Like many German-Jewish immigrants to the New World, William Loeb came from the Rhineland region of western Germany -- an area know for its agriculture and particularly its wine production, and a region that had been under Napoleonic occupation between 1794 and 1814.

William's father Jakob Loeb was born in 1801 in Bechtheim, and prospered as a wine merchant and real estate owner. He and his wife Ester had nine children, of whom only four survived infancy. William was born in Bechtheim on February 28, 1843. Emigration to the United States was increasing rapidly in the mid-nineteenth century, due both to economic and political reasons stemming from the failed 1848 revolution in the German states. William's father began to arrange the family's affairs so as to make possible a secure future in the U.S. The eldest son Adolph emigrated to Chicago in 1853, and became his father's legal agent in America. William followed in the summer of 1859.

The Civil War intervened in William's new life in the U.S. He was one of the 96 recruits from Chicago's Jewish community who joined Company C of the 82nd Illinois on August 14, 1862. He was immediately elected First Sergeant of the Company, and must have thrived on military life. He was appointed Second Lieutenant of the Company on May 28, 1863 just after the regiment's first battle at Chancellorsville, and was promoted again to First Lieutenant after Gettysburg, in August 1863. He also served as Regimental Adjutant during the Atlanta and Carolina Campaigns. He was present in all the battles in which the 82nd fought, and mustered out with the survivors of the regiment in June 1865.

Loeb may well have had a hot temper, and this contributed to his one brush with military justice. In December 1864, while in camp at Savannah, Georgia after having completed Sherman's March to the Sea, Loeb had a fistfight with Captain Rudolph Mueller (see photo and information on the homepage of this site.) The fight concerned whether or not Loeb, as regimental adjutant, had ordered Mueller to be ready with a foraging party at a specific time. Mueller was not ready at the specified time, and the two officers exchanged insults and then fought. Both were court-martialed. Loeb was found guilty of "conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline" and was sentenced to be dishonorably discharged, but the sentence was annulled by higher authority because of his own and his regiment's excellent combat records (the records of the two courts-martial can be found in the National Archives in Washington.) Mueller was acquited, largely because he responded to Loeb calling him a liar, and because as a superior officer it was not a court-martial offense for him to strike Loeb. In a surviving letter, Mueller wrote sarcastically that:

"...I find myself for the last three days in chains and shackles. In the presence of 4-5 officers and an armed foraging party under my command, I slapped the impertinent fellow Loeb across the face because he accused me of lying. As a result, the now slumbering but revenge-filled lion and I are without sabres. I resigned immediately, but then rescinded my resignation, determined to await the verdict of a court-martial...I consulted the president of the last court-martial who told me that in the face of such an insult he would have done the same as I have and that, at the most, I could be reprimanded for breach of good order and discipline."

William Loeb's luck in surviving the bloody experience of Civil War made possible a remarkable family line. In 1872, William married another German-Jewish immigrant to Chicago named Emma Mannheimer. Together they had seven children, but Emma died at the young age of 35, leaving William and his eldest daughter Esther to manage their household. Esther had a 30-year association with the Hull House under Jane Addams, as did her younger sister Hedwig. Esther continued fighting for childrens' causes and against child labor all her life. A grandson, Edwin, fought with Merrill's Marauders in Burma during World War II and later became the head of the ACLU in Illinois. A cousin, John Grunsfeld (great grandson of William's brother Moritz) is an astronaut with the Space Shuttle program and has had two flights in space. Others in the family are well-know academics (including the present Dean of the Woodrow Wilson Center at Princeton University), lawyers, songwriters, geologists, engineers, and medical professionals.