12/30/2010:
It was this day in 1829 that the “Father of Jamestown,” Anton Klaus, was born in Brutting Prussia. Like many other Germans of his era, Klaus saw great opportunity across the Atlantic and so set sail for America, arriving in Green Bay, Wisconsin, November 1849. The mid-nineteenth century was generally good for Green Bay, and as the city prospered, so did Anton Klaus. In the late 1850s Anton invested in the lumber business, buying up local sawmills. He eventually moved into the shingle business and by 1870 was the largest shingle merchant in the country.
The poor immigrant Anton Klaus was now wealthy beyond his dreams and one of the most influential men in Wisconsin. Yet Klaus not only invested in lumber and shingles, but in his community as well. In 1855 he was elected city treasurer and in 1868, mayor. He donated liberally to community projects, tirelessly striving to improve his adopted home. However, disaster struck in 1873 with the stock market crash and the following depression. As Klaus’ investments collapsed one by one, the once wealthy civic leader was made destitute.
But Klaus wasn’t one to sit and mourn the destruction of his financial empire. In 1874, the forty-four year old packed up his few belongings and moved to the newly established frontier town of Jamestown, Dakota Territory. In Jamestown, Klaus prospered as he had in Green Bay. He started a general store in 1878 and shortly thereafter purchased a quarter section of land just south of town, which he divided into lots and sold for a profit. By 1880, Klaus owned two hotels and a sawmill. In 1882 he added a brick factory to his holdings and soon Jamestown was full of brick houses. While he would never again achieve the financial heights of his time in Green Bay, by the mid-1880s Klaus was once again a wealthy man. And once again Klaus worked to improve his community. He invested heavily in the city’s infrastructure and was very generous on behalf of local projects; donating land and money for parks and a new county courthouse.
Thus his death in 1897 was a sudden blow to both family and community. Yet Anton Klaus’s legacy lives on, alive and well in the memories of both Green Bay and Jamestown, which remember him still as one of their earliest and most influential supporters. He’s even immortalized in stained glass at St. James Basicilica in Jamestown.
Dakota Datebook written by Lane Sunwall
Sources
"Anton Klause", Digital Horizons http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ndshs-dm&CISOPTR=417&CISOBOX=1&REC=5 (accessed July 13, 2010).
"Mayors Past: Anton Klaus", City of Green Bay http://www.ci.green-bay.wi.us/mayors_past/mayor_klaus.html (accessed July 13, 2010).