Biographical Sketches

Biographies from Cole County People



F. J. Zeisberg

Professor Franz Joseph Zeisberg came to Jefferson City I the spring of 1881 at the age of eighteen, from Schonfeld, Grafschaft Glatz, in the Sudenten mountains of Prussia Silesia. Thre he had grown up on a farm and was accustomed to manual labor from childhood. In Germany this did not interfere with educational pursuits, including the study of music. His father, Clemens Zeisberg, played several instruments and belonged to the church orchestra and the community band. His mother Theresia, nee Reinsch, sang in the choir. His parents reached the age of eighty and eighty-five respectively, his father dying in 1913 and his mother in 1922.

Professor Zeisberg was educated in a state teachers’ college in which the study of music was an important part of the curriculum. After trying farm life in Osage County and working in a brickyard in Jefferson City, (where he said he spent some of his happiest days), and clerking in a book and music store until he gained a working knowledge of English, he embarked on a music teaching career. Together with Professor Carl Preyer, he established a music school then called the Jefferson City Conservatory. He was also organist in several churches. Eventually Preyer went to Kansas State University and Zeisberg taught at the Elizabeth Aull Seminary, Lexington, MO.

Encouraged by William H. Sherwood to come to Chicago for a more suitable field, he went to that city where he soon became favorably known in the musical world. Answering a call from Martha Washington College, Abingdon, Virginia, he took over the directorship of the conservatory there in 1892 and what he had considered to be a temporary tenure became a term of thirty years in the service of that institution, with a brief intermission at Sullins College, Bristol, Virginia. His teaching specialties included piano, violin, organ, harmony and composition.

Professor Zeisberger’s compositions include many teaching pieces, many songs, male and mixed choruses, church music, two masses and about seventy fugues for organ and piano. In 1922 he gave up his exacting post at Martha Washington and he and Mrs. Zeisberg returned to Jefferson into practical retirement.

Clara M. Hugershoff married Franz Joseph Zeisberg on June 14, 1887 in Cole County. Mrs. Zeisberg was the stepdaughter of Fred H. Binder of Jefferson City. The Zeisbergs had three children: Fred C., of the DuPont Company, Wilmington, Delaware; Carl L. of the Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia, and Ella, a teacher of high school mathematics in Wilmington, Delaware.

Franz/Francis Joseph Zeisberg died in Cole County in September 1951. Clara died in February 1946.


Victor Zuber

 Judge Victor Zuber
Judge Victor Zuber was born September 3, 1841, at Sollothrum in the Republic of Switzerland. His parents immigrated to the United States starting in the fall of 1851, arriving February 1852. His father, Jerome Zuber, died in St. Louis while en route to Jefferson City. Victor served a three-year apprenticeship as a marble cutter under Fleming & Thompson.

In 1861 he responded to a call for volunteers and enlisted in Company B, Home Guards under Maj. William H. Lusk. In 1862 he enlisted in Company E, Tenth Missouri Cavalry and continued on active duties until the close of the war. He returned to Jefferson City in 1865 and worked as a marble cutter for E.J. Bedwell of Boonville. In 1866 he opened a marble shop at Tipton, moving the following year to Jefferson City where he established his marble works on Jefferson Street, south of the Merchants’ Bank.

Mr Zuber was married in 1861 to Miss Louise, daughter of Joseph and Theresa Brenneisen of Jefferson City. To this union was born six children: Bernetta (Mrs. Anthony Gallagher), Zerelda (Mrs. Charles H. Holtschneider), Mamie Katherine (Mrs. Edward Dulle), Frank and Cletus. His fourth child, Emanuel, died at the age of 4.

Judge Zuber was a member of the Catholic Church and St. Peter’s Benevolent Society. He served on the School Board for 3 years and about the same length of time on the City Council. He was Cole County Treasurer for four years and Judge from the First District. He was a Democrat in politics and made his home at 306 South Jefferson Street.


William E. Zuendt.

The founder of the Zuendt family in America was Baron Ernst Anton Zuendt, born in Bavaria, who came with his family to America about 1860. He was a journalist and worked on newspapers in Milwaukee, St. Paul and St. Louis, being chosen poet laureate of the Turnverein in St. Louis. He came to Jefferson City as a teacher of the German language in the public schools.

William Zuendt, eldest of his four children, was four years old when Ernst Anton Zuendt came came to America. As a young man he became associated with his father-in-law, Christ Wagner, in the wholesale grocery business in Jefferson City. He had married Antonia Wagner, daughter of Christ Wagner, in 1879. Christ Wagner, a veteran of the Mexican War and a lieutenant in the Union army in the Civil War, was the son of Paul Wagner who came from Munich, Bavaria, and settled eight miles east of Jefferson City where he built what was said to be the first brewery in Cole County.

Christ Wagner became a baker by trade. He went to the Pacific coast in the gold rush of 1849, and there acquired considerable wealth. HE was elected treasurer of Cole County in 1862 and again in 1870. He was a personal friend of Governor Stewart, Joseph Pulitzer, and many prominent Missourians.

William M. Zuendt began as a clerk of the firm of Wagner and Scovern, later acquiring Mr. Scovern’s interest in the business. He was fatally injured in the railroad wreck on the newly built St. Louis, Jefferson City and Kansas Railway and died December 19, 1881. Mr. Wagner was killed in the same wreck.

William E. Zuendt, the only son of William M. and Antonia Wagner Zuendt, was born May 10, 1882. At the age of twenty he entered the employ of the First National Bank, and was vice-president and director at the time of its merger with the Exchange National Bank. He served for a time as commissioner of finance under Governor Baker. For some years he was engaged in the insurance business and in building and loan activities.

Mr. Zuendt married Miss Frederica Morlock, daughter of William Herman (see sketch) and Lena Kerser Morlock. Mr. and Mrs. Zuendt had three children: William M., Lucille A. and Robert E.




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