Anton Mallmann, who on February 6, last, celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of his birth, is the oldest living Sheboyganer, and his state of health is such that he may reasonably be expected to make considerable progress on his way to the second century mark before he is finally gathered to his fathers.

Mr. Mallmann is still in full possession of all his faculties, altho his eyesight and hearing are of course not as keen as they were half a century ago. His bearing is so sprightly still that he might pass for the youngest instead of the oldest in a group of men within a score of years of his age.

Mr. Mallmann takes long walks daily, rain or shine, and his step is as firm and elastic as it was twenty-five years ago. His mind is a rich storehouse of personal experiences and of incidents of world history running back to the time when Sheboygan was not yet even a speck on any map. He was born in Germany, and he came to America and Sheboygan when already 26 years of age - a man strong and seasoned sufficiently to take up the arduous work which awaited every able-bodied adult here: and he performed his full share of that work in various lines of industry, and which work netted him a comfortable competency, which he is enjoying in his gradually declining years as an honored permanent guest of the Anna M. Reiss Home for the Aged in this city, the founder of which fine institution whose name it bears, but who passed away some years ago, having been a niece of Mr. Mallmann's.

The one hundredth anniversary of Mr. Mallmann's birth, on the above named date, was observed and celebrated in right regal style. The centenarian received, sitting on a veritable floral throne, hundreds of guests in the course of the day, shaking hands and exchanging a few friendly words with each one, and he kept up this receiving during the entire day - an example of physical endurance which most men half his age would fail to match.

Could Mr. Mallmann's impressions and experiences of early Sheboygan be reduced to writing, it would take hundreds of closely printed pages to reproduce them - an amount of space not available in a whole year's issues of The Pioneer. However, it can easily be imagined how interesting the pictures must be which Mr. Mallman can visualize at will - pictures "snapped" from the mature age of 26 years, when a man's faculties are fully developed and experience has made him more thoughtful. Mr. Mallmann came to Sheboygan before the middle of the last century, so that even his adult life has sufficed to span practically the entire period of Sheboygan's growth out of a mere frontier settlement into one of the principal cities of Wisconsin. So, in point of age, Mr. Mallmann might plausibly claim fatherhood of a community as old if not as large as in our city.

Return to the Sheboygan Page

Return to the Newspaper Articles & Index Page