Johann Andreas Wiederkehr was a Swiss-American winemaker, leather worker, and farmer. After immigrating to the United States in 1880, he opened a vineyard and winery in the

Arkansas River Valley The Arkansas River Valley (usually shortened to River Valley) is a region in Arkansas defined by the Arkansas River in the western part of the state. Generally defined as the area between the The Ozarks, Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, the River V ...

. He continued to make wine during

Prohibition in the United States In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a Constitution of the United States, nationwide constitutional law prohibition, prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtai ...

, having been granted special permission by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He was the founder of

Wiederkehr Village, Arkansas Wiederkehr Village is a city in Franklin County, Arkansas, United States. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 38 at the 2010 census. It is named after Swiss winemaker Johann Andreas W ...

. His winery was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Biography

Wiederkehr was from the German-speaking region of Switzerland. He and his wife, Katherina, immigrated from Switzerland to the United States in 1880. They lived with Father Ziswyler, a Swiss Roman Catholic priest, until purchasing land in the

Boston Mountains The Boston Mountains is a Level III ecoregion designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. Part of the Ozarks, the Boston Mountains are a deeply dissected plateau. The ecoregion is steeper ...

near the Arkansas Valley and building a cabin there. He operated his own farm, where he produced cheese, raised livestock, raised crops, and built furniture. Trained as a shoemaker and leatherworker in Switzerland, he also made a living making and repairing shoes. Wiederkehr started growing grapes and producing wine for his family and neighbors. His first large-scale customer was the Catholic Church in Arkansas, for which he produced

sacramental A sacramental in Christianity is a material object or action (in Latin ''sacramentalia'') ritually blessed by a priest to signal its association with the sacraments and so to incite reverence during acts of worship. They are recognised by the Cat ...

wines. Soon he began selling wine to coal miners employed in the valley. He designed a winery in the Swiss Alpine style on St. Mary's Mountain near

Altus Altus or ALTUS may refer to: Music *Alto, a musical term meaning second highest musical or vocal type *Altus (voice type), a vocal type also known as countertenor Places * Altus, Arkansas, US **Altus AVA, a wine-growing region near Altus, Arkans ...

, overlooking the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

. Wiederkehr received a

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

for his Campbell Early mutation grape. During

, Wiederkehr was granted an ecclesiastical permit by the Bishop Edward Fitzgerald of

Little Rock ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

, which allowed him to continue wine making in order to produce

wine. Wiederkehr's winery and vineyard, located in Wiederkehr Village, is the oldest vineyard in continuous operation in Middle America. The winery's first cellars, hand-dug in 1880, are on the

. Wiederkehr was a practicing

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

and attended St. Mary's Catholic Church in Altus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiederkehr, Johann Andreas Year of birth missing Year of death missing Swiss Roman Catholics Swiss farmers Swiss-German people Swiss emigrants to the United States Swiss winemakers Leatherworkers