Anton Klemmer, senior member of the firm of Klemmer & Etter, wholesale and retail dealers in grain, hay and farm productions, Redding, California, is a native of Ohio.  He was born March 29, 1842.  His father and mother, Anton and Catharine (Wigart) Klemmer, both natives of Germany, came to the United States in 1838 and settled in Trenton, Ohio.  A short time afterward they removed to Missouri, and in 1855 came to California.  They settled in Sierra County, and there Mr. Klemmer engaged in mining.  Next, they moved to Long Bar, Yuba County.  They  finally located in Virginia City, where he died in 1875.  His wife survived him five years, her death occurring in 1880.

The subject of this sketch was reared in Missouri until fourteen years of age, when he came with his parents to California.  While a boy he mined with his father, meeting with fair success.  After becoming of age he started in mining for himself at Virginia City, Aurora, Esmeralda, and has since followed mining and store keeping in the different mining towns of Northern California, having a miner's luck--sometimes being successful and at other times "broke".  At Smartville, in 1868, he married Miss Ella Thrush, a native of Virginia.  Soon after their marriage he returned to Grass Valley, where he worked as an engineer one year and lost the most of his wages.  At that time he went to Colusa County, without money but with his wife and four little children, George, Lizy, Lettie and Totte.  For a time he engaged in boring wells and made a success of that.  He then opened a livery business at Princeton, which he conducted for eleven years.  In 1886 he came to Redding, where in connection with his partner, Allen W. Etter, he built the store in which they are now doing business.  He has also purchased lots and built a residence here.  Three other children have been added to their family, -- Fred, Mabel, and Gertrude.

Mr. Klemmer is a wide-awake business man.  In politics he is Democratic.

Transcribed by:  Melody Landon Gregory  August 2004
Source:  Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, Lewis Publishing Co., 1851  pages 757