John G. WILHELMI

JOHN G. WILHELMI has been engaged in contracting and building in Joliet since 1891. For a year he was a member of the firm of Wilhelmi & Wagner, but since then he has been alone. Among his most important contracts may be mentioned those for the E. Porter Brewing Company's plant, St. Patrick's school, the German society hall on North Hickory street, the high school at Lockport, the high and ward schools at Sandwich, Ill., and the building for school district No. 6, Joliet Township. Besides these he has had a large number of contracts for residences and stone buildings in Joliet and elsewhere. He is a member of the Joliet Builders' Association, of which, at this writing, he is the treasurer In Jackson Township, this county, Mr. Wilhelmi was born December 2, 1864. His father, John Adam Wilhelmi, was a native of Hamburg, Germany, and grew to manhood on a farm in his native land. In 1853 he came to America. After one year in Detroit he settled in Joliet, where he lived for two years. In 1856 he established his home on a farm in Jackson Township, and after a time purchased property on section 29, Joliet Township, where he carried on farm pursuits until his death, in March, 1896, at seventy-three years. He took an interest in local matters and held the offices of school director and highway commissioner. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Margaret Wirtz, was born in Coblentz, Germany, and died in Joliet in 1890. They were the parents of eight children, of whom the following survive: J. C., a contractor in Hastings, Neb.; Barbara, wife of John Korst, of Jackson Township; N. H.,a machinist, in Chicago; Anna, wife of Frank Kramer, of Joliet; J. G.; and Lizzie, Mrs. William Pelkey, of Joliet. From three years of age our subject was reared in Joliet Township, where he attended school and grew to manhood, with a fair knowledge of farm work. His taste, however, was rather in the line of carpentering than in agriculture, and when he was eighteen he began to learn the trade with Mr. Wagner, whose partner he later became. He has continued steadily at his work and has met with unvarying success, being rightly judged to be one of the most efficient and painstaking contractors in the city. He owns the old family homestead of twenty-seven acres on the Elwood road, two and one-half miles from Joliet, where he has a comfortable residence. In Joliet, in 1890, he married Miss Emma Richter, who was born in Mackinaw, Ill., and grew to womanhood in Lockport. They have three sons, Richter A., Frederick C. and Clarence W. The family are connected with St. John's Roman Catholic Church, in the building of which Mr. Wilhelmi's father assisted. He is connected with the Western Catholic Union and is also member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

• Genealogical and Biographical Record of Will County (ILLINOS),

1900

Comments