Georg Wittmer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georg Wittmer (born April 10, 1825 in Baltersweil near Dettighofen , † October 23, 1910 in Wittmer Station near Glenshaw , Pennsylvania ) was a farmer, entrepreneur, petroleum pioneer, co-founder of the American Natural Gas Company and patron.

Life

Georg Wittmer was the son of the farmer, tailor and arch-digger Xaver Wittmer. After his wife died in 1857, Xaver Wittmer traveled to Pennsylvania to live with his three sons (Heinrich, Georg and Xaver). They had already emigrated to the USA in 1852 to seek their fortune here. They worked in the coal mines near Glenshaw and with the earnings they earned after the Civil War they bought fallow land on which they later found clay, oil and natural gas. After building a brick factory, which they led to great success, they gradually built oil rigs. The drilling for oil had only just progressed through Edwin L. Drake . Xaver Wittmer became the first president of the family company. The Wittmer family cultivated the connection back home for a long time.

Foundation and Library

The building of the foundation with library and assembly rooms 2006

Georg Wittmer visited his homeland in 1900, he saw that there was still a lack of further education (he and his brothers attended private further education courses in the USA) and in 1901 founded the Wittmer Foundation to build the Wittmer library in his hometown of Dettighofen, which is today still exists. The public education association Dettighofen, founded on April 26, 1904 together with Alexander Würtenberger , took over the supervision . Xaver Wittmer visited the library in 1906 and Georg Wittmer's daughter Clara also came to Dettighofen on June 11, 1911. The descendant Henry H. Wittmer (1898–1950) donated several sums of money during the period of inflation and in 1929 determined the foundation's statutes with an addition to the neutral acquisition of books and a new investment through an equity fund. During the Nazi era, 'inappropriate' literature was hidden in the attic.

literature

  • Helmut Kohlbecker: Dettighofen, the reading and hearing village , in: Heimat am Hochrhein, series of publications by the district of Waldshut, Volume 4, 1969/70
  • A. Warner and Company: History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Including its Early Settlement and Progress to the Present Time, VOLUME 2 PART 2. Heritage Books, Inc., Westminster, MD, 2008, p. 578.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ News from June 1, 1950 in: The Pittsburgh Press, online on Google
personal data
SURNAME Wittmer, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wittmer, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German emigrants, pioneers in the oil industry
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltersweil near Dettighofen
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1910
Place of death Wittmer Station near Glenshaw , Pennsylvania