Biographies
KASPER
THALER
KASPER THALER—A well-known,
widely experienced and thoroughly up-to-date general contractor and builder, who
has been effective in the upbuilding of Sacramento
County is Kasper Thaler, who was born January 6,
1855, in Bavaria, the son of Andres and Catherine Thaler.
Both parents passed away in the land of their birth.
Kasper Thaler attended the schools of Bavaria, and also went to
college, where he studied architecture and cabinet-making, at which he became a
mechanic, being able to make tables and chairs by hand. When he was twenty-two
years old, he came to the United States and located in Chicago, where he stayed
for six months. He endured many inconveniences because he was unable to speak
the English language. He relates that on one occasion, while taking dinner, the
train on which he was a passenger left without him. However, he finally arrived
at Leadville, Colo., where he worked as a carpenter. He then went to Denver,
where he put up a brewery and a soap factory, and then went to Salt Lake City,
but inasmuch as he was not a Mormon he could not get employment and was
therefore obliged to go to work as a laborer in the smelters. He built a house
for one of his fellow workers and then put up twenty-four houses at the
smelter, doing all the work himself. He also built a church and a large
white-lead works. In six months, he was able to save approximately $2,100.
After going to San Francisco, he made his way to Shasta County where he took up
a homestead fifteen miles from Redding, which he gave up. On his return to San
Francisco, he built many fine houses and a church, and after six years came to
Sacramento in 1891, where he went into the contracting and building business.
He was a builder of the Odd Fellows Hall in Florin and many other fine places
in Sacramento, and has remained here for over thirty years.
Mr. Thaler was united in marriage in 1885, with Margaret Goeller, and they are the parents of three children: Paul,
who was with the W. P. Fuller Company and passed away when he was twenty-seven
years old; Alvina, the wife of Mr. R. A. Brawnson, and mother of a son; and Margaret, now Mrs. H. O.
Heffren, the mother of a girl. They are also the
grandparents of two children. Mr. Thaler has been a
member of the Foresters of America for over thirty-five years and for four years
he served as a grand trustee; he has been a member of the Odd Fellows for over
a quarter of a century and now is the pianist of the Oak Park Lodge. He is very
fond of music and has composed a number of pieces for bands; he was the
organizer of the Florin band and led it for four years, and has been an
instructor on wind instruments for many years. In politics he is a Republican
and has always worked for the candidates of that party. He likes Sacramento
County better than any place he has seen in his travels and is interested in
the development of its resources, building homes for the people and subdividing
an eighty-acre ranch at Florin into small tracts and selling them to
homemakers; and he still owns several valuable lots, which he intends to
improve.
Transcribed by Gloria Wiegner
Lane.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 403-404. Historic Record Company,
© 2007 Gloria
Wiegner Lane.