Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 2 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 21

Large and important business interests are under the control of Alvin Paul Kletzsch, who is now the president of the Charles F. Kletzsch Company and the Kletzsch Realty Company and is also an officer and director in other corporate concerns. The constant development of his powers through the exercise of effort has made him a potent force in business circles and the soundness of his Judgment is manifest in the success which has crowned his labors.

Mr. Kletzsch was born August 21, 1861, in Newburg, Washington county, Wisconsin, his parents being Charles Frederick and Ernestine Matilda (Pietsch) Kletzsch, the former of Bischofswerda, Saxony. He immigrated to this country in 1853, settling at Newburg, Wisconsin, where he established a hotel known as the Webster House, which he there conducted until 1868. He then took over the Newburg mills and thereby turned his attention to the manufacture of flour and of lumber and in connection with his sawmill operated a furniture factory. In 1873 he removed to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he became proprietor of the Lie wis House, which he conducted until December, 1875, and then sold. At the latter date he leased the Republican House of Milwaukee, which he purchased in 1883 and which was continuously conducted by the family until the 1st of January, 1920.

Alvin Paul Kletzsch pursued his early education in the public schools of Newburg, Wisconsin, and afterward attended the German-English Academy at Fond du Lac and the Milwaukee high school, now the East Division high school. He then became a student in Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, New Jersey, and was graduated in June, 1884, with the degree of Mechanical Engineer. During his college days he became an honorary member of the Tau Beta Pi fraternity. Following his graduation he had charge of the mechanical laboratory at the Stevens Institute until July, 1885, making experiments and mechanical and scientific investigations under Professor Robert H. Thurston, C. E. & M. E. Later Dr. Thurston was a director of Sibley College at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, but owing to the illness of his father in 1885, was called to assist in the conduct of the Republican House and in February, 1888, the Charles F. Kletzsch Company acquired the property, which it has since owned. Alvin P. Kletzsch was secretary of the company until October, 1894, and since that time has been its president He likewise owns and controls much real estate in Wisconsin and Illinois under the name of the Kletzsch Realty Company, of which he is likewise president. He is also the president and one of the directors of the Milwaukee Auditorium Company and is a member of the governing board of the Milwaukee Auditorium. He is likewise a member of the Milwaukee county park board and while he is active in the management of his individual business affairs, he has always found time and opportunity to cooperate in these interests of a public and semi-public character, which have to do with general advancement and improvement and with the promotion of interests of civic virtue and of civic pride. In addition to his other activities of this character he was a trustee of the hospital for the insane in Milwaukee county, having been appointed by Governor La Follette and Governor McGovern.

Mr. Kletzsch was a member of the Light Horse Squadron of Milwaukee, now known as Troop A, Wisconsin Cavalry, from which he received an honorable discharge in 1892. In politics he is a progressive republican and was chairman of the state central committee from 1914 until 1916. Fraternally he is a Mason, belonging to LaFayette Lodge, F. & A. M,, and receiving the successive degrees of the chapter, the order of the Temple, and the consistory degrees up to and including the thirty-second. He is likewise a member of the Mystic Shrine and he served as commander of Ivanhoe Commandery, No. 24, K. T., in 1900, and was grand commander of the Grand Commandery of Wisconsin in 1908. He is likewise identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and he has membership in the Western Stevens Club of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Country Club and in the University Club. He has used his talents and opportunities wisely and well, accomplishing his purposes by reason of close application, indefatigable energy and keen business insight and also rendering effective aid in public affairs, whereby the interests of city and commonwealth have been largely augmented.