OHIO COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA 
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Tina Hursh 
frog158@juno.com
September 29, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume 111
Pg. 369

John Dieckmann.  At Park View, on the National Road, about 5 miles from the 
center of the City of Wheeling and within the corporate limits of the city, Mr. 
Dieckmann is successfully established in business a s a florist.  Here he has 
maintained his headquarters since 1909, his original business having been 
founded in the City of Wheeling in 1904.  At Park View Mr. Dieckmann purchased 
twenty-five acres of pasture land, and here he has developed one of the largest 
and most modern flower-propagating plants in the state.  In his greenhouses he 
now has 100,000 square feet under glass.  In the supplying of the finest of cut 
flowers and decorative plants for both lawns and homes he has built up a large 
and successful business, and he is a recognized authority in floriculture.  He 
came to Wheeling in 1901, and from the position of employee with a company in 
the floral business he became a stockholder in the company and finally became 
sole owner of the business, he having had a capital of only $500 when he 
intiated his business career in the city.  He now has secure standing as the 
largest and most successful flower-grower in the state, and the development of 
the splendid business has been the result of his technical ability, close 
application and progressive policies.

Mr. Dieckmann was born near Hamburg, Germany, in 1870, and was there reared and 
educated.  There he gained an experience of more than ten years in the nursery 
and floriculture business, and in 1895 he came to the United States and found 
employment at Wadsworth, Ohio, at $1.50 a day.  Later he was laced in charge of 
a leading floral business at Cleveland, Ohio, and he conducted an independent
business at Akron, that state, for two years, saving the little reserve capital 
of $500 with which he initiated his business career at Wheeling, West Virginia. 
He supplies the local florists in Wheeling and other cities of the state, and 
makes shipments also to Steubenville and other places in Ohio.  In the 
activities of the business he retains an average of twenty-one employees.  His 
attractive residence is on the grounds of his fine floral plant, and in the 
basement of the house his business offices are maintained.  Hi is a director in 
the bank at Fulton, and is an elder in St. Marks's Lutheran Church at Elm Grove.

At Wadsworth, Ohio, Mr. Dieckmann married Miss Lucy Pfeiffer, who was born in 
that town, of German parentage.  They have three sons: Ernest John, a 
high-school graduate, is, in 1921 a student of floriculture at Cornell 
University, Ithaca, New York; William Pfeiffer is a student in the Capital 
University at Columbus, Ohio; and Herbert is a member of the class of 1922 in 
Triadelphia Districtt High School of Wheeling.