Johann Esau
Johann Esau (12th of July 1859, Taurida Governorate, Russian Empire – 14th of September 1940, Davis, California, USA) – an industrialist, a mayor of the city of Yekaterinoslav (now – Dnipro, Ukraine), one of the founders of the Riga Russian student fraternity Fraternitas Arctica.
A Mennonite. In 1879 together with his brother Esau graduated from a real school in Yekaterinoslav. In 1880 he enrolled to the mechanical department of Riga Polytechnicum and during his study period was one of the founders of the Russian student fraternity Fraternitas Arctica. Esau graduated from the Polytechnicum in 1884 with the degree of an engineering technologist and immediately went to Sevastopol, where he started working as a locksmith at a ship-yard (he did not inform the management about his degree). He also worked at Baku oil fields.
In 1887 Esau arrived to the Khortytsia (the biggest island on the Dnieper) where he started working as an engineer at the “Lepp & Wallman” company.
On 26th of August 1889 Esau married Margarita Tevs. Four children were born in that marriage: Nikolay (died as an infant), Maria (died as an infant), Paul (later became a teacher at the department of viticulture and wine-growing of the University of California, was a filister of Russian student fraternity Fraternitas Arctica), Yekaterina (later became a well-known botanist, professor, member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA).
After “Lepp & Wallman” company was closed, Esau decided to become an entrepreneur himself and in 1895 opened a small steel plant "I. Y. Esau and Co." (in 2011 - Dnepropetrovsk Harvester Building Plant. Now closed). In 1896 he sold this unprofitable enterprise to the Belgian Joint-Stock Company of Yekaterinoslav Iron and Steel Works. He himself remained there as an employee.
In 1902 Esau was elected as a member of Yekaterinoslav magistrate and left the plant. In 1905 he was elected as a mayor of Yekaterinoslav. Esau significantly improved the city's infrastructure, developed the public transport system by connecting the suburbs with the center of Yekaterinoslav by the new tram lines. Also, built schools. Later, Esau was invited to participate in the mayor elections of Kharkov, however, he resigned due to health problems. He was invited into the mayor's offices of Yalta and Baku, but also resigned in both cases. Esau was planning to connect Yalta and Sevastopol with a rail road, however, the World War I did not allow him to fulfill this idea.
During the war he was a member of the Russian Organization of the Red Cross.
In 1918 Esau was elected as a mayor of Yekaterinoslav for the second time. At the end of the year, together with his family, he moved to Berlin, however, he left behind the city's financial resources and lost all of his luggage.
In 1922 he emigrated to the USA, where he died on 14th of September 1940.
Awards: the Order of St. Stanislaus 3rd class (1906), the Order of St. Anna 3rd class (1911), medal "50th Anniversary of Zemstvo Institutions. 1864-1914" (1914), the Order of St. Vladimir 3rd class (1915).
Sources of information:
https://www.gorod.dp.ua/news/57757
https://enc.rusdeutsch.ru/articles/2455
Archive of Russian student fraternity Fraternitas Arctica.
