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Fred H. Keller | Retrospect
History of Sussex Mills and Hilbert "Hip" Keller
I had one of those monumental birthdays recently, 80, and among the gifts was something really different - a professional photograph of my father - taken in 1956 by Jim Kimball of Waukesha. The photo shows Hilbert "Hip" F. Keller in front of the Sussex Mills on Maple Avenue South, Sussex. Today the area is Sussex Mills Apartments and Altera, a senior citizen care facility.
An interesting side story about Kimball, he married my father's niece and my cousin and thus was a relative and deer hunting buddy of my father. He worked for O'Brien Studio in Waukesha and learned the photography game. When World War II came along, he became a U.S. Naval Photographer. He took the preinvasion photos Iwo Jima and then continued taking aerial photos during the course of the battle.
At the close of the war, he was on the U.S. Missouri Battleship to record the surrender. Many of the photos one associates with this momentous event were taken by him. As time went by after he took this 1956 Sussex photo, he secured a position at the University of Alberta, Canada, became a Canadian citizen and taught photography for a post World War II career.
My father Hip was the son of a blacksmith and carriage maker, Fred H. Keller I, and Lillie Grede of the Grede Foundry family. His first cousin was William "Bill" Grede, a key U.S. war production leader during World War II. Bill Grede was a key promoter and financial angel of present day Brookfield Academy.
Hip was born on July 3, 1903, just before his father bought a 140-acre farm on Artesian Road in Big Bend. He graduated in 1920 from Mukwonago High School where he played tight end and defensive end on their school's football team.
In 1926 he married Regina "Jean" Halbach and they had four children, three girls and a son, me. As time went on he built a home with an Elm Grove address (it was really in far west Wauwatosa). His life work was to be a chicken doctor and hot shot salesman for the Elm Grove Reinders Brothers Feed Mill. However, in late 1941 he saw a chance to become an owner of a feed/seed store in West Allis and purchased it, remembering that during WWI there were a lot of shortages and he could profit as the people of greater Milwaukee would start victory gardens, raising chickens in backyard coops. They needed chicken feed and equipment. Hip made a financial killing with this enterprise, but remained a big customer of Reinders Brothers.
It eventually came to pass that Reinders wanted to expand and bought rural feed mills in Waukesha, Sussex, Watertown and many other locations. The purchase of the Nettesheim & Otto Sussex Feed Mill occurred as World War II was ending, 1945. Renders installed a manager at the Sussex site that proved very unsatisfactory results and looking for a new manager in 1946 made a deal with Hip offering him 49 percent ownership if he became manager. He refused stating he wanted 51 percent of the business, controlling ownership. Reinders accepted and in September 1946 Hip sold his West Allis feed store and became a Sussex fixture as he owned 51 percent of Sussex Mills. He remained living in the greater Elm Grove area and commuted daily to Sussex.
Hip became a member of the Sussex Lions Club and served as president from 1959-60. Al and Ronnie Halquist became buddies of his, playing cards (poker, scat and sheepshead), bowling and other Sussex Lions' activities.
The early big deal with Hip as manager/owner of the mill was the Marshall Plan to resurrect Europe. A facet of this was shipping carloads of oats to Europe, purchased by Hip in the Sussex-Lisbon area; carload after carload along with baled hay. It also included a steady grind of milling business seed sales as Sussex was part of "Cow County USA."
A local farmer's son, Gordon Pfeil, was hired by Hip to work at the mill and then I, Fred Keller II, came on the scene as an employee/eventual minority owner after my Korean War period service in 1954.
Hip retired in 1962 but retailed ownership control. He moved to the West Palm Beach area of Florida with a summer cottage on Trump Lake near Wabeno after he sold his Elm Grove home. Eventually Pfeil and I bought out the remaining Reinders Brothers shares and upon the death of my father, became the sole owners.
Hip joined the Wabeno and Lake Worth, Fla. Lions clubs, while retaining membership in the Sussex Lions. He died on Oct. 3, 1974 leaving four children and 17 grandchildren.
A little history: My very first time in Sussex and the Sussex Mills was in September 1946 where occasionally I would work Saturday (50 cents per hour). It was in 1946 that while talking with the farmers that I decided I would collect Sussex-Lisbon history. The Sussex Mills was started at the western end of the Bug Line Railroad tracks in 1890. It was Sussex Elevator, 1890-1917; Sussex Cooperative, 1919-34; Nettesheim and Otto, 1934-45; and Sussex Mills from 1945 to its closing in 1990 (100 years). Gordon Pfeil became the sole owner in 1977. It was closed and was initially going to become the site of the proposed Hamilton School District Administration complex, but instead in 1995, the Sussex Mills Apartments were built along with the Altera Nursing Home.
The actual demolition of Sussex Mills was in 1993.
- 1910 Gerkin family photo
- Ephraim Boots, Sussex Brewery in the 1800s Photos from the collection of Sussex Village Historian Fred H. Keller
- Lisbon dumping ground for the Mob
- 1947 Sussex Main Street all-school photo
- Sussex-Lisbon pioneers started first businesses
- Museum reserves spot to honor local Civil War involvement
- Bob Stier (1914-91) farmer, Sussex fire chief, trustee
- Local ties to the Titanic
- Sussex splits from Lisbon, Templeton
- 1990 Spring Fest honored businessman Gordon Pfeil
- The incorporation of the Village of Sussex, 1924
- Three Pines Restaurant is today's Mobile Quarry Mart
- Photos tell story of historic St. James church
- Tempero auction sign dates back 70 years
- Sussex's Stone Boots Brewery
- Community service club, the Jaycees
- Lisbon Presbyterian Church gets ready for 165th celebration
- Domino clubs in Sussex circa 1800s
- Earliest residents of Sussex, Lisbon, Lannon
- Original 1965 and '66 Hamilton classes hold reunion
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