Louis Ackerman, president of the Ackerman Millinery Company of St. Louis, was born in Villmar, Germany, February 9, 1865. His father, the late Karl Ackerman, was also a native of that country and became a successful merchant there, residing in Germany to the time of his death, which occurred in 1881 when he was sixty-three years of age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Bettie Marx, passed away in 1904 at the age of seventy. They had a family of six children, three sons and three daughters, five of whom are yet living.
Louis Ackerman, the youngest of the family, was educated in Biebrich, Germany, remaining a public school pupil until he started out to earn his own livelihood when seventeen years of age. His first position was with I. B. Rosenthal & Company of St. Louis, for in the meantime he had crossed the Atlantic to the new world. With them he learned all branches of the millinery business. He dates his residence in St. Louis from March, 1882, and from the outset he displayed thoroughness and energy in whatever he undertook, and his capability continued him in the employ of the Rosenthal Millinery Company for fifteen years. He then entered the same line of business on his own account with Shaper Brothers, remaining in that connection for several years. He next rented the millinery department of Penny & Gentles Dry Goods Company and spent five years in that connection. He afterward rented a store at Broadway and Lucas avenue, where he conducted business under the firm name of the L. Ackerman Millinery Company. When the business was incorporated Air. Ackerman became the president and in 1919 the store was removed to the present quarters at No. 511 Washington avenue. Each removal has been caused by the trade having outgrown its quarters and today Mr. Ackerman is at the head of one of the leading high class millinery stores of St. Louis. He is also a director of the Sonnenfeld Millinery Company and is widely recognized as a most progressive business man, possessing in large degree that quality which for want of a better term is called commercial sense.
Mr. Ackerman is a member of Temple Israel. He also belongs to the Columbian Club and the Westwood Country Club, of which he is a director. His life record shows what can be accomplished through individual efforts when one has the will to dare and to do. He came alone to the new world, without capital and without knowledge of the language of the people among whom he was to cast his lot. He has made steady progress through the intervening period, owing to those substantial business qualities which are rated at their full worth in every land and every clime, and today he is a controlling owner of a business of large and gratifying proportions.