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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
JOHN A. KALBACH is the managing partner of I. Kalbach & Son, dealers in lumber, sash, doors, blinds, and building material, at Oskaloosa. The firm was organized in 1864, and is the pioneer establishment in that line in the city. The subject of our sketch was born in Port Carbon, Schuylkill Co., Pa., Sept. 1, 1844, and is the son of Isaac and Christian (Koch) Kalbach. He removed to Indiana with his parents in 1849, and from there to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1850, and in 1851 to Oskaloosa. He was educated in the city schools, and in 1864 engaged in his present business with his father. In addition to their lumber business the firm have carried on an extensive grain business, and were also engaged in the banking and lumber business at New Sharon, Iowa. For many years John A. has been managing partner, and has so conducted the business of the firm that the house of I. Kalbach & Son is rated among the solid and safe business firms of the county. The banking and other business at New Sharon was simply as a matter of convenience, Mr. Kalbach preferring to give his entire attention to the original lumber business at Oskaloosa. He was married at Chicago, III., June 4,1873, to Miss Louisa Patterson, a daughter of Milton Patterson, formerly of Greene County, Pa., where Mrs. Kalbach was born Nov. 26, 1847. Three children have been born of this union, one son and two daughters: Warren, March. 29, 1874; Helen, Oct. 29, 1876, and Annetta, April 6,1878. Mrs. Kalbach is a member of the Congregational Church. Mr. Kalbach is a Mason, an Odd Fellow, and a member of the A. O. U. W. He, served as a member of the City Council from the Pitt Ward in 1873, and in 1878 was elected a member of the Board of Supervisors of this county. In any and all positions Mr. Kalbach has received the commendation of his fellow-citizens for a conscientious and able performer of every duty imposed. In his family he is a kind and indulgent husband and father, in his business a man of strictest integrity, and in the community a progressive, public-spirited citizen.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy