William Ziegler

William Ziegler Sr. (September 1, 1843 - May 25, 1905) was an American industrialist who was one of the founders of the Royal Baking Powder Company. He ended up suing his partners. His other interests were organizing Arctic expeditions and yachting. Biography He was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, of German parents. His father, Francis Ziegler, died in 1846, and in 1848 his mother, Ernestine Ziegler, married Conrad Brandt. The family moved to Muscatine, Iowa, where his stepfather had a farm. He was educated in the public schools there and became a printer's apprentice in a newspaper office. He later became a clerk in a drug store and studied telegraphy and chemistry. In 1862, he enrolled in the Eastman Business School in Poughkeepsie, New York. After he completed his course there, he went to New York City where he worked for a wholesale drug and chemical company from 1863 to 1868. At the same time he took a course at the College of Pharmacy. Royal Baking Powder In 1866 Joseph Christoffel Hoagland, his brother Cornelius Nevius Hoagland and Thomas Biddle organized the Royal Chemical Company, which later became the Royal Baking Powder Company. In 1868 they moved to New York, where John H. Seal and William Ziegler became agents of the company and later shareholders. In 1888 Ziegler sold his shares for $4,000,000. With the proceeds of the sale he bought the Price Baking Powder Company of Chicago and the Tartar Chemical Company in Jersey City, New Jersey. On March 2, 1899, he combined the three major baking powder companies, Dr. Price (Ziegler), Royal (Joseph Hoagland) and Cleveland (Cornelius Nevius Hoagland), into the Royal Baking Powder Corporation of New Jersey.