From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 482-483.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


A. G. WINCHER

A. G. Wincher, a leading retailer of boots and shoes at Wheeling, has 
been for fifty years a resident of this city, and is prominent in its 
business circles. He was born at Eckhartsberga, Prussia, June 29, 
1830, one of seven children of Christian and Dorothea (Kobe) Wincher.  
The father and mother and their four children then born, immigrated 
to the United States in 1839, in the spring, and after a voyage of 
forty-five days landed at Baltimore.  Thence they came to Wheeling in 
wagons over the national road, a fourteen days, trip, and here 
Christian Wincher, who was a cooper by trade, endeavored to find 
work, but was compelled for some time to take odd jobs.  Finally 
engaging in his trade, he for years made cooperage quite extensively, 
and sold it all over the adjacent country, on several occasions also, 
making trips with his goods as far as St. Louis.  He and wife were 
members of the German Methodist church, and were highly esteemed. He 
died in 1874, at the age of seventy-two years, and his wife in 1886, 
at the age of seventy-eight.  From, his ninth year A. G. Wincher was 
reared at Wheeling.  His educational advantages were very limited, as 
his parents were too poor then to send him to school and pay the 
expenses, and the school law of Virginia at that time denied the 
privileges of free schools to children of those who possessed a 
trade.  Learning the cooper's trade with his father, he worked with 
him until 1852, when he entered the wholesale grocery store of 
Pollock & Donlon. He remained with one wholesale grocery house or 
another until 1860, when he found employment with the shoe house of 
McClellan & Knox, and remained with that firm and its successors 
until 1885. In the latter year he opened his well-known retail 
establishment at No. 1123 Main street, one of the leading stores of 
the city.  In 1885 Mr. Wincher made a visit to his native land, and 
re-visiting his native town after an absence of forty-six years, was 
able without assistance to find the house in which he was born, and 
recognize many once familiar faces and places.  He spent three months 
in Germany and Switzerland.  Mr. Wincher was married in 1852, to 
Fredericka Beisser, of Monroe county, Ohio, a native of Germany, and 
they have had ten children, five of whom survive.  He and wife are 
members of the German Methodist church.  He is one of the self-made 
men of the city, and his rise to prominence in business, unaided by 
aught save his industry and integrity, have won for him the esteem of 
all. 


(Linda Fluharty)