Regenhardt, Edward Franz Herman, contractor, builder, U. S. Marshal and politician, was born at Cape Girardeau, Missouri 24 March, 1867, son of William Regenhardt and Johanna Monkopft Dormeier. His father, a native of Ahlshausen, Brunswick Province, Germany, was a mason and stone contractor. William emigrated from Germany to Cape Girardeau in 1849. He married 1 September, 1853. He served on the Cape City Council from 1 May, 1876 to around 1900. Edward was the seventh of ten children.

The son and subject received his education in Cape Girardeau. He graduated from the Normal School. He moved to St. Louis in 1891 to learn and work at the trade of bricklayer. He married Alvina Theuerkauf (also from Cape) 9 September 1891 at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in St. Louis. They moved back to Cape at the end of 1891.

He began a business career in early 1892. Edward formed a partnership with Charles Bode under the firm mane Regenhardt and Bode, Contractors for Brickwork. Their office was on the second floor over the Burgess Store on Main Street.

From 1892 he was engaged as a contractor and builder, with headquarters at Cape Girardeau. As a contractor his outstanding accomplishment was the academic building of the Southeast Missouri State Teachers' College at Cape Girardeau, admittedly one of the finest educational buildings in the United States. His other work included construction of granitoid pavement walks and curbs for the First National Bank, the Sturdivant Bank, Dr. S.S. Harris' house on Themis Street, and on the Normal School grounds (1897). He built the stone railroad depot in Kennett, MO (1897), the school house in Bonne Terre, MO (1898), a "big business house" in Greenville, MO (1895). He also contracted to build numerous brick residences in Cape, Jackson, and Sikeston. In 1901, he purchased five acres consisting of a barren hill just west of the Normal campus. He started a quarry operation on the site and was soon shipping large blocks of marble to Mephan and Kline in St. Louis. Soon after, the Normal School Regents contracted with Mr. Regenhardt to build the new science hall just northeast of the main building out of the quarried marble. After fire destroyed the old Normal, the Regents gave the contract to Mr. Regenhardt to erect a Practice Hall (now the Home Ec building), same size as the science hall, 114 X 67 and 3 stories high. In 1903 he was awarded the contract to build the new Academic Hall fronting 230 feet by 197 feet in depth and 3 stories high, for a bid of $174,840.

Six feet, seven inches in height, built in a heroic mould, and weighing in excess of 275 pounds, Mr. Regenhardt was described by his close friend, President Taft, as "the lighthouse on the Mississippi". As a Republican politician his fame was nation-wide. He was a familiar figure at Republican Conventions. He was the acknowledged leader of his party in his section of Missouri. In 1910 President Taft made him U.S. Marshal for the eastern district of Missouri, with headquarters in St. Louis, and he held the post for four years. He had been delegate to the Republican national convention of 1908 and to other national and many state and county and congressional conventions. In 1920 he managed the campaign of Dwight F. Davis (afterwards Secretary of War) for the U.S. Senate.

He was regarded as one of southeastern Missouri's foremost citizens. He not only managed his own great business interests successfully, but he found ample time to serve the community, the state and the nation. It is paying proper tribute to his worth and work to say that he was a fine American gentleman. He was a good citizen, a valued friend and a delightful companion. He numbered his intimates by the score, and they extended from no less than three Republican presidents to the Democratic Mayor William J. Gaynor of New York City. He was a close student of political economy and of world affairs. His influence in his home community was at all times constructive and in the interest of the public welfare. He was married 9 September 1891 to Alvina Theuerkauf, daughter of William Theuerkauf, a baker, of Cape Girardeau. She survives him. They had five children: Norma Heomine, Bertha Emma (died age 3), William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Edward William Taft Regenhardt. He died at Cape Girardeau 12 May 1926.