Conspicuous among early Sheboygan businessmen was the subject of this sketch. He was born in Arnstadt, Thuringia, Germany, on April 18, 1824, and passed away in Sheboygan in 1887. He came to America in 1850, after having learned the trade of mason, serving two years in the German army and working on various public building jobs in his native country, including construction of the magnificent castle of the grand duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

The first two years after his coming to America (1850-52) lived First in Buffalo and later in New Orleans, and then he came to Sheboygan, where he soon formed a partnership with Frank Schwartz, doing a general contracting and building business, and during the time they worked together they erected a number of prominent buildings, including the David Taylor residence on the Upper Falls road, which now temporarily serves as our county jail. In 1854 they built the second ward school, and later also other well known buildings.

One day in 1854, in quest of game, Mr. Roth discovered lime rock in the vicinity north of Sheboygan, and he soon thereafter acquired ten acres of the land on which this kind of rock was found, and this purchase made of the Sheboygan Lime company a reality, its now delivering its products to many parts of our country.

In the earlier days of Mr. Roth's lime-manufacturing activities he did not devote his entire time to that business, and he continued the building business as well, which ended when he met with a serious accident while constructing the Otten building, he quitting the building business and engaging in a mercantile pursuit for three years, after which he devoted his entire time to the development of his lime works, to which he added forty acres of lime-bearing land.

Mr. Roth always manifested interest in public affairs. He was through two terms treasurer of our city, and he was once an alderman from the eighth (now third) ward. He also served once as a supervisor, and in 1853 he helped organize a rifle company, of which he later was elected captain.

Mr. Roth's passing out, in 1887, marked the close of an honorable career, during which he accomplished much good in the interest of his fellow citizens, not only encouraging public enterprise and by the building of houses, but also in fostering and bringing to happy fruition a material enterprise, manufacture of lime, through which Sheboygan's fame as a city of exceptional industrial diversification has become established.

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