John Henry Raap
German businessman
John Henry Raap (August 1, 1840 – April 23, 1897) was an entrepreneur and wholesale liquor retailer in Chicago in the 19th century.
Early life and career
John Henry Raap was born August 1, 1840, in Lüdingworth, Kingdom of Hanover, to Ernst Raap and Catharina M. (Cords) Raap. The Raap family moved to America in 1854, settling in Chicago in a house on Cornell Street near Ashland Avenue. John Henry also had a sister named Minnie Dilcher. He had been confirmed in the German Lutheran Church, and remained an adherent of that faith. He learned to speak English fluently, and after arriving in Chicago he began working in a brick yard while attending a night school to prepare for a business career.
Raap's first business venture, in 1859 at the age of 18, was a grocery store at the corner of Pratt Street and Milwaukee Avenue. He opened this business with a capital of only $50, and sold out at a considerable profit at the end of two years. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Raap enlisted in the volunteer service in Company A, under Captain Molotzy, and was sent to Cairo with seventeen other companies; these were the first troops raised in Chicago. At the expiration of seven months from date of enlistment Raap was mustered out of service, in consequence of continued ill health.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Henry Raap” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.