Louis Lichtenberger (1835–1892) had a carriage and wagon-making shop in 19th-century Los Angeles, California, and became a wealthy landowner. He was city treasurer and a member of the Common Council, the governing body of the city.
Personal
Lichtenberger was born August 25, 1835, in Otweiler, Prussia . and emigrated to Chicago, Illinois, when he was sixteen. He remained in that city until 1860, when he settled in San Francisco, and he moved to Los Angeles in 1863. He was married to Amelia or Emilie Bohse of
Bonn, Germany
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr ...
apprenticed
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
in carriage and wagon-making and carried on this occupation in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. In L.A., he formed a
partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...
with Louis Roeder from 1866 to 1869. He retired in 1886, having invested in
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
. In 1891 he was vice-president of the German-American Savings Bank at 114 South Main Street, Los Angeles.
Public service
A Republican, Lichtenberger represented the 2nd
Ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
on the
Los Angeles Common Council
The Los Angeles Common Council was the predecessor of the Los Angeles, California, City Council. It was formed in 1850 under state law, when the city had only 1,610 residents, and it existed until 1889, when the city had about 50,400 residents and ...
in 1874–75 and 1875–76;''Chronological Record of Los Angeles City Officials,1850-1938,'' compiled under direction of Municipal Reference Library, City Hall, Los Angeles (March 1938, reprinted 1966). "Prepared ... as a report on Project No. SA 3123-5703-6077-8121-9900 conducted under the auspices of the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
." He was elected
city treasurer The municipal treasurer is a position of responsibility for a municipality according to the locally prevailing laws.
The treasurer of a public agency is elected Sixth District Agricultural Association for about ten years.