Moritz Dobschutz
Moritz Julius von Dobschütz, called in the U.S. only Moritz J. Dobschutz ( born March 20, 1831 in Rheine, Westfalen, Germany, † June 24, 1913 in Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois ) was a businessman and entrepreneur who 1856 emigrated to the U.S. from Germany and brought it there to prosperity and prestige. His 1866 built by him house is now the Victorian Home Museum and the seat of St. Clair County Historical Society.
Family
Dobschütz came of an old Silesian noble family and was the son of the royal Prussian Lieutenant Colonel August von Dobschütz from Brieg ( Lower Silesia), since at least 1829 privateer in Rheine, and the goldsmith 's daughter Elisabetha ( Lisette ) Joerden from Rheine.
He married his first wife in 1858 in Sioux City, Iowa, Nicey Ann Moore ( born June 3, 1836 Pitt County, North Carolina, † June 1, 1869 in Belleville, Illinois). From this union came six children.
His second wife Dobschütz married on July 15, 1869 in St. Louis, Missouri, Elisa ( Louisa ) Zimlich ( born July 28, 1848 in Baltimore, Maryland, † November 27, 1940 in St. Louis), the daughter of German immigrants from Hesse -Darmstadt. This couple had nine children.
His grandfather was the royal Prussian Major General Carl Moritz Wenzel von Dobschütz (1726-1807) in Oels ( Lower Silesia).
Life
Dobschütz completed a business teaching in Rheine and has been acclaimed as an 18 year old (1849 ) up to the time of his emigration (1856 ) mentioned there as a merchant. For some unknown reason Dobschütz left in March 1856 and reached his home in April 1856 the port of New York. From there he moved straight on to Sioux City in the northwest of the state of Iowa.
Very soon Moritz has there got to know his future (first) wife Nicey Ann Moore. Right after the Wedding ( 1858), the couple moved to St. Louis for a short time, but then in the same year further to Belleville in St. Clair County in the southwestern part of the State of Illinois. Latest in Belleville, he simplified his family name and was only called Moritz J. Dobschutz.
After his arrival in this city dominated by Germans Dobschutz first found employment as a worker and gardener, then worked at Messrs. Brosius & Geiss, foundry and manufacturer of agricultural machinery and equipment, and lived in very modest circumstances. After three years (from 1862) he was freelancing for several companies as an accountant and also completed their financial transactions. He soon opened as a money broker, the first agency of its kind in Belleville. Later he expanded his field of work still to work as a real estate agent. Thanks to its good business relations with trade and industry and his personal integrity, he built quite quickly on a prosperous business, which gave him a high reputation and respect in Belleville public.
1870 was Dobschutz at the age of almost 40 years and after only twelve years of residence in Belleville, a successful businessman and landowner of 1,200 hectares.
In a eulogy, in History of St. Clair County from 1881, the Dobschutz ' career describes, ' concludes (translated from English ):
Three months after the wedding of his daughter Martha by German-born Frank Kreitner founded Dobschutz with his son in 1882, the " Belleville Clay Mining and Washing and Pottery Co. " with a capital of $ 50,000, which probably he may have only guaranteed funding ( source: Belleville Weekly advocate ).
In 1866 he built himself and his family in the center of Belleville as a sign of its prosperity as a mansion, which is now open for viewing Victorian Home Museum and also the seat of St. Clair County Historical Society (address: 701 East Washington Street). His agency he ran in his own office building on East Main Street, in which his second wife, Louisa, he had only six weeks after the death of his first wife, married in 1869 probably for reasons of child care as soon led as an independent fashion designer their business. The evening of life spent Dobschutz as a respected businessman in his new house ( address: 101 South Church Street ), which had to give way to a parking lot in the 1990s.
On June 24, 1913 Dobschutz died in Belleville at the age of 82 and was buried in the Walnut Hill Cemetery, where Theodor Engelmann ( 1808-1889 ), lawyer and publisher of the German " Belleville Zeitung", and Gustav Körner ( 1809-1896 ), former Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, have their graves.
Memberships
- Honorary Knight of the Brotherhood "Ancient Order of United Workmen " in Belleville.