US Weisel Biographies

This page was created January 11, 2004.

• Peter J. Weisel (27 Jun 1873 WI - 1 May 1946 CA)
• Henry J. Weisel (22 Apr 1840 MD - 4 Nov 1873 WV)

Title: HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA by Adalina Brown Pleasants.
Publisher: Los Angeles : J.R. Finnell Pub. Co., 1931
Volume II, Page 343-344 

One of Orange county's most successful fruit growers is P. J. Weisel, of La Habra Heights, just across the line in Los Angeles county, who has specialized in the growing of avocados, and valencia oranges, in which he has been more than ordinarily successful, being numbered among the leading ranchers of his end of the county. Mr. Weisel was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and is a son of the late Peter and Josephine (Cordes) Weisel, of whom the former was a native of Germany and the latter of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In his native land Peter Weisel became a well known inventor and manufacturer of heavy machinery, such as Corliss engines and refrigerating machines for breweries. After emigrating to the United States, he located in Milwaukee, where he met and married Miss Cordes. It was he who constructed the first ice-making machine in the United States. Having built, and successfully installed refrigerating machinery for a number of large breweries in Milwaukee, he was called to Los Angeles to put in refrigerating plants for two of the leading breweries of this locality. He was so favorably impressed with this part of the country that he decided to remain permanently, moving his family from Milwaukee to Pasadena and later to Anaheim.

Mr. Weisel received his early education in the public schools of Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin. In 1892, when about nineteen years of age, he came to Los Angeles with his father and family, who eventually established their home at Anaheim. There he and his father became interested in the Orange County Preserving Company, of which P. J. Weisel later became the sole owner and operated the plant about four years. He then organized the Western Lithograph Company of Los Angeles, in partnership with Anton Stoetzer, and was actively identified with it for two years, at the end of which time he sold out. At about that time, 1906, occurred the death of his father, at the age of seventy-one years. The mother passed away in 1918, at the age of seventy years. Selling out his interests in Los Angeles, Mr. Weisel came to Anaheim and established the first automobile garage in the town, at the same time taking the local agency for the Oldsmobile car. He later took over the Ford agency in this section of the county, being the first Ford dealer in Anaheim, as well as one of the first, in southern California. In 1912 Mr. Weisel bought a ranch at Santa Fe Springs. He is now a director of the Anaheim Branch of the Book of America, Anaheim Orange & Lemon Association, and LaHabra Heights Mutual Water Company. With the farsightedness in practical things which has always characterized him, Mr. Weisel sensed the possibilities of avocado growing at La Habra Heights, where he bought one hundred and fifty acres of land, which he is devoting to the raising of this distinctive fruit. At the Orange County Orange Show, held at Anaheim in 1931, June 4 to 14, Mr. Weisel took a first award on his exhibit of Avocados, which he grows under the "Calavo " brand. He is also the owner of a horse ranch in Carbon canyon, San Bernardino county, comprising four hundred acres of good land, on which he breeds and raises American saddle horses and Aberdeen Angus cattle. Mr. Weisel was one of the early members of the Calavo growers of California and he markets his entire crop through this association.

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1930, Mr. Weisel was united in marriage to Miss Louise Klein of that city, whose father was the owner of a line of Lake Michigan steamers and is still a resident of Milwaukee, being almost ninety years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Weisel are the parents of four children, as follows: Louise J., a student in Pomona College; John, a student in the University of California at Los Angeles; Robert, a student in the Webb School for Boys, at Claremont, Los Angeles county, and Mary, who is a pupil in the public schools of La Habra. Mr. Weisel has been successful in his affairs because he has worked hard and persistently from young manhood and has been guided by right principles. During his early years of ranching at Santa Fe Springs he passed through some hard times, but refused to be discouraged and eventually the discovery of oil rewarded his persistency. While at the University of Wisconsin, he had taken a course in agriculture under Professor Henry and is therefore well equipped in his practical knowledge of farming and stockraising. He stands for progress and in the management of his various interests he has shown himself capable and judicious, while in all of his relations with his fellowmen he is candid and straightforward and enjoys their unreserved confidence and respect.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvwags/medical.txt  [1/7/2004]
*WHEELING'S FACULTY OF OLD AND MEDICAL ORGANIZATIONS.*

From HISTORY OF THE PAN-HANDLE, West Virginia, 1879, by J. H. Newton, 
G. G. Nichols, and A. G. Sprankle; Chapter XLIV, pages 251-155.