Commemorative Biographical Record of the Upper Wisconsin Counties 
of Waupaca, Portage, Wood, Marathon, Lincoln, Oneida, Vilas, Langlade, and Shawano

J. H. Beers & Co. [Chicago] 1895 - pp 267 - 268
Transcribed by Anne Taylor-Czaplewski

Charles TEIPNER, who ranks among the foremost of the successful, energetic citizens of Antigo, Langlade County, was born Oct. 12,1850, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the son of Charles and Annie Teipner.

The father of our subject was born in Saxony, Germany, in February, 1818, and was twice married in that country, having by his first wife one son, August, who came to this country, served in the war of the Rebellion, in Company B, Third Wisconsin Cavalry, at the end of three years returning home, and then re-enlisting in the same regiment and company.  He died in this spring of 1864 at Little Rock, Arkansas, of wounds received in battle.  By Mr. Teipner’s the second marriage there were seven children: Charles, Julius, Frederick, Edwin, Dorothea, Laura, and Anna.  The father, was an upholsterer and harness maker by trade, came to America, in 1848, and making his first New World home in Milwaukee, work there at the butcher’s trade some eighteen months.  He then went to Oshkosh, and later went to Antigo, where he now resides.  His wife is also living.

The subject of these lines, whose name introduces this sketch, received his education at the Common Schools of Oshkosh, which was supplemented by courses study at the Business College of that city.  At the age of twenty-one years he commenced to learn the butchering business, and remained in Oshkosh until 1874, following his trade and dealing in horses. He then went on the road as salesman for a Chicago firm, manufacturers of and dealers in buggies, his route being throughout Wisconsin and Iowa, and after a couple of years returned to Oshkosh.  He then took a trip to southern Kansas, and there established a hog ranch, raising and marketing hogs; but after a year he sold out and opened a butcher shop at Girard, Kansas, which, in 1879, he also disposed of.  In December of that year he set out for Antigo, Wisconsin, (where his brother Julius had settled some eight months before), traveling by rail to Clintonville, thence by stage to Shawano, thence to Langlade with a team conveying necessary provisions, from that point walking to Antigo, a distance of 25 miles.  That now flourishing city then consisted 7 log shanties, with a mill in course of construction, and here the two brothers set to work to build a log house, a species of inn, which was the first place in that section where there was to be found “entertainment for man and beast,” the necessary supplies being brought all the way from Wausau, 35 miles distant, which at that time was also the nearest Post Office.  Charles and Julius have ever since been in business together, the old log house being replaced by their present frame hotel building, which they erected in 1884 – 5.  They have been also engaged, more or less, in logging, handling real estate and dealing extensively in horses, not only buying and selling, but breeding high – grade horses having brought into the county the first standard – bred horse (Hambletonian) ever seen in this section of the country.  In the lumber branch of their extensive business they have always bought their pines standing, cut it, logged it, and sold their own logs.

Politically, our subject is a Democrat, casting his first vote for Horace Greeley, and is always taken an active interest in the growth of prosperity of the county and city in which he has lived for the past 15 years.  He served as clerk of the court one term, as under sheriff and as member of the city council and school board.  He is a stockholder in the Langlade County Bank, and in the Antigo Driving Park Association, of which latter he is president.  Neither of the brothers is married, but they are wedded to their business in which they have justly earned so high a reputation for honesty and integrity.