Merchant and railroad promoter Joseph Kleiber (1833-1877), the son of John George and Teresa (Zola) Kleiber, was born in Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine. After immigrating to the United States, he lived in New Orleans before moving to Port Isabel, Texas. In 1856, he married Emma Henrietta Butler, with whom he had five children. Four years later, Kleiber purchased a drugstore in Brownsville and served as a Confederate postmaster there during the Civil War. After Union forces captured Brownsville in 1863, Kleiber and his family relocated to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, where he sold cotton and supplies to the Confederacy. He returned to Brownsville after the war and was employed in the construction the Rio Grande Railroad between Port Isabel and Brownsville. In 1874, Kleiber became a real estate dealer and died three years later in Austin.
Source: Hunter, John H. “Kleiber, Joseph.” Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed July
10, 2011.
A letter book and four typescript copies comprise the Joseph Kleiber Papers, 1860-1877, documenting Kleiber’s business and mercantile affairs. Supply lists and invoices shed light on his drug store in Brownsville, his customers in southern Texas, and his wholesale suppliers in New Orleans. Additionally, letters describe the organization and operation of the Rio Grande Railroad Company.
This collection is open for research use.
Joseph Kleiber Papers, 1860-1877, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s