William Gutenberger

 

William Gutenberger, prominent among the enterprising manufactures of Sacramento, was born August 25, 1828, on the river Rhine, in Western  Prussia. He is a descendant of the celebrated Johann Gutenberg, who invented the art of printing in 1438. His father’s name was Philip. His mother, whose maiden name was Catherin Klump, was a native of the town of Ellern Kohlener, Germany. When fourteen years old, William was sent to Coblentz, where he served his time learning the trade of molder in one of the factories on Stephane Strasse, one of the principal streets of the city. Here he was employed for seven years, and then took a contract for manufacturing stoves; afterward he went to Bremen and engaged in the same business. In 1852 a party of five young men from the Bremen shops, among whom was our subject and William Klump, a relative, embarked on the German ship Republic for America, the land of opportunity. Storm tossed and nearly wrecked for forty-five days on the ocean, they landed in New York November 1, 1852. Soon afterward Mr. Gutenberger was engaged by Mr. D. D. Reid, of Hampton, Connecticut; and began working in the malleable-iron shops, and continued there two years, receiving as wages the first year $1 a day, boarding himself, and the next year did contract work. Subsequently he was employed at Waterbury, Meriden and Hartford, until the spring of 1855, when he embarked for California, on the Northern Light from New York to the Isthmus, and thence by the steamer Sierra Nevada for San Francisco, arriving May 28. His first employment in the Golden State was in Shasta County on what is know as the Middletown Ditch; then he came to Sacramento and for seventeen consecutive years was employed in Sacramento Iron Works, and now in the G. & N. Foundry.  Commencing here as a journeyman, in less than two years he was promoted as foreman, which position he held during all the fifteen years following. Then he started in business for himself, in company with Julius Leeman, a “Switzer,” in the old Wigwam on Front street, between L and M, and was there two years and nine months, and then the boiler was blown up by an Indian named Garibaldi. He then bought out his partners and started alone; after that he bought the property where now located, and since then carried on business alone. Within three years he had bought the entire business, and also the property, 85 x 180 feet on Front street, for which he paid $8,000; and in 1871-‘72 he erected on this the buildings which were burned July 17, 1882, by which he lost $60,000, and thirty men were thrown out of employment. He rebuilt and was burnt out again, October 7, 1887; he again rebuilt during the succeeding winter.  Mr. Gutenberger was elected City Trustee in 1881, when, although a Democrat, he received the support of many Republican friends. He was married in 1857 to Catharine Schweitzer, a Bavarian  lady who came to California in 1856. She was a niece of George Nuhss. Mr. and Mrs. Gutenberger have two children, viz.: Julia, now Mrs. Runken, and Wilhelmina. Mr.  Gutenberger is a member of El Dorado Lodge, No. 8, I. O. O. F., in which order he has held all the offices except that of Noble Grand; he is also a prominent member of the orders of Knights of Pythias and Knights of Honor.