The above photograph depicts Wilmer Brown Ziegler, Sr. The name Ziegler is frequently misspelled Zeigler as it is on the back of the photograph. I believe the Wilmer Ziegler in the photograph is Wilmer Brown Ziegler because Pottstown is centrally located to where Wilmer Brown Ziegler spent his life among a flourishing Ziegler clan, because I can find no other suitable Wilmers, and because Wilmer Brown Ziegler’s WWI draft registration card describes his hair as light-colored. The style of the “stamp box” on the back of the photograph indicates it was produced using Kodak Professional AZO Paper between 1904-1918. Go here and here to learn more about identifying Real Photograph Postcards, also known as RPPCs. I could find no information about the Alamo Studio, 208 High Street, Pottstown, PA.

Wilmer (1894-1987) was the son of John Conner Ziegler (1867-1954) and Sarah Ann Brown (1868-1934). The Ziegler genealogist is fortunate if she is aware that Wilmer’s grandfather, Daniel Peiffer Ziegler (1823-1908) assisted Jesse Ziegler in publishing The Ziegler Family Record in 1906 (download: here or here). The story begins with Philip Ziegler who was born in Bern, Switzerland in 1734, died in Berks County, PA in 1803, and is buried in Rehresburg Mennonite Cemetery (findagrave.com memorial #48047687).

Wilmer married Sadie S. Hibshman on 22 April 1916 in Frystown, PA. The couple produced three children. At the time of their 50th wedding anniversary in 1966 they had ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. They farmed in the vicinity of Bethel, PA before moving to a house on Oak Street in Palmyra, PA where they lived until they sold the house in 1973. Wilmer retired from the Hershey Chocolate Corporation which still has distribution center in Palmyra. Sadie was a prominent leader of the Society of Farm Women, a civic organization founded by Flora Black in 1914. They were members of the Church of the Brethren.

I purchased the photograph at an antique store in the Baltimore neighborhood of Hampden.