John L Oppugner

OPPUGNER

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/10/2009 at 12:21:35

John L Oppugner , now in the prime of life, is an active factor in the business life of the city of Boone, He was born at Malvern, Ohio, June 5, 1862, the son of Louis and Catharine (LeBeau) Goeppinger, who are of German parentage. When four years old he migrated with is parents to Boone, Iowa. In due season he entered the public schools of the town, passed through the several grades, entered the high school and was graduated in 1880 in the first class ever turned out, consisting of seven members of who he was sole representative of the male sex. Shortly after he went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and entered Duff’s Commercial College in that city, from which he was graduated in 1881.
Returning home he immediately entered upon his commercial career in the firm of L & H Goeppinger, composed of his father and uncle, with which firm he now remains. In the twenty-one years of his engagement in this house he rose rapidly in thousands, and has been for many years the manager of this extensive enterprise, capably conducting its affairs and having general oversight. This success has required on the part of John L close and careful attention but he studious habits contracted while a student and his well known record as a pupil naturally pointed him out among his neighbors for the grave duties of educational direction when he had reached full manhood. He was for nine consecutive years a member of the board of school directors, and for three subsequent years its president. He advocated and helped to secure the consolidation of the school districts of Boone and Boonesboro. Quoting from the Boone School Manual, a book published in 1896, under the title “Historical Sketch of Boone Schools.” “This young man got into the habit of being in the front ranks and the habit clings to him. First alumnus of the school, he was the first graduate to be place upon the school board, and the first graduate t be elected president of the honorable body.”
But as thought eh perplexities of this educational supervision, in a district employing fifty or more instructors, might possibly fail of giving him diversified occupation sufficient to supply his hunger for hard work, his business neighbors of Boone made him president of their association, and other calls required him upon the directorship of the City Bank, the Security Savings Bank the Public Library, with occasional calls in other advisory positions where public interests were involved. The public is sometimes unwittingly exacting where it finds a man with capacity and an obliging disposition, and in the case of our subject drew too strongly upon his endurance. So it cam about that he sought a temporary vacation in 1891 by accompanying his father and several others, a party of six, in a visit to the former land of his father in Wurtemburg, Germany and other states of Europe, in which delightful and educational occupation he obtained a restoration of health and several months of recreation.
On June 24, 1896, Mr Goeppinger was married to Miss Ella, daughter of Julius and Elizabeth (Shauwecker) Groetzinger, the wedding being solemnized at Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, Her father was a native of Reutlingen, Germany, vorn February 6, 1831, and is still living, her mother, born July 31, 1837, at Columbiana, Ohio, died March 29, 1890, at the age of nearly sixty-three years. John L Georppinger’s marriage has been blessed with the birth of three children: Julius Louis, born May 9, 1898, Alfred Henry, born December 25, 1899 and Katharine Louise, born January 2, 1902. Mr and Mrs Goeppinger are members of the Evangelical Lutheran church.
If John L Goeppinger’s life is extended to man’s allotted span of which there is no present evidence to the contrary, he will become still further distinguished in the lines of his chosen work. His habits are fixed and repose upon the firm foundations of justice, honor and consideration for the right of all. He is sagacious, industrious, kindly, with a cheerful social disposition which views the success of others with out marring his own enjoyment. There is no ladder of succe4ss so high as to carry him beyond the regard of his old friends, or from the heights of which he will be unable to look back and give them his smile of cheerful recognition.

1902 Boone County History Book