John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 942

There are so many Germans who made contributions to American business and finance that I will keep the text brief and just give their names (which are the original names with perhaps a spelling change or two).  Here goes:

• Walter Annenberg,
• John Jacob Astor,
• Jules Semon Bache,
• Francis Drexel,
• Henry Clay Frick,
• Marcus Goldman,
• Daniel Guggenheim,
• Otto Kahn,
• Arthur Lehman,
• Carl Loeb, and
• Joseph Sachs.

From industry, here are some names:

• Adolphus Busch (always brewing up something) (Actually there are five Busches on the list.),
• John Faber (made pencils),
• Harvey Samuel Firestone (Feuerstein in German, so the family simply converted the elements of their name to English),
• Harry Fruehauf (who trailered around the country),
• Frank Gerber (who fed the babies),
• Abraham Hart (as in Hart, Schaffner, und Marx),
• Henry Heinz (who couldn't count past 57),
• Richard Hellman (he spread it over Heinz),
• Milton Hershey (from a sweet Swiss Anabaptist family),
• William Henry Hoover (he didn't invent it but an in-law did, and Hoover made a go of it),
• A couple of Kempers made a name for themselves in insurance,
• Frederick Maytag (was he a lonely man?) (literally, May Day),
• Gerhard Mennen (to keep you at your best),
• George Merck (to keep you well),
• John D. Rockefeller (richly deserving),
• Ferdinand Schumacher (he made oatmeal, not shoes),
• Milton Florsheim (he made shoes, not oatmeal),
• Jerome Schmucker (it has to be good for this Pennsylvania Dutch family),
• Claus Spreckels (kept it sweet),
• Vernon Stouffer (packaged it and froze it),
• Levi Strauss (he gave his name to the product),
• Frederick Weyerhaeuser (he worked the trees up into lumber),
• William Zeckendorf (he was for real),
• Anthony Zellerbach (rolled out the paper).

In merchandising, here are some familiar names:

• Benjamin Altman,
• John Jacob Astor,
• Louis Bamberger,
• Edward Filene,
• Isaac Gimbel,
• Sebastian Kresge,
• Carrie Neiman,
• John Wanamaker,
• David Lilienthal,
• Lorenzo Delmonico,
• Henry Morgenthau, and
• Cezar Ritz.

Whenever I go through a list of German names, I am always impressed by how many of my high school classmates had German names.  At the time, I never thought anything about it.  And this was during World War II.

In giving the names, I generally did not give the multiple repeats of the same name.  Many of these names carried on through the generations, perhaps to a greater extent than in other areas.  Fathers took sons into the business and often the sons and grandsons made their own mark.

Could anyone tell the List whether the Kempers above are from the Germanna family? (01 Aug 00)