SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Frank Geele, Page 446

FRANK GEELE, President of the Frank Geele Hardware Company, and Mayor of the city of Sheboygan, was born in this city March 3, 1856, and is a son of Francis and Gertrude (Trilling) Geele, of whom see sketch elsewhere in this work.

    The subject of this sketch was reared and educated in his native city, receiving instruction in the public schools, and from a private tutor.  He began his business career as clerk and book-keeper in his father's store.  In 1878, he built a pulp and paper mill at Kaukauna, Wis., which he conducted two years, and then sold out and returned to Sheboygan, where he resumed his former position in his father's store.  In 1884, he assumed the management of the business, and on the death of his father, which occurred July 27, 1886, organized the Frank Geele Hardware Company, of which he is President, his brother William being Secretary and Treasurer of the company.  The stock of this company is all owned in the Geele family.  This house was established in 1850, by Mr. Geele's father, and has been successfully conducted for the past forty-three years by the father and son.  Started in a small way in pioneer days, it has grown in importance, until it now does an annual business of $200,000.

    Mr. Geele was married in Sheboygan, March 28, 1882, to Miss Matilda Stamm.  Mrs. Geele was born in Sheboygan, and is a daughter of Godfrey Stamm, who was an early settler of that city, and a gentleman of superior culture and ability.  He is now deceased.  Mr. and Mrs. Geele have one child, a son, Arthur, who was born in Sheboygan, November 28, 1884.

    In addition to his mercantile interests, Mr. Geele is a stockholder in the American Manufacturing Company, of Sheboygan, and is part owner of the schooner "Grand Haven."

    In politics, he is a Democrat.  He served as Alderman in 1883, and was elected Mayor in the spring of 1893, being the present incumbent of that office.  Socially, Mr. Geele is a member of the following-named orders:  Sheboygan Lodge No. 11, A. F. & A. M.; Oak Council No. 509, R. A.; Gutenberg Lodge No. 68, A. O. U. W.; Armenia Lodge No. 26, S. of H.; and of the Sheboygan Turnverein.

    In all the relations of life Mr. Geele has won and holds an honorable position, and it is no flattery, though a high compliment, to say of him, that his course as a business man thus far justifies the hope that he will succeed to the high place held by his father in the esteem of his fellow-citizens.