A large proportion of Racine’s citizens have received business training in the J. I. Case Threshing Machine works and that the training is thorough is indicated in the fact that success has attended the efforts of many since they started out independently. Such has been the record of E. G. H. Wendt, who conducts a real estate, insurance and loan agency, in which connection he is accorded a liberal patronage. He was born in Germany, July 22, 1860, a son of Robert and Augusta Wendt, who arrived in Racine on the 29th of November, 1869. The father had been a forester and gardener in Germany and after coming to the new world he turned his attention to blacksmithing and gardening, being thus engaged up to the time of his demise. His widow survives at the age of eighty-six years.
E. G. H. Wendt was a little lad of but nine years when the family came to the new world and in Racine he attended a parochial school conducted in connection with St. John’s Lutheran church. He afterward learned the trade of cigar making and subsequently was employed by the M. M. Secor Trunk Company, with which he continued for seventeen years. He was afterward with the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company in the woodworking department and later was connected for a time with the Racine Trunk Company. On severing that connection he became superintendent of Mound cemetery and so continued for six years. His active identification with the real estate business dates from 1898, in which year he bought out C. J. Thiesen. His office is at No. 920 State street and he not only handles real estate but also conducts an insurance and loan agency, handling both fire and life insurance and representing a number of the old line companies. He writes a large amount of insurance annually, places many loans and negotiates many important realty transfers and his business is now a source of gratifying and merited success.
On the 20th of May, 1891, Mr. Wendt was united in marriage to Miss Anne Thiesen, a native of Germany, and they have become the parents of a daughter and a son: Louise, now the wife of Russell G. Cooke, a resident of Racine and Herbert C., who is a student in the University of Wisconsin, pursuing the chemistry course.
Mr. Wendt has always been deeply interested in the cause of education and has served as a member of the Racine school board, doing all in his power to further the standard of public instruction. He votes with the Republican Party and he is a member of St. John’s Lutheran church, in the work of which he is actively and helpfully interested. It will thus be seen that he does everything in his power to promote the material, intellectual, social and moral progress of his community and his labors in this connection are accounted a valuable asset for the benefit of the city.