Hauser, Jacob 1845 - 1931 | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

Hauser, Jacob 1845 - 1931

Hauser, Jacob 1845 - 1931 | Wisconsin Historical Society

missionary, b. Wurttemberg, Germany. He migrated to the U.S. with his mother and sisters (1852), the family settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied at the Reformed (German) Church Mission House, Franklin, Wis., was ordained (1873), and was missionary in India for the German Evangelical Mission Society (1873-1876). Returning to Wisconsin in 1876, he served as pastor at Mosel, Sheboygan County (1876-1878). In 1878 he was appointed missionary among the Winnebago Indians near Black River Falls, and served in this capacity until 1885. Teaching and preaching with the aid of an interpreter, he gained the lasting friendship of the Winnebagos and collected a vocabulary of about 1,500 words of their previously unwritten language. Although no Christian conversions resulted until more than 12 years after his departure, Hauser's work laid the foundation for establishing the Black River Falls Indian Mission and the Neillsville Indian School. In 1885 he left Wisconsin, and from 1885 to 1915 held pastorates in Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota, and Iowa. He retired in 1915 and lived in Melbourne, Iowa, until his death. T. P. Bolliger, Wis. Winnebago Indians and the ... Reformed Church (Cleveland, 1922); A. V. Casselman, Winnebago Finds a Friend (2nd ed., Philadelphia, 1944).

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

Learn More

Explore more than 1,600 people, places and events in Wisconsin history.

[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]