Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 3 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 30

Fred W. Ribbe, vice president of the Gugler Lithographic Company, has been identified with this business for forty-three years, working his way steadily upward from a humble position to executive office and contributing in large measure to the substantial growth and progress of the enterprise. His life record indicates something of the opportunities which Milwaukee offers to her native citizens, and Mr. Ribbe is numbered among those who have recognized the advantages to be obtained here, equal to those which can be secured in other sections of the country. The fact that he has always remained here is also evidence of the attractiveness of Milwaukee as a place of residence. He was born on the 8th of September, 1859, his parents being J. F. and Wilhelmina (Luban) Ribbe. The father came to Wisconsin from Berlin, Germany, in the year 1854 and engaged in merchandising in Milwaukee, remaining in this city to the time of his demise in 1901. His widow survived him for more than a decade, passing away in 1912.

Fred W. Ribbe is indebted to the public school system of the city for the educational opportunities which he enjoyed and which qualified him for life's practical and responsible duties. Starting out in the business world, he served an apprenticeship to the lithographic and engraving trade in 1875 with the Siefert-Gugler Company and after completing a four years' term of indenture he joined the Ougler Lithographic Company, with which he has since continued save for a period of two years, which he spent in Buffalo, New York. With his return to Milwaukee he again became associated with the Ougler Lithographic Company and winning various promotions from time to time was eventually made superintendent in the year 1912. Eight years later he was elected to executive office, being made vice president of the company in 1920. The success of his life is attributable in large part to the fact that he has always continued in the line in which he embarked as a young tradesman, gaining thorough knowledge of every phase of the business and developing a skill and ability which could not hope to be obtained when an individual dissipates his energies over a broad field. There is no phase of lithography with which Mr. Ribbe is not thoroughly familiar, and he is therefore able to wisely direct the efforts of those in his employ.

In 1888, when in Buffalo, New York, Mr. Ribbe was united in marriage to Miss Louise Kuhm, a daughter of Jacob F. Kuhm, who come to America about 1840 and conducted an extensive brewing business at Buffalo. Mr. and Mrs. Ribbe are parents of three children: Roland, who married Miss Mildred Johnson; Edna, now the wife of Albert Pietsch of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin; and Alma, now the wife of Henry Mueller of Milwaukee.

Mr. Ribbe is a member of the Turnverein but has never become actively associated with clubs or fraternities. He votes with the republican party and keeps well Informed on the questions and issues of the day but has never sought nor desired office. His business activities have claimed the major part of his time and attention, and his thoroughness and persistency of purpose have constituted the foundation upon which he has built the superstructure of his success.