Maurer, W. A.

MAURER

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 1/11/2009 at 11:33:04

W. A. Maurer

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.41, Council Bluffs)
Maurer & Craig, crockery and glassware, Council Bluffs, began business in Council Bluffs in August, 1881, buying out the stock of William Whitney. They have converted their business from retail to wholesale and are doing a large trade. When they commenced business, they had but two salesmen; now they have four, and have also two regular men on the road, as their stock has increased to five times its original proportions. Their business house is 110 feet long and 24 feet wide, three stories and basement. W. A. Maurer, senior member of this firm, was born in Sandusky, Ohio, June 1, 1856. At an early age, he removed with his parents to La Porte, Ind., where he was educated in the public schools, and graduated from the high school there about the year 1870. That same year, he became salesman in the retail crockery and glassware establishment of H. T. Culver, of La Porte, Ind. He afterward managed the business of D. C. Decker, wholesale crockery and glassware, La Porte, Ind., and in 1880 went South and engaged as sales man for L. A. Mueller, dealer in crockery and glassware. July 17, 1881, he came to Council Bluffs and formed partnership with J. H. Craig, and they have since continued in business together. J. H. Craig, junior member of this firm, was born in Cahaba, Ala., April 3, 1859, and during the late war lived at Milledgeville, Ga. In the fall of 1868, he moved to Selma, Ala. During the years 1876 and 1877, he attended the State University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Ala., and from September, 1877, till the spring of 1878, attended the business college, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. In September, 1878, he began working the General Freight and Ticket Office of the Selma, Rome & Dalton Railroad, at Patona, Ala., where he remained till December 4, 1878, when he accepted the position of book-keeper for Knapp, Stout & Co., at Prairie Farm, Wis. He was soon promoted to the position of assistant book-keeper at the headquarters of that company at Menomonee, Wis., where he remained one year. He then went back to Selma, Ala., where he remained until he started for Council Bluffs, at which place he arrived August 5, 1881, and immediately became a partner in the firm of Maurer & Craig.