MÜLLER Jack

Jack MÜLLER was born on 23 October 1881 in Esch-sur-Alzette. He was the last of the sixteen children of the couple Franz MÜLLER (Eigenthümer, Ackerer) and Marie Mathilde SCHMIT (ohne Stand).
Author Joseph FLIES gives further details of MÜLLER’s biography, such as some of the following:
MÜLLER obtained his baccalaureate certificate at the Athénée of Luxembourg-city in 1900 and decided to go to the USA. He joined his elder sister Marguerite (b. 1859) who was living in Shawnee, Johnson, Kansas, USA. Marguerite was married to Johann Baptist SCHMIEDELER. The couple ran a farm and had twelve children.
In 1902 MÜLLER travelled again to the USA, stayed there for 6 months and returned to Luxembourg. He possibly did not stay with his sister but spent the 6 months in New York.
In 1904 he went back to the USA, leaving from Antwerp on 10 December 1904 and arriving in the USA on 21 December 1904. He declared that his occupation was “faith cure doctor”. He also stated that New York was his destination in the USA.
In 1905 he married Lizzie (Elisabeth Catherine) DEGESS born in the USA. In 1906 the couple’s first son Leonard was born in Kansas. They must have returned to Luxembourg again in 1906/1907 since the second child Noémie was born on 2 July 1907 in Esch-sur-Alzette.
On 13 September 1907 the family of four left Luxembourg for their home in Kansas city, leaving this time from Liverpool. MÜLLER declared that he was an “artist painter”.
The family is listed in the 1910 Census of Plymouth, Kansas in which appears a third child, born in 1909 and named Maximillian.
A local paper reported in 1910 that Jack V. MÜLLER was in the process of constructing an aeroplane and was about to make it fly for the first time.
The project failed. It would appear, however, that in the process of building his airplane MÜLLER invented a novel propeller for which, according to Joseph Flies , he obtained a patent, presumably in the USA. Such patent (N° 2048 of 18 July 1910?) could not be located.
Upon MÜLLER’s next visit to Luxembourg, with his family, he got caught by the outbreak of WW I and he did not return to the USA.
Around 1917 MÜLLER set up a mine for iron ore in Esch-sur-Alzette. He later developed a process for extracting pigments from the iron ore and for which he obtained in 1927 two patents in Luxembourg. This process was put into industrial practice near his home in Esch-sur-Alzette.
MÜLLER’s venture into mining ended in 1934 with bankruptcy. The mining operation and the pigment factory were put up for sale in an auction.
MÜLLER died in 1956 in Esch-sur-Alzette.

FamilySearch database (GCTN-TZ8)