John Michael Kohler
John Michael Kohler ( born November 3, 1844 in Schnepfau, Vorarlberg, † November 5, 1900 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and John M. Kohler, maiden name Johann Michael Kohler) from the Kohler family was a successful industrialist and mayor of Sheboygan (Wisconsin ). Kohler founded the later as " Kohler Company" became known manufacturer company of bathroom and kitchen facilities.
Youth, education and first occupation
Kohler was born in the Alpine village Schnepfau in the Bregenzerwald region, the fourth child of milk maker Johann Michael Kohler (1805-1874) and his wife Maria Anna Moosbrugger ( 1816-1853 ). After the death of his wife's father married in 1853 Maria Theresia Natter and migrated with his large family (including the straight ten years of Johann Michael Kohler) in the United States. With the help of relatives he built himself in the field of Vadnais Heights in Saint Paul ( Minnesota), a successful dairy farm on.
At age eleven, John Michael Kohler left home and grew up on another farm. He went at the district schools and the Dyhrenfurth Commercial College in Chicago. At 18, he began his career as a delivery driver in St. Paul, was later employed as a clerk and worked from 1865 to 1868 as a salesman in Chicago. He then accepted a position as a sales representative for a wholesale grocery house in which he was a year later specialized in furniture facilities and worked until 1873.
In Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 56 miles north of Milwaukee on Lake Michigan, he met Lillie Vollrath ( 1848-1883 ), the daughter of the local iron and steel industrialist Jacob Vollrath ( 1824-1898 ) and married her in 1871 Jacob Vollrath was also ethnic, and came from Dörrebach at Stromberg in the Hunsrück (then linksrheinische Prussian Rhine Province), where he learned the trade of malleable cast iron ( wrought iron ).
Entrepreneur
Shortly after his marriage Kohler also worked in a small machine factory with a foundry, where his father was a partner and the agricultural equipments produced. Two years later, during the great stock market crash in 1873 he bought with his partner Charles Silver tooth the company from his father in law, calling it Kohler & silver tooth. Silver tooth sold his minority share in 1878 to two employees Hayssen Herman and John Stehn after which the company Kohler, Hayssen & Stehn Manufacturing Company was born. The Kohler factory burned in 1880 to the foundation walls. It was rebuilt at a different location in Sheboygan and extended by enamelling workshop.
In 1883, Kohler mounted sculptured feet under a cast iron enameled water trough and sold the design as a bathtub. Thus, the first of many Kohler plumbing products was created. The commercial success forced him to expand the operation.
Four years later, the company made more than two-thirds of the business with plumbing and enamel products. 1888 Kohler took on two partners and formed with them the Kohler, Hayssen & Stehn Manufacturing Company, which produced enameled bathroom and kitchen facilities with good 125 employees in high numbers.
1899 Kohler acquired 21 acres of farmland four miles west of Sheboygan to his entire company to that location to relocate. Shortly after completion of the new factory in 1900 John Michael Kohler died at the age of 56 years. His three sons, Carl, Robert and Walter Jodok initiated after the company with Robert as the official head of the company. After his death in 1905, the 30 -year-old Walter Jodok Kohler ( 1875-1940 ) presidency and control of the company took over until 1937. In 1912, he called the company officially in Kohler Company has to offer. On the land west of the production he had the Kohler Village, a model city for its employees arise.
Politician
From 1880 to John M. Kohler held in his last twenty years of life, several public offices. In 1892 he became mayor of Sheboygan.
Patron
John Michael Kohler designed from its large contemporary family home in Sheboygan a cultural center with music events, library, ethics courses and other public services. He worked in this way as a generous supporter and organizer in art and culture and helped Sheboygan, strip off the reputation of a pure factory town
Today, the " John Michael Kohler Arts Center " was founded in 1967 recalls ( Map: 43.752222-87.709722 ⊙ ) to the co-founder of the prestigious American business and political family. The original building located in a downtown area of Sheboygan facility is the John Michael Kohler House, the restored residence John Michael Kohler in the style of the Gilded Age ( the gilded age of the 1870s and 1880s). Several modern buildings complement the versatile cultural center.
Family
The Kohlers had six children, among them Carl, Robert and Walter, who later became governor of Wisconsin. In 1887, four years after the death Lillies Lillies John had married the sister, Wilhelmina ( Minnie ) Vollrath ( 1852-1929 ). Her son Herbert Vollrath Kohler (1891-1968) was the dominant force in the Kohler Company for many years. Under his leadership, the company was from the longest strike in the history of America.