Casper Heil

As printed in 1905

CASPER HEIL.

Casper Heil, one of the prominent German-American residents of Burlington, who has for a third of a century occupied a leading position in business circles here in connection with important productive industries of the city, is now the president of the Casper Heil Brewing Company, which owns and operates the Casper Heil Brewery, and manufactures the well-known " Heil's Beer." He has risen from comparative obscurity to his present ccwimanding position in connection with the industrial interests of the city.

A native of Germany, lie was born in Baden, in December, 1830, his parents being Fidaland Anna (Speck) Heil. In his native country he learned the cooper's trade under the direction of his father, and in 1852, when in his twenty-second year, he came to the United States, sailing from Havre, France, to New York, where he arrived after a voyage of forty-two days. Continuing his journey across the country, he reached Burlington, Iowa, on the 12th of August, and here secured employment as a cooper, working in that way until 1866. During the last decade of that jjcriod he was conducting a cooperage shop of his own and developed an excellent business, employing as many as twenty-four men at a time. He worked along progressive lines, and his strenuous labor and capable manageagement yielded him a gratifying measure of success. Thinking that he might have still better opportunity for advancement and financial prosperity in other departments of commercial activity, he embarked in the brewing business, in Des Moines, in January, 1866, remaining a resident of that city until 1872, when he purchased a brewery at Burlington from the firm of Bauer & Schaflner. He at once commenced to rebuild and remodel the plant, and has since added to the building until it is now one of the finest structures in the city, its cost being not less than seventy thousand dollars. For a number of years after he began in the brewing business he was alone, and so capable did he manage his affairs that very gratifying success attended the enterprise. In 1888 he had to close the brewery on account of the State law. Many men, similarly affected in a business way by the new law, gave way to depression. Not so with Mr. Heil. With undaunted courage he adjusted himself to the new conditions, looked about for other opportunity for business investment, and, with three other men prominent financially, he organized the

Granite ISrick Company, with a capital of thirty-five thknisanrl dollars, and installed the plant which since that time has been operated successfully in the manufacture of paving brick, and filling a needed place in the economy of industrial enterprises in Burlington, there being no paving-brick factory nearer than Galesburg, Ill. After successfully operating this plant for fifteen years, the company sold it in 1903 to the Burlington Construction Company.

In the meantime,, in 1892, — at the time of another change in the law, — Mr. Heil resumed brewing operations, still alone, but under the name of the Piurlington Brewery. He remodeled the plant, installing a refrigerating machine for cooling, it being the first put into breweries in that section. In 1894 the business was incorporated under the name t)f the Casper Heil Pjrewing Company, with a capital stock of sixty thousand dollars, the officers being: Casper Heil, president; Oscar Heil. vice-president and superintendent; ami Herman A. Heil, treasurer and secretary, tlu latter two being sons of Casper Heil, whom he ak!mitted to the business after providing them with good educational privileges. In 1896 further additions were made, and now the plant covers one hundred and fifty by one hundred and twenty feet on Jefiferson Street, near Central Avenue, most of the buildings being four stories in height, of red brick and of fine architectural design. From time to time modern improvements have been added, and the business has increased with such rapidity that the output now exceeds six thousand barrels annually.

In March, 1861, Mr. Heil was united in marriage to Miss Susanna Ziegenhein, who was born in Burlington, and is a daughter of Theodore Ziegenhein. a native of Germany. There have been seven children born of this marriage: William, who is a brewer in Hannibal. Mo.; Hannah, the deceased wife of Herman Mathes; Minnie, who died in childhood, in Des Moines; Ida (called Patty), the second wife of Herman Mathes; Mollie and Nettie, at home; Oscar and Herman who are engaged in business with their father. Mr. Heil has a fine home on West Jefiferson Street, where he has lived since 1891.

In his political views Mr. Heil is a stalwart Democrat. His has been a notable business career, for he landed in \ew York with only ten dollars in money. His earlier environment, too, necessitated immediate occupation, while his laudable ambition to attain success served as an impetus for untiring labor. As the years have gone by, through the utilization and mastery of opportunities which have come to him, he has gained for himself prosperity, and has won a position among the representative business men of Burlington.

As printed in Biographical review of Des Moines County, Iowa (1905). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.