John C. Koch

Business career

In 1861, at age 20, Koch began working as foreman of the tinshop for the hardware firm John Pritzlaff & Company. While working there, he began courting Elizabeth Pritzlaff, the daughter of the company's founder, John C. Pritzlaff, and they married in 1864. By 1866, Koch was chief clerk and partner in the firm. He ran alongside former U.S. senator John Coit Spooner, the Republican candidate for Governor, but both lost out to incumbent Democrats in the general election. For Koch's race, he fell 6,800 votes short, slightly better than Spooner's 7,600 vote deficit.

The following year, in June 1893, Peter J. Somers resigned as mayor of Milwaukee after he won a special election for United States House of Representatives. City council president Henry Hase served as acting mayor and a special election was called to fill the remaining year of the mayoral term. Koch received the nomination of the Republican Party and prevailed in the general election with a majority of about 3,300, out of about 20,100 votes cast.

Koch took office in the midst of the Panic of 1893, and his term as mayor was largely colored by this economic crisis. Shortly after his election, the Wisconsin Marine & Fire Insurance Company Bank was forced to halt payments, due to lack of funds. The Marine & Fire Insurance Bank was a legendary and well-respected financial institution, opened in 1839 and led in 1893 by U.S. senator John L. Mitchell. The bank's failure was a shock around the country, and was felt most acutely in Milwaukee, where most of the depositors resided. The city of Milwaukee was one of the bank's major creditors, and Koch was able to assist the rescue of bank with an offer to restructure their debt. The bank reopened in January 1894, to much congratulations and celebration.

Koch was seen as a capable and competent leader through the economic panic, and was re-elected to a full two-year term as mayor in 1894. That summer, at the 1894 Republican state convention, Koch was widely supported as a candidate for Governor of Wisconsin, but he ultimately withdrew his name and pledged to serve his full term as Mayor.

Electoral history Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor (1892)

Milwaukee Mayor (1893, 1894)