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ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin

Alois Leo Kiefer

History of Milwaukee, City and County, Volume 2, William George Bruce, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co, Chicago, 1922.

Alois Leo Kiefer president and treasurer of the AL Kiefer Company Inc was born on the 20th of June, 1862, in Dodge county, Wisconsin a son of Michael and Rose Loebel Kiefer both deceased. The father was born in Alsace in 1828 and came to the United States in the early part of 1850 a young man without a family. He secured employment in the woolen mills of New England for a period of two years after which he removed to Milwaukee and later took up a farm in Dodge county. He was successful in his agricultural pursuits and retired ten years before his death, making his home in Watertown.

Previous to coming to the United States Mr. Kiefer spent some time in the East Indies and there entered the military service being a soldier for two years. Mrs. Rose Loebel Kiefer passed away in 1876 at the age of fifty seven years. She was likewise a native of Alsace and came to New England at an early day where she met and married Mr. Kiefer.

In the acquirement of an education Alois Leo Kiefer attended the common schools of Dodge county until he was twelve years of age when he entered Sacred Heart College at Watertown where he completed the course in the required time. He then returned to his father's farm and remained under the parental roof until he was eighteen years of age when he went to Fond du Lac there learning the tinner's trade which he followed for a period of three years laying the foundation for his life work.

In 1883 he removed to Milwaukee where he established a residence and worked as clerk in hardware stores for fifteen years his energy and ability winning him steady advancement until he was promoted to the position of manager of the house furnishings department of the William Frankfurth Company.

In 1901 he determined to enter the commercial world on his own account and founded his present business on the location where it now stands. In 1904 he incorporated the business which is today widely known as the A.L. Kiefer Company with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars and he is president and general manager. The company engages in the manufacture of hotel kitchen and cooking apparatus and does a general and extensive hardware business. They specialize in the manufacture of a coffee percolating urn particularly adapted to hotel use and in the installation of individual ice machines for domestic and commercial . The trade of the company has grown to extensive proportions and covers the entire United States shipments being made from Seattle to New York.

In 1894 Mr. Kiefer was united in marriage to Miss Anastasia J Rooney of Milwaukee. She was a daughter of Patrick Rooney a prominent contractor who put in the foundations for the state capitol and the old Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company building

Fraternally Mr. Kiefer is identified with the Elks and he likewise has membership in the Milwaukee Athletic and Milwaukee Gun Clubs. He stands as a stalwart champion for all those interests which make for the uplift of the individual and the benefit of the community his aid and influence being always on the side of right and progress. His inherent business sagacity and executive ability have insured the success of the company which has grown so extensively and solidly and he is known by his many friends to be a man of genuine personal worth and a citizen who is ever loyal to the best interests of the community.