1892 Biography - F. Volliman

F. Volliman, of West Monroe, Ouachita parish, La., a native of Prussia, came with his mother to New Orleans in 1849. His first employment was as office-boy in that city, and when he came to choose his life work he became a builder and was employed in contracting and building with much success until the war. At the beginning of the war he enlisted in Company A, of the Fourth Louisiana battalion, and served for a time with the Army of Virginia, later in the Army of Tennessee. At Missionary Ridge he was made a prisoner of war. In 1865 he located in Monroe and was there engaged in contracting and building until 1884, when he embarked in the manufacture of lumber, owning a small mill to which a planer was attached. His investment in this business now reaches the sum of $50,000, and his plant covers about six acres of land. He carries about 1,500,000 feet of lumber in stock and has about 5,000,000 feet of timber in the river. The capacity of his mill is about 30,000 feet per day and his planing mill has a capacity of about 40,000 feet, while his shingle mill turns out about 40,000 shingles per day. He does a large shipping business of cypress lumber and shingles to St. Louis and other Northern cities. Beginning life without capital and without influential friends, he has attained such a position that he is recognized as one of the leading citizens of that part of the state, and itis a source of much gratification to him to reflect that what he possesses was acquired by his own unaided efforts. He was married in 1868 to Miss E. T. Keller, of Monroe, by whom he has two children, the oldest is the wife of Mr. James McGrath, of Monroe, and the other, a son, is employed in the business with his father.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, published in 1892, volume 2, page 437.