Bauer, Albert D.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Albert D. Bauer. One of the veterans of the printing trade and an old time publisher in Kansas, Albert D. Bauer acquired his first experience in "the art preservative of all arts" in a Topeka print shop. That was nearly forty years ago, and for the past twenty-three years he has lived continuously in Topeka.

Mr. Bauer was born in the historic old seat of the Mormons in the Middle West, Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, March 6, 1863. His grandfather John Bauer Sr. was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, coming to America in 1820 and locating as a pioneer in Stark County, Ohio. He was a vineyardist there and engaged extensively in the wine making business. In 1840 he moved with his family to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, from which locality the Mormons had been only a short time departed. Before leaving the old country John Bauer Sr. married Miss Eber, a native of Hesse Darmstadt. To them were born a large family of fifteen children, twelve of whom grew to manhood and womanhood, and seven of them are still living in the year 1916, thus proving the wonderful vitality of this stock.

John Bauer Jr., father of Albert D., was born in Stark County, Ohio, in 1834. A private school gave him a liberal education, and in early manhood he became a traveling salesman for clothing. He followed that business in various states of the Union, and was a pioneer traveling representative. His death occurred at Butte, Montana, in 1891. In 1857 he married Miss Prudence W. Hussmeyer of St. Louis, Missouri. Her father was a member of the German colony of substantial farmers near St. Louis. John Bauer and wife had four son and two daughters: Alonzo, Frank, Albert, Edward, Anna and Kate. Alonzo, who lives in Topeka, is a traveling engineer for the Santa Fe Railway. Frank died at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, in 1915; Edward is a farmer at Raymondsville, Texas; Anna married Dr. William McVey, one of the prominent specialists in medicine and surgery at Topeka; Kate is Mrs. J. W. Bolt, whose husband is connected with the Burlington Railroad Company at Kansas City, Missouri.

The early life of Albert D. Bauer was spent in his native county of Illinois, but at the age of fifteen in 1878 he came to Kansas and soon afterwards found employment in the printing office of the old Kansas Farmer, whose proprietor was Major J. K. Hodgson: There he served out his apprenticeship and mastered all the intricacies of the printing trade. Practically every printer that learned his trade thirty or forty years ago had at least a period of journeyman experience. Mr. Bauer on leaving Topeka began traveling, following his trade at different places, and in the course of this experience visited nearly every state in the Union.

In 1894 he returned to Topeka and bought out the printing establishment which he has owned ever since. Many periodicals and pamphlets have been published in his shop and in the course of many years a number of country weeklies have also been printed there. For twenty-two years Mr. Bauer has published a Kansas medical journal. He has a thoroughly equipped office for all kinds of commercial printing, and his success is due to the fact that he has served his patrons adequately.

Mr. Bauer is affiliated with a number of fraternal orders, including the Knights and Ladies of Security, the Woodmen of the World, the Sons and Daughters of Justice and the Fraternal Aid.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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