Wapello County IA Archives Biographies.....Koch, Ernst 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 14, 2015, 5:52 pm

Source: See Below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

ERNST KOCH.
Ernst Koch was born in Uslar, a small town near Gottingen, in the province of
Hanover, Germany, being the son of George Koch, a quartermaster in the German
army, who died six months later. In 1866 he came to America, landing in
Wheeling, West Virginia, where he was identified with the heavier branch of the
building trade, being employed on the construction of rolling mills, nail mills,
etc. After a few years he was appointed as foreman and later general
superintendent of some of the largest works, costing over seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. In 1873 he returned to Germany to study architecture and
mechanical engineering. During vacation he made trips to England and France and
also up the River Rhine. On one of these trips he worked for two weeks in the
Krupp gun works at Essen in order to have an opportunity to inspect the plant.
After spending three years at college he returned to this country in 1876,
during the exposition in Philadelphia. Before leaving the fatherland he had
closed a contract to supervise the erection of the Benwood Iron Works, which
were completed just at the beginning of the strike and panic at Pittsburg in
1877. In 1878 he made his way south to Little Rock, Arkansas. At the end of two
years, however, his health had become so impaired that he was obliged to seek a
more beneficial climate and thus took up his abode in Ottumwa in 1880. Few
buildings were at that time being erected in the city which required plans, so
Mr. Koch secured an interest in the Ottumwa Road Cart Company, his associates
being C. Inskeep, Dr. O'Neal, Dr. Diffenbacher and John Robison. In 1885 he was
called to the bedside of his mother in Germany and she died a year later, at the
age of eighty-four. After spending three years in Germany he returned to the
United States in 1888 and settled permanently in Ottumwa. He has drawn plans for
a large number of important structures in Ottumwa, including the Hofmann
building, the Masonic building, the Edgerly wholesale drug house, the
Harper-McIntire wholesale building, the Elks building, and the Hunter-Bonnifield
building, which is now in course of construction. Mr. Koch has drawn the plans
for many attractive residences in the city which stand as monuments to his
architectural skill and ability and give evidence of his success in his chosen
life work. He is a popular member of the local lodge of the Benevolent
Protective Order of Elks and has an extensive circle of friends throughout
Ottumwa and vicinity.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY IOWA
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME II
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914


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