser of Milwaukee, a daughter of Herman Esser and they have a daughter, Elizabeth. Henry C. Schranck, Jr., subordinated all personal interests during the World war and served as first lieutenant in the medical department. He is one of the directors of the company, also, as is his younger brother Walter who is sales manager. All three sons attended the University of Wisconsin, from which institution they graduated and each specialized in chemistry.

Since attaining his majority Mr. Schranck has been a stanch supporter of the democratic party, in the interests of which he has always taken an active and prominent part. He proved his popularity as alderman, serving the first ward in that capacity for a period covering ten years and while a member of the council he was chairman of the finance committee. For several years he was also active as treasurer of the democratic county committee. The family are communicants of the Catholic church, being members of St. Mary's parish. Along purely social lines Mr. Schranck is a member of the Wisconsin and Milwaukee Athletic Clubs and along the line of his business was a member of the State Board of Pharmacy of Wisconsin, which organization he served as president for thirteen years. In the musical circles of Milwaukee Mr. Schranck has always been an outstanding figure and he was one of the executive officers in the National Saengerfest of 1886 and also of all saengerfests since that time. For five years he was president of the Musical Society of Milwaukee and for twenty years treasurer of that organization. He also finds recreation in good literature, being an inveterate reader and his home at 781 Marshall street contains one of the finest private libraries in the city. An energetic business man, Mr. Schranck's success in life has been on a parity with his well-directed endeavors and under his able management as chief executive the H. C. Schranck Company, Incorporated, has become one of broad scope and importance, while the high reputation of the company constitutes its best business asset.