The story of Schenning Insurance starts back in the 1920s. Martin Schenning (father of Wendell Schenning) was a farmer. He worked part-time at the Dalton General Store, and at the Kenosha County Highway dept. as well but still found it hard to make ends meet.
In 1929 Martin chose a new direction and founded Schenning Insurance. As with many new businesses, he began by operating the agency out of his and his wife, Louise’s home on Depot Street in Silver Lake. For nearly 30-years Martin built a thriving business.
Sadly, Martin passed-away in 1957, and his wife Louise took over the agency. A few short years later her son Wendell chose to follow in his parents’ footsteps and joined the agency as an agent in 1961. In 1965 they moved the office to Lake Street.
Over the next decade or so Wendell acquired a number of other local insurance agencies including the Holdorf Agency in Silver Lake, the Hansen Agency, which was part of the Silver Lake State Bank, and also the George Illges Agency in Paddock Lake.
The Schenning Insurance Agency continued to grow, and in 1989 they moved the agency to their current location on Cogswell Drive in Silver Lake. In addition to Wendell Schenning, Schenning Insurance has two full-time staff, June Brandes, who has been with the agency since 1976, and Jacki Lenz, who joined the agency in 2000.
Finally, after 91-years, two generations of Schennings, and 12-employees, Schenning Insurance chose to merge their agency with Glass Insurance from Lake Geneva. Glass Insurance has a similar history, insuring the lakes area since 1931.
Friends of Schenning Insurance can look forward to working with the same friendly faces they have become accustomed to, along with a few new ones for years to come.
