Koch Industries (and the Family) - Part 1

My sister's mother-in-law asked me Wednesday night why I dislike the Koch brothers and their business empire so much.  My response, finally, was that the family keeps the majority of it's machinations in business and politics behind closed doors and under a myriad of named groups that don't seem connected, unless one does research and "connects the dots."  I was putting off writing about the Koch brothers and their united Industries until I had done more research - because the deeper I dig, the uglier things appear to me - until I received a request of a political donation of $5 from a state candidate.  The accompanying letter stated that the group known as "Americans for Prosperity" has already spent more than $8 million in advertisements against this female candidate.  And who started the group named "Americans for Prosperity", and who dictates their stands on political and environmental details?  The Koch brothers - Charles Koch, the Chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, and his younger brother (a twin), David H. Koch, who is the Executive Vice President of the company.  It's a privately owned company that made a profit of $115 billion in 2012.
  How did they arrive at such power and wealth?  Back in 1888, a Dutch immigrant from Friesland, arrived in the United States on the New Holland ship line.  He had spent a year in The Hague, and in Germany, as an apprentice printer.  He didn't like Chicago, Illinois and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan; he didn't like Grand Rapids, either. Areas of east Texas were seeking settlers, and they advertised that there were several Dutch-type towns that would welcome industrious people from Holland.  Because of of the humidity of East Texas, Hotze Koch moved west to Quanah, Texas, where he was employed as a type-setter for one of three local newspapers.  He met the "love of his life," a Texas farmer's daughter, Margaret B. (Mattie) Mixson, and married her.  Hotze Koch became a Naturalized US citizen, taking the name of Harry Koch.
  Harry Koch worked hard, and bought one of the newspapers in Quanah, Texas. Then he bought a second paper, and was able to squeeze the third newspaper out of business.  He was now the proud owner of The Quanah Tribune-Chief; and he became the founding share-holder of a new railroad line, the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railroad.  It's a wonderful story of a hard-working immigrant coming to the United States of America, and making his fortune - a true capitalist's dream.  But, wait just a minute.  Hotze was the second son of a medical doctor, whose father had married the daughter of a town Mayor.  Hotze's mother died giving birth to her eighth child; and, soon after, his father, Dr. Koch, with five living youngsters, married the only daughter of a well-to-do banker.  Somehow, I think that Hotze had some financial backing from his family in the Netherlands.
  In politics, Harry seemed to waver between conservative Republican and libertarianism. He wrote snappy editorials opposed to both the election and Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was totally against FDR's New Deal.  Harry was especially voracious in his editorials against the creation of Social Security, bank regulation, retirement pensions and worker's rights (he absolutely hated the thought of a Union).  Harry was born in 1867, and came to the US at the age of 21.  He passed away in 1942; he and Mattie had produced two sons, John Anton and Fred Chase Koch.  Anton worked in his father's newspaper business.  Fred attended Rice Institute and MIT.  He became a chemical engineer and the founder of Koch Industries.
  More about the Koch family and Koch Industries will come....