Ronneburger & Hoesly
(Paul Ronneburger & Samuel H. Hoesly)
Among the foremost newspaper enterprises in Allamakee county
and, in fact one which has a large influence in four counties and
throughout the state, is the Iowa Volksblatt, a weekly journal
printed in the German language at Postville. This paper is a
great favorite with the sons of the fatherland located in this
section and the citizens of German descent and is housed in a
finely equipped office, having a wide circulation, including a
large number of readers in Germany. The Volksblatt was
established in 1892, by the Rev. John Gass, and later was edited
by Dietsch & Brechler, Mr. Dietsch becoming the sole
proprietor in 1895. In 1908 it was purchased by the present
owners, Paul Ronneburger and Samuel Hoesly, under whose
management the paper has enjoyed a history of uninterrupted
success and prosperity. Although an important factor in promoting
public progress and advancing the interests of the section in
which it circulates, it is independent in politics and devotes
its attention largely to the news of Postville and the four
counties in which its readers are located.
The senior member of the firm, Paul
Ronneburger, is a German born and bred, having first seen the
light of day in the capital of the empire, Berlin. He enjoyed the
splendid and thorough educational advantages of the German public
schools, attended the printers’ trade school and became an
expert in the printers’ art in the fatherland. The years
1892 marks his advent in America, where he worked at his trade in
Milwaukee, being for a time employed in the office of the
Vorwaerts, the well known paper edited by ex-congressman Victor
Berger. After seven years in Milwaukee, Mr. Ronneburger worked
for one years with the Bellville (Texas) Wochenblatt and then
became connected with the Banner at Mayville, Wisconsin, and
subsequently with the Green County Herold of Monroe, that state.
It was here that he met his future partner, Samuel Hoesly, and
the two young men then decided to strike out for themselves,
purchasing the Iowa Volksblatt.
In 1903 Mr. Ronneburger paid a visit to the old country and on
October 26, 1910, he was married to Miss Margarete Wersinger, of
Berlin, Germany. Mr. Ronneburger is an ideal newspaper man-a
forceful writer, an excellent business man and a strong factor in
his community.
Samuel Hoesly, the junior partner in the
concern, is of Swiss descent, his father having come to America
in 1848, and via New Orleans and up the Mississippi, went to New
Glarus, Wisconsin, where he made his home. It was in Clarno,
Wisconsin, on December 4, 1876, that Samuel Hoesly was born. He
received an excellent public-school education and at the age of
fifteen entered the office of the Green county Herold of Monroe,
Wisconsin, where he learned every branch of the printer’s
art, remaining with the one office from 1892 to 1908 with the
exception of the time he served with the First Wisconsin
Volunteers during the Spanish-American war. At that time he was
stationed at Jacksonville, Florida, under the command of General
Lee, and in all he served eight years with the Wisconsin National
Guard.
Mr. Hoesly was married March 9, 1912, to Miss Edna Brouillet, a
young lady of French parentage. Mr. Hoesly is highly accomplished
in printer’s work and has a decided talent for the artistic,
the elements in the characters of both partners and their
accomplishments giving promise of a most successful future for
the firm.
-source: Past & Present of Allamakee County; by
Ellery M. Hancock; S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.; 1913
-transcribed by Diana Diedrich
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