One of Pekin’s notables from days gone by was a German-born businessman named William H. Lauterbach (1845-1927), who first came to Pekin in 1863. After his arrival here, William Lauterbach started out as a barber in downtown Pekin before starting a successful career as a hotel proprietor here. Almost as soon as he got to the United States, he volunteered to serve his newly-adopted country during the Civil War, seeing action in several battles as a soldier in the Union Army.
When he was at the height of his business success, Lauterbach’s biography was printed in the “Portrait and Biographical Record of Tazewell and Mason Counties” (1894), pages 228-229. His biographical sketch is worth quoting in full:
“WILLIAM LAUTERBACH, the genial and pleasant proprietor of the Columbia Hotel of Pekin, and one of the well known citizens of this place, claims Germany as the land of his birth, which occurred in Stotternheim, Saxony, September 11, 1845. His father, Andrew Lauterbach, was a farmer in Saxony, and was a member of the Lutheran Church. He died in his native land at the age of fifty-six. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Selma Ludvig, was also a native of Saxony, and there died in April, 1892. The grandmothers on both sides reached a very advanced age. In the family were six children, of whom four are yet living. The sons all came to America, and Herman was drowned in the Illinois River, at Pekin, in 1869. William is the next younger. Louis died in Pekin in 1892. August is a banker of Colby, Kan. Selma is the wife of P. Prill, of Pekin. Louisa is married and lives in Saxony.
“William Lauterbach was reared on a farm and attended the common schools until fourteen years of age, after which he served as waiter in a hotel for a time. In 1863, he returned home in order to make preparations for emigrating to America, and in July boarded the steamer ‘Herman’ at Bremen. He landed at New York City, started westward, spent two weeks in Chicago, and then came to Pekin, where he remained until the 1st of February, 1864, when he enlisted in the Union army, as a member of Company D, Ninth Illinois Cavalry. He was engaged in skirmishing along the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, and took part in Wilson’s raid and the battle of Selma, Ala. At that place he was honorably discharged on the 1st of November, 1865, and in Springfield, Ill., received his pay.
“Mr. Lauterbach then returned to Pekin, where he engaged in business as a barber until 1872. During that time he was united in marriage with Annie Sassman, a native of Germany, and to them were born three children, Herman, August and Selma. In 1872, our subject purchased the Central House, which he carried on for two years, when he again opened a barber shop, which he conducted until 1881. In that year he returned to his native land, visited his old home and mother, and spent four months in traveling in Germany.
“In February, 1882, Mr. Lauterbach sold his barber shop and bought the Central Hotel, of which he was proprietor until May 1, 1893, when he disposed of that property, and in July following he began the erection of the Columbia Hotel, on the corner of Fourth and Margaret Streets, one block from the Big Four depot and two blocks from the Santa Fe depot. The hotel is 65×52 feet and three stories in height and is a well appointed home.
“Socially he is connected with Joe Hannah (sic) Post No. 115, G. A. R., and is a member of the Druids and the Harugari. In his political views he is a Democrat, and in religious belief he is a Lutheran. A man of pleasant, genial manner, he is well fitted for his chosen work and is winning a well deserved success.”
Supplementing the information in the above sketch, we find that the 1876 Pekin city directory lists Lauterbach as the proprietor of a barbershop at what was then numbered 504 Court St. (today’s 402 Court St.). That was Lauterbach’s second barbershop. The 1887 Pekin city directory also lists Lauterbach as proprietor of Central House hotel at 401 Margaret St. – that was the second time he owned and operated Central House.
William Lauterbach was proprietor of the Columbia Hotel, 101 N. Fourth St., from July of 1893 until the latter 1910s. The 1916 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Pekin shows that his hotel was still named “Columbia Hotel,” but the 1922 Pekin city directory shows that by then he had changed the name of the hotel to the Windsor Hotel. Lauterbach remained the Windsor’s proprietor until the mid-1920s, when he retired and sold the hotel to Carl Hardt. The site of the old Columbia/Windsor Hotel is now occupied by the former Clifton-Strode Insurance building.
Lauterbach’s wife Anna died on 8 Nov. 1922, and he survived her by a little more than four years. His obituary says he died suddenly after being ill for a few days at 2:30 p.m. 27 Jan. 1927 at his home at 314 S. Capitol St. he and Anna are buried together at Lakeside Cemetery. (It should be noted that his obituary gives his wife’s maiden name as Sassmanhausen, not Sassman as the biographical sketch says.)
