Otto Zirkle married Johana Schlick's eldest daughter, Emma on Christmas day in 1877.  He was at that time 21 years of age having been born in Dresden November 26, 1856..  I think this was then in the German state of Saxony.  His Father was born  Oct 10, 1841.  He carried the rather princely name of Johann Friedrich Robert Zirkel.  His mother was a Paulina Wilhilmina Frankenstein.  The couple married August 27, 1854.

Young Otto Zirkel immigrated to the United States when he was 14, about 1870.   The record is not clear whether he came alone or if this parents came with him, but he ended up in Chicago with an uncle who was a stone cutter in the monument business.  Otto became an  apprentice of the uncle.  He learned the monument trade in this manner.  Otto moved to Texas sometime before 1877.  I remember Lula (Schlick) Arnold saying that her mother supported her family after her father died by taking in boarders.  Otto might have first been  a boarder in the Schlick household where he met Emma Schlick the eldest daughter and married her at the end of 1877.

Otto Zirkel and Emma had nine children, four girls and five boys..  The Girls were Stella, Lula, Lily and Alice, the boys, Elmer, Otto, Clifton, Raymond and Milton.  Otto Zirkel developed into a successful business man.  The Zirkel Monument Works became the principal manufacturer/vendor of tomb stones in the San Antonio area.   When the boys grew to adults, they went into the business.   Stella married Henry Meier, Lily wed Otto Rossman.  These Sons-in-law also went into the business.  Later in the 1920's after Otto Zirkel died in 1924  spin-off business emerged such as Meier Brothers (Henry Meier and his sons), and Mission Monument Works (Otto Rossmann and his sons).  Together the clan served a significant portion of the tomb stone market in the San Antonio area. through much of the 20th century.  Today  the Zirkel  and Meier Brother's firms are still in the business.

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