Louis Wollbrinck, from the 1905 History of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Louis Wollbrinck (1867–1928; spelling variations include "Wollbrink" and "Wolbrinck") was a civil servant, entrepreneur and builder in St. Louis, Missouri during the

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Wes ...

Biography

Wollbrinck was born in St. Louis on Friday, Feb. 22, 1867, to a German carpenter and his wife. Friederich "Fred" Wollbrinck and Johannah (Hannah) Kottmeier had both come from

Herford Herford (; nds, Hiarwede) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is the capital of the district of Herford. Geography Geographic locat ...

, in

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

. Louis Wollbrinck left school at twelve to become an errand boy for Woodward and Tiernan printing, then pressman, and stayed 5 years. He then worked as feeder and pressman for the Great Western Show Printing Co. until he was 24. Turning to real estate and building, he was the youngest builder in St. Louis, with 65 houses going up at once. The Historic American Buildings Survey documented the north side of the 4900 block of Page Avenue in 1986, when it was still covered in the moderately sized, modestly ornamented homes Wollbrinck built for a rising merchant-class. (images have been released to the public domain). Wollbrinck was nearly bankrupted in a downturn of the housing market, but under the name "Central Amusement Company" he ran "Old St. Louis" and another concession at the 1904

St. Louis World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 milli ...

, after which he became a clerk in the Assessor's office (until 1908, when he was shuffled out in a change of administration). He returned to real estate, organized Everybody's Amusement Company and ran an open-air theater at the corner of Taylor and Delmar. He was a staunch

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, and though he lost the 1918 election for City Assessor (the

Progressives Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techn ...

split the bloc and gave the office to Democrat Frank Schramm) St. Louis Mayor

Henry Kiel Henry W. Kiel (February 21, 1871 – November 26, 1942) was the 32nd Mayor of Saint Louis, serving from 1913 to 1925. Early life Henry W. Kiel's father was Henry F. Kiel, a well known contractor, who died in 1908. Henry F. Kiel also serve ...

took advantage of a provision of the new city charter to fire Schramm and appoint Wollbrinck. There followed a legal struggle and a nine-months suit before the

Missouri Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Missouri is the highest court in the state of Missouri. It was established in 1820 and is located at 207 West High Street in Jefferson City, Missouri. Missouri voters have approved changes in the state's constitution to ...

. During his tenure, he instituted the state’s

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Ta ...

, upheld in the often-cited Ludlow-Saylor Wire Co vs. Wollbrinck case. On February 13, 1923, he was granted U.S.

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

#1444822, for improvements in the design of the

spark plug A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/ai ...

.SPABK PLUG – Google Patents
at www.google.com Wollbrinck married Louise Gelser of St. Louis, December 5, 1906; their children were Louis, Edward G., Lanita (m. Clements), Vida (m. Voss) and Ferda (died in childhood). Louis Wollbrinck died of

arteriosclerosis Arteriosclerosis is the thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries. This process gradually restricts the blood flow to one's organs and tissues and can lead to severe health risks brought on by atherosclerosis, which ...

at the age of 61 on June 24, 1928, and was interred at Valhalla Cemetery, St. Louis.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wollbrinck, Louis 1867 births 1928 deaths Businesspeople from St. Louis 20th-century American inventors Missouri Republicans