By Julie Huebel, PC Historical Association
The alphabet starts with pretty easy Scrabble letters, but as I researched each family of the series I never forgot about the difficult letters lurking ahead. I’ve been a bit stressed out about this week’s letter; I found ZERO Elmwood families starting with a Q or even containing a Q. So, good news Spring Valley! Here’s one for you!
Q is for Quilling…Herman Louis Quilling was born near Menomonie in 1874 to Gustav and Wilhemina. He was a skilled carpenter and cabinet maker. In 1893, he’s listed in the Dunn County News as doing carpentry work with his father on the jail in Menomonie. He was in the military for seven years, including serving during the Spanish-American War in Company H of the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry. He was involved in the Battle of Coamo in Puerto Rico when the U.S. advanced towards the capital, San Juan in 1898. He was listed as “artificer” (skilled craftsman) of his Company.
He settled in Spring Valley in 1903 and worked as a machinist and pattern maker for the newly opened Spring Valley Iron Works Company. He was listed on multiple census records through the years as working in a foundry. He married Anna Kamke (the boss’s daughter) in 1905, she was daughter of Ferdinand Kamke and Wilhemine “Menna” Beguhn and was born in Eau Claire in 1886.
Ferdinand was born in Germany and learned the iron molder’s trade there, he traveled throughout Germany as a journeyman and quickly became a master of his craft. When he was 19 years old, he came to the U.S. about 1883, first coming to Chippewa Falls where he had an uncle. He and Menna married in 1885 and built a home in Eau Claire where he worked in an iron foundry. They had three children, Anna being the oldest.
In 1894 the Kamke family moved to Menomonie where he built a foundry and machine shop, sadly, the night before it was to open it burned down. They decided to rebuild and would prosper. In 1903 he moved his family to Spring Valley, creating a foundry called the Spring Valley Iron Works Company. He also served as Mayor of Spring Valley for ten years.
Back to the Quillings, Herman and Anna had a son, Raymond in 1912. He graduated from Spring Valley in 1932. On the 1950 census, Raymond and his wife, Myn, and four children are listed as living with Herman and Anna in Spring Valley. Herman and son Ray ran Quilling Repair Shop in Spring Valley per a 1953 newspaper advertisement. Anna died in 1963, and Herman died in 1964 and are both buried in the Spring Lake Public Cemetery.
Raymond married Myn Manuell in 1935 in Spring Valley and they farmed in the area for several years. He was a Boy Scout leader in Spring Valley for 15 years. They moved to South Dakota and ran a cattle ranch for four years, and also lived in Oregon for a time, but returned to the Elmwood area in 1974. HEY! An Elmwood link! They had a son, Dan, that moved to California, and a daughter Sherry in Oregon, and three daughters that lived in Elmwood: Camilla, Georgia (Osborn), Nona (Gibson).
Herman’s father, Gustav Quilling was born in Neuruppin, Germany in 1847, he came to the U.S. with his parents in June of 1853. They initially settled in Dundee, Illinois for a couple years. They then came to Spring Brook Township in Dunn County in 1855. He and Wilhemina Ebert were married in 1870 and had fourteen children. Wilhemina passed away in 1913 and Gustav in 1915, they are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Menomonie.
