People

William B Mueller

William B. Mueller (born March 8, 1868, Chicago, Illinois) was a merchant in Dundee, Illinois during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He came to Dundee with his parents in 1875 and spent the better part of his adult life building a career in the village's retail trade. By the early 1900s he had risen from store clerk to business partner, and his firm was among the established mercantile concerns in the community. (Source: *Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County* (1904))

Known Activities

Mueller entered the mercantile trade in 1884, at the age of sixteen, taking a position as a clerk at Schroeder & Ruse in Dundee. He remained in that capacity for approximately four years. In 1891 he became a partner in the E. C. Hawley Company. By 1903 the firm had been reorganized under a new name, Schultz, Mueller & Co., suggesting changes in partnership arrangements over the intervening years. The precise nature of the goods sold or the scale of the business is not recorded in available sources. (Source: Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County (1904))

On August 4, 1890, Mueller married Emma Lemke, a native of Dundee. (Source: Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County (1904))

Timeline

Year	Event
1868	Born March 8 in Chicago, Illinois
1875	Came to Dundee, Illinois with his parents
1884	Began mercantile career as a clerk at Schroeder & Ruse, Dundee
c. 1888	Concluded employment at Schroeder & Ruse (after approximately four years)
1890	Married Emma Lemke of Dundee on August 4
1891	Became partner in the E. C. Hawley Company, Dundee
c. 1903	Partnership reorganized as Schultz, Mueller & Co.

## Sources

Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Kane County (1904). Available at: https://archive.org/details/historicalencycl00unse#offset-4937773