Decendants of Adam Frantz - Clark County Pioneers Home Page

Welcome to the Family History of the Franz Family.
As you page through the this book, you will find that there is no straight line of Ancestory. When the
early settlers to Sheboygan Co., and Clark Co., arrived the area were very sparsly setteled. As you will
see, the Kippenhan's, Deckers and Franzs families are intertwined and impossible to seperate.
The Franz family has it roots in Western Germany starting with Adam Frantz. Adam was born
sometime in the 1500's, we do not know exactly when. His son Hans Frantz was married in 1611 in
Langenbuch, Germany.
From these beginings the family continues through to 1781 when Johann Simon Frantz was born in
Neuendorf Germany. Johann Simon married Justina Fredericka Danz on 21 Oct 1821 in Knau,
Germany. It is Johann Simon and Justina Fredericka's sons who came to the United States in the middle
1800's and settled in the Sheboygan Co. area. From here, one brother family moved steadly west finally
settling in the Dakotas. This is the Schnieder line of the Franz Family. Two brothers stayed in the
Sheboygan area and one brother moved to Clark County.
Our early ancestors immigrated to the United States because of the lack of freedoms in Germany and the
inability to own land. When they arrived in Sheboygan Co., they purchased small tracts of wooded land,
cleared it of trees and brush and started farming. The trade they brought with them was barrel making
and repair and herdsmen. Because they were accomplished tradesmen, they used their skills to build log
cabins and barns.
Many of our ancestors continued the farming tradition through into the 1930's and 40's. After World
War II the returning Veterns started to look for other employment and started to move away from Clark
County and Sheboygan County to seek their fortunes.
I hope that you will find this book interesting and informative. I have included newspaper articles about
weddings and deaths for many of the early ancestors. Read through them to get a picture of what life
was like when they were growing up.
It is also my hope that you will pass this along to your children. Our history, dreams and stories can be
perserved in words only if we tell others about them.
We have a rich heritage to pass along. Our ancestors struggled to clear the land, build the churches and
schools and perserve their German heritage and language. Now we must pass on our heritage to our
children.
Allan Wessel 3110 Clove Drive Madison, WI 53704-2795
2