SEIPPEL, Peter J.

SEIPPEL, Peter J. (Schoenburg, Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, Aug. 7, 1862--Dubuque, IA, Feb. 28, 1916). At the age of twenty, Seippel came to Dubuque and graduated from BAYLESS BUSINESS COLLEGE. He worked with Charles Robinson, a local lumberman, for three years. In 1887 Peter Seippel formed a partnership with Joseph A. MEUSER in East Dubuque with the resulting purchase of Moore and Schumacher. In February 1897, Seippel sold his interest in the company and came to Dubuque where he organized the PETER J. SEIPPEL LUMBER COMPANY. This occupied ten city blocks and handled an estimated twenty-five million feet of lumber. (1)

Aware that timber supplies from Minnesota and Wisconsin were falling, Seippel organized the Seippel Timber Company in 1906 for the purpose of acquiring timber land in the western United States. Within a year it owned and controlled over 6 million feet of pine, cedar, and fir timber land in Oregon. It was the plan to erect a mill in the timber area and supply the Dubuque lumber yard. There were also plans to expand into the rich forests of the southern United States. (2) In 1906 the Seippel Company absorbed Builders Supply, successor of the Rumpf-Frudden Company.

Financing such an activity required a large amount of capital which was achieved in 1907 formed when a partnership was arranged with the Meuser Brothers Lumber Company. Officers of the company included Peter J. Seippel, president; Philip Sheridan, first vice-president; John E. Lillig, second vice-president; J. A. Kerper, secretary; and Joseph A. Meuser, treasurer. William Meuser remained in charge of the Meuser Brothers line of yards and other interests. (3)

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Source:

1 "Big Merger of Lumber Yards," Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, April 2, 1907, p. 7

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, History of Dubuque County, Iowa. Chicago: Goodspeed Historical Association, 1911, p. 667