Title: Bernhard Carl Ziegler and Edna Eickelberg Ziegler Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1899-1968

Creators:

• Ziegler, Bernhard Carl, 1884-1946
• Ziegler, Edna, 1896-1968

Call Number: Mss 501

Quantity: 6.0 c.f. (15 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Bernhard C. Ziegler, a prominent West Bend, Wisconsin, businessman, manufacturer of aluminum cookware, and civic leader, and of his wife Edna, a local history and cultural arts leader. Included are correspondence, diaries, subject files, and family papers. Bernhard C. Ziegler's correspondence and subject files relate to his affairs as head of the West Bend Aluminum Company, B.C. Ziegler and Company, and the First National Bank of West Bend. Edna Ziegler's diaries, correspondence, and papers relate to her activities in the Washington County Historical Society, cultural arts programs, the Wisconsin Arts Foundation and Council, and the Ziegler Foundation. The collection also contains personal correspondence, biographical material, and genealogical material on the Eickelberg, Fick, and Ziegler families.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00501

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BERNHARD CARL ZIEGLER was born in Trenton, Wisconsin, on January 25, 1884, the third child of Jacob and Ernestina (Fick) Ziegler. The young Ziegler entered Proeschinger District School, but when his parents moved to West Bend, he attended the local Lutheran school and the West Bend public school. After working as a handyman and newspaperboy, Ziegler became a bookkeeper for his father, who was elected city treasurer in 1900 and county treasurer in 1902.

Bernhard Ziegler's business career began in earnest after his high school graduation in 1902 when he began working at the West Bend Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In the same year he became an insurance agent and in 1906 founded the insurance firm of Opgenorth and Ziegler. Eighteen months later the partnership was dissolved, but by the time he was twenty-two, Ziegler had built one of the most successful insurance agencies in eastern Wisconsin. The next year (1907) he was elected a director of the West Bend Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Partly owing to the investment opportunities presented by the “Roosevelt panic” of 1907, Ziegler expanded his firm's activities to include real estate, mortgage loans, and other investments, growth which marked the real beginnings of B. C. Ziegler and Company. For a time Ziegler was a director of the Bank of West Bend. Because of policy disagreements he resigned this position and formed the First National Bank of West Bend on August 29, 1917. Ziegler was also president of Gehl Brothers Manufacturing Company, president of the West Bend Mutual Insurance Company, and director of the Wisconsin Manufacturers' Association.

Ziegler's primary attention was devoted to the aluminum industry. One of the founders of the West Bend Aluminum industry, a producer of aluminum cookware, and its active head and president after 1921, Ziegler expanded the company into one of the largest of its kind in the nation. In particular, the firm became well-known for its development of the “waterless cooker.” After absorbing the difficulties of the Depression, the West Bend Aluminum Company made major contributions to war production in World War II and was rewarded with six Navy E awards for excellence, one of only six Wisconsin firms to receive the Navy E award. In 1944, the company also purchased the Kissel plant at Hartford, Wisconsin, in preparation for peacetime production of outboard motors.

Ziegler also participated in a variety of community activities. During World War I he was active in the Washington County War Relief Fund and served as chairman of Liberty Loan drives and vice chairman of the Council of Defense. In World War II he was chairman of the Council. In the 1920's he served as president of the West Bend school board and as a member of the building committee for a new high school. He was also chairman of the Washington County zoning committee and chairman of the Washington County Park Commission in 1939. As a trustee of the First Methodist Church, Ziegler led efforts to complete a new church building in 1942. Because of his personal interest in agriculture, he became owner and operator of the Decorah Farm Dairy on the south city limits of West Bend, and the farm's activities became one of his favorite diversions. Ziegler also was a member of the West Bend Rotary Club and its second president in 1926-1927. He was a charter member of the local Commercial Club, later the Chamber of Commerce, president of the West Bend Country Club from 1928 to 1932, and a member of the athletic clubs in both Milwaukee and Chicago.

Bernhard Carl Ziegler died of a coronary thrombosis on May 6, 1946.

EDNA HELEN EICKELBERG ZIEGLER was born in Chicago on September 5, 1896, the daughter of Edward and Helen Eickelberg. She graduated from Fremont College in Fremont, Nebraska, in 1916, and taught seventh and eighth grades at the Homer, Nebraska, public school in 1917. She married Bernhard Carl Ziegler on September 25, 1919.

Edna Ziegler's involvement in various civic and public activities centered primarily in the years following her husband's death. As a member of the Committee on Wisconsin Women for the 1948 Wisconsin Centennial, she helped prepare a chapter on the history of Washington County and various museum exhibits for the county. With Judge F. W. Bucklin, she was instrumental in the revival of the Washington County Old Settlers and Historical Society in 1952, and she served as its president from 1954 to 1955. As a member of the board of curators of the State Historical Society from 1949 to 1957, she served on the Museum Committee in 1949 and the Radio Study Group in 1953-1954, and promoted the use of Badger History magazine in the schools.

Interest in local history and civic affairs and in the history of her family led to Mrs. Ziegler's involvement in other areas. She was actively interested in the Rural Writers Association, the Wisconsin Library Association, and the Wisconsin Idea Theatre as well as county cultural arts programs, and she provided financial assistance for students attending community arts workshops. Active also in the Wisconsin Arts Foundation and Council, she was appointed to its board of directors and served as president of the organization in 1958 and vice president in 1959. Edna Ziegler's major philanthropic contribution was her leadership of the Ziegler Foundation from its inception in 1944. Among its principal activities was the awarding of over fifty four-year college scholarships to local high school students and eleven graduate fellowships for advanced library study. Among her other activities were membership on the West Bend Library Board, serving as past president of the West Bend Women's Club, founding of the Girl Scouts in West Bend, and participation in the Fifth Avenue Methodist Church. She was also instrumental in bringing together members of her college choral group, the “Nightingales,” for periodic reunions. Her genealogical research primarily involved the history of the Eickelberg, Fick, and Ziegler families.

Bernhard C. and Edna (Eickelberg) Ziegler had three children, Bernard C., R. Douglas, and Barbara (Ziegler) Wilson. Edna Ziegler died at the age of seventy-two, on November 12, 1968, in Ojai, California.

The papers consist mainly of the correspondence and documents relating to the business career of Bernhard Carl Ziegler and correspondence, diaries, and other materials detailing Edna Ziegler's historical and cultural arts activities. Also included are family letters and records and genealogical materials. The collection is arranged in six series: Biographical Material, Bernhard C. Ziegler Correspondence, Bernhard C. Ziegler Subject Files, Edna Ziegler Correspondence, Edna Ziegler Diaries, and Edna Ziegler Subject Files.

BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL contains information on Bernhard C. and Edna Ziegler and their parents. Items include newspaper clippings, a typescript autobiography written by Bernhard Ziegler in 1937, a draft of his will, reminiscences by Helen Eickelberg of her early life, and materials from Edna Ziegler's college years, including a memory book with photographs, drawings, and notes.

Virtually all of the BERNHARD C. ZIEGLER CORRESPONDENCE is business-related and originated from the West Bend Aluminum Company from 1923 to 1930. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by addressee or subject and chronologically thereunder. Not all correspondence headings are readily apparent by the inclusive folder titles, and specialized files of correspondence not evident from the Contents List below include Blickman Purchase, Home Construction, Taxes, and the Jacob Ziegler Estate. Correspondence headings of particular significance include the Aluminum Wares Association, the major trade association of the cookware industry; S. S. Davis, Chicago sales representative of the West Bend Aluminum Company and brother-in-law of Sears, Roebuck, and Company official C. D. Ewell; Patent--“Waterless Cooker,” which refers to various controversies over the West Bend Aluminum Company's claim to exclusive rights on the trade name “waterless cooker”; and West Bend Aluminum Company, which includes a small amount of company correspondence after Ziegler's death.

The BERNHARD C. ZIEGLER SUBJECT FILES contain reports, financial records, and legal documents relating to Ziegler's business activities. The largest segment relates to the West Bend Aluminum Company. Of special note is the West Bend Aluminum Company--Historical Files, which contain clippings, awards programs, and promotional literature chronicling the history of the company from 1928 to 1958. The Miscellany includes Navy E Award programs for other Wisconsin firms and a program commemorating Bernard J. Cigrand, the founder of Flag Day.

The EDNA ZIEGLER CORRESPONDENCE is also arranged alphabetically by addressee or subject and chronologically thereunder. Files of note include the Wisconsin Arts Foundation and Council, which contains cultural arts correspondence prior to Mrs. Ziegler's membership in the organization in 1958 as well as Wisconsin Arts Foundation and Council letters; and the Ziegler Scholarship file which contains general correspondence regarding the scholarship program, followed by an alphabetical compilation of letters with scholarship winners.

The EDNA ZIEGLER DIARIES include general daily notes; travel diaries; a medical log of the last year of Mrs. Ziegler's life; and marriage, birthday, and guest books. Diary volumes are generally for a single year, but occasionally overlap chronologically, and are most complete for the years 1948-1964.

Many of the EDNA ZIEGLER SUBJECT FILES document Mrs. Ziegler's public activities in the Washington County Historical Society, the Wisconsin Arts Foundation and Council, and the Ziegler Foundation. Also in this series are Mrs. Ziegler's genealogical notes and reference material, including family genealogical charts; notes and inspirational writings collected for her intended memoirs; and a “Nightingales” file containing clippings and published material on classmates and Fremont (later Midland) College. The Washington County Historical Society files contain notes on county projects and historical society concerns and are roughly organized chronologically. As with the Correspondence files, Wisconsin Arts Foundation and Council materials in the Subject File also include cultural arts publications and reports prior to 1958. The Ziegler Foundation Scholarship--“Talkie Desserts” file contains material for talks given to scholarship recipients at their annual dinner.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Bernhard C. Ziegler, West Bend, Wisconsin, 1979. Accession Number: M79-280, M79-370

Processing Information

Processed by Robert Burk and Joanne Hohler, October 1979.

	Series: Biographical Material
Box   1 Folder   1	Jacob and Ernestina Ziegler, 1902-1922
Box   1 Folder   2	Bernhard C. Ziegler, 1907-1947
Box   1 Folder   3	Helen Eickelberg, 1915-1962
Box   1 Folder   4-6	Edna (Eickelberg) Ziegler, 1912-1968
	Series: Bernhard C. Ziegler Correspondence	⇧
Box   2 Folder   1	Advertising--Aluminum Products Company.
Box   2 Folder   2-5	Aluminum Wares Association, 1923-1928
Box   2 Folder   6	American Arbitration Association--Community Hospital Foundation
Box   2 Folder   7	Consolidation Plans, Construction
Box   3 Folder   1-2	S. S. Davis, 1923-1930
Box   3 Folder   3	Decorah Farm--First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee
Box   3 Folder   4	J. Fred Fletcher--Legal Correspondence
Box   3 Folder   5	Ernest Lein--P. C. Monday Tea Company
Box   3 Folder   6	Patent--“Waterless Cooker,” 1922-1930
Box   4 Folder   1	Personal and Family Correspondence, 1923-1946
Box   4 Folder   2	Phylax Company--School Correspondence
Box   4 Folder   3	Rosa Schwartz Estate--C. E. Stenback
Box   4 Folder   4	Stocks, 1924-1930
Box   4 Folder   5	R. L. Stone--Richard H. Welles
Box   4 Folder   6	West Bend Aluminum Company, West Bend Canning Company
Box   4 Folder   7	West Bend Country Club--Arno Zinke
	Series: Bernhard C. Ziegler Subject Files	⇧
Box   5 Folder   1	Accounts, 1924-1930
Box   5 Folder   2	Addresses, 1930-1943
Box   5 Folder   3	American Arbitration Association, 1927-1930
Box   5 Folder   4	Appointment Calendars, 1940, 1943, 1944, 1945 January-December
Box   5 Folder   5	Bank Reports, 1917-1930, 1977
Box   5 Folder   6	Bankers Joint Stock Land Bank, 1929-1930
Box   5 Folder   7	Barton State Bank, 1918-1930
Box   5 Folder   8	B. C. Ziegler and Company, 1906-1966
Box   5 Folder   9	Certificates and Identification Cards, 1922-1942 Note: World's Fair National Advisory Committee Certificate, 1939, on Oversize Shelf.
Box   5 Folder   10	Community Hospital Foundation, 1929-1930
Box   5 Folder   11	Decorah Farm, 1929-1944
Box   5 Folder   12	Financial Statements, 1916-1942
Box   5 Folder   13	Orchard, 1923-1926
Box   5 Folder   14	Real Estate Options, Mortgage Notes, Stocks, 1919-1930
Box   5 Folder   15	Receipts and Personal Expenses, 1899-1937
Box   5 Folder   16	Rosa Schwartz Estate, 1908-1924
Box   6 Folder   1	Tax Returns, 1918-1930
Box   6 Folder   2	Title Abstracts, 1920
	West Bend Aluminum Company
Box   6 Folder   3	Historical material, 1938-1958
Box   6 Folder   4	Advertising, 1924-1926
Box   6 Folder   5	Annual reports and financial statements, 1917-1967
Box   6 Folder   6	Financial statements--other companies, 1914-1931
Box   6 Folder   7	Legal documents, articles of incorporation, 1911-1954
Box   6 Folder   8	Newsclippings, 1926-1950
Box   7 Folder   1	Notes and information, 1918-1933
Box   7 Folder   2	Sears, Roebuck, and Company price data, 1923-1929
Box   7 Folder   3	Utility rates, 1925-1927
Box   7 Folder   4	Miscellaneous publications, 1922-1938
Box   7 Folder   5	West Bend Country Club, 1923-1929
Box   7 Folder   6	Wisconsin Manufacturers' Association, 1923-1929
Box   7 Folder   7	Jacob Ziegler Estate, 1910-1917
Box   7 Folder   8	Miscellany, 1942-1946
	Series: Edna Ziegler Correspondence	⇧
Box   8 Folder   1	Centennial, 1946-1948
Box   8 Folder   2	Civic Affairs, 1939-1968
Box   8 Folder   3	Genealogy, 1948-1955, undated
Box   8 Folder   4	Nightingales, 1932-1967
Box   8 Folder   5	Personal and Family Correspondence, 1944-1966, undated
	Washington County Historical Society
Box   8 Folder   6	General correspondence, 1946-1963
Box   8 Folder   7	Badger History, 1951-1953
Box   8 Folder   8	State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1948-1958
Box   8 Folder   9	West Bend Country Club, 1958-1968
Box   8 Folder   10-11	Wisconsin Arts Foundation and Council, 1952-1968
Box   8 Folder   12	Ziegler Foundation, 1949-1968, undated
Box   9 Folder   1-3	Ziegler Scholars, 1949-1968
	Series: Edna Ziegler Diaries	⇧
	General
Box   10 Folder   1	1913, 1917-1918
Box   10 Folder   2	1926-1928, 1933, 1935-1936
Box   10 Folder   3	1930-1941, 1948-1949
Box   10 Folder   4-5	1950-1953
Box   11 Folder   1-3	1954-1959
Box   11 Folder   4-5	1960, 1962-1964
Box   12 Folder   1	1967-1968
	Travel
Box   12 Folder   2	1931-1938, 1941, 1948-1949
Box   12 Folder   3	1952-1954
Box   12 Folder   4	Medical Log, 1968
Box   12 Folder   5	Birthday Book, 1928-1968; Marriage Book, , 1958-1968
Box   12 Folder   6	Guest Book, 1938-1968
	Series: Edna Ziegler Subject Files	⇧
Box   13 Folder   1	Citizenship Program, 1939-1940
Box   13 Folder   2	Enger Kress Company, 1968
Box   13 Folder   3	Family Expense Accounts, 1919-1965
	Genealogy
Box   13 Folder   4	General materials, 1948-1963
Box   13 Folder   5	Ziegler family
Box   13 Folder   6	Fick family
Box   13 Folder   7	Eickelberg family
Box   13 Folder   8	Kuehlthau Dinner, 1940
Box   13 Folder   9	Medical Records, 1966-1968
Box   13 Folder   10	Memoirs Notes, 1939-1958
Box   13 Folder   11	Nightingales, 1915-1965
	Washington County Historical Society
Box   14 Folder   1	Agenda and general information, 1947-1963
	Bulletins and newsletters
Box   14 Folder   2	State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1949-1957
Box   14 Folder   3	Others, 1950-1961
Box   14 Folder   4	Centennial, 1946-1948
Box   14 Folder   5	Committees, 1949-1953
Box   14 Folder   6	Constitutions and bylaws, 1954-1956
Box   14 Folder   7	Local History Institutes, 1950-1957
Box   14 Folder   8	Newsclippings, 1950-1956
Box   14 Folder   9-12	Notes, 1946-1963, undated
Box   14 Folder   13	Seminar on American Culture, 1956
Box   14 Folder   14	Tours, 1951-1954
Box   15 Folder   1	Miscellaneous publications, 1921-1956
Box   15 Folder   2	West Bend Country Club, 1958
	Wisconsin Arts Foundation and Council
Box   15 Folder   3	Agenda, bylaws, newsletters, 1958-1967
Box   15 Folder   4	Newsclippings, 1953-1966
Box   15 Folder   5	Notes, 1952-1960
Box   15 Folder   6	Publications, 1958-1967
	Ziegler Foundation
Box   15 Folder   7	Bylaws, reports, 1944-1968
Box   15 Folder   8	Project ideas, 1942-1968
	Ziegler Scholarships
Box   15 Folder   9	Newsclippings, 1949-1967
Box   15 Folder   10-11	Notes and general information, 1949-1968
Box   15 Folder   12	“Talkie Desserts,” 1949-1964, undated