Among the prominent business men of Anderson are none more worthy of mention than the gentleman whose name heads this biographical sketch. His parents, Theodore and Josephine (Angler) Pleisch, were natives of Switzerland and emigrated to America in 1850, locating in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He also is a native of Switzerland, dating his birth October 7, 1849, and during his parents’ residence in Milwaukee he had the benefit of the public schools. The family moved in 1859 to the State of Indiana, where the mother died. In 1860 the father recruited a company for the war, and received a commission as Captain in the army, commanding Company A, Sixtieth Indiana Infantry, in which capacity he served actively until 1863. While in action before Vicksburg he received a wound which incapacitated him for service, and he was discharged in 1864, but never fully recovered from his injury, and died in 1867.

Our subject has also an army record. He was enlisted in 1861 as a drummer boy in the Sixtieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was engaged in many battles, serving until 1865, when he was discharged. During his term of office the family had moved to Philadelphia. When dismissed from the service he also went to that city and engaged as clerk to E. Stipina & Co., wholesale liquor dealers, leaving their employ in 1868, when he came, via Panama, to San Francisco. Here he remained until the spring of 1869, then went to Sacramento and became engaged in handling stock in the interest of George Leet for two years, and followed the same business two years for Clarke & Cox. In 1872 he commenced stock-raising on his own account, in Lassen County, and was successful in that enterprise until the winter of 1876, when he lost most of his stock by severe weather and want of food. In the spring he sold what remained of his stock, and took charge of fourteen miles of road owned by A. M. Jackson, and known as the Montgomery Creek & Burney toll road, running over the mountain districts of Shasta County. Mr. Pleisch managed this enterprise until 1881, when he purchased ranch property, but sold out the same year and came to Anderson, where he engaged in the real estate business, buying and selling town property the first year. His next enterprise was the building of a large livery and sale stable, and he has since conducted the livery business, having also connected with his stables a large corral for loose stock, and accommodation for teams hauling to and from the mining districts. He is the owner of residence property in Anderson and farm lands near town, and has been connected with several of the public enterprises of this section of the county, being one of the incorporators of the Anderson Canning establishment in 1890.

Mr. Pleisch is a man of family, being joined in marriage at Montgomery Creek, Shasta County, November 1, 1881, with Miss Arabella Bainbridge, a native of California, and daughter of John P. Bainbridge, of Colusa County, who was a pioneer of 1849. Mr. and Mrs. Pleisch have three children, viz.: John T., Eliza and an infant son.

Source: Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler