The Biechele Soap Company was a leading business in 19th-century Canton, Ohio. It was created by Charles and Joseph Biechele, part of the successful Biechele Brothers.
Canton is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio, United States. Canton is located approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of Cleveland and 20 miles (32 km) south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and Wayne counties to the city's west and southwest. Canton is the largest municipality in the Canton-Massillon, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Stark and Carroll counties. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 73,007, making Canton eighth among Ohio cities in population.
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Of the fifty states, it is the 34th largest by area, the seventh most populous, and the tenth most densely populated. The state's capital and largest city is Columbus.
Charles, Joseph, Leopold and Gustavus Biechele were born in Endingen am Kaiserstuhl, a small town in southwestern Germany. They immigrated to the United States in the mid-19th century, where Charles began to experiment with soap recipes. When the demand for his soap began on a small scale in 1858, he started a manufacturing plant. His brother Joseph soon joined the business, which continued to grow.
Endingen is a small German town located in southwest Germany, at the border with France. It lies at the northern border of a former volcano area called Kaiserstuhl. The population of Endingen is about 9,000.
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, and the Alps, Lake Constance and the High Rhine to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.
Soap is the term for a salt of a fatty acid or for a variety of cleansing and lubricating products produced from such a substance. Household uses for soaps include washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping, where soaps act as surfactants, emulsifying oils to enable them to be carried away by water. In industry, they are used as thickeners, components of some lubricants, and precursors to catalysts.
Charles started a separate grocery business and left the soap business in Joseph's care. Biechele Soap soon became a national brand, and, at its height, competed with other leading soap manufacturers in Chicago, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Cincinnati.
Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois, as well as the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is the most populous city in the Midwest. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland, and the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States. The metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States.
Philadelphia, known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2018 census-estimated population of 1,584,138. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.
Buffalo is the second largest city in the U.S. state of New York and the largest city in Western New York. As of 2018, the population was 256,304. The city is the county seat of Erie County and a major gateway for commerce and travel across the Canada–United States border, forming part of the bi-national Buffalo Niagara Region.
Joseph became a friend of Ohio governor, and eventual twenty-fifth president of The United States, William McKinley. He attended McKinley's wedding to Ida Saxton, and was a pallbearer at McKinley's funeral when McKinley was assassinated.
William McKinley Jr. was the 25th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his assassination six months into his second term. During his presidency, McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry and kept the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of free silver.
Assassination is the act of killing a prominent person for either political, religious or monetary reasons.
In 1913, Joseph Biechele sold his recipes to what is now known as Hygienic Products Co. He died in 1916 at the age of 80.
