Gustav Schaefer

Gustav Schaefer. , Gustav Schaefer was born in Willmenrod, Germany in 1845 and emigrated to the US in 1866. his wife, Maria (Mary) was born in 1847, also in Germany, and emigrated to the US in 1872. They gave birth to two sons, Henry and Ernst, and three daughters, Mary, Louise and Anna. After work at stone quarrying, barrel making, and in various local wagon and carriage shops, Gustav realized the dream of owning his own firm in 1880. Though he began by producing many different styles of horse-drawn vehicles he eventually specialized in heavy drays and wagons. Gustav's company grew with the automotive industry. By 1913 the firm was also making automobile bodies and in 1917 it incorporated as the Gustav Schaefer Wagon Company. In the 1920s the company responded to the changing times by building commercial auto and truck bodies of all types and adding services such as wheel repairing and auto painting and trimming. The company name was shortened to the Schaefer Body Company in 1926. After a fire destroyed the plant in 1927, the company, crippled by the depression, went into receivership and had its assets sold at public auction in 1935. Financed with Cleveland Capital, the company reorganized as the Schaefer Body, Inc., with Gustav's son, Henry, as president, and relocated to Superior Avenue on the east side. Gustav's company remained in business until 1977.