Otto A Weber

Otto A Weber

The Great Chicago fire of 1871 caused a demand for tradesmen and Otto, who knew carpentry, went to Chicago where there was an opportunity for employment. It was here he met the Bauch family and Christina. When this work was coming to an end, the company he worked for secured a contract to build barracks for the newly formed Royal Canadian Police in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Returning to Chicago at the completion of the contract, he married Christina Bauch on July 8, 1883. 

Otto Weber married Christina Bauch (1862-1895) in 1883 and they had six children: Walter (1884-1963); Albert (1886-1973); Ada (1888-1975); Emma (1890-1893); George (1893-1894); and Christina (1894-1983).

Emma burned to death when her dress caught fire and George died of diphtheria. The mother Christina died from tuberculosis about three weeks after the baby, Christina, was born. Otto raised both Walter and Albert, while Tanta (Aunt) Wanda raised Ada.  Great-grandmother Maria Sipple Bauch (1839-1916) took baby Christina and raised her in Chicago.

Otto married again. A marriage between Otto and a widow, Elizabeth (Brockmeyer) Strecker (1872-1950). August Strecker (abt. 1870-1897) had passed away two years earlier and their daughter, Thelma (1895-1899) died of diphtheria. Otto and Elizabeth Strecker were married July 5, 1899. He was 43 years of age and she 27. To this union was born Harry O. Weber, Sr (1900-1980).

Albert left the family business in 1898 and Otto continued the meat pickling business as A. Weber & Company until 1904. It sold potted ham for shipment overseas. However, at that time there was an epidemic in America, similar to the Mad Cow Epidemic which swept England in 1895, and an embargo was placed on exports, forcing them to seek other manufacturing venues. The company was the first west of the Mississippi to can tomatoes and catsup. 

It was in 1909 that a man named Redemeyer, sent two loads of cabbage and a slicer to the Weber’s, and this was the beginning of the sauerkraut venture.  In order to be able to store product until the prices went up in mid-winter, Otto built a brick factory and the office/living quarters at 1927-1941 O’Fallon Street.

• Legend:
• Subject
• Daughter
• Son
• Spouse

Otto A. Weber

(b. 1856, d. 1923)

Christina Bauch

(b. 1862, m. 1883, d. 1895)

Walter A. Weber

(b. 1884, d. 1963)

Amanda V. Sack

(b. 1889, m. Abt 1910, d. 1976)

Albert O. Weber

(b. 1886, d. 1973)

Ada E. Weber

(b. 1888, d. 1975)

Emma Weber

(b. 1890, d. 1893)

George A. Weber

(b. 1893, d. 1894)

Christina F. Weber

(b. 1894, d. 1983)

William S. Kapranos

(b. 1889, m. 1920, d. 1979)

Elizabeth Brockmeyer

(b. 1872, m. 1899, d. 1950)

Harry O. Weber, Sr

(b. 1900, d. 1980)

Alice C. Crusius

(b. 1905, m. 1926, d. 1989)

• Legend:
• Subject
• Daughter
• Son
• Spouse