Category Biographies

Gustav Karl Ohmer was born in Herxheim, Germany, in 1869. Gustav, fourteen, and his older brother, Karl (Charles) Ohmer, fifteen, arrived in America via Castle Garden, New York, on 31 October 1884 on the Rhein & Maasdam. They then travelled to St. John’s in Collegeville, Minnesota, where they both spent one semester before they left to make their lives in America. They left behind their younger brother Jacob Eduard (Edward F.) and parents Franz Carl and Anna Maria Ohmer, all in Germany. Edward arrived in St. Louis in the 1890s and all are buried at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis. Franz passed in Germany in 1902 and Anna Maria arrived in St. Louis in 1904.

Gustav found his career as a baker/confectioner in Ottumwa, Iowa, and married Mary Dennebrink prior to his arrival in St...

April 17, 1823 – February 27, 1903

NICHOLAS OHMER, was the oldest son of Francis and Margaret Ohmer, who were born in France, and emigrated to this country in 1832, coming as emigrants in a sailing vessel, landing in New York in that year, bringing with them three sons and two daughters. After remaining a short time in New York, they moved westward, via the New York &; Erie Canal, to Buffalo, thence by steamer to Sandusky, Ohio, thence by wagon to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Francis Ohmer, Sr., being a tailor by trade, and finding no employment, went to Trenton, Butler County, Ohio, where a member of his own nationality had settled ; he remaining there until 1837, working at his trade...

John Francis Ohmer, Jr., engineer, was born in Dayton, Ohio, July 3, 1891, son of John Francis and Anna Katherine (Beckman) Ohmer and grandson of Michael and Rose Marie (Welty”) Ohmer. His grandfather, a native of Alsace, France, came to this country in 1831 and settled in Dayton the following year. His father was a manufacturer and inventor. John F. Ohmer received his education at St. Marys Institute, Dayton, the University of Dayton, and Cornell University, where he was graduated M.E. in 1913. Joining the Ohmer Fare Register Co...

1882 – 1955

By Judy and Susan Ohmer, granddaughters

Earl Nicholas Ohmer made his way west from Dayton, Ohio, then north from Seattle, arriving in Petersburg in 1914.  His Alaska-bound map was the words of a new friend Mr. DeArmond, “keep the land on your right.”  With these directions Earl made his way slowly into the Territory of Alaska, following the entire coastline without a chart.  Arriving in the developingNorwegian fishing village of Petersburg in 1914, he pioneered the shrimping industry in Southeastern Alaska.

Earl began to experiment with the catching and processing of shrimp aboard the Osprey, and by 1916 he and his brother-in-law were in business, Earl in Alaska and Karl in Seattle...

February 21, 1900 – December 18, 1977

By Judy and Susan Ohmer, granddaughters

Loyla was one of the first children in Petersburg, arriving in 1903 with her father Captain Von Oston, when she was only three. They sailed to Alaska when the town of Petersburg was not much older than she was. Her father purchased a house, and the two of them returned to Tacoma to get the rest of the family.

When Loyla, her little sister Edna, and parents Henriette and Carl Von Osten settled in Petersburg, the Norwegian language was commonly heard on the streets. Loyla’s mother was of Norwegian heritage and her father of German/Prussian, so there was a comfort in calling the developing Scandinavian town home.

As young girls, Loyla and Edna enjoyed their dollhouse furniture, setting it up in ...

November 7, 1856 – November 4, 1938

OHMER, John Francis, manufacturer and inventor, was born in Dayton, Ohio, Nov. 7, 1856, son of Michael and Rose Marie (Welty) Ohmer. His father, a native of Alsace, France, came to America in 1831 and settled the following year in Dayton, where he was a furniture manufacturer and a pioneer promoter of street car railways. The son attended St. Mary’s College (later the University of Dayton). At the age of fourteen he became an apprentice in his father’s furniture factory and four years later obtained his first patent on a furniture caster. Following the retirement of his father in 1878 he purchased the furniture business and, after admitting his brothers into the firm, reorganized it as the M. Ohmer Sons Co...

November 24, 1925 –

By Judy and Susan Ohmer, daughters

Gloria Lucille Anderson arrived in Petersburg on April 28, 1949, aboard an Alaska steam ship for a two-week visit with friends.  By the time she was to return to Everett, Washington, 14 days later, she had already decided that “this was her spot,” and she’d taken a job.  She said,

“I loved Alaska.  It offered opportunity – and the exhilaration of possibility.  It was a land of extremes and of characters.  I felt as if I were coming home for the first time.”

Born in Chicago, November 24, 1925, Gloria started Kindergarten in Everett, Washington, as the Great Depression began.  It was, she said, a time of incredible struggle, of heartache, of sadness, loss, and hunger...

July 3, 1919 – December 8, 1979

By Judy and Susan Ohmer, daughters

Dave was one of the first generation of children born in Petersburg. He was reared there as the town was developing into a noted seafood producing areas in Southeastern Alaska. He had the typical freedoms of boys of the wilderness, almost expected to be packing a fishing pole, a basketball, or a .22-rifle.

Childhood summers included time at Greenrocks, rowing skiffs, picking berries, jigging fish, and chopping wood. As a teen he would entertain tourists by diving from Citizen’s Dock and swimming across Wrangell Narrows. Winters meant ice-skating and sledding parties. And basketball was king. In 1938 the Petersburg Vikings won the Southeast Alaska basketball championship...