- ROBERT AMOS ZWICKER, president of the Saxony Knitting Works of Appleton, Wisconsin, one of the largest concerns of its kind in Northern Wisconsin, is one of the self-made men of Outagamie county, and has won his present prominence in the business world through the sheer force of his own industry and business ability. Mr. Zwicker was born in Saxony, Germany, November 22, 1857, and is a son of Robert and Amelia (Roeder) Zwicker, both of whom spent their lives in the Fatherland. In his native country, Mr. Zwicker learned the trades of knitting and machinist, and while engaged in the former occupation traveled in practically every country in Europe, his work winning the gold medal for his employers at Vienna, in 1873. He made probably the first sweater ever manufactured, this article then being known as a jacket. On first coming to the United States, he remained in Milwaukee for a short time, and then took up a homestead in Ashland county, where he cleared land and engaged in farming for three years, and later made fence posts and burned charcoal, as well as engaging in other lines of occupation in order to earn enough money to send for his family. A slump in the market, at a time when Mr. Zwicker was just beginning to prosper, found him with fourteen cars of fence posts and seven cords of wood on his hands that he was unable to sell, and he was forced out of business. Nothing daunted, however, he went to Sheboygan, where he remained six months, earning $1.50 per day at knitting shawls and jackets, and was enabled to send for his family in Germany and have $50 left. With this amount, in 1886, he settled in Milwaukee, where he later became superintendent for the Jonas Block Knitting Company, and in 1888 went to Cleveland, Ohio, being superintendent of the Central Knitting Company for seventeen years, when his health failed and he was compelled to go to Colorado. Later he went to Oregon, where he regained his health, residing on a farm for two years, and again went to Cleveland, where he remained until 1905, in which year he came to Appleton for the Crescent Knitting Company, which was sold in 1907. At this time, Mr. Zwicker decided to enter the business himself, and the Saxony Knitting Works were organized, with Robert Amos Zwicker, president; Arthur Zwicker, vice-president, and Otto H. Schultz, secretary and treasurer. The firm manufactures gloves, mittens, ladies' and gentlemen's sweater coats, shawls, fascinators, neckties and mufflers, under the well known trade-mark of "Sax-o-nit." The firm employs from forty to fifty men, and its goods find a ready sale among the large jobbing concerns, which have been handling the product since the company started with ten machines. The company was incorporated in 1910 with the same officers.
Mr. and Mrs. Zwicker were married in Germany, and ten children were born to them, of whom four are deceased, the survivors being: Emma, who married a Mr. Kemmon, of Plymouth, Wisconsin; and Arthur, Ella, Walter, Fred and Dewey.
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1857 - 1933 (76 years)
Occupation
