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Mathias Weichselbaum
The History of Renville County, Volume 2
Compiled by Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Chapter XXXVIII
p. 1231-1232

Mathias Weichselbaum, for many years a leading lumber and grain dealer in Renville county, and now engaged extensively in the real estate business in Minneapolis, was born in Lakeville, Dakota county, Minnesota, Sept. 18, 1858, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Schneider) Weichselbaum. He was reared in his native town and there secured his first employment as a clerk in the mercantile establishment of Jerry C. McCarthy. In 1880 he went to South Dakota and took a homestead in Coddington county. There he proved up and remained until 1883. Then he came back to Minnesota and with headquarters at Northfield, traveled for a grain company two years. It was in 1885 that he came to Renville village and bought grain for four months, after which the company sent him to Bigstone City, South Dakota, where he bought grain until August, 1886. They came back to this county and located in Olivia, where he continued in the grain business. Later he and S. E. Fay, with W. H. Gold & Co., engaged in the lumber business, still remaining however in the grain business as well. Two years later the W. H. Gold Co. sold out. That year the yard of H. H. Neuenberg Lumber Co. was started, with Mr. Weichselbaum as manager and stockholder. They bought what is now the Farmer's Elevator at Olivia, and later acquired the lumber yard and elevator at Danube. In the meantime, however, in 1907, Mr. Weichselbaum had become much interested in the land business. He particularized in Canadian lands in southern Alberta, and in addition to still holding large areas of this land, has already sold some 25,000 acres. Mr. Weichselbaum became a prominent man in Olivia, took an active interest in various public movements, and served as village councilman and as a member of the school board. In 1909 he moved to Minneapolis, where he now resides, and where he still continued in the land business. Mr. Weichselbaum was married Nov. 15, 1884, to Anna E. Thomas, who was born in Brandon, Vermont, May 30, 1862, a daughter of Harry and Esther (Carr) Thomas, natives of Brandon, Vermont, who came west in 1865, located on a farm just outside of Northfield, in Rice county, this state, and there died, he in 1891 and she in 1873, leaving nine children, Olivia, Nathan, Attie, Emma, Frank, Harry, Anna, Alice and Minnie, as well as a daughter, Olive, who had, and also an unnamed infant, been born to Mrs. Thomas by a previous marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Weichselbaum have a daughter, Ora Blanche. She graduated from the Olivia High School, took courses at the Minnesota School of Business at Minneapolis, and then started her career. At Olivia she was bookkeeper for the Heins & Beyer hardware store. Then she was in the tax commission office at the state capitol for three years as assistant to Miller Davis. Now she is bookkeeper at Atchinson's department store in Minneapolis. Mr. and Mrs. Weichselbaum adopted two daughters, Eva Irena and Maude Aleen, who died at the ages of six and seven months respectively and are buried at Olivia.


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