OHIO — Albrecht Well Drilling Inc. of rural Ohio has been in business in Bureau County for more than 130 years because of some core values.

Harold Albrecht, president of the family-run company, said the business was developed by his parents, Dean and Ann Albrecht with an emphasis on honest growth of assets, continuing education, generational transition planning and selfless sacrifice for the long-term good for the other owners, employees and community.

Albrecht Well Drilling employs 15 full-time people with an accumulated 238 years of service. Harold and Robert are the fourth generation of Albrechts involved in the company with their children being the fifth generation.

“Although it has been a great honor to work in a business with good employees in a great community, it is even a greater honor to have the participation of the next generation of our children and their peers,” he added.

Albrecht also cites the emphasis on continuing education of its employees as one of the company’s strengths and continuing to always learn something whether that be formal training or learn while traveling.

“We have had a wealth of valuable employees for part of our team for generations,” said Harold. “There has been market changes over the years, and we have adjusted to the ever-changing market.”

The immigrant family of Christian Albrecht and Elizabeth Engel settled in Hennepin about 1836. In November of 1837, the family bought some land in Arispie Township in southern Bureau County. Jacob Albrecht, the second child and oldest son in the family of nine children, bought some property near Princeton to raise his family. Jacob Albrecht had two sons named Fred — Fred C. and Fred A., who were half-brothers.

Fred A. Albrecht began “digging” wells as a business in 1880. His sons helped with the well drilling, farming and other interests. Fred’s oldest son, Henry C. Albrecht and his sons (Robert, Paul, John and Dean) worked together in the business as they were growing up.

The company has been conducting business since 1880 and has been located at its current location southwest of Ohio since the 1930s. The business moved where it is today from northwest of Ohio when the family’s land was lost in the Great Depression.

Henry’s third son, John, died as a Naval pilot in Corpus Christi, Texas, about 1943. While John was in Texas, he noticed a new and efficient way in which oil wells were being drilled by using “rotary” drills rather than the methods used by his home area in Illinois. In 1957, Henry Albrecht bought his first rotary drilling rig and continued the business while his family grew up and started their families. His youngest son, Dean, who was Harold and Robert’s father, started working for the company after being discharged from the U.S. Army in the 1950s. Dean and his wife, Ann Parker, were the parents of the company’s current president, Harold Albrecht, and vice president Robert Albrecht.

Harold and Robert Albrecht grew up in the family business and participated with their siblings whenever they weren’t in school. Following graduation from the University of Illinois, the brothers continue to develop the business and adjust to an ever-changing market. Since the mid 1950s, Albrecht Well Drilling has serviced thousands of well systems locally,

Albrecht Well Drilling, which was organized as an Illinois corporation in 1967, has been involved in a variety of drilling projects, including projects in five countries outside of the United States. The scope of the company’s service includes the design, construction and maintenance of water systems for domestic, agriculture, municipal and industrial use.

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