Achter, B. H.

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

B. H. Achter. In a foremost place on the list of the men who are identified with large business interests at Iola, Kansas, is found the name of B. H. Achter, president of the Iola Wholesale Grocer Company. Mr. Achter is one of the men who have worked their own way to prosperity and prominence, for when he came to this country he was without capital or influence and was compelled to depend alone upon his own resource and ability. His career had been one of marked advancement, and the material rewards which have been his have been fairly and honorably won.

B. H. Achter was born in the Province of Hanover, Germany, March 9, 1850, and is a son of William B. and Angela Achter. His grandfather was Herman H. Achter, who passed his entire life in Hanover as a farmer, and participated in one of the early wars of his country as a teamster. William B. Achter was born in 1804, in Hanover, and early adopted the vocation of a farmer, following that calling throughout a long and active life. He died in his native province in 1876, in the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. He and his wife were the parents of five children: H. H., who still lives in Germany and is engaged in farming; Mary Anna, who died as the wife of Herman Koop, a farmer of Holland, Europe; Frank, who came to the United States and is now engaged in business as a tailor at Cincinnati, Ohio; Teckla, who married Mr. Piper, a general workman of Cincinnati, and died in that city, as did her husband; and B. H.

B. H. Achter was educated in private schools in the vicinity of his native place, and was twenty years of age when he left Germany for the United States. Arriving at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1870, he secured employment as a private coachman, and continued as such at that city for three years, following this for five years of the same kind of employment at St. Louis, Missouri. Subsequently he removed to Bond County, Illinois, where he invested his savings in a farm and continued as an agriculturist until 1881, when he removed to Humboldt, Kansas, which city had since been his home. On his arrival at Humboldt, he founded a livery business, but subsequently turned his attention toward mercantile lines, being the proprietor of a retail grocery business which after a number of years expanded into a wholesale concern. While he still makes his home at Humboldt, his chief business interests are at Iols, where, since 1910, he had been president of the Iola Wholesale Grocer Company, one of the city's leading firms. He is also vice president of the Dodge City Wholesale Grocery Company. Mr. Achter is well and favorably known in business circles of the several communities where he is interested, and his reputation rests upon many years of honorable and straightforward dealing. The Iola Wholesale Grocer Company had the following officials: president, B. H. Achter; vice president, W. H. Cook; treasurer, H. J. Tholen, Jr.; and secretary, William H. Achter. Mr. Achter maintains an independent stand in political matters. He is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and is fraternally affiliated with Humboldt Council No. 429, Knights of Columbus; Humboldt Camp, Modern Woodmen of America; and the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association and the Anti Horse Thief Association.

In 1883 Mr. Achter was married at Humboldt, Kansas, to Miss Mary Koppers, daughter of Henry and Johanna Koppers, both now deceased, who were pioneer farming people of Wilson County, Kansas, whence they came in 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Achter have had the following children: William H., who is secretary of the Iola Wholesale Grocer Company; Elizabeth, who is unmarried and resided at Humboldt; B. H., Jr., who is bookkeeper in the Iola Wholesale Grocer Company's branch plant at Fredonia, Kansas; Mary, who is deceased; and Anna and Emilyanna, who are also unmarried and reside with their parents at Humboldt.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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