Somers Fuel, Grain & Supply Co.

  

Henry Lytle's original mill at Somers, Wisconsin
(Source:  Kenosha News photo, March 17, 1973.  Copy courtesy of Joe Huck.)

Glen Fonk works on some corn shelling equipment at Somers Fuel, Grain and Supply Co.
(Source:  Kenosha News photo March 17, 1973.  Copy courtesy of Joe Huck)

  



Tom Cox of Somers Fuel, Grain and Supply Co.
(Source:  Kenosha News photo March 17, 1973



Map of Somers "village" showing location of the original S. Lytle & Sons Feed Mill next to the railroad



 History of S. Lytle & Sons Feed Mill and Somers Fuel, Grain and Supply Co.
"Unlike a lot of new buildings that fall down, the old wood frame structure of the Somers Fuel, Grain and Supply Co. will have to be torn down.
That's not such a big event and probably won't occur for another year.  But it is a landmark of sorts and that means the passing of something else the eyes got used to.
There won't be too many around to mourn its demise.  It is no towering monument of aesthetic beauty.  No architectural genius ascribed his initials in the foundation stone.
Even so, it has age and a history.  When it goes, Somers will be years younger.
When Henry Lytle was mustered out of Company H of the 22nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry at the end of the Civil War, he returned to his home state to make a family and a living.
He and his wife, the former Amaneda McHuron, gave the world eight children.  He gave everybody a good living after he bought a site in Somers and opened a hardware and farm supply business in 1891.
That was the start of what some day would become the Somers Fuel, Grain and Supply Co., currently owned by Tom Cox and Tom Huck, both of Somers Township.
An interloper of sorts, Lytle was from Racine County.  He served as Town Treasurer in Mt. Pleasant and Yorkville Townships for a fair number of years.  He was a member of this and that, including the Republican Party, and apparently satisfied Somers customers with his goods.
A circular after the turn of the century described his store as "a good business" from which he derived "substantial profit."
Here is how, at the time, he made some of his profit.  If store owners could do it today the way Lytle did it then, they would be up for a business genious of the century award.
Lytle did it by selling children's hardwood buggies at $4 if they were marked up 100 percent from the wholesaler.  Lytle could buy these buggies from a Milwaukee firm for $24 per dozen.  Tricycles came from the wholesaler at $2.50 if it had steel tires and $4 with rubber tires.  A velocipedes, a tricycle with the small wheel in front and two big ones at the rear, was listed the same.
Even then a big share, if not the biggest share, of the business was feed.  Lytle ground it, stored it and sent it to market.  He also baled hay to pick up a few bucks, according to Cox.
After he died in 1924, a son, Ed Lytle, operated the business until 1941 when Hugh Cox decided he wanted to enter the feed and fuel and farm supply business.
He renamed it the Hugh Cox Coal and Supply Co.  Besides the feed and forks, and nuts and bolts, coal was a big business item for Cox.
In the year that he died, 1953, he handled about 40-50 railroad cards of coal a year.  After other heating methods became popular, the coal demand decreased.  Today there is no coal.  Tom Cox, a brother to Hugh, and Tom Huck, who together bought the business in 1954, supply heating needs with a 1,250 gallon fuel oil tank truck.
Other changes have come with the years.  Fertilizer is now a big item, several new buildings have been built and Lytle's old original mill structure is now storage space scheduled for demolition.
There are three relatively new automatic grain driers which can custom dry 5,000 to 6,000 bushels of grain a day.  From the driers the oat, wheat, barley, soybeans, whatever grains, are augured into railroad cars on the siding and sent to market.  Chicago is the principal terminal market.  What traffic doesn't go south goes north to Milwaukee.
A 17,000 gallon storage tank stands between the driers and Lytle's doomed mill.  Anhydrous ammonia is pumped through an underground line from a car on the siding to the tank.  From there it is transferred to smaller 4,000 pound capacity tanks which can be taken to the farms for eventual application on the soil.
Anhydrous ammonia is 83 percent nitrogen and is expected to make crops grow bigger and better.  Besides the liquid fertilizer, Cox and Huck handle tons of dry bulk fertilizer, stored in sheds around the eight acres the company has.
A new warehouse keeps the seed dry and Huck is the man who makes the farm calls, delivering the seed, feed or whatever other supply the farmer might want.
The place has changed some but not that much.  Glen Fonk has been around the elevator "long before I came here" said Cox.  Fonk delivers the oil, makes the repairs and in general keeps things running.  "If we didn't have Glen we'd have to close up," said Cox.
If Fonk dates back to some recent past days, another element of the business dates back even further.
Just like the elder Lytle, Cox and Huck have a smorgasbord of home and farm goods.  They have roofing supplies, twine, cement, cedar posts, steel posts, culverts, tiles, cattle water tanks, fence wire, nuts, bolts, animal medications and rat poison.  That's a partial list.  "We have a lot more than you think," said Cox.  "One person came here looking for something he couldn't find anywhere else.  He said he didn't think we'd have it.  We did.  I told him next time to come here first."
(Source:  Kenosha News Staff Writer, Kuyper, March 17, 1973)


More about the Henry Lytle family
 Click here to learn more about the Lytle family in Somers.

"S. Lytle & Sons feed mill has been doing a rushing business lately, the farmers taking advantage of the good wheeling in order to get their feed bins filled up before stormy weather."
(Source:  Racine Journal December 14, 1898)

"The Janesville Sugar Beet Company has rented two acres of land from Adam Lytle and on account of its factory having an overflow of beets, have ordered that the beets be piled until they are needed.  The company alone has more than 1,000 tons already piled and it is estimated that there are still several thousand tons to be hauled.  The other companies also have large quantities piled in the village.  The enormous harvest of sugar beets that has gone in and out of this little village of Somers this fall is hardly conveivable."
(Source:  Racine Journal November 14, 1911)

1967 New Town Hall

New Town Hall 1967
Somers officials of pioneer families:  Edquist, Newman, Leet
(Source:  Kenosha News December 1,1967)

New Town Hall 1967
Somers officials Bishop, Ebener, Huck
(Source: Kenosha News December 1,1967)

Neu

Mathias Neu
Mathias Neu, who owns an excellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Paris township, still resides upon that place although it is operated by others.  His birth occurred in Sulm, Kreis, Bittburg, Rhine, Province of Prussia, on the 13th of January 1850.  His parents were Valentine and Eva (Lawrence) Neu, the former born in 1819 and the latter in 1827.  The father was a well to do  farmer and passed his entire life in the fatherland, dying in 1863.  He had survived his wife for thirteen years, as she was called by death in 1850.  They were married in 1845 and had two children:  Herbert, who was a successful farmer in Germany and died in 1914; and Mathias.  The religious faith of the family was that of the Roman Catholic Church.
Mathias Neu received a good education in the public schools of Germany and after putting aside his textbooks engaged in farming until 1873, when as a young man of twenty-three years he came to the United States as he wished to avoid compulsory service in the German army.  He first located in Chicago and there worked in a lumberyard for six months, after which he went to Iowa.  Four months later he returned to Chicago but in December 1873 arrived in Kenosha County.  During that winter he worked on a farm for his board and for the following three years he was employed as a farm hand.  In 1877 he bought eighty-two acres of land with his savings and subsequently he purchased his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres.  He operated both places and his well directed labors broght him a good annual return.  He managed his business affairs well and in time accumulated a competence which now enables him to live retired.  When he took up the occupation of farming he owned two hundred and forty-two acres of land but has since disposed of eighty-two acres, still retaining title to the one hudred sixty acre farm, which he rents.
Mr. Neu was united in marriage in Racine in 1876, to Miss Elizabeth Honold, who was born in Paris Township, and they had five children: Hobart, who is employed in the shops in Racine' George, who is farming one hundred and sixty acres of land in Somers Township; Phillip also farming in Somers Township; John, who is farming in Paris Township; and Nicholas, a milk dealer in Racine.  The wife and mother passed away in 1886 and in 1887 Mr. Neu was married to Elizabeth Huck, of Paris Township, by whom he has four children:  August who is farming in somers Township; Josephine the wife of Nicholas Wilcomb, a farmer of Paris Township' Agnes who married Frank Bowers; and Joseph who is employed at farm work in Iowa.
(Source:  City and County of Kenosha, A Record of Settlement by Frank H. Lyman, Vol. II, Chicago, S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1916)

1887 Partial Map of Somers Township
Section 18 - Mathias New (Neu)
Note:  Section 7 - 80 acres of J. Huck father of Elizabeth Huck Neu. 
The 1908 Somers map shows Section 7 owned by Mathias Neu.

Huck



1927 Map of Somers Township, Kenosha County
Section 12
J. Huck has two parcels
Click map for larger view

 Joseph Huck
Among the well-to-do and progressive farmers of Somers Township is Joseph Huck, whose birth occurred in Kenosha on the 21st of June, 1857.  His father, August Huck, was born in Alsace-Lorraine, then a part of France, on the 18th of August, 1829.  He received his education in the common schools and after putting aside his textbooks continued to reside in his native land for some time but in 1851 emigrated to Canada.
A year later he located in Kenosha, and for sixteen years he engaged in teaming in the city of Kenosha.  For six years he superintended the Mincenberger farm and at the end of that time purchased one hundred and thirty-four acres in Somers Township, where he has since resided.  He has carefully conserved the fertility of the soil, has made many  improvements upon the place and has kept everything in excellent condition, and the farm is one of the most valuable properties of his locality.  He has reached the advance age of eighty seven years but still enjoys good health.  He was married in 1854, to Miss Mary Klingler, also a native of Alsace-Lorraine.
Joseph Huck entered St. George's Catholic School of Kenosha at the usual age and continued his education there until he was thirteen years old, when he became a pupil in the country schools in Pleasant Prairie Township.  Three years later he put aside his textbooks and from that time until he was forty years of age he worked with his father, August.  In 1895 he purchased fifty acres of good land on Section 12 on which he has since resided.  He has made all of the improvements upon the place and has brought it to a high state of development.
Mr. Huck was married on the 16th of February 1880 to Miss Mary Schackamuth, a daughter of Nicholas Schackamuth (Section 24 Somers Township).  Three children have been born to this union, namely:  Mamie, who is Mrs. Frank Lichter; William, who is assisting in the operation of the home farm; and Alexander, also at home.
(Source:  City and County Kenosha, Wisconsin Record of Settlement by Frank H. Lyman, Vol. II, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1916)

About August Huck
August J. Huck, living on Section 24,  Somers Township, is a representative of one of the old families of Kenosha County.  His birth occurred in Pleasant Prairie Township, March 3, 1872.  His father, August Huck, was born in Alsace-Lorraine in 1829 and acquired a common school education.  When twenty-one years of age he resolved to try his fortune in the new world and, crossing the Atlantic on one of the old-time sailing vessels, landed in Canada, where he remained for a year.  The succeeding year was spent in the state of New York and in 1851 he arrived in Kenosha County, where he secured the position of teamster with John Bullen, who was the first settler in Southport.  He occupied that position of five years.  His entire life has been characterized by indefatigable industry and he has used every opportunity that would enable him to work his way upward.  In 1876, with the capital acquired through industry and frugality. He purchased one hundred and thirty-four acres of land on Section 24, Somers Township, and upon that farm has since resided.  His labors wrought marked changes in the appearance of the place, which he converted into a highly productive farm, adding thereto many modern improvements.
In 1860 Mr. Huck was joined i wedlock to Miss Mary Anna Klingler, by whom he had seven children, as follows:  Joe; Mary; Michael, who is deceased; Margaret; Annie, who has also passed away; Katie; and August.  There are also three grandchildren.  Mrs. Huck passed away in 1913 and was laid to rest in St. George Cemetery in Kenosha.  Mr. Huck came to the United States empty-handed, possessing as his capital only industry and perseverance and the hope that he might win success here.  His progress in due entirely to his own efforts and his prosperity proves what may be accomplished when energy and perseverance lead the way.  His son and namesake, August J. Huck, now has charge of the home far, which he is carefully and systematically cultivating, thereby winning deserved success.




Section 24 Township of Somers
August Huck parcel



Wood Road School

Wood Road School
Before 1900
Town of Somers, Kenosha, Wisconsin
(Photo courtesy of Jim Smith)

Wood Road School, about 1910
Left to Right: Unknown Helding, Loretta Swartz, Unknown Helding, Ray Feest, Everett Learned, Walter Moran
Ms. Riley-Teacher, Roy Swartz, Oswald Feest, and Frank Birch
(Source:  Photo courtesy of Robert Swartz.)

Wood Road School, estimate date 1928
(Source:  Photo courtesy of Robert Swartz.)
Click on photo for larger view.

Wood Road School, Somers Township
(Source:  Photograph Courtesy of Jacqueline Klapproth Nelson and names courtesy of Jim and Sharon Bose Smith)

Teacher: Miss McCurly

Back Row: Jack Rider, George Godlewski, Norman Thompson, William Fenner, Gordon Peterson, Marion Jacobsen, Dorothy Gardinier, Florence Rider, Lorna Smith, Jean Thompson

2nd Row: Merlyn Smith, Frank Witscheber, Emory Scheckler, Bud Thomas, Delores Barrows, Anita Witscheber, Mary Jane Peterson, Hazel Scheckler, Julia Kremis

3rd Row: Charles Huck, Sam Jacobsen, Joe Kremis, Charles Thompson, Esther Scheckler, Violet Empke, Lucille Thompson, Anne Kastelic

4th Row: Harry Kastelic, Walter Keiffer, Clem Godlewski, Russell Mandernack, Kenneth Mandernack, Otto Keiffer, Minnie Birch, Mary Ellen Thompson, Sheila Ann Smith, Angeline Birch

School District No. 9 - Wood Road School

"The earliest record available in the history of School District No. 9 is that of July 1856, when The Town Superintendent of Schools in the Town of Somers having formed on the 12th day of July 1856 in said Town, called School District No.9.

October 17, 1856, legal notice having been given the inhabitants of School District No. 9, met at the house of Philander T. Briggs to elect School Officers for the ensuing year - John Gibson, Clerk;  William R. Stetson, Director;  Philander T. Briggs, Treasurer.

Voted to raise Two Hundred dollars ($200) in addition to be amount to be drawn from the Three Districts from which were set of for the purpose of building a school house and maintaining a school for the ensuing year.

December 1856, John Gibson removed and Wm. Swartz appointed Clerk in his place.

March 1857, contract to let Wm. Shott build school house by the Clerk and Director for Three Hundred Dollars.

June 14th, Board met and accepted schoolhouse.

September 28, 1857 School District No. 9 annual meeting called by Director.  The Treasurer made his report:

Moneys received during the year from Town Treasurer $200.00

Town Superintendent $69.76

Cash paid out on order to Wm. Shott $200.00

Chair $1.25

Pail, Broom and cup $0.75

Teacher wages 16 weeks $48.00

To my Suesefeer (?) $16.01

Cleaning lot $3.75

Balance $269.76

Officers elected for the ensuring year.  Wm. Swartz-Director, C.G. Stetson-Treasurer, Philander T. Briggs-Clerk.  Voted to get 6 cords of good oak wood, sawed, split, and piled up - - bid of Wm. Swartz at Three Dollars per cord.

Monday, September 27, 1858.  Cash paid out as follows:

To Wm. Slocum for Deed $1.50

To Bain and Brothers for stove and bell $16.06

To Wm. Swartz for wood $18.00

To Shott for balance on building schoolhouse $100.00

For Black Board $4.00

For Lumber and Glass, etc. $2.95

Charges on Dictionary $0.50

Miss F. Farnum for teaching $88.00

For Library Books $8.31

For 2 blank books and register $1.25

For moving desks $1.00

To Miss T.M. Briggs for teaching $52.00

For schoolhouse lot $20.00

District voted to appropriate $15.00 for back house, $5.00 for library.  To get 4 cords of dry oak wood, sawed, split and piled up for $3.00 per cord.

September 24, 1866.  Voted to raise $50 tax for school.  Voted to get 3 cords of wood.  Wm. Schwartz to furnish it at $7.00 a cord.  $10 tax for library.  Voted to have 4 months school.  May and June the first term - September and October, 2nd term.

The first building was sold in 1877 and a new building followed.  This was sold in 1927.  In 1926 a new red brick modern building was built on the first original site.

Among those early teachers were Julia Hawley, Bertie Fitch, Helena Ozanne, Carrie Burgess, Jessie Petrie, Delia Cutting, Ambrosia Cronk, Lottie Raymonds, Herbert Cooley, Jennie Hastings, Minnie Crow, Addie Strong, Charles Flett, who later studied medicine and located in South Dakota.

Board Members - William Stetson, who came from New York in 1835, served as school clerk for twenty-five consecutive years.  William and Jacob Swartz also served many years on the school board.

Among the early students were Lloyd Briggs, who for years was Professor at the Oshkosh State Normal; James Briggs, also a teacher and Supt. of Schools in Kenosha County."

(Source: My Memoirs, by Minnie A.G. Ozanne. Copyright 1948--Minnie A.G. Ozanne. All Rights Reserved.)

More About Wood Road School

The first Wood Road School building was sold in 1877 and is still being used on the Joseph Huck farm.  A second building constructed in that year was sold to George P. Thomas in 1927, after a new red brick building was constructed in 1926 on the site purchased for the original school building. 

(Source:  Kenosha News June 15, 1935 Centennial Edition) 

The First Wood Road School
(Source:  Original photo courtesy of Jim and Sharon Bose Smith.)

Partial 1887 Map of Somers Township
See Section 12.  School District #9 was the Wood Road School
Located on the Peter Lichter parcel.

Wood Road School Reunion
Kenosha News article, date unknown

Photo taken of the Wood Road School reunion at the airplane hanger of Charles Thompson on Highway 50
(Source:  Photo Courtesy of Jacqueline Klapproth Nelson.  Copyright 2012.  All Rights Reserved.)

Front Row Kneeling Left to Right:  Vicki Kremis Klapproth, Man ?, Mary Ellen Thompson Werner, Harry Kastelic
Middle Left to Right:  Ann Kastelic, Lady?, Esther Scheckler, Charles Thompson, Joe Kremis, Sam Jacobsen, Charles Huck
Back Left to Right: Julie Kremis Covelli, Hazel Scheckler, Rita Neumiller, Lady?, Lady?, Marion Jacobsen, Lady?, Man?, Lady?, Man?

(If anyone can identify those people in question, please email Jackie at somershistory@wi.rr.com. 

Students and Teachers who attended the Wood Road reunion.
This was the sign-in registration list of the day.  The date was 1978.  It was found in the scrapbook of Vicki Kremis Klapproth.
(Source:  List courtesy of Jacqueline Klapproth Nelson)

Lulu Schmidter, Burlington, Wisconsin (teacher 1936-1937
Mabel McKee (teacher 1936-1937)
John and Jean Thomas Murphy, Kansasville, Wisconsin
Vicki Kremis Klapproth and Sherwood Klapproth, Somers Township
Charles Thompson
Lucile Thompson Conde, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Top and Mamie Gardinier, Kenosha
Lucille Swartz, Kenosha
Susan Swartz Summers, Kenosha
Marge and Harry Kastelic, Kenosha
Lorna Miller, Kenosha
Ione Smith Kreamer and Ken Kreamer, Kenosha
Rich and Barb Free, Kenosha
Anne Kastelic, Kenosha
Caroline Bose King, Kenosha
Loretta Bose Ross, Chicago
Jack Rider, Racine
Mrs. Louise Rider, Racine
William and Lura Rider, Racine
Debres Barrows Safransky, Kenosha
Mary Ellen Thompson Werner, Kenosha
Ruth Thompson Smith and Paul Smith, Kenosha
Nancy Thompson, Bristol
Bob and Elaine Thomas, Kenosha
Vincent "Binnie" Thomas
Allie Smith, Kenosha
Ella and Wally Sadowski, Sturtevant
Mary Jane Acklam and George Petersen, Racine
John Conde, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Mary Ann Verheyen - Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Baldwin, Racine
Harriet Thompson and Julius Camponeschi, Hammond, Indiana
Myrtle Emmertsen Jacobson, Kenosha, teacher 1946-1947
Leone Bose Aarts, Kenosha
Cyrstal and Henry Sablinsky, Yorkville
Martha Swartz, Kenosha
Jack Swartz, Kenosha
Mabel Thompson, McSkimming, Mrs. Thompsons' mother
Barry Mattausch, Bremerton, Washington
Julie and Bob Lewandowski Pringle, Kenosha, teacher 1951-1953
Don and Helen Upson, Janesville, Wisconsin, teacher 1934-1936
Ray and Helen Kremis Dorf, Racine
Julie Kremis Covelli, Racine
Gary Thompson
Joe and Sally Wise, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Tom Conde
Paul and Mildred Swartz, Burlington
Dorothy Gardinier Hanks, Kenosha
Mary Godlewski Wojtak, Kenosha
Sam and Mary Jacobsen, Madison, Wisconsin
Marion Jacobsen Savich, Bonita, California
Gerty Kremis Hapanowicz and Richard, Kenosha
Marcia Thompson
Glenn Ours, Trevor
David Ours, Trevor
Hazel Scheckler Gitzlaff, Kenosha
Kathy Ours Bundever, Kenosha
Esther Scheckler Kaisir, Kenosha
Joe and Betty Lou Kremis, Sturtevant
LeRoy Leach, Kenosha
Don Scheckler, Racine
Kenny Holmes, Kenosha
Harry E. and Elsie Blinten, Sturtevant
Herb Gross, Kenosha
Alice Scheckler Meyer, Cudahy, Wisconsin
Dolores and Roy Safransky
Norman and Helen Thompson, Burchwood, Wisconsin
Gene Thompson and son, Ron, Burlington, Wisconsin
Klem Godlewski, Waukegan, Illinois
Tom Ricchio, Kenosha
Charles Huck, Somers Township
Frank and Anita Witscheber Storal, Kenosha
Kathy Larsen Roberts, Burlington, Wisconsin
Lois Meumiller, Kenosha
Albert and Violet Bose
Walter and Lil Andersen, Racine
Joe Weyres, Kenosha
Richard and Rosemary Thompson
Diane Thompson

Kenosha News article for Wood Road School reunion

(Source:  News clipping and names courtesy of Kim Heinen Bitto)

(Source:  Kenosha News.  No date on clipped article)