Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 3 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 23

For more than a half century Gustav W. Grossenbach has been associated with the Milwaukee Mechanic's Insurance Company, in which he has risen to the vice presidency. The steps in his orderly progression are easily discernible. They have resulted from close application, thoroughness and efficiency — qualities which any may cultivate and which always leads to desired results. Mr. Grossenbach was born at Kirn, Germany, September 8, 1851, a son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Kreutzer) Grossenbach. He obtained his education in the schools of his native place, his training being such as the common and high school system afforded and when fourteen and a half years of age he was graduated. The following year, or in 1866, he sailed for the United States, landing in New York city after a voyage of sixty-six days on one of the old-time sailing vessels. It was the hope of enjoying better business opportunities that led him to sever his connection with the fatherland and come to the new world. He made his way direct to Milwaukee and was for three years connected with a manufacturing Jewelry establishment, learning the trade. At the expiration of that period the shop was closed and the young man had to seek other employment. In June, 1870, he entered the employ of the Milwaukee Mechanic's Insurance Company and celebrated his fiftieth anniversary with the company in June, 1920. Steadily he worked his way upward through various positions, promotion coming to him in recognition of his trustworthiness, his unfailing industry and his increasing ability. He was made assistant secretary on the 21st of October, 1889, and became secretary July 18, 1898. On the 21st of January, 1901, he was made the second vice president of the company and also elected one of its directors and eighteen years later, or on the 20th of January, 1919, he was elected to the vice presidency.

The occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his connection with the company was made an important event, being fittingly celebrated by the officials, field men and local officers, who held a banquet in his honor at the Pfister hotel as "a manifestation of their high appreciation and esteem." The program booklet issued on that occasion had the following appropriate quotation from Longfellow:

"Ah me! the fifty years since first we met,

Seem to me fifty folios, bound and set

By Time, the great transcriber, on his shelves.

Wherein are written the histories of ourselves."

About eighty-five guests were present and the gathering was made a most memorable one in every particular and many toasts were given which bore testimony to the efficient service of Mr. Grossenbach to the company and the high regard in which he is held by all. The agents of the company presented Mr. Grossenbach, as vice president, with new fire premiums amounting to over forty thousand dollars.

On the 8th of February, 1877, Mr. Grossenbach was married to Miss Emma Kassuba of Milwaukee, and they have become parents of three daughters: Lydia, the wife of Howard A. Mullett, assistant general manager of the The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company; Bertha; and Marguerite. Mr. Grossenbach is a member of the Milwaukee Association of Commerce and is deeply interested in all of the plans and projects of that organization for the city's benefit and upbuilding, the extension of its trade relations and the maintenance of high civic standards. He belongs to the Wisconsin Club and several musical societies, taking deep interest in the musical progress of the city. A resident of Milwaukee from the age of fifteen years, his interests have been most closely interwoven with the upbuilding of the city and his name is an honored one in business, social and musical circles, while the sterling worth of his character is manifest in the fact that he has the stanch friendship of many of the leading men of the city who have long numbered him among their peers.