Joseph Austrian Autobiography

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: MS-505

Staff Only

Collection Scope and Content Summary

Autobiography, 1906-1908, of Joseph Austrian (Oestreicher), a German immigrant who moved to Eagle River, Michigan and became a shopkeeper associated with the mining towns of Eagle River, Hancock and Calumet. Written between 1906 and 1908, Austrian covers his life from his early childhood in Wittelshofen, Bavaria and his emigration to America with his sister in 1850 up until his final months before his death in 1908.

Dates

1906-1908

Access

Available for use in the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections.

Biography

Joseph Austrian was born in the small town of Wittelshofen, Bavaria in 1933. At the age of seventeen, he and his sister emigrated to America. He soon headed to Mackinac Island, Michigan and then La Pointe, Wisconsin. He eventually was hired by Henry P. Leopold in his general store in Eagle River, Michigan where he took care of correspondence and account keeping. Austrian took over the business several years later, and opened stores in Hancock with the opening of the Quincy mine there as well as Calumet to be close to the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company business. Joseph Austrian passed away in 1908, several months after finishing his memoirs.