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- WILLIAM GEENEN, who for more than a quarter of a century has been secretary of the Farmers' Home Mutual Insurance Company, is vice-president of the Little Chute State Bank, a prosperous farmer and land holder of Buchanan township, and one of the leading men of his community. He was born in Buchanan township, Outagamie county, February 2, 1864; a son of John and Catherine (Willenson) Geenen, who were born in Holland and married in Freedom township, this county. After their marriage they removed to Buchanan township, where for eight years Mr. Geenen rented land and then bought the farm which is now occupied by his son William. Here John Geenen died in 1890, at the age of sixty-four years, his wife having passed away in 1874, when forty-five years old, and both were buried in the Little Chute Cemetery. William Geenen was the fourth of a family of eight children, and remained at home working for his father until his twenty-third year. He was married June 15, 1887, to Miss Susannah Schumacher, daughter of Peter and Mary (Pauly) Schumacher, natives of Germany. They were married in Wisconsin and settled on a farm in Kaukauna township, from whence they moved in 1872 to Buchanan township, and lived on a farm until retiring to Appleton, in which city Mr. Schumacher died in 1903, aged seventy-eight years, his wife passing away in 1900 when sixty-six years of age, and both were interred in St. Joseph's Cemetery, Appleton. Mrs Geenen was born February 7, 1864, and was the seventh born of her parents' nine children. Mr. and Mrs. Geenen also have had nine children, of whom two are deceased, the survivors being: Ida, Everard, Laura, Marie, William, Paul and Margaret. The second oldest child, Agnes, who lost her life in an accident on the Fox River, in June, 1911, was graduated from the Appleton High School in 1908, and the other child died in infancy. After his marriage, Mr. Geenen engaged in farming and gardening on his father's property, some of which he owned himself, and he also dealt to quite an extent in real estate, at one time owning as high as 145 acres. He started in the florist business in 1893 with a greenhouse of 800 square feet, which he has since increased to 27,000 square feet; operates an eighty-acre farm, which is all fenced with barbed wire, and markets hay and grain. He built his modern house in 1891, which has eight rooms. For eighteen years he was also engaged in the dairy business, and delivered milk in the village of Kimberly, but gave up his route in 1908. A Democrat in his political views, he was elected school clerk when he was only eighteen years of age, and served in that capacity continuously for twenty-six years. He has been secretary of the Farmers' Home Mutual Insurance Company since 1885, and vice-president of the Little Chute State Bank, of which he is also a stockholder. He is a member of St. John's Catholic Church of Little Chute, of which he was a trustee for eighteen years.
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1864 - 1941 (77 years)
