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COMMEMORA TIVE BIOGRAPII[CAL RECORD.
enlarge his store by adding to it from
time to time. The business at last had
grown to such proportions ill i887 that
he was compelled to open a branch store
in Green Bay, and form a joint-stock
company composed of himself and his
two brothers-in-law, G. A. and F. T.
Blesch, under the firm name of Jorgen-
sen, Blesch & Co. Soon the branch
store became the chief one, and Mr.
Jorgensen found himself under the neces-
sity of building a new store on the same
street, opposite the old one, which he
fitted with all modern improvements, and
to-day it is without exception the largest
dry-goods and carpet store in northern
Wisconsin.
    In 1877 John L. Jorgensen was mar-
ried at Fort Howard, NVis., to Miss
Sophia Blesch, daughter of Francis and
Antoinette (Schneider) Blesch, natives,
the father of Bingen-on-the-Rhine, Ger-
many, the mother of Brussels, Belgium.
Mrs. Jorgensen was born and educated at
Fort Howard, is a lady of refined tastes,
a great reader, a lover of home, flowers
and home intluences, and, withal, special-
ly excelling as a musician. Our subject
in his political preferences is a Republi-
can, and in social affiliations is a member
of the I. 0. 0. F., A. 0. U. WN. and
Royal Arcanum; in the I. 0. 0. F. he is
grand master for the State of \Visconsin,
and he was instrumental in having the I.
0. 0. F. Horme established in Green Bay,
where at present some thirty members
find a home and shelter, and he has been
general manager and superintendent of
this institution since its establishmnent.
    ILLIAM LUEKE, the able and
         efficient county treasurer of
         Brown county, stands promi-
         nent among the German-Ameri-
can citizens of northern Wisconsin, by
reason of his popularity, his administra-
tive abilities and his long-established
reputation for honesty and loyalty.
   He was born December 24, I850, in
Fahlenverder, Province of Brandenburg,
Prussia, Germany, of which province, in
the city of Nauen, Potsdam, his ancestors,
who were for the most part millers by oc-
cupation, as far back as can be traced,
had -a local habitation and a name."
Here his father, Charles F. Lueke, was
born December 4, I822, and here he was
reared and taught the trade of miller in
the ancestral mills. After serving his ap-
prenticeship he became a journeyman in
the business, traveling from place to place
(as is the custom in the Fatherland),
finally settling in Fahlenverder, where he
married Miss Amelia Hordlemann, young-
est dauzhter of one of the prosperous
farmers of that locality. Here to Mr.
and Mrs. Lueke were born two children,
\Villiam (our subject) and Louisa, the lat-
ter of wvhoin died in Milwaukee, Wis.,
shortly after the family's arrival in the
\Vestern World, in the fall of 1854, the
then village of Green Bay being their ob-
jective point. Here the father first found
employment with G. T. Kyber, in the
construction of the old military plank
road running from Green Bay to Fond du
Lac, next spring moving to De Pere,
where he found employment as a miller,
his legitimate vocation, and so continued
until i86o, in which year he bought a
mill on Cedar creek, near Green Bay. In
the following year, however, he abandoned
this and, returning to De Pere, made his
home there till the spring of 1867, at
which time he moved to AVrightstown,
where he built a gristmill, on the East
river, more frequently called   - Devil
river," which nill he successfully operated
till July 4, i88o, when it was destroyed
by fire; he also owned a fine farm of i6o
acres of land. Selling out this property
in the fall of i88o, he removed to Mani-
towoc, and here remained till the spring
of 1883, the year of his taking up his resi-
dence in Greenleaf, Brown county, where,
in association with his son William, he es-
tablished a grain and general mercantile
business, which they successfully con-
ducted till April 7, 189o, when they dis-
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