A. Koehler Co.

Anthony Koehler was born at Galena, Illinois on March 19, 1859 to Christian and Margaret Gund Koehler.
Mr. Koehler died in Chicago, Illinois on February 21, 1900 where he had gone to undergo a surgical operation.
Anthony was married to Kate Fisher on October 5, 1892 at Geneva, Nebraska.
Kate Adell Fisher was born on December 31, 1869 at Winterset, Madison County, Iowa to Joseph M. and Nancy Syas Fisher
Mrs. Koehler died at Denver, Colorado on September 20, 1926 while visiting her sister.
Mr. and Mrs. A. Koehler had one child, Donald Anthony Koehler.
Anthony moved to Le Mars, Iowa with his parents in 1876
In 1883 he moved to Blue Hill, Nebraska where he remained for two years.
Mr. Koehler came to Geneva, in 1885 where he went into the grain business. As the business grew, the firm became known as A. Koehler Co. and expanded grain handling to Burress, a lumber yard at Strang and grain, coal and lumber at Geneva.

Courtesy of the Fillmore Co. Historical Society

Courtesy of Bill Turek

In 1894, Anthony’s brother Barthold (Bat) became associated with the business.
After Anthony’s death in 1900, Mrs. Kate Koehler sold her husband’s business to his brothers Barthold and Christian. The name of the business remained A. Koehler Co. with Bat Koehler as the manager. Christian was a resident of Blue Hill where he had business interests.
In 1903, the A. Koehler Co. invested in a new steam brick making plant in the south part of Geneva. It was located one mile southwest of the post office and in the area between the Chicago Northwestern and Chicago Burlington Railroads. There were sidings from each of the railroad lines. It employed about 20 -25 men and wages were paid $1.50 per day.
Evidently there was a previous location for the brickyard, also in south Geneva. In July, 1903 the city purchased the old Koehler brickyard south of town and all garbage, manure, and refuse of all kinds was to be dumped there.
By 1919, they were playing baseball at what they called "brickyard park" near this area.

An office was built in 1911 on the south side of G street using brick their company had manufactured.

Christian died in 1921 leaving Bat to operate the business with the help of long time employee, Charley Summers.
In 1924, John Koehler, son of Bat and Clara H. Koehler returned to Geneva from Chicago to work in the family business.
Bat Koehler and Charley Summers both passed away in 1926. Following their deaths, Bat’s sons Benjamin in 1927 and George in 1945 joined their brother John in the family business.
The brickyard was dismantled in 1927 and the business expanded into the feed business in 1932.
Louise Koehler Picard’s husband Charles Picard, brother-in-law of John Koehler, joined the family business in 1937 as the company started a hatchery. The next year they hatched 1,000 turkeys.

In 1941 Charles Picard resigned to pursue other interests and Sylvester Weis took charge of the hatchery.
Bolton Lumber was purchased by the A. Koehler Co. in 1943. A new office for the lumber business was built in 1947 on the site of the old Bolton Lumber yard.
George retired from the company in 1966.
When the A. Koehler Co. sold the lumber business in 1968 to Chicago Lumber Co., Benjamin retired.
The hatchery business was discontinued in 1970.
In January 1973, John Koehler retired and sold their grain and fertilizer business to BH&L Grain Co.

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