A descendant of a family who played a vital role in the town’s history, spent the last day of what was called a “family pilgrimage,” touring the sites of the businesses founded during the late 19th century by the Hohenberg brothers.
Rudi Scheidt said his great grandfather and great uncle, Adolphe and Morris Hohenberg, founded, the Hohenberg Brothers Cotton Company in the late 1800’s, along with Wetumpka’s, First National Bank.
The brothers are also the namesakes of Wetumpka High School’s, Hohenberg Field.
Scheidt and his wife Caryn live in Aspen, Colorado and were taking a spring-break trip that he said his daughter Rachel orchestrated.
They had visited the important places in the history of the Hohenbergs, and the locations of their different business ventures in the cotton industry.
They had just arrived in Wetumpka Thursday afternoon, from Selma, the site of the Hohenberg brother’s graves.
Their trip spanned three southern states.
“It was my daughter’s spring break from school, we kind of went from Memphis to Natchez, Mississipi,” said Scheidt, “And we did a spring pilgrimage in Natchez, and we spent a day and a half in New Orleans and then we went to Selma and now we’ve come to Wetumpka and now we’re back to Memphis again.”
He said Wetumpka was the last stop in their historic tour, before they went back to Memphis where Scheidt said he was initially from.
He said his business was in Memphis also, where he was on the board of a bank, the managing partner of a hedge fund and chairman of board of a mortgage company.
He commented on the town his ancestors had plaid a role in shaping.
“We were all very impressed with the city, we liked this downtown area,” Scheidt said. “It’s seen a lot of rebirth, a lot of potential in the downtown and it’s really coming back.”
He and his wife Caryn both said in their travels they had passed through some areas that were in decline and Wetumpka stood out.
Scheidt called it vibrant.
“It’s nice to see a city like Wetumpka that’s rebuilding itself and coming back,” said Caryn Scheidt.
He said there was one last stop as they made their way back to Memphis, and that was in Tuscaloosa, and the University of Alabama.
Scheidt said his wife wanted to see where he spent his college years.
