This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Heller, Kurtz Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/gFC.2ACI/1358 Message Board Post: Louis Heller, now living retired in North Menomonie after a long and active career in several occupations, but chiefly in farming, was born in Pommern, Germany, Oct 7, 1846. At the age of 15 he started to learn the miller's trade, at which he was subsequently employed in his native land until he was 21. Then in 1867 he came to the United States and directly to Menomonie, Wis. It ook him two weeks to make the journey by train from New York to Milwaukee, and a week longer to reach Menomonie, as he traveled from Milwaukee to Menomonie partly by stage and partly on foot. On arriving here he at once found employment with Knapp, Stout & Co. in their flour mill, where he worked for 2 years. At the end of that time he was transferred to Rice Lake, where he put up a mill for the company. He also built the first hotel in Rice Lake, besides a number of houses and barns for Knapp, Stout & Co. While in Rice Lake he bought 160 acres of land which he sold, after making some improvements on it, to W. Heller, manager there for Knapp, Stout & Co. In 1871 he returned to Menomonie and here followed the carpenter's trade. In August, 1873, Mr. Heller was united in marriage with Emilie Kurtz, like himself a native of Germany, and in December, 1874, they left for a visit to their native land, returning in the following spring, when he again took up carpenter work. Soon afterwards, however, he bought a farm near Knapp, where he and his family made their home for 8 years, and while residing there he built a flour and grist mill at Teegarden for Thomas Teegarden. He then bought some timber land on Wilson Creek, near North Menomonie, built a dam on the creek and for 8 years used the water power to operate a saw and a grist mill. The business grew until the water power finally proved insufficient to operate the mill, and he then changed to steam power, which he used for 7 years. At the end of that time he sold the mill and moved it to Wyoming for the purchaser, again taking up farming, at which he was occupied until 1918, when he retired and took up his residence in North Menomonie. Mr. and Mrs. Louis Heller have been the parents of five children, one of whom, Robert H., is now a farmer in Section 6, town of Menomonie. The other four, Otto, Ida, Anna and Albert, are deceased. ------------- Extracted from The History of Dunn County (1925), p. 563. I have no further information about this family.