August Joseph Wenzel (1856-1945) was born in Kingdom of Prussia, Germany, and moved to Seattle in 1888 with his wife Maria and their 8 children. He opened a blacksmith and cooper shop on Pike Street between Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue. Next door to the blacksmith shop he owned a wagon works shop and next to that a meat market. After the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 destroyed these buildings August moved his blacksmith shop to the southwest corner of Pike Street and Seventh Avenue at 1427 Seventh Avenue. When gold was discovered in the Yukon, August became one of the original "Sourdough" miners joining the Klondike Stampede of 1897-1898. He divided his time between Alaska and Seattle for the rest of his life.