Louis Wolf
Louis Wolf was a German American immigrant, businessman, Democratic politician, and Wisconsin pioneer. He served two years in the Wisconsin Senate, and three years in the state Assembly, representing Sheboygan County.
Early life and business career
Louis Wolf was born Friedrich Ludwig Wolff in Dürkheim, in the Rheinkreis district of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He was raised and received his early education in Bavaria. At age 13, he emigrated to the United States with his family; they purchased passage aboard the American packet boat Louis Phillippe from Le Havre to arriving on May 27, 1839. The family settled in Utica, New York, among several other German American immigrants. As a young man in Utica, Louis apprenticed as a shoemaker and cordwainer.In 1848, Louis ventured west to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, with his wife and her father and siblings. Louis worked as a shoemaker for several years in Sheboygan, before moving to the neighboring village of Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, where he started his own boot and shoe business. His business prospered and became one of the largest retail boot and shoe businesses in the county. In 1857, he put some of his profits into starting a brewery with wagonmaker Heinrich Dicke, but sold his share of the business after only a few years.
Political career
He obtained his first public office in 1857, when he was appointed a deputy sheriff. In 1860, he made his first bid for elected office, running for sheriff of Sheboygan County on the Democratic Party ticket; he lost the general election to Frederick Aude.His next run for public office came in 1863, when he was elected to represent Sheboygan County in the 17th Wisconsin Legislature. He was renominated in 1864, but lost the general election to Cephas Whipple.
He returned to the Assembly in the 1874 term, with the brief success of the Reform coalition. He did not run for re-election in 1874, but won a third term in 1875. He then ran for Wisconsin Senate in 1877, and won a two-year term representing Wisconsin's 20th Senate district. At the time, the 20th district comprised all of Sheboygan County and the eastern quarter of.
Later years
Wolf's business was destroyed in a major fire in 1879. The building was insured, but he lost hundreds of dollars' worth of uninsured merchandise and materials. He did rebuild his business, however, and remained one of the largest boot and shoe dealers in the region.Personal life and family
Friedrich Ludwig Wolf was the last of ten known children of Carl August Wolff and his wife Maria Anna Christina, of Dürkheim. The Wolff family had resided in Dürkheim for several generations.Louis Wolf married Augusta Magdalena "Justina Christine" Kaestner in 1845 at Utica, New York. The Kaestners were also German emigrants; she had been born in the city of Erfurt, in the Province of Saxony. They had at least seven children together, though at least one died in infancy and another died young. Their eldest daughter, Barbara Helen, married tannery businessman Charles Mueller who later served as mayor of Port Washington, Wisconsin.
Wolf suffered for several months with pancreatic cancer before dying at his home in Sheboygan Falls on December 12, 1887, at the age of 62. He was survived by his wife and five children.