Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 2 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 9

From obscurity to prominence is the phrase that sums up the life record of John Hoffmann, who for many years was at the head of one of the largest wholesale grocery houses of Wisconsin. During many years he concentrated his efforts and attention upon the development of his trade, until his business was one of extensive and gratifying proportions and, moreover, he had made for himself an honored name in the commercial circles of the state. While he quietly pursued the even tenor of his ways, building up a business by progressive methods, close application and honorable competition, there is much of inspirational value in his life record, proving as it does what may be accomplished by personal labor intelligently directed. Mr. Hoffmann was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, December 4, 1839, and was a youth of seventeen years when in 1857 he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, making his way at once to Milwaukee, with the hope of finding employment in a grocery house of this city, having previously served an apprenticeship to the business in his native land. He did not win the coveted position here, however, and was forced to accept any employment that would yield him an honest living, eventually gaining a position in a butcher shop. He had to learn the trade and while thus engaged saved a little money from his meager wages. The hope of finding better opportunities further west led him to remove to St. Louis, but he did not see a favorable opening there and proceeded down the Mississippi to New Orleans, establishing a small shop in the old St. Mary's market, where he soon gained a profitable trade.

When Mr. Hoffmann saw the war cloud gathering and recognized the imminent danger of hostilities between the north and the south, he sold his business in New Orleans and returned to Milwaukee. This time the city seemed more hospitable from a business standpoint and he opened a butcher shop at 500 East Water street. His trade steadily grew and a little later he purchased the comer of East Water and Market streets, now the site of the city hall. In 1875 he broadened the scope of his activities by entering into partnership with Jacob Wellauer and establishing a wholesale grocery business, which was conducted under a partnership relation until 1898, when Mr. Hoffmann became sole owner thereof. He carried on the business in that way until 1904, when a corporation was formed and the name of John Hoffmann & Sons Company was adopted. Since the death of the father the business has been carried on by the sons, the present officers being: Willibald Hoffmann, president; Emil O. Hoffmann, vice president; H. J. Hoffmann, vice president; Walter Hoffmann, treasurer; Edward W. Hoffmann, secretary. The sons have followed in the footsteps of the father, becoming most progressive, alert and energetic business men and the wholesale grocery house remains one of the foremost commercial interests of the city. After engaging in the business for a brief period the father began the manufacture of sausage in a wholesale way and was one of the first western manufacturers to make such a shipment in large quantities to New York and other eastern markets.

On the 7th of July, 1861, Mr. Hoffmann married Suzanne Schweitzer, who survived him only a few months. Their seven children are the five sons already mentioned and two daughters, Mrs. Oscar Schmidt and Mrs. George Salentine. All are residents of Milwaukee. As the years passed John Hoffmann become more and more firmly established in the business circles of the city as a prosperous merchant and in the regard of his fellow townsmen as a progressive and highly esteemed citizen. He had reached the age of seventy-nine years when death called him in 1919, at which time one of the local papers characterized him as ''an ideal citizen and a good man." Rev. S. T. Smythe, president of St. John's Military Academy at Delafield, said at the funeral services: "I am not here to pronounce words of eulogy. John Hoffmann needs none such. Writ deep in the hearts and memories of us who knew and loved him is the record of his worth. I am not here because John Hoffmann was a great man. I know of no man, I never shall know a man, who cared so little for what the world calls greatness. His life was lived above the petty ambition of notoriety. We are not here because our friend was a charitable man. He was all that, but few I fancy, knew of his charities. I fancy that many a one, a lowly man, some humble woman, some man once down and out — on his feet again — may read of his death notice through unbidden tears.

"We are not taking leave of a boon companion. This man loved the hearth, the quiet of his home, the companionship of her who had been sweetheart in his earliest years and was sweetheart still as the years gathered. This man loved children. We are not here because in a day of loose living and looser morals this man was a pattern and type of what a husband and father should, be. We are not here because in a day of civic unrighteousness, of graft, of greed, this man rendered unto Caesar the things that of a right belong to Caesar. We are not gathered here to do honor to a successful business man, though he was superlatively that, a man of rare integrity in his dealings with other men.

"We have not come today because John Hoffmann was a religious man. I, who was his friend, knew little of his inmost thoughts concerning those great mysteries which are collocated under that word 'religion. As I think of his life free from cant and hypocrisy, I say to you that this man's life began where ours so often ends, in service to his fellows. Maybe his religion was not yours, perhaps not mine, but we shall wander far afield ere we find a better one. No, you are not gathered with me here today because of any one of these things, nor of all of them. We are about to bear away to the quiet of God's acre the mortal remains of a good man. Yea, a good man. Need we say more?"