From "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and 
Representative Citizens," by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902. 

Typed by Laurie Birks Dean

p. 451-452

C. A. SCHAEFER.  A business free from competition, not only because 
there is no similar undertaking in Wheeling, but because of its 
splendid management and diversified utility, is the real estate, 
steamship, consular correspondence, and general tourist and notary 
enterprise, conducted by C. A. Schaefer, under the firm name of C. A. 
Schaefer & Company.  A native of the vicinity of Saginaw, Michigan, 
Mr. Schaefer was born in 1846, and is a son of George M. Schaefer, 
who was born in Bavaria, Germany.  The elder Schaefer was a farmer 
during his active life, and a part of his prominence in Saginaw 
county was due to his stanch support of the Democratic party, in the 
interest of which he held many offices of responsibility and trust.  
He died March 13, 1901, at the age of eighty-four years, but is 
survived by his widow and several children.  At the age of seventy-
two years, the mother still lives on the old homestead in Michigan.
	Decidedly pioneer conditions are suggested by the earliest 
educational training received by C. A. Schaefer, who used to go to 
schools taught by the missionaries among the Indians in Isabella 
county, Michigan.  He later entered the college at Fort Wayne, 
Indiana,, and in 1868 went to the university at Erlangen, Bavaria, 
and remained until the breaking out of the Franco-Prussian War, in 
1870.  After a short sojourn at the home of his childhood, near 
Saginaw, he came to Wheeling in 1871, and has since been an integral 
part of the city's intellectual and material prosperity.  He spent 
the year in 1871 in teaching in Zion's school.  From 1872 to 1877 he 
was superintendent of the German department in the Wheeling public 
schools, and from 1877 until the present time he has been engaged as 
above describe.  From a comparatively small beginning in 1877, the 
interests to which he is now devoted have assumed their present 
proportions, the original location remaining unchanged, save that it 
was formerly diagonally across the street in Schnepf's drug store, on 
the corner of Fourteenth and Market streets.  A most complete tourist 
bureau is by no means the least feature of the business, and most 
complete information is furnished regarding matters of interest to 
travelers in any part of the world.  Tourists' excursions are 
planned, the most desirable routes mapped out, the approximate cost 
is given and tickets furnished.  The company has the agency for all 
the transatlantic liners, and accommodations may be secured both ways 
for individuals or families.  A specialty is made of correspondence 
between consuls located in the various cities of the world, 
principally those residing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and 
in this connection the collection of inheritances forms no small 
part.  Mr. Schaefer is invested with the power of attorney, and a 
large amount of real estate transactions, both in foreign countries 
and America, passes through his hands.  He is additionally interested 
in the Standard Fire Insurance Company of Wheeling, of which he is 
vice-president.
	To an unusual degree Mr. Schaefer has improved his 
opportunities, and his business successes have been supplemented by 
extended researches in the realms of literature, inspired by a keen 
appreciation of the broad and lasting things of life.  A master of 
the German as well as the English language, his fine private library 
contains the best products of the great minds of both countries, and 
his facilities for imparting as well as absorbing information are 
generously placed at the disposal of such as may profit by the 
privilege.  It is in the countrymen who claim the nationality of his 
father that he takes most emphatic and kindly interest, and he is 
particularly active in teaching them the history of their adopted 
country and placing them in touch with its enterprise and manifold 
advantages.  He is, therefore, one of the truest benefactors of 
Wheeling, and most loyal to her social and material advancement.  He 
is one of the originators of the Arion Association, and is one of its 
directors.  He has taken the thirty-second degree in Masonry, and is 
also affiliated with the Scottish Rites organizations and the 
Shriners.  politically, Mr. Schaefer is a Democrat, with independent 
inclinations, and during President Cleveland's administration served 
as surveyor of the port of Wheeling for four years.  He is unmarried, 
and has for many years lived at No. 44 Fifteenth street.