San
Joaquin County
Biographies
HENRY J. KUECHLER
Standing high among the leading
business men of Stockton, Henry J. Kuechler is the founder of the jewelry firm
of H. J. Kuechler & Son, whose establishment is one of the finest and most
complete in California. Mr. Kuechler is
a native of Switzerland and there he received an excellent education,
graduating from college, and thereby he was required to serve but one year in
the army. When his term of service was
completed he came to the United States, arriving in Stockton, California, in
the early ‘80s. He had learned the trade
of watchmaker and engraver in Europe and soon after coming to California he
engaged in this line of business at Pleasanton, Alameda County, California, and
then went to Yakima, Washington, where he engaged in business for seven
years. While there Mr. Kuechler served
as mayor of Yakima.
Returning to Stockton, Mr. Kuechler
formed a partnership in the jewelry business with Mr. Blau
and with a capital of only $400 opened a store on Main Street, near El
Dorado. He soon bought out his partner
and removed to a larger building, and for the past fifteen years he has been
located at Main and California streets, where he has a complete stock, catering
to the lovers of the beautiful and artistic in jewelry. In addition to his busy life as a merchant,
he is an inventor of ability, and has invented a regulating system for watches
which is now used by the Waltham Watch Company.
Mr. Kuechler’s marriage united him
with Miss Jennie Nissen, a native of the Isle of
Silt, Germany, and two sons were born to them, F. Will, a member of the firm,
and Norman, who passed away at the age of eighteen. In addition to his business Mr. Kuechler has
mining interests in the Mother Lode. He
belongs to the Odd Fellows, Woodmen of the World, the Masons, Elks and Knights
of Pythias.
F. Will Kuechler attended the old
Lafayette and Franklin schools in Stockton and when fifteen he started to learn
the trade of watchmaker and engraver with his father. Later he went to Germany and attended a
private school there for a year and a half, and he also spent some time in San
Francisco with the leading jewelry firms there, attaining great proficiency in
the art of engraving. Some years ago he
entered into partnership with his father, the firm becoming H. J. Kuechler
& Son. His marriage united him with
Miss Jermaine Stewart, a native of Stockton and a graduate of the Stockton high
school and the University of California.
He is a member of Delta Lodge of Masons and Aahmes Temple, A. A. O. N.
M. S., of Oakland, and has taken both the York and Scottish Rite
degrees. He also belongs to the Native
Sons of the Golden West, the Anteros Club, the Red Men, the Rotary Club and the
Stockton Golf and Country Club. He has
always been active in athletics and was a member of the old Stockton Athletic
Club and now participates in Y. M. C. A. athletics and is president of the
Lambs fraternity of Stockton.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
768. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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