CHRISCHILLES, THEODORE

CHRISCHILLES, LUCAE, DORLAND

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 5/18/2004 at 13:06:17

Biography reproduced from page 35 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Theodore Chrischilles is still financially interested in a general mercantile enterprise although practically living retired, for he now leaves the management of his business affairs to his partners, while he is enjoying a well earned rest. He has reached the age of seventy-six years and, therefore, justly merits the opportunity of putting aside the more arduous cares of business life. He was born at Kusel, Rhein-Pfalz, Bavaria, Germany, January 14, 1836, and pursued his education at Zweibrucken, Germany. When twenty-two years of age, he became deputy clerk of the court in Kirchheimbolanden and acted in that capacity for four years. While still a resident of Germany he was married but immediately afterward came to the United States, settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In order to perfect himself in the English language he became a private tutor in a family at Helenville, Wisconsin, where he remained for a year. He had progressed to such an extent that he was then employed to teach in the public schools, being thus connected with the educational interests of Helenville for six months. All this was preliminary to his opening a German-English academy in Whitewater, Wisconsin, which he conducted until 1866. He proved himself a capable educator, imparting readily and clearly to others the knowledge that he had acquired. In 1866 he removed to Lansing, Iowa, where he engaged in general merchandising with the firm of Mueller Brothers & Company. He was interested in that undertaking for four years, or until 1870, when he sold out and came to Algona. Here he started his present business under his own name and was sole proprietor of the store until 1888, when he admitted Max Herbst to a partnership under the firm name of Chrischilles & Herbst. They are still proprietors of the store, which is one of the leading commercial establishments of the city. An attractive lines of goods is carried and the same honorable policy which was instituted at the outset has always been maintained. In 1900 Mr. Chrischilles retired from active management, admitting his son Julius Chrischilles to a partnership, he and Mr. Herbst remaining active in control of the business. Theodore Chrischilles well merits the rest from active labor which he is now enjoying but he is still interested in this and other undertakings, including the Kossuth County State Bank, of which he is the vice president.

Mr. Chrischilles was married in Kirchheimbolanden, Rhein-Pfalz, Bavaria, to Miss Elisa Lucae, a representative of a well known German family, her uncle being a distinguished professor at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Chrischilles have been born three children. Julius, living in Algona, is married and has a son, Theodore, who is now a junior at the university at Minneapolis. Emma is the wife of W. S. Dorland, of New York city, and they have five children. Robert, living in New York, is connected with commercial interests there. The family occupy a beautiful home, where warm-hearted hospitality reigns supreme. That Mr. Chrischilles is interested in the welfare of the city and in the work of public progress is evidenced in many ways, particularly in his service for four terms as a member of the city council, as city treasurer, from 1877 to 1880, and as clerk of the school board from 1879 to 1883. He never fails in what he attempts; in fact, the word failure has no place in his vocabulary. He has been diligent and persevering and as the years have gone by he has so managed and controlled his commercial interests that he has gained a comfortable competence, now enabling him to live practically retired.