Casper Haehnle was born at Gingen, Wurtemburg, Germany, on January 19, 1853, and he died in Jackson, Michigan, on February 10, 1893, when he was little more than forty years of age. His father, Casper Haehnle I, came to the United States alone in 1854, leaving his wife and children in Germany, it being his intention to send for them later. In 1867, at the age of fourteen, Casper II came over and joined his father in this country. The latter had upon first arriving here spent some time at Detroit, being employed merely as a wage earner. Later on he embarked in the brewing business here in Jackson, but he soon removed to Marshall, Michigan, where he followed the brewing business until his death in 1869. Meanwhile, prior to his death, he was married again and his children had come from Germany. In 1870 the family returned to Jackson. Here Casper Haehnle II, with some associates, became the founder of the Haehnle Brewing Company, and he successfully conducted the enterprise then founded until his death in 1893. Since that event it has been just as successfully handled by his son, Casper Haehnle III, though it should be said that the latter was but a youth of sixteen years when his father died, and but eighteen when he took charge of the brewery. The son has also added to the brewing industry an ice manufacturing plant, and the two plants are today ranked among the most prosperous industries of Jackson.

Casper Haehnle II was married in Jackson, Michigan, on December 19, 1875, to Miss Mary Baltz, who, together with five children, survive him. The widow resides at No. 416 South Jackson street, this city, in the south half of a splendid double frame house, which she caused to be built in 1901. Mr. Haehnle was a man of marked energy and enthusiasm, and the possessor of much enterprise and public spirit. He was a kind-hearted man, affable in manner, and known widely as the friend of the workingman, often being known to provide work for men in his plant when there was really no need for their services, so that, regardless of the times, his plant always ran at capacity. He had just completed the present spacious brick brewery on Cooper street, which he had built to take the place of a former frame building which had burned, when he was summoned by death. The new property, completed at an expenditure of a good many thousands, was modern in every detail, and Mr. Haehnle anticipated much additional business prestige from its operation. His son, then sixteen years old, two years later took charge of the business, and has since conducted it in- a manner that reflects much credit upon his father as well as upon himself. In the operation of the plant and its kindred affairs he has been ably assisted by Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Berger, the latter being a sister of Mrs. Mary Haehnle, his mother. Mrs. Berger herself is especially deserving of credit for the success of the business, for immediately upon the death of Mr. Haehnle she took complete charge of the office and the management of the business, and attended to its every detail during the first two years before the son became old enough to become manager, and even since the son, Casper III, took charge of the outside management, Mrs. Berger has maintained complete charge of the books and of the office work.

Casper Haehnle II was a valuable business man in his community. He was a liberal-minded and public-spirited citizen, a kind husband and father and a faithful friend. He was a member of the Arbeiter Verein and of the Harmonic Society, both German in their nature. His passing was widely deplored in and about Jackson, and a host of people mourned his loss.

The Haehnle family is one to which considerable interest attaches, and further facts relative to their migration to American shores and their actvities here are offered in connection with the brief facts set forth above in regard to the business enterprises of them.

Casper Haehnle I came to America in 1854, setting first at Detroit, later going to Jackson, then to Marshall, where he died in 1869. Still later, after the death of the father, Casper Haehnle II and the family returned to Jackson, as has been intimated in an earlier paragraph.

The widow of Casper Haehnle II was born in Detroit on December 15, !S55, and her maiden name was Mary Baltz. She was a daughter of Frederick Baltz, a native of Germany, who died when his daughter was four years old, and of Amelia (Mauch) Baltz, also of German birth. She died on May 3, 1910. They were married in Detroit, and there spent their wedded lives. After the death of Mr. Baltz, his widow became the second wife of Casper Haehnle I, the father of him whose name heads this review. It will thus be seen that the widow of Casper Haehnle II is a daughter of the second wife of her husband’s father, a somewhat unusual complication. The marriage of the elder couple took place some years before that of their children.

The five children of Casper and Mary (Baltz) Haehnle are as follows: Casper Haehnle III, now managing the brewery business, as has been previously mentioned; Amelia, the wife of William Kast, a well-known druggist of Jackson, and a member of the firm of Kast & Hoffman; Benedict, of Los Angeles, California; Lillian, the wife of George E. Parks, of Chicago; and Bertha, who married Roy E. Stanley, of Richmond, Indiana.

History of Michigan, Volume 3