Source: History of Sheboygan County Wisconsin - Vol. II, p. 432
Carl Zillier, Editor
S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, 1912

Franz A. Fenner, who owns and operates the Spring Brook Cheese Factory, is a native of Sheboygan county, his birth having here occurred on the 14th of September, 1865. He is a son of William and Frederica Fenner, natives of Germany, who emigrated to the United States in 1860, and located on a farm in Sheboygan Falls township. There the mother passed away in 1886 and the father in 1911. They were the parents of eight children: Herman, who is married and living in Sheboygan Falls township; Augusta, the widow of August Luedtke, of Milwaukee; August, who is married and living on the old homestead; Pauline, who married William Radtke, of Milwaukee; Franz, our subject; Otto, who married and located in Sheboygan Falls, where he passed away June 1, 1904; Emma, the wife of Richard Federwisch, of Sheboygan Falls township; and William, who is married and residing in Lima township.

The education of Franz Fenner was acquired in the district and German Lutheran parochial schools of Sheboygan county. He remained at home and assisted his father with the farm work until he was a youth of seventeen years, when he learned the trade of cheese making. His energies have ever since been applied to this vocation in which he has met with more than average success. He has always been thrifty and enterprising, and in 1900 he realized the ambition of his early manhood by acquiring a factory of his own. His long years of experience and close observation of the methods followed by his various employers have proven of invaluable assistance to him in developing his own enterprise, which is one of the firmly established and thriving industries of the community. His product being of an excellent quality and uniform grade finds a ready market and he is enjoying a large and constantly increasing patronage, his brand having become well and favorably known to the trade throughout this section of the middle west.

On the 27th of June, 1896, Mr. Fenner was united in marriage to Miss Mary Neubert, a daughter of Godfrey and Elizabeth Neubert, natives of Germany, who emigrated to this country in 1886 and located in Sheboygan, where they passed the remainder of their lives. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Fenner numbers four: Ruth, Dora, Herbert and Ernest, all of whom are attending school.

The family attend the services of the Lutheran church of Sheboygan Falls, in which the parents hold membership, and fraternally Mr. Fenner is affiliated with the Equitable Fraternal Union and also carries policies in the North Western and Equitable companies. He is a Socialist in his political views, and has served as school treasurer in district No. 12.

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