The gypsum millers in the Rotz gorge

In 1823 (Josef) Anton Mariä Scheuber bought the gypsum mill in the Betti at Ennetmoos, one of the oldest trades in Nidwalden. Gypsum from Ennetmoos went into the parish church of Stans, the abbey church of Einsiedeln and the Nidwalden town hall. The raw rock, however, had to be hauled laboriously from the Mehlbach alp behind the Stanserhorn.

He committed himself to 1,000 guilders for a road down the Rotz gorge to the lake and overreached: in 1828 he went bankrupt with debts of 6,751 guilders. On three council days the cantonal council made him stand for half an hour on the fish scale in the Stans village square, wearing the green bankrupt’s hat, with a note of his debt around his neck. He was also banned from the inns and from political assemblies.

His son Josef Mariä turned the neighbouring Löchli mill at the entrance of the Rotz gorge into a small factory. In winter up to 25 ox teams at a time brought the rock down from the Stanserhorn. In 1883 his gypsum won a diploma at the Zurich exhibition, and shortly before his death in 1894 he also bought back the Betti mill.

His sons ran the business as «Gebr. Scheuber, Ennetmoos bei Stans» and won a silver medal at the 1896 national exhibition in Geneva. In 1903 they brought the Löchli mill into the newly founded Gips-Union in exchange for shares. In 1929, traded for the Mehlbach alp, the Betti came into Scheuber hands for the third time.

Source: Peter Steiner, «Notes on the family history», in the Book of the Scheuber.