WILLIAM S. KAMMERER, commission merchant, No. 35 Board of Trade Building, Chicago, Ill., was born on the old homestead farm of his father in Nottingham township, Washington county, Penn., February 23, 1843, a son of John and Elizabeth (Bender) Kammerer. He was educated in the common school of his native township, and immediately after his father's death (then but thirteen years of age) he entered the store at the old homestead as clerk, where he remained until about the age of twenty, when he engaged with J. S. Dilworth & Co., of Pittsburgh, in the wholesale grocery business as clerk. His health, however, apparently giving way, he, at the solicitation of his brother Joseph, opened a general store at Hillsboro, Penn. But finding this a very limited field for success, after about one year he removed to Baltimore, Md., where he engaged in furnishing grain to Government contractors, which business, though profitable, came to a close with the war, after which he removed to Springfield, Ill., and engaged as clerk in the dry-goods store of Kimber, Ragsdale & Co., where he remained almost four years. Returning to the old homestead in the fall of 1868, he connected himself in business with his brothers, Joseph, and Frank G., under the firm name of Kammerer Brothers, remaining in the above firm until the spring of 1873. On October 31, 1872, Mr. Kammerer was married to Miss Mattie G. Emery, daughter of Dr. Boyd Emery, of Dunningsville, same county. In the following spring he located in Monongahela City, where he engaged in the dry-goods, notion and millinery business. In 1876 he sold out, and removed to Washington, where he engaged in the same business, remaining there until 1879, when, owing to severe illness, he closed out his business, and again returned to the old homestead. Improving in health, he went into his brother's store as clerk, where he remained until the summer of 1881, when he removed to Chicago, and engaged in the grain commission business with his brother Frank G., where he still remains. Mr. Kammerer resides at Riverside, a suburb of Chicago. He and his wife are the parents of one child, Boyd L., born December 21, 1876. Mr. and Mrs. Kammerer are members of the Presbyterian Church, of which he has been a trustee and treasurer during the past five years in the church at Riverside.

Text taken from page 999 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed March 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published March 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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