SILVER BOW COUNTY
Jacob Osenbrug
Transcribed & submitted by:  Lorene Frigaard, great, 
grandniece.

Extracted from:  Montana Its Story and Biography:  A History 
of Aboriginal and Territorial Montana and Three Decades of 
Statehood.  Tom Stout, Editor.  Published in three volumes
 by the Chicago American Historical Society, 1921.  Volume 
II,  pages 451-452.

JACOB OSENBRUG, president of the Home Baking Company of 
Butte, is one of the efficient business men of this region, 
who having some to the United States from foreign shores,
 has made a success of his undertakings and at the same 
time established himself in the confidence of the public.  
He was born in the City of Stade, near Hamburg, Germany, 
on January 28, 1860, a son of Clause Osenbrug, whose birth 
took place in the vicinity of Hamburg, Germany, in 1805, 
and his death at Stade, Germany, in 1877.  During his 
younger days he was a shoemaker, but after his marriage 
became a general merchant, and he spent all of his life 
in and about Stade.  All of his mature years he was a 
consistent member of the Lutheran Church.  Elizabeth 
Stockmann, born in the vicinity of Hamburg, Germany, 
in 1815, became his second wife, and she, too, died at 
Stade, in the same year as her husband. Their children 
were as follows:  Annie, who married Fred Klusmann, an 
employe of the Washoe Reduction Works of the Anaconda 
Copper Mining Company at Anaconda, Montana; Jacob, whose 
name heads this review; and John, who is a carpenter and 
builder, lives at Kansas City, Missouri.

Growing up in his native place, Jacob Osenbrug attended both 
public and private schools and received the equivalent of 
our high school course, although but fourteen years of age 
when he left school to begin learning the trade of a baker.  
He followed his trade in Germany until 1877, when he went 
to London, England, and spent six months in a bakery there, 
and then, in the spring of 1878, came to the United States.  
For the first few months after reaching this country Mr. 
Osenbrug was engaged in farm work in Lafayette County, 
Missouri, but being stricken down with malaria he went 
to St. Louis, Missouri, and there found work at his trade, 
continuing to make that city his home until June, 1879, 
when he came to Butte, Montana.

Upon his arrival at Butte Mr. Osenbrug found it necessary at 
first to do whatever came to hand, including work in the 
woods, operating a threshing machine in the Deerlodge 
Valley and other pioneer jobs, but in 1880 was able to 
carry out his plans and establish a bakery which lasted 
through the winter, and in the spring he resumed his 
varied occupations.  During the winter of 1881, however, 
he was able to establish himself permanently in a bakery 
business in a small way, building his own oven and making 
his own tools.  From these primitive beginnings Mr. 
Osenbrug has had the satisfaction  of developing his 
present fine establishment, which is the largest in
 Montana, he now operating under the caption of the Home 
Baking Company.  His bakery, offices and warehouse are at 
No. 1904 Olympia Street.  The selling territory comprises 
Butte and the outlying districts for a radius of 100 miles, 
and heavy shipments are made into Idaho.  In 1904 the 
company was incorporated, with Mr. Osenbrug as president; 
Rudolph Osenbrug as vice president and secretary; and 
Edwin Thomas as treasurer.  The plant today is one of 
the best equipped in the country, and is supplied with 
every modern appliance and all kinds of machinery to 
facilitate the production of bakery goods in the most 
sanitary manner.  The equipment includes four continuous 
patented baking ovens and modern electric motors for 
operating the machinery.  The doughs and flour are never 
touched by hand, and every process is conducted with 
the greatest of care for cleanliness.  Visitors from 
all over the country are impressed with his bakery and 
the people of Butte are naturally proud of it and the 
enterprise which has brought it into existence and 
maintained it.  The company operates five large auto 
trucks for delivery purposes, all of the business 
being strictly wholesale, this being the only concern 
in the state which does no retail business.  The leading 
brands of bread produced by this company are known all 
over Western Monana and into Idaho, they being the 
"Holsum" and Betsey Ross."

Mr. Osenbrug is a republican.  He affiliated with the 
Christian Science Church.  A Mason, he belongs to the 
Butte Lodge No. 22, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, 
and Deerlodge Chapter No. 3, Royal Arch Masons.  He is 
also a member of the Butte Lodge, Knights of the 
Maccabees.  The Butte Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary 
Club also benefit by his aggressive membership and he can 
be depended upon to give his hearty co-opration to all 
measures looking toward a further development of the 
city.  Mr. Osenbrug owns his modern residence at No. 
825 West Broadway and a business block at Nos. 15-17 
East Granite Street.  The company owns the bakery, 
offices and warehouse.

The first marriage of Mr. Osenbrug took place at Butte, 
Montana, in 1883, when he was united with Miss Mary M. 
Hembockel, who died in October, 1900, having borne him the 
following children:  Henry J., who died in 1913 at Butte, 
was receiving teller of the First National Bank at Butte; 
Elizabeth, who married Ira Peters, a mining engineer, is a 
resident of Butte; Rudolph, who is vice president of the 
Home Baking Company, is a resident of Butte; Edward P., 
who is a wanderer; Albert, who died in infancy; and 
Albert M., who lives at Washington, District of Columbia, 
was graduated from the Montana State Agricultural College 
of Bozeman, and is now in the Government service.  In 1901 
Mr. Osenbrug married second at New York City, New York, to 
Mrs. Annie (Heinbockel) Kroeger, his sister-in-law, and 
she died in 1913 at Los Angeles, California.  By her 
first marriage she had a son, William P. Kroeger, who 
was graduated from the Penn College of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, 
and he is now a physician and surgeon.  Mr. Osenbrug 
was  married in 1914 to Mrs. Katrina Miller, a native 
of Ohio, no issue.  Mrs. Osenbrug had two children by 
her first marriage, namely:  Charles Miller, who is an 
employe of the Montana Power Company, is a resident of 
Butte; and Harry, who is in the automobile business, 
lives in the State of Washington.

The sons of Mr. Osenbrug who served in the World was are 
Edward P., Albert M., William P. and Charles P.  Edward P. 
enlisted but a short time prior to the signing of the 
armistice so had no opportunity of seeing active service.

Albert M. Osenbrug enlisted in 1918 and served for eighteen 
months at Camp Omaha in the balloon battalion, and owing 
to his knowledge of this branch of the service was kept 
on this side as an instructor to drill new recruits.

William P. Kroeger, a stepson, enlisted in 1917 in the 
hospital as a medical student.

Charles P. Miller, another stepson, enlisted in 1918 and 
was overseas in France for eighteen months, participating 
in the first battle of Soissons, in which he received 
seven machine gun bullets in the groin which incapacitated 
him for further service.  He was in a machine gun battalion.

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