WI BIO - Dane Co - WAGNER, Adolph
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol I, pp 137-138

Adolph WAGNER, proprietor of the Lake City Bottling Works, located on the 
corner of Spaight and Peterson Streets [Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin], is 
a successful man. He is a manufacturer of that exhilarating beverage known 
as "pop" and all unintoxicating drinks. This business was established by 
himself in the spring of 1887, and ever since that time he has had a 
satisfactory increase in business, and now employs seven men all of the time. 
The name of his partner is Mr. Joseph BOLLENBECK, who travels constantly, 
representing the business on the road in a commercial way.

Mr. [Adolph] WAGNER came to Madison [Dane County, WI] in 1872 and established 
himself in the business, after a few years of experience as a clerical worker 
for Joseph HAUSMAN, the extensive brewer of this city. Mr. WAGNER is a man 
of energy and is bound to succeed. He [Adolph WAGNER] was born at Carlsruhe, 
capital city of Baden, Germany, 21 March 1848, and came of pure German stock. 
His parents lived and died in their native country, where his father, Adolph 
WAGNER, was a prominent manufacturer of furniture. Here the father died, in 
Carlsruhe, the place of his birth, when sixty-four years of age. He was well 
known to the people of that city, and there he had lost his wife some years 
before, when she had reached only middle life. She was in youth Miss 
Frederika SCHNEIDER, and was a native of the city [Carlsruhe?], where she 
lived and died, and had become a member of the German Lutheran Church.

Our subject [Adolph WAGNER] was reared by his parents and obtained a 
practical education in the public schools of his native city. While a lad 
under seventeen years of age, he was a dry goods clerk, and at the age of 
seventeen he enlisted in the German army and remained until he was 
twenty-five. He marched through France in the Franco-Prussian war and was a 
member [p 138] of the Fourteenth Army Corps, General WERDER commanding, and 
participated in the active engagements at Strasburg, Woerth [Worth, 08 June 
1870] and Weisenburg [08 April 1870], and was in all the battles through 
Vosges, and thence down to Belford and his army corps, 45,000 strong, whipped 
BOURBACKE, with an army of 180,000 men, in a three days' battle. Almost 
every officer in the regiment to which Mr. WAGNER belonged was killed or 
wounded in the battle near Buits, 18 December 1870. The same evening he was 
the only sound officer in the battalion, and as such he marched back from the 
battle to the camp with a small part of the survivors. After the war was 
over he resolved that he would leave the service and come to the United 
States. This resolution he [Adolph WAGNER] carried out in the spring of 
1872. Since he has become a resident of the city of Madison [Dane County, 
Wisconsin], he has been prominently associated with the German element, and 
is an active member of the German societies, including the Turner and singing 
associations. He is also a member of the Masonic order, Madison Lodge, No. 
5, and of Monona Lodge, No. 69, Ancient Order of United Workmen. Mr. WAGNER 
has been City Alderman from the Sixth Ward for two terms, and is a sound 
Democrat in this politics.

The marriage of our subject [Adolph WAGNER] was celebrated in this city 
[Madison, Dane County, WI] with Miss Albertina HAUSMAN, a daughter of Joseph 
HAUSMAN, a prominent German citizen of the capital [Madison], and one of the 
leading brewers of the Northwest. Mrs. WAGNER was born, reared, and educated 
in this city [Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin], and is a worthy, good wife, 
and the mother of three bright children: Meta, Grover C., and Paul, all at 
home.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly