Ben Ostermeier received his Bachelor of Arts in Historical Studies from SIUE in May of 2016, and this website was his senior project for his history degree. He received a minor in both Computer Science and Digital Humanities, as well as a German focus. His undergraduate history education concentrated on American history, particularly before the Civil War.

As part of his education, Ostermeier took a class taught by Dr. Robert Paulett devoted to researching William B. Whiteside in 2014. The content of this website began in that class, and at the urging of Dr. Paulett and Dr. Stacy, Ostermeier decided to produce a website out of his research as his senior project, which continued into his 301 class in 2015 and 401 class in 2016.

Ostermeier was also an archives assistant in 2015 and 2016, helping to organize the Eugene B. Redmond collection. He interned for The Wide, Wide World Digital Edition starting in 2014, which he continues to help with in 2017. He also volunteered for the St. Clair County Historical Society in the summers of 2014 and 2015 and was the Social Media Specialist for the Illinois Council for Social Studies in 2014. Finally, in 2013 and 2014, he worked for the SIUE student newspaper, The Alestle, as copy editor, reporter, opinion editor, and online editor.

Ostermeier is now the technical developer for Madison Historical: The Online Encyclopedia and Digital Archive for Madison County, Illinois, an initiative by the SIUE history department and local history organizations.

Ostermeier was born in Belleville and has lived in the Metro East his entire life.