WI BIO - Kenosha Co - REINSDORF, Herman

History of Kenosha and Kenosha County, Wisconsin. Lyman. Chicago: Clarke 
Publishing, 1916, vol II, pp 546-549; portrait p 547 

Herman REINSDORF, city of Kenosha, Kenosha County, Wisconsin, since 1906 
engaged in the hardware business in Kenosha and also does sheet metal work, 
who has depended upon his own resources since the age of fifteen years, was 
born 22 February 1872 in Germany, as were his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Johann 
REINSDORF. After spending the first fifteen years of his life in Germany, 
Herman REINSDORF crossed the Atlantic to the United States and made his way 
to Chicago, arriving in 1887, where he was employed in connection with sheet 
metal work.

Herman REINSDORF afterward traveled to various points of the United States, 
being employed in different cities along the line of his trade until 1898, 
when he enlisted in the United States army as a member of Company A, Third 
United States Volunteer Engineers. With that command he served through the 
Spanish-American war, the corporal being engaged in active military duty in 
Cuba until honorably discharged in 1899.

Following the war Mr. REINSDORF resumed work at his trade, and in 1900 went 
to Racine [Racine County], Wisconsin, as foreman of the Hornell Hardware 
Company. In 1905 he came to Kenosha, and in 1906 opened a hardware store at 
No. 1015 Prairie Avenue [renamed 60th Street about 1926], there remaining 
until 1908, when he removed to No. 459 Newell Street [renamed 24th Avenue]. 
Two years later he established his store, the Western Hardware Company, at 
Nos. 1007 and 1009 Prairie Avenue [60th Street], thus securing enlarged 
quarters in a building which he erected, forty-two by seventy-eight feet. 
Here he carries a full line of shelf and heavy hardware and sheet metal work 
and his trade has grown steadily until it has reached very gratifying 
proportions.

In 1903 Mr. [Herman] REINSDORF wedded Miss Maria LINK of St. Louis [St. Louis 
County, Missouri], a daughter of Peter and Maria LINK of Hessen, Germany, now 
deceased. Herman and Maria (LINK) REINSDORF] have become the parents of five 
children: Alvin, Madeline, Cecelia, Edwin, and Alfreda. The family are 
communicants of St. Thomas Catholic Church. Mr. REINSDORF is connected with 
the Modern Woodmen of America, Germania Club, and Spanish-American War 
Veterans societies. In politics he is independent. He is progressive and 
enterprising in business, a self-made man, for from early youth he has been 
dependent upon his own labors, winning the substantial success which is today 
his.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly