Kaeser Lumber Company

In 1930, at the beginning of the great depression, Fred Kaeser purchased the old Stotlar-Herrin Lumber Company business located at 602 N. Market Street and re-named it Kaeser Lumber Company. He accomplished this with the help of his sons, Walter and Albert, who helped run the business and his daughter, Katherine Barbara Kaeser who served as the bookkeeper for thirty years before returning to college and earning a degree in elementary education. Continue reading

Kaeser Family History

John Kaeser and his wife, Emelia Walther moved from St. Morgan, Illinois, to Williamson County in 1884 and settled on a farm east of Marion at the old Moeller Crossroad (Rt. 13 and 166). They brought with them their two sons Louis, ten years old, and Fred, eight years of age, along with daughter Emelia who was then six years of age. John Kaeser’s parents came from Switzerland in a sailboat during the late 1700’s or early 1800’s. Continue reading