Surname: Klemeyer, Arndt, Johnson, Mott
COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY
Of Henry County, Indiana
B.F. Bowen
1920
Surnames in this biography are: Klemeyer, Arndt, Johnson, Mott,
J. L. KLEMEYER.
J. L. Klemeyer, general manager of the Klemeyer Lumber Company, which was
organized in May 1908, and is now operating extensively in southeastern
Illinois and southwestern Indiana, with headquarters at Vincennes, is a
native of Bremen, Germany, born on the 30th of June 1880. His life record is
another proof of the fact that the young men are constantly forging to the
front and, embodying the alert progressive spirit of the times, are active in
the control of extensive and important business interests. His father, J. L.
Klemeyer, also a native of Bremen, died in 1890. His mother, who in her
maidenhood was Johannah Arndt, is still living in Germany. In the schools of
the fatherland J. L. Klemeyer acquired a thorough education, becoming well
grounded in the fundamental and basic principles of learning. The
opportunities of the new world attracted him, and when fifteen years of age
he came to the United States to make his fortune. For a short time he
remained in New York but the opportunities, which he there found were not to
his liking, and he proceeded westward to southeastern Missouri, where he
secured a situation in a logging camp. He resolved that in his position at
Greenview, Missouri, he would so prove his worth that more advantageous
positions would open to him. He remained at Greenview for five years
gradually working his way upward and thoroughly learning the lumber business,
with which he became familiar in every phase. A young man of good presence,
of laudable ambition and unfaltering energy, however, could not be kept in a
logging camp, and there came to him an advanced opportunity, when he was sent
upon the road for the Frost-Trigg Lumber Company of St. Louis. He represented
that firm in the middle west for eight years, during which period his sales
largely augmented the trade of the house, and at the same time brought him a
wide acquaintance among lumber men of that section of the country. His
widening experience also qualified him for larger responsibilities and, in
May 1908, he joined with some prominent capitalists in organizing the
Klemeyer Lumber Company, which was incorporated on the 18th of that month and
began business in Vincennes. The officers of the company are: C. D. Johnson
of St. Louis, president; H. W. Wagon of St. Louis, vice president and
treasurer; and A. J. Mott, secretary; with Mr. Klemeyer as general manager.
The notably brilliant success of the company during the brief period of its
existence is to be attributable to the able management of Mr. Klemeyer. At
the outset the company owned but one yard; today eight are being operated-two
in Vincennes, together with the yards at Bridgeport, Marshall and Newton,
Illinois; at Oaktown, Washington, and Wheatland, Indiana. The business was
capitalized at the beginning for fifty thousand dollars, but on the 18th of
May 1910, the capital stock was increased to one hundred thousand dollars.
The general offices are located at Vincennes and all business is managed from
this point. In 1902 Mr. Klemeyer was married to Miss Nellie Johnson, a native
of Effingham, Illinois, and unto them have been born four children: John L.,
Harold, Robert and Dorothy. Mr. Klemeyer holds membership with the Masons,
the Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Hoo Hoos, the last an organization
of lumbermen. The life history of Mr. Klemeyer is indeed a notable and
commendable one. Coming to this country a youth of fifteen years,
unacquainted with the language and the customs of the people, roughing it in
a lumber camp, later traveling upon the road, and now director of an
extensive and growing business-such a history is unusual and one of which he
has every reason to be proud. His ability as a manager is pronounced and he
possesses excellent judgment while his integrity is above question. His
actions are sincere, his manner unaffected, and his example is indeed worthy
of emulation.