Moellering Construction Company

The firm dated itself to 1853 – documented to 1977

Founded: The firm's own history, printed in 1919 from C. E. Moellering's account: "The original Moellering started the business in 1853; his son, the present head of the concern, took hold in 1886 — and he has two fine boys to keep it agoing." The Moellering family's building trades in Fort Wayne are independently documented earlier: William M. Moellering and William H. F. Moellering's brick companies were among the five brick firms active in the city in 1865, and the Moellering brickyard was a large operation spread over the area south of Rudisill Boulevard. (William L. Moellering, the Home Telephone and Telegraph Company's president carried in the Businesses section, is a different member of the family; this is the construction firm's own record.)

What it did: General contracting, with street paving and surfacing a speciality in its documented years, and quarrying later.

Course: The Fort Wayne Sentinel of 2 July 1910 reported Moellering Construction beginning street-surfacing work, and on 19 May 1911 the firm winning city paving bids, including Creighton Avenue and Euclid Avenue work. The 1911 Home Telephone directory lists "MOELLERING CONSTRUCTION CO Contractors." The 1923 Polk directory gives the firm at 231–241 Murray Street: C. E. Moellering, president and treasurer; H. A. Gerberding, vice-president; E. H. Moellering, secretary. In January 1951 Civil Engineering magazine noted the company operating a stone quarry at Kentland, Indiana. The firm was still taking city work in 1977, when Fort Wayne Ordinance S-77-04-12 approved a change order on Moellering Construction Company's contract for the Senior Citizen Center plaza (original contract $113,510 under Ordinance S-23-77).

Fate: No record of the firm's end has been found in the sources searched; its documented course runs from its own 1853 dating to the 1977 city contract.

Sources:

1. Printer's Ink, 17 April 1919 — the firm's history as told by C. E. Moellering (1853 origin, the 1886 succession).
2. Fort Wayne Sentinel, 2 July 1910 and 19 May 1911 — street-surfacing work and paving bids.
3. Home Telephone directory, 1911; R. L. Polk, Fort Wayne city directory, 1923 — listings and officers.
4. Civil Engineering, January 1951 — the Kentland quarry. City of Fort Wayne Ordinance S-77-04-12 (1977) — the Senior Citizen Center plaza contract.
5. History Center information on Fort Wayne's brick companies of 1865, via the ACGSI Allen County place pages — the family brickyard background.