Gustavus A. Dobler collection

Gustavus A. Dobler was a Maryland State Senator and a paper dealer in Baltimore who was very active in the German community and the Lutheran Church. He was born in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania on October 16, 1839 to Daniel and Christina Barbara Iechle Dobler. He attended school in Pennsylvania and Baltimore, and upon completion of school in 1853, he worked for his father’s paper box company until he moved to Baltimore in 1858. Dobler was employed by paper dealer A. L. Knight, but eventually went into business with Wheelwright, Mudge & Co. His experience with these firms allowed him to open his own business with partner E. T. Mudge. Dobler & Mudge became one of the largest paper firms in the city. The business was located at 113 Hopkins Place.

Dobler married his cousin, Catherine Dobler, daughter of George Dobler on December 17, 1874, after a long courtship. Catherine, also known as Kate, worked as a schoolteacher for most of her adult life until she married Dobler. She died in 1877. He later married Ida Gertrude Gehring, daughter of I. George Gehring. They had three children: Martin Luther, Emma Catherine, and Mary Christina.

Dobler also worked extensively in the Lutheran and German communities. He attended regularly attended the Evangelical Lutheran Church and taught religious school and sung in the church choir. He was also director of the German Orphan Asylum and a member of the German Society of Maryland. He participated in many other civic and church-related groups. He was elected in the Maryland State Senate as a Republican in 1895. He died in 1903.