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Biography - Frederick Korsmeyer

FREDERICK KORSMEYER, wholesale tobacconist, Cairo, is a native of the principality of Lippe, Germany, and was born March 4, 1836. His father, William Korsmeyer, also a native of Germany, and a farmer by profession, having married Miss Julia Schafer, of Germany, reared a family of seven children, of whom Frederick is the third. The family emigrated to the United States in 1854, with the exception of Frederick, who remained two years later, in order to complete his mercantile training in the business house of Henry Gerhard, in the town of Holzminden. The family settled near Evansville, Ind., and, with the exception of the parents and one daughter, who are deceased, are at this time residents of the United States. Soon after coming to Indiana, which was in 1856, Mr. Korsmeyer obtained a position in the dry goods house of Rose Bros., of Evansville, where he remained for some months, but after worked two years in a general store near the home of his parents, conducted by a Mr. John Decker, whom he bought out at the end of the second year, and conducted the business himself for about two years, this being his first business undertaking. He was married in 1859 to Miss Adelia Lemcke, of Evansville, but a native of Hamburg, Germany. She was born November 11, 1839, and is a daughter of Martin and Elizabeth Lemcke. Preferring to reside in the city, they, in 1861, removed to Evansville, selling his stock of goods, and for a time was employed in the business house of Schroeder & Lemcke, and after employed as clerk on a steamboat. In 1864, he came to Cairo, and engaged in the retail tobacco trade, associated with Alexander Lemcke, as Lemcke & Co. Mr. Korsmeyer conducted this business for three years, when he purchased the interest of Lemcke, since which time he has been sole proprietor, and since 1878 has done a wholesale trade, and now employs two traveling salesmen. Business on corner of Smith and Levee streets. He is a member of the Masonic order, Cairo Commandery. They have a family of three children, viz.: William, Elizabeth and Alexander.

Extracted 31 Mar 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part V, page 27.


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