Kastor Egloff, a pioneer in the metal industry, was born in Niederrohrdorf in 1820 as the sixth of ten children in a poor family of small farmers. Already at the age of six the parents were relieved to be able to leave the boy in someone else's care!

Kastor was lucky - he was admitted to the Pestalozzi Children's Home Neuhof in Birr. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (born 1746) was seriously ill at the time and lived in Brugg when Kastor joined, where he also died in 1827. His wife Anna had died in 1815.

The grandson of JH Pestalozzi - Gottlieb Pestalozzi and his wife - ran the children's home from around 1825 and noticed that Kastor had great manual skills and encouraged the boy. In addition to all kinds of work, they provided him with a school education. At the age of 16 they found an apprenticeship as a plumber for Kastor in Zurich, which he successfully completed and remained there for six years. Then he moved on to Küsnacht to expand his knowledge. There he met his future wife Barbara Steiger.

At the age of 29, Kastor Egloff returned to Niederrohrdorf to his parents' house, which was still thatched at the time, and founded a company for the manufacture of tin goods, which later became Egloff & Co. A year later he married his Barbara.

After the first difficult years, Kastor and Barbara were able to develop the business and enable many residents of the region to earn a living. In 1877 Kastor invested in a deep-drawing press for the production of gamelles and bed bottles. When it was put into operation, he pulled off his hand as a result of incorrect manipulation and thus plunged into a serious crisis. Soon afterwards, he handed over the company, which had already grown to 50 employees, to his sons Julius (born 1854) and August (born 1857), who continued to run the business successfully. Castor died in 1905 after many low blows and great successes.

Castor and Barbara's marriage had nine children, three of whom died before they were two years old.

As was customary at the time, all the children helped and supported the parents in the household and in the company. “Learning on the job” was more important than going to school at the time. For Kastor, however, it was very important to train his children in practice and theory. There was not enough work in the family business for all of their own children, so that the eldest son Wilhelm (born in 1851) started his own business outside of his father's business at the age of 20. At the age of 23 he married Lina Trost in 1874, the daughter of Joh. Baptist Trost von Oberrohrdorf. A year later, the couple was given their daughter Wilhelmina. The young mother died just a year later in 1876. A severe blow to the Egloff family.

With the help of the families, Wilhelm took courage and founded the company Egloff & Trost, which later became Birchmeier, in Künten am Belliker Mühlenbach in 1876 with his father-in-law. After a few years, Wilhelm left the company and took over a company in Zurich. He also founded another metal goods factory and foundry in Turgi - the later BAG Turgi. In 1935, Wilhelm Egloff, an important entrepreneur, died in his home town of Baden.

*SOURCE: https://www.ortsmuseum-bellikon.ch/de/geschichte-kommt-zu-ihnen