From History of Walworth County Wisconsin, Vol. II, by Albert Clayton 
Beckwith, Publ. 1912 - Page 1091-1092
 
CHARLES H. WURTH.  Although Geneva township, Walworth county, has many German 
citizens, especially numbered among her farming element, men who deserve a 
very first rank in the list of modern, twentieth-century tillers of the soil, 
no one could be found who labored with more zeal and enthusiasm than Charles 
H. WURTH, who has devoted his attention exclusively to his work for many 
years, and being a close observer and a wide reader on whatever pertains to 
general agriculture, he has found himself further advanced with each passing 
year.
 
Mr. WURTH was born July 25, 1863, in Griesheim, Baden, Germany, and there, 
near the famous city of Strassburg, distant two and one-half hours' walk, he 
spent his early boyhood.  He is the son of Lorenz and Mary Ann (WIEDEMER) 
WURTH, the father born in Alsace and the mother in Appenweir, Germany.  The 
paternal grandfather was born in France.  The subject's father was in the 
German revolution in 1848, and the grandfather was a soldier in 
Napoleon's "grand army" and he was on the famous march to Moscow, where he was 
taken prisoner and kept two years by the Russians and did farm work.  Through 
the winter he saved a little bread every day and when spring came he escaped 
one night, with his provisions, and, traveling only at night, walked to within 
two hundred miles of his old home.  He did not dare make any inquiries until 
far from Moscow.
 
Charles H. WURTH, of this sketch, was reared on the farm, though he spent four 
years, from the age of sixteen to twenty, as a coachman.  He came to American 
in 1890, landing at New York.  After working a while in Philadelphia, he came 
to Chicago, but a few days later went to the country and began working on an 
Illinois farm.  In 1892 he came to Walworth county, Wisconsin and for some 
time worked out on Linn township farms.  On March 1, 1901, he began renting 
land and farming for himself, and in 1894 he bought a farm of one hundred and 
fifty acres half way between Elkhorn and Geneva.  On this he placed important 
improvements, put up seven hundred rods of woven wire fencing, built a fine 
new barn, big hog pens, chicken houses, water tank, wind mill, and many other 
modern improvements, his excellent place ranking with the best in the township 
and is known as "Apple Grove Farm,"  In connection with general farming he 
raises short-horn cattle.
 
Mr. WURTH was married in 1890 to Mrs. Mary (McPHERSON) FRAZER, widow of 
Alexander FRAZER, deceased.  She was born at Inch, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 
and is the daughter of William and Isabella (NEVIN) McPHERSON.  She came to 
America in 1893, her parents having died when she was ten years of age.  She 
grew up in her native land and was married in Scotland to Alexander FRAZER.  
They emigrated to Geneva, Walworth county, Wisconsin, and he became foreman 
for the W. J. JONES estate on the south shore of Lake Geneva, and there he 
remained until his death, in 1898.  He and his wife had two children, 
Alexander, who died in Scotland, and Mary Jane, who died at Lake Geneva in 
1895.
 
Mr. WURTH belongs to the Masonic order at Elkhorn and the Modern Woodmen at 
Geneva.  He was reared in the Catholic faith, and his wife as a 
Congregationalist, but they both now attend the Como Union church.  He is a 
fine type of the progressive, agreeable, self-made man.
 
Submitted by Carol