Matthias Theisen

Matthias Theisen (sometimes spelled Mathias) was an American farmer from Roxbury, Wisconsin who served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1879.[1] Additionally, he chaired the town board (similar to city council) and was Town Treasurer of Roxbury, Wisconsin. He was a Democrat.

Background

Theisen was born on August 24, 1833 in Trimport, in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia. In August 1851, his parents John and Mary A. Theisen emigrated to the United States, bring Matthias and his brother Nicholas. The family settled on a farm in Section 16 of the Town of Roxbury. Matthias married Elizabeth Coch, also a native of Prussia. As of 1880, the Theisens and their families (including Matthias and Elizabeth's seven children) all still lived on the homestead, by that time 175 acres in extent.[2]

Public office

Theisen had been town treasurer and chairman of the town board for a series of years when he was elected in 1878 from Dane County's 1st Assembly district to succeeded fellow Democrat John Lyle, who was not running for re-election. He received 1,690 votes against 1,217 for Republican John McKenzie, and 442 for Greenbacker L. P. Edwin. He was assigned to the standing committee on agriculture.[3] He did not seek re-election in 1879, and was succeeded by another Democrat, John H. Tierney.

Later years

Theisen was interviewed as part of a 1920 Wisconsin Magazine of History article, and is described as "wonderfully vigorous in mind and body for one of his years"; he was by then 86 years old, and living in Sauk City.[4]

References
  1. THE BLUE BOOK OF THE STATE OF WISCONSIN (18th ed.). Madison, Wis.: David Atwood. 1879. pp. 489–490.
  2. Butterfield, Consul Willshire. History of Dane County, Wisconsin Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources; an Extensive and Minute Sketch of Its Cities, Towns and Villages - Their Improvements, Industries, Manufactories, Churches, Schools and Societies; Its War Record, Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers; the Whole Preceded by a History of Wisconsin, Statistics of the State, and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution and of the Constitution of the United States, Part 2 Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1880; pp. 1276-77
  3. Warner, Hans B., ed. The Blue Book of the state of Wisconsin, for 1879. Containing the constitutions of the United States and of the state; Jefferson's manual; rules and orders of the senate and assembly, and annals of the legislature; also, statistical tables and history of state institutions Eighteenth Annual Edition. Madison: David Atwood, State Printer, 1879; pp. 489-90, 517
  4. Barton, Albert O. "Napoleonic Soldiers in Wisconsin" Wisconsin Magazine of History Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1921; p. 353


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