From the "The Village of Harlem: Its People, Homes and Business – 50^th Anniversary Souvenir 1856 to 1906"

In building up a community young men of education and thorough business training, combined with integrity and force, are the back-bone of its making.  Men of this kind often have an obscure beginning, and struggle hard against the odds of life.  Such was the case with Mr. Henry Lueker, who was born in 1874 at Lyon Creek, Dickinson County, Kansas, in a log house.  His father being a Lutheran Minister, al he had to give him were the rudiments of an education and a good home training.  He attended the country English and German school of his native place till he was fourteen years old, when, he entered the Northern Indiana Normal School, which he attended for four terms, graduating in the business course of that institution.  At the age of sixteen, in 1890, desiring to make his own way in life, he came to Chicago, saw an advertisement in a Chicago paper, "Wanted, a delivery boy to work in a grocery store at Harlem".  He answered by calling on Messrs. Buchholz & Roeder, who gave him employment.  By his industry and attention to business he remained there for seven and a half years.  In partnership with a fellow clerk he bought out and conducted the business on his own account at 96 Des Plaines Ave. till 1904 when he built his large and handsome store building which he now occupies at 113 Madison St.  He carries one of the finest and most complete lines of staple and fancy groceries, also flour and feed, etc., to be found anywhere.

"Mr. Lueker is very popular with his trade, his clerks most courteous, and a child is given as much attention in his store as a grown person.  He is a member of St. John's Lutheran Church.  He was married in 1898 to Miss Emma Buchholz, an excellent lady, who is a daughter of one of the oldest families in the vicinity.  They have four children -- Arthur, Silvin, also the twins, brother and sister -- Hilbert and Hildegard."

Numerous sources were used in the compilation of these entries including but not limited to:

• Broadview Golden Jubilee -- 1914 to 1964, Articles by Val Koch, published by the Village of Broadview
• "The Village of Harlem: Its People, Homes and Business – 50^th Anniversary Souvenir 1856 to 1906", provided by Richard Vitton, President of the Historical Society of Forest Park.

Last Modified:  01/09/2003