Biography of 	ODENDAHAL, J. F., Rostack, GER., then Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller November 1998

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J. F. Odendahal, a member of the grain and flour firm of Glover &
Odendahal, is one of the advanced thinkers in business methods and 
leading men in the commercial circles of New Orleans, La.  He was born 
in Rostack, on the borders of the North Sea, in the kingdom of 
Mecklinburg, Germany, in 1840, and came with his parents to America 
when he was but seven years of age.  They located in Fort Wayne, Ind., 
and here he finished his education, which he had begun in Europe.  At 
the age of nineteen, or in 1859, he entered the grain and milling 
business in St. Louis, Mo., following that pursuit successfully there 
until 1867, when he came South and located in New Orleans.  Here he 
opened a grain and flour business with his present partner.  The firm 
of Glover & Odendahal soon became known for their enterprise and 
reliability and remained unchanged to the present time, 1892.  This 
firm is one of the largest and best known in the South, doing
from $6,000,000 to $10,000,000 worth of business annually.  They handle
grain from the far Northwest and Pacific states and Texas to the
southernmost ports of the Gulf of Mexico, which latter places they 
supply with grain and flour.  They sell flour to England and France 
besides their large sales in various places in the United States.  This 
firm started with a small capital and now do a vast business.  Wherever 
the name of Glover & Odendahal is known it is held in high esteem and 
respect, and is a familiar one in all the large cities in the United 
States and many ports of the outside world.  Mr. Odendahal married Miss 
Mary Schuricht of St. Louis, Mo., and this union has been blessed with 
seven children--four sons and three daughters:  Fred H., a practicing 
physician of New Orleans, was educated in St. Michael's college and 
graduated from Rush Medical college, Chicago;  Loula and  Mary (twins);  
Adolph, in business with his father; Emma;  Paul and ------.  The 
entire family are members of the Lutheran church.  Mr. Odendahal is one 
of the leading members of the board of trade and has done much to build 
it up.  He is a thorough American in all his ideas, a genial and 
accomplished gentleman and takes a prominent part in all social 
circles.  He is essentially a progressive man of the new South.
He is very liberal and charitable, giving freely of his means to those 
in distress and does much for the advancement of the city.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 289.
Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.