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HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
of the Elgin National Gas and Oil Company, operating in Ohio and Indiana, and a Director and the Treasurer of the Seybold Reed-Pipe Organ Company of Elgin, acting in the capacity of its General Manager. He is a Director of the Masonic Association of Elgin, which is now 'erecting a handsome new Masonic Temple for use of the various bodies of the order in Elgin. He is also a Director of the Gail Borden Public Library, and in politics an active Republican. During the last Presidential campaign he was Treasurer of the German-American Republican Club. Mr. Ackemann was married in 1895 to Miss Christie Deuchler, of Dundee, Ill., and they have four children: Stella Irene, Walter Frederick, Helen Wilhelmine and George William. He and his family are members of the First Church of the Evangelical Association. He is also a Thirty-second Degree Mason and member of Monitor Lodge. No. 522, A. F. & A. M.; the Loyal Legion, Munn Chapter, No. 96, and Bethel Commandery, No. 36, all of Elgin, and the Oriental Consistory of Chicago; also of the Royal League and the Knights of the Globe. Mr. Ackemann is not a member of any club, preferring to spend his leisure hours with his family and in his private library, which contains upwards of 500 volumes of choice literature. He has traveled to some extent, and since coming to this country has visited forty-three different States of the Union, visiting the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Gulfs and the Lakes. His home on Douglas Avenue is one of the handsomest in Elgin.
WILLIAM D. ACKEMANN, merchant, born in Winzlar, Province of Hanover. Germany, Sept. 24, 1855, was educated in the schools of Winzlar and came to the United States in the fall of 1872. He lived one year in New York City, where he learned the grocery business, and came from there to Elgin, Ill., in 1873. Here he became connecter! with the dry-goods house of Bosworth Brothers & Peck, with which he remained seven years. For two years afterward he was in the employ of M. W. DuBois, also of Elgin. He then engaged in the dry-goods trade in this city on his own account, becoming founder of the extensive mercantile house which is now conducted by the firm of Ackemann Bros. In 1894, in company with his brothers, August W., Conrad F., Henry F. and Fred H. Ackemann, he opened the department store of Ackemann Bros., which occupied
a modern, thoroughly well equipped building erected in the heart of the business district of Elgin. This business has since grown to large proportions, and their establishment is one of the largest department stores in Northern Illinois outside of Chicago. Mr. Ackemann married, in 1882, Miss Bertha Sexauer, of Elgin. AUGUST W. ACKEMANN, brother of William D., was born in Winzlar, Germany, Oct. 22, 1859, was educated in the public and private schools of Winzlar, and came direct to Elgin from Germany in 1875. Until the winter of 1881 he clerked in Elgin dry-goods stores. In that year he went to Minnesota and was employed in Faribault until the spring of 1882, when he went to Milwaukee, Wis., where he was connected with the firm of Rich & Silver during the next four years. He then returned to Elgin, and, after clerking for a time for his brother, W. D. Ackemann, became a member of the firm of Ackemann Bros., in which he is still interested and in the management of which he takes an active part. He married, in 1885, Miss Minnie Buhmeyer, of Elgin. CONRAD F. ACKEMANN, merchant, a second brother, born in Winzlar, Germany. May 23, 1864, was educated in the public and private schools of his native town and came to Elgin in 1880. During the first year of his residence in this city he was employed in a crockery and glassware store. He then entered the employ of W. D. Ackemann and worked seven years in the latter's dry-goods store. At the end of that time he became junior member of the furniture and undertaking firm of Clothier & Ackemann. Later his brother, Henry F. Ackemann, purchased the senior partner's interest in this business and the firm became Ackemann Bros. Afterward Fred H. Ackemann joined the firm, and the three brothers continued in business until they consolidated their interests with those of their brothers in the present large department store in 1894. Mr. Ackemann has since been one of the managers as well as a partner in this business. He is at the present time (1903) a member of the Elgin Board of Aldermen. He married, in 1887. Miss Millie Mutzelburg. of Elgin. Another brother. HENRY F. ACKE MANN, merchant, was born Nov. 11, 1853, in Winzlar, Germany. His education was obtained in the public and private schools of that town, and he was trained in farming, which occupation he followed for some years before coming to the United States. He came to Elgin in 1891
