The Cyclopædia of American Biography/Hegeler, Edward C.
HEGELER, Edward C., manufacturer and publisher, b. in Bremen, Germany, 13 Sept., 1835; d. in La Salle, Ill., 4 June, 1910, son of Herman Dietrich and Anna Catharine (Von Tungeln) Hegeler. He was educated in the Academy of Schnepfenthal and attended first the Polytechnic Institute at Hanover (1851-53), and then the School of Mines at Freiberg, Saxony (1853-1856). His father, Herman Dietrich Hegeler, of Bremen, originally of Oldenburg, had traveled in the United States and had become so filled with admiration of the country that he cherished a wish that one of his sons should settle in the new world. He selected for this his youngest son, Edward, and had his education mapped out with this purpose in view. In Freiberg, Edward C. Hegeler met F. W. Matthiessen, a fellow student, who became later his partner in the zinc business. Having traveled together on the European continent, and in England, they embarked for America and landed in Boston, Mass., in March, 1857. While looking over the country for a sviitable place to settle, they learned of Friedensville, Pa., where a zinc factory had been built, but it stood idle because the owners had not been able to manufacture the metal. Mr. Matthiessen and Mr. Hegeler, then twenty-one and twenty-two years old, respectively, stepped in, and with the same furnace succeeded in producing spelter, which at that time was pioneer work in America, for hitherto this metal had been imported from Europe. On account of the financial stringency of 1856, which still persisted in 1857, the owners of the Friedensville works refused to put more money into the enterprise, while neither Mr. Hegeler nor Mr. Matthiessen felt justified in risking their own capital, mainly because they had no confidence in the mines which actually gave out eight years later. Having investigated conditions in Pittsburgh and Johnstown, Pa., and also in Southeastern Missouri, Mr. Hegeler and Mr. Matthiessen finally settled in La Salle, Ill., because its coal fields were nearest to the ore supply at Mineral Point, Wis. Here they started the Matthiessen and Hegeler Zinc Works on a small scale. The few employees of the original works grew in a comparatively short time, to upward of one thousand men, and the modest smelting-plant developed into one of the most modernly equipped smelters in the Middle West. In the business career of Mr. Hegeler, capable management, unfaltering enterprise, and a spirit of justice were well-balanced factors, while the establishment in all its departments was carefully systematized in order to avoid needless expenditures of time, material, and labor. The personality of Mr. Hegeler was that of a man of great force of character. What the American legend tells about Washington in the story of the cherry tree applies decidedly to Mr. Hegeler too, that he was “incapable of telling a lie”; and we might add, not even in jest. So he was of an exceptionally serious disposition which is well shown in his strong and thoughtful countenance. No man could be with him long without recognizing his capability of leadership, based upon his superiority of judgment and a great power of initiative. His success in life is due to the combination of two qualities in his character, first the thoroughness with which he investigated from all sides the minutest details of a case when he had to take a stand, and then the insuperable persistence with which he stuck to it until he had achieved the desired result. Modern zinc manufacture is practically still in the shape which he gave to it and the present construction of the roast kiln is his work; only in details have a few improvements been made. While Mr. Hegeler mostly led a retired life and sought neither publicity nor indulged much in social intercourse, he held membership in several organizations, among them the American Society of Mining Engineers, the Press Club, and the Art Institute of Chicago. In February, 1887, Mr. Hegeler founded the Open Court Publishing Company, intended to serve the purpose of discussing the religious and psychological problems of today on the principle that the scientific world-conception should be applied to religion. Mr. Hegeler believed in science, but he wanted to preserve the religious spirit with all its seriousness of endeavor, and in this sense he pleaded for the establishment of a religion of science. He recognized, for instance, that man with all his complicated psychical activity was a mechanism, but to him this truth was not derogatory to man, but an evidence of the great significance of machines. The mechanism of thinking is language, and so the speaking animal becomes the rational being. He maintained that through investigation and scientific criticism, religion must be purified, and the result will be a closer approach to truth on the path of progress. Mr. Hegeler rejected dualism as an unscientific and untenable view and accepted monism upon the basis of exact science, and for the discussion of the more recondite and heavier problems of science and religion he founded a quarterly, “The Monist,” in October, 1890. He visited Germany in 1860 where, on 5 April, he married Camilla Weisbach, the daughter of his admired teacher, Professor Weisbach, of Freiberg, Germany. In July of the same year they settled in La Salle, Ill., where they resided until the end of their lives. Mrs. Hegeler, a woman of rare wifely qualities, was well fitted by her excellent, practical mind to be a helpmate to her husband in his aspirations and ambitions, and caused him — a man to whom the ties of home and friendship were sacred — to find his highest happiness at his own fireside. Mrs. Hegeler died on 28 May, 1908, about two years before the death of Mr. Hegeler himself. Ten children were born to them, of whom three daughters died during his lifetime, and soon after his death one son in mature age. Mr. Hegeler was survived by the following children: Mrs. Marie Hegeler Carus, La Salle, Ill.; Mrs. Camilla Bucherer, Bonn, Germany; Julius W. Hegeler, Danville, Ill.; Mrs. Annie Cole, New York City; Herman Hegeler, Danville, Ill. (d. August, 1913); Baroness Zuleikha Vietinghoff, Berlin, Germany; and Mrs. Olga Lihme, Chicago, Ill.
