Odendahal, J. F.

Submitted by Mike Miller

J. F. Odendahal, a member of the grain and flour firm of Glover & Odendahal, is one of the advanced thinkers in business methods and leading men in the commercial circles of New Orleans, La. He was born in Rostack, on the borders of the North Sea, in the kingdom of Mecklinburg, Germany, in 1840, and came with his parents to America when he was but seven years of age. They located in Fort Wayne, Ind., and here he finished his education, which he had begun in Europe. At the age of nineteen, or in 1859, he entered the grain and milling business in St. Louis, Mo., following that pursuit successfully there until 1867, when he came South and located in New Orleans. Here he opened a grain and flour business with his present partner. The firm of Glover & Odendahal soon became known for their enterprise and reliability and remained unchanged to the present time, 1892. This firm is one of the largest and best known in the South, doing from $6,000,000 to $10,000,000 worth of business annually. They handle grain from the far Northwest and Pacific states and Texas to the southernmost ports of the Gulf of Mexico, which latter places they supply with grain and flour. They sell flour to England and France besides their large sales in various places in the United States. This firm started with a small capital and now do a vast business. Wherever the name of Glover & Odendahal is known it is held in high esteem and respect, and is a familiar one in all the large cities in the United States and many ports of the outside world. Mr. Odendahal married Miss Mary Schuricht of St. Louis, Mo., and this union has been blessed with seven children--four sons and three daughters: Fred H., a practicing physician of New Orleans, was educated in St. Michael's college and graduated from Rush Medical college, Chicago; Loula and Mary (twins); Adolph, in business with his father; Emma; Paul and ------. The entire family are members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Odendahal is one of the leading members of the board of trade and has done much to build it up. He is a thorough American in all his ideas, a genial and accomplished gentleman and takes a prominent part in all social circles. He is essentially a progressive man of the new South. He is very liberal and charitable, giving freely of his means to those in distress and does much for the advancement of the city.

Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 289. Published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.