C. Wegefarth

Conrad Wegefarth was a German-American oil refiner and prospector who helped forge the market for coal oil in Europe. Wegefarth County, Texas, was named after him, and he was the father of Harry M. Wegeforth, founder of the Zoological Society of San Diego and San Diego Zoo.

Biography A court stenographer in southwest Germany, Wegefarth traveled over 300 miles on foot through winter snow to stowaway on a ship bound for the United States. Arriving in Baltimore, he traveled by foot to Pittsburgh, where he took a job as a clerk in a dry goods store. Wegefarth served as president of the Texas Immigrant Aid and Supply Company, and Wegefarth County, Texas, which was established on June 2, 1873, was named after him (the county was abolished August 21, 1876 by an act of the Texas Legislature which established new counties across the Texas panhandle). He gambled heavily in oil development, and was bankrupt by 1873. There, Harry changed the spelling of the family name to Wegeforth and went on to found the Zoological Society of San Diego and San Diego Zoo in 1916. Emma also moved to San Diego, to work as Harry's medical secretary.