Guggenbuehler, Johann

Born: 1805-04-09 Switzerland

Died: 1873-08-09 Highland, Illinois

Johann Guggenbuehler, who went by John, was a hotelier, ice dealer, brewer, and Republican. He settled in Highland, Illinois, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen sometime between 1840 and 1849. In 1843, he started the first brewery in town, the Jefferson Brewery, which he later sold. In 1844, in the years leading up to the Mexican War, the citizens of Highland organized a militia and Guggenbuehler joined as captain of an infantry company. He married Magdalena "Lena" Pfeiffer on April 12, 1852. The couple eventually had at least seven children together. By 1857, he owned a hotel in Highland and was also an ice dealer. He was a member of the Highland Republican Club at least as early as 1858. When citizens in Highland established a shooting and sharpshooter club in 1861—the Helvetia Schuetzen Verein-Sharpshooters—he joined it.

History of Madison County, Illinois (Edwardsville, IL: W. R. Brink, 1882), 111, 429, 433, 571; W. T. Norton, ed., Centennial History of Madison County, Illinois and Its People 1812 to 1912 (Chicago: Lewis, 1912), 1:535; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Madison County, 12 April 1852, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; John Blattner and Others to Abraham Lincoln and Lyman Trumbull; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Madison County, IL, 17; U.S. Census Office, Tenth Census of the United States (1880), Highland, Madison County, IL, 14; Gravestone, Highland Cemetery, Highland, IL.