USA > Nebraska > Douglas County > Omaha > Omaha: the Gate city, and Douglas County, Nebraska, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume II > Part 71
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On the Ist of June, 1914, in this city, Mr. Tomanek was married to Miss Lucy Slunicko, a native of Omaha and a daughter of Hugo Slunicko, an early settler here. Politically Mr. Tomanek is a republican where national issues are involved but casts an independent local ballot. He belongs to the Z. C. B. J., a Bohemian social organization, and fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen
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of America, while his religious faith is indicated in his membership in the Presby- terian church. He started out as a boy to earn his living when thirteen years of age. His father was an invalid and many of the responsibilities of the home fell upon his young shoulders. These he manfully met and contributed in large meas- ure to the support of the family. This early brought him a realization of the value of industry and he soon learned that success dances as a will-o'-the-wisp before the visionary, allures the dreamer but yields its rewards to the man of persistent, earnest purpose. His determination and his energy have conquered the obstacles and difficulties in his path and step by step he has advanced along the road to prosperity.
GUSTAVE C. KUENNE.
Gustave C. Kuenne is a baker and confectioner of Omaha whose high stand- ing in business circles is indicated in the fact that he has been chosen to the presidency of the Master Bakers' Association, of which organization he has also been the secretary and treasurer. His bakery, lunchroom and delicatessen store constitutes one of the most attractive and ably conducted establishments of the kind in the city. He was in a measure "to the manner born," for his father, August Kuenne, conducted business along similar lines. The latter was born in Westphalia, Germany, and in 1862 came to the new world, settling in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he was successfully engaged in business as a baker for a time, having previously learned the trade in his native country. He was also a high-class confectioner and maintained his business in Fond du Lac most successfully until 1898, when he retired in order to leisurely enjoy the fruits of his former labors. He married Augusta Kunze, a native of Westphalia, who two years after her husband came to the new world brought their family to the United States. She passed away in 1875. To Mrs. and Mrs. Kuenne were born four children, but two of the number have passed away. The surviving daughter is Emma, the wife of W. A. Piel, a druggist of Omaha.
Gustave C. Kuenne, the only surviving son, attended public schools and also private German schools in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, but when a lad of only eleven years started out in business life, working in his father's establishment. He became thoroughly acquainted with every phase of the business, thoroughly mastering the trade of making bakery goods. Severing his business relations with his father when twenty-six years of age, he came to Omaha, where he arrived on the 2d of March, 1886. He was practically unknown in the city, hav- ing only a few friends here, but notwithstanding he established business on his own account at No. 1816 St. Marys avenue. His store was originally very small, but the excellence of his products soon found favor with the public and won him a constantly increasing trade. He started out to make his own deliv- eries without horse or wagon and he met with various trying circumstances, but he persevered and in time built up one of the leading establishments of the kind in Omaha. After three years his business had so developed that larger quarters were demanded and he removed to 522 South Sixteenth street. During the widespread financial panic and consequent hard times which involved the coun- try from 1894 until 1897 he met with financial reverses caused largely by the failure of a bank of which he was a stockholder. However, he had considerable real estate which he sacrificed and met all his financial obligations. After his failure, however, he borrowed some money and started anew in business at Twenty-third and Leavenworth streets, where again he soon gained a large and gratifying trade. He later removed his business to 2916 Leavenworth street, and when his son Oscar reached sufficient age he became connected with the father. Under their direction the business has since flourished and pros- pered, and in order that both might be profitably employed Mr. Kuenne in
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GUSTAVE C. KUENNE
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1910 opened his downtown establishment at No. 504 South Sixteenth street. This he personally conducts and it has proven a success from the beginning. He devotes all his time and attention to the business.
In 1888 Mr. Kuenne was married to Miss Louisa Schrekenstein at Calumet, Wisconsin. She is a native of that state and a daughter of Franz and Caroline (Rothman) Schrekenstein, who were of German descent and represented an old and prominent family of Wisconsin. Her mother was the first white child born in Fond du Lac county, that state, her parents having settled there in the primeval forest among the Indians. The ancestry in Germany is traced back through many generations and on the river Elbe today still stands the old castle of Schrekenstein. They were among the titled families of the father- land and Mrs. Kuenne's paternal grandfather was a man of high rank who served in the German army. The family name is Von Schrekenstein, but on coming to American the father of Mrs. Kuenne dropped the prefix. Mrs. Kuenne is a lady of refined character, liberal education and high culture. Mr. and Mrs. Kuenne have two children: Oscar, a very enterprising young man now in charge of the Leavenworth street store, and Carol, the former born in 1890 and the latter on the 7th of January, 1895.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kuenne hold membership in the Lutheran church and Mr. Kuenne is also identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, while in Masonry he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and has become a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. In politics he was formerly a demo- crat but now gives his support to the republican party. When he came to Omaha his cash capital consisted of two hundred and forty dollars and in the interven- ing period he has worked his way upward to his present success. At the same time he has never developed that grasping nature which sacrifices everything to the attainment of prosperity but has remained a cultured gentleman of genuine worth, having a host of friends. He is thoroughly American in spirit and has been a generous supporter of many plans and projects for the upbuilding of his adopted city along the lines of civic improvement.
C. J. MEITZEN.
C. J. Meitzen, general manager of the Omaha Robe & Tanning Company, was born in Berlin, Germany, August 18, 1873, his parents being Albert and Clara Meitzen, who crossed the Atlantic in 1884 and became residents of Persia, Iowa. They removed to Avoca, that state, in 1893 and there the father engaged in farming for many years, becoming one of the well known agriculturists of the locality, where he is still living at the age of eighty-eight, while his wife has reached the age of seventy-seven years. In their family were five children: Albert, a banker of Avoca ; Susan, living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Marguerite, now the wife of A. J. Eggerss ; C. J., of this review ; and Mrs. Ella Cold, of Denver, Colorado.
At the usual age C. J. Meitzen became a pupil in the public schools of Ger- many, there pursuing his studies to the age of eleven years, when he accompanied his parents on the voyage to the new world. Later he became interested in farming at Persia, Iowa, and continued to engage in agricultural pursuits there for twelve years, at the end of which time he sold out and in 1900 came to Omaha. Here he became a salesman in the employ of the Eggerss-O'Flyng Company, which he represented upon the road for twelve years as a traveling salesman. He then, in 1911, left the road to become general manager of the Omaha Robe & Tanning Company at South Omaha, in which position he has since continued. Through his close application and persistent efforts he has built up a business of large and gratifying proportions, ever recognizing the fact that satisfied patrons are the best advertisement. Today he is at the head of the leading robe and tanning concern
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west of Chicago and the local plant is one of the best equipped in this section of the country, having modern machinery and thoroughly up-to-date equipment in every department for the handling of the immense business now conducted. The company manufactures leather robes of every description and also fur garments of every kind. The building occupied is a model of its kind, covering a space forty by one hundred and fifty feet, and is two stories in height with basement. The company employs an expert buyer and equally efficient office help and have thoroughly trained and skilled workmen as operatives in the plant manufacturing its product, which is sent to various sections of the country. Mr. Meitzen has thoroughly studied every phase and branch of the trade and is familiar with the business from the point of purchase through the various processes of manufacture to the point of final salc.
On the 14th of February, 1905, in Omaha, Mr. Meitzen was united in marriage to Miss Martha Brown, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Brown, who were pioneers and highly respected people of Idagrove, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Meitzen have one child, Allen, who was born in Omaha in 1907 and is now attending school.
The parents are members of the Lutheran church and Mr. Meitzen exercises his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the republican party. He has social and genial qualities which render him popular wherever he is known and as a traveling salesman he formed a wide acquaintance. In Omaha he bears the well earned reputation of being a most progressive and competent business man and his life record should serve to inspire and encourage others, showing what may be accomplished when there is a will to dare and to do. He has never feared to venture where favoring opportunity has pointed out the way and step by step he has reached the desired goal of his ambition.
A. J. P. BERTSCHY.
A well known business man of Omaha is A. J. P. Bertschy, president of the Bertschy Manufacturing and Engineering Company, manufacturers of auto- mobile parts and screw machine products. He was born in McHenry county, Illinois, July 11, 1875, a son of Frederick and Magdalena (Zimpleman) Bertschy, who were natives of France and in 1868 came to America, settling in McHenry county, Illinois. There the father engaged in the cultivation of vineyards and in agricultural pursuits to the time of his death, which occurred in 1899. He had long survived his wife, who passed away in 1884. In their family were four children, of whom Adolph was the youngest. The others are: Mrs. Lena Siler, of Urbana, Illinois; George, of Omaha; and Fred, living in Bowman, North Dakota.
A. J. P. Bertschy attended the public schools of his native county until his tenth year, when he ran away from home and secured a position in a meat market in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Later he took up work along electrical lines and gradually acquainted himself with the electrical construction business. When fifteen years of age he became an employe of the Elgin Watchcase Company at Elgin, Illinois, and when sixteen years of age was made foreman. He handled all the gold cases and special raised work and had made for himself a most creditable position in business circles when a strike occurred in the factory and he was discharged. He then took up electrical construction and lighting system work in northern Illinois and eventually secured a position as foreman with the Bell Telephone Company, remaining in that connection for several years. He then resigned to obtain a better position with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company in their block signal department and continued with the road for several years. He afterward entered the service of the Independent Tele- phone Company of Illinois and while thus engaged he invented the telephone
A. J. P. BERTSCHY
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repeater, which is now being universally used on the telephone systems. He still holds the patents on his invention but in 1904 sold an interest therein. After a short time with the Independent Telephone Company he was made manager in 1900 of the trouble department and became connected with the power service as well. About the same time he started in the auto repair business in Chicago, in which he continued for a year. He then went to Woodstock, Illinois, where he conducted a general jobbing shop and built a successful working model of his telephone repeater. He then sold out his shop and went to the Nevada gold fields. In May, 1904, he began experimenting with autogenous welding, on the request of his brother, a mining engineer, to reduce concrete rock, which has since become known as Wolframite. In the same year, through an uncle in Paris, France, a device was perfected known as autogenous welding for the reduction of ore at the tremendous heat of four thousand degrees. At that time, while in Nevada, he was at work on an auto- mobile designed for the purpose of crossing the desert-at that time an unheard of performance. This machine he perfected, but the company which was back- ing him became financially embarrassed and he was compelled to work his way home. He landed in Council Bluffs in 1907 and for a time was obliged to work for his board. When he secured a position he saved enough of his earnings to organize the Bertschy Motor Company. This company established headquarters in Council Bluffs and Mr. Bertschy severed his connection therewith in 1911.
He then returned to Omaha practically without means and secured a place to open an auto garage, which he did on the Ist of February, 1912. His first day's receipts were five dollars and fifty-five cents. The second day's receipts were fifteen cents, and the third twenty cents. On the 7th of February, 1912, he banked twenty dollars. The excellence of his work soon brought him a growing reputation, followed by a constantly increasing trade, and among automobile owners, when anything became wrong with their machines, the word became current, "Bertschy can fix it." This he finally adopted as a trade mark- "Bertschy Kan-Fix-It." There has been no kind of automobile trouble that he has not been able to remedy and his work has gained a high reputation in many other lines. Something of the volume of his business is indicated in the fact that while in February, 1912, he deposited twenty dollars, his total business for the first year was over fifty thousand dollars and his gross profit seventeen thousand two hundred and thirteen dollars. There are today thirty-seven men in his employ, all experienced in their line. The floor space of his repair depart- ment is nineteen thousand square feet, devoted exclusively to the repair and manufacture of auto parts. He has the most modern and thoroughly up-to-date machinery and every known device for the repair and manufacture of auto- mobiles, for welding and other machinery. Mr. Bertschy possesses marked inventive genius and there is nothing along mechanical lines which he dare not attempt. In 1908 he patented an air cushion suspension for automobiles and in 1914 he patented an electrical flasher for use on flashlight signs. He is now working on and has practically perfected a process for converting ordinary steel or iron into high grade steel which will reduce the cost from seven thousand dollars per ton to one hundred and forty dollars. On displaying this to steel men, they were amazed and said that if he would make tests that would prove satisfactory to them, they would not hesitate to offer him five hundred thousand dollars for the formula. He has already made his tests in private and they have proven satisfactory.
On the 2d of May, 1915, Mr. Bertschy was married to Mrs. Helen Graham at Papillion, Nebraska, who by her former marriage had two children, Robert S. Bertschy and Helen M. Bertschy, twins, born in Shreveport, Louisiana, July 6, 1900. The former is now in the manual training high school. He is an apt pupil of Mr. Bertschy, who takes the deepest interest in the welfare and progress of his son, who is also displaying marked mechanical ingenuity and is now completing without assistance from anyone a miniature automobile, child's
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size. Helen is now attending a private school and shows remarkable talent in music and art.
Mr. Bertschy is an honorary member of the Elks lodge of Joliet, Illinois. He has membership in the Masonic fraternity and he belongs to the Omaha Athletic, the Commercial and the Automobile Clubs. Ile is a member of the American Society of Scientific Engineers and his inventive genius has made him widely known among men who are directing their efforts along similar lines or whose interest centers in work of kindred character. Unlike many men of inventive ingenuity, he possesses also marked business ability and executive force, his strength and power being demonstrated in the notable success that has come to him within the last five years.
HOLLIS M. JOHNSON.
While Europe is engaged in a destructive war that is laying waste all that is best in her citizenship and her civilization America is forging to the front along constructive lines of farreaching benefit to her people and to the world at large. Among the important centers of commerce in Omaha is that conducted under the name of the Omaha Sanitary Supply Company, of which Hollis M. Johnson is the head. He may well be termed "a captain of industry" because of his qualities for leadership, for organization and for the direction of forces. He was born at College Springs, Iowa, August 24, 1877, a son of C. M. and Lavinia T. Johnson, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania and came to Iowa in 1856, crossing the country with a wagon train. Mr. Johnson took up his abode upon a homestead claim and there developed a fine farm, which he cultivated for a number of years, but eventually turned his attention to the insurance business in Iowa, in which he continued to the time of his death in 1914, when he had reached the age of sixty- seven years. His widow yet makes her home in Omaha at the age of sixty-nine years.
Hollis M. Johnson, the fifth of their nine children, mastered the branches of learning taught in the public schools of Iowa and afterward entered Amity Col- lege, from which he was graduated in 1898. Soon afterward the Spanish- American war was declared and at the first call for volunteers he enlisted. He was assigned to duty in the Philippine Islands and went to the front as a private but returned as a corporal, being honorably discharged at San Francisco, Cali- fornia, in 1899, after having capably and faithfully defended American interests in the orient.
Mr. Johnson at once came to Omaha and, having learned the plumbing and heating business, he began work as a contractor along those lines and in 1906 established what was known as the Johnson Plumbing & Heating Company. His activities brought success and in 1907 he bought out the John Rowe Plumbing Company, after which his business continued to grow and expand along substan- tial lines. In 1911 he decided to confine his efforts to the wholesale business exclusively, at which time he incorporated the Omaha Sanitary Supply Company, of which he has continuously been the president. In this connection he is at the head of one of the largest enterprises of the kind in Omaha and one which has been an important factor in the upbuilding of the city. The business which he now controls was started in 1854 and since that time has remained an important in- dustrial and commercial asset of Omaha. Mr. Johnson has had practical experi- ence in every phase of the business. He is a heating and sanitary engineer, holding a science degree, and has been associated with some of the greatest companies of the kind in the country. The United States government has consulted him on important questions along his line and in various sections of the country he has been called upon for expert opinion on engineering problems relating to heating and sanitation. In connection with his government service and his own business he
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has traveled extensively in the United States, Mexico, the Hawaiian islands and Japan. The Omaha Sanitary Supply Company conducts a wholesale trade in regular staple plumbing, heating and water supplies and are specializing in the more modern improved lines, representing some of the leading factories of the world. They make a feature of the Royal line of cast iron sectional boilers of both the regular and smokeless types-the kind selected by the government experts for use in the White House. They also handle the most modern line of ventilated plumbing fixtures and represent the Tuec Vacuum Cleaner Company in this terri- tory. In fact the lines which they handle represent the more efficient and improved types manufactured and their trade now covers a radius of two hundred miles from Omaha. They furnish employment to a large force of workmen and that the enterprise is of marked benefit to the city is indicated in the fact that they not only pay out much money to Omaha people through their employes but they are in every way strictly an Omaha concern, the members of the company being all prominent Omaha business men. In addition to to Mr. Johnson, who is president of the company, the officers are: W. C. Bullard, secretary ; J. Harold Evans, vice president ; and Samuel Rees, treasurer. The constant and steady growth of the business has led to doing away with the contracting department and the concentra- tion of effort and attention upon wholesale plumbing and heating supplies.
On the 7th of May, 1901, Mr. Johnson was married in Omaha to Miss Addie Gilmore, a daughter of W. R. Gilmore, of Clarinda, Iowa. They have two chil- dren, Dorothy and Madeline, born respectively in 1902 and 1912. The former is 110w a high school pupil.
Mr. Johnson gives his political support to the republican party and he is well known in various social connections. He belongs to the United Spanish War Veterans, is president of the Concord Club, a member of the Commercial Club and a member of the Omaha Athletic Club. Wherever he is known he is held in high esteem by reason of his personal worth as well as the notable business ability that has brought him to a foremost place in the ranks of the successful men of his adopted city.
HON. JOHN MCCULLOUGH TANNER.
Hon. John McCullough Tanner, a member of the state senate and editor of the Nebraska Daily Democrat published at South Omaha, was born in Nevada, Story county, Iowa, April 13, 1861. His parents, Joseph G. and Mary E. Tanner, came to the west in a wagon in the early '50s. The father was a contractor and builder and erected the first wing of the Agricultural State College at Ames, Iowa. He reared a family of seven children.
In the public schools of his native city John M. Tanner pursued his education and when his textbooks were put aside began learning the printer's trade, in which line of activity he has since continued, steadily advancing step by step as he acquainted himself with the various branches of the business. He was employed as reporter and city editor on a number of daily newspapers and he established the Nebraska Daily Democrat at South Omaha, since which time he has devoted his attention to its publication with good success. He has made his paper an influ- encing factor in molding political opinion and public thought and action along various lines.
On the 10th of May, 1886, Mr. Tanner was married to Miss Mary O'Byrne, a daughter of Patrick J. O'Byrne, and their children are Joseph W., Hubert James and Frances Mellie, the last named now the wife of William B. Haselmire.
Mr. Tanner is well known in various fraternal and social organizations. He has membership with the Elks, the Eagles, the Moose, the Royal Highlanders and the Woodmen of the World. He was president of the South Omaha Aerie, No. 154, for a year and was secretary of the Nebraska state association of the
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Fraternal Order of Eagles for five years. He belongs also to the Field Club and to the Seymour Country Club, and that he occupies an honored position in journalistic circles in the state is indicated in the fact that he was chosen for president of the Nebraska Press Association in 1912. His political allegiance is given to the demo- cratic party and he is a recognized leader in its ranks, doing much to shape legisla- tion as a member of the Nebraska state senate in 1909, 1911 and 1917. He gives most earnest consideration to those problems which are to the statesman and man of affairs of deepest import and which affect the political, economic and socio- logical conditions of the country.
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