Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Kolb, Michael 1855 - 
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Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

MICHAEL KOLB.

    Michael Kolb, the well known druggist and pharmacist at Hammond, is one of
the native sons of Lake county, and has proved an honor and a credit to his
county and city in business and in matters of citizenship. He is a man of known
integrity among his associates, and his worth of character and thrifty
enterprise have gained him a well deserved place among the foremost men of
Hammond. His life span covers much of the history of Lake county from the
primitive pioneer past to the wonderful progress of the present, and he has
faithfully borne his share of the duties and responsibilities in private,
business and political life.

    Mr. Kolb was born on a farm in Lake county, February 28, 1855, being the
eldest of the family of Michael and Katharine (Becker) Kolb, both natives of
Alsace-Loraine, Germany, and the latter being one of the nine children of George
Becker, a life-long German farmer, who attained the age of seventy-six years.
Both the paternal great-grandfather and grandfather of Mr. Kolb bore the name of
Michael, and the grandfather spent his life in Germany as a farmer, dying when
an old man. He had two children by his first marriage, and was twice married.

    Michael Kolb, the father of Mr. Michael Kolb, grew to manhood in his
fatherland, and in 1854 came to America and located in Lake county. He bought a
farm in St. John township, and improved it and reared his family on it. When he
bought the land it was wild and covered with woods, in which were often seen the
wild deer. He cleared it up, and eventually had a fine farmstead, on which he
lived until 1893, since which time he has resided with his son Michael. His wife
died November 14, 1879, at the age of fifty-nine years. They were both
Catholics. There were nine children in their family, four sons and five
daughters, and the four now living are: Michael; Joseph, of Hammond; Katharine,
wife of Anthony Kouratt, of Chicago; and Rose, wife of John C. Klein, of Chicago.

    Mr. Kolb spent the first twenty years of his life on his father's farm,
where, among other valuable things, he learned to be thrifty and industrious. He
attended the district schools, and also the high school at Crown Point, where he
graduated in 1878. For the following twelve years he was engaged in teaching
school. In the latter part of this period he spent his leisure in learning the
drug business from his brother-in-law, L. G. Kramer, and in 1890 he came to
Hammond and entered the drug business on his own account, which enterprise he
still continues with profit and success.

    Mr. Kolb is a Democrat in politics. He and his wife are members of the
Catholic church, and he belongs to the Catholic Order of Foresters. His
residence is at 23 Condit street, where he erected a fine home in 1891. He was
married May 4, 1880, to Miss Angeline Kramer, a daughter of Matthias and Susan
(Wachter) Kramer. Eleven children have been born of their union: Rose M.,
Michael E., Maria, deceased, Matthias J., Leonard G., Clara K., Agnes M.,
Francis A., Katharine M., Cecelia, and Edward O.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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