History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I, Part 42

Author: Mitchell, William Bell, 1843-
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : H. S. Cooper
Number of Pages: 964

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John M. Rosenberger, one of the best known of the early settlers of St. Cloud, was born in Cumberland, Maryland, October 15, 1842, son of Balthasar and Elizabeth (Roth) Rosenberger, the former of whom was born February 7, 1811, and died April 23, 1892, and the latter of whom was born January 2, 1811, and died July 4, 1883. The family arrived in St. Cloud in the spring of 1856. John M., then fourteen years of age, secured employment with John W. Tenvoorde, a leading merchant. Later he started work for Joseph Edel- brick, merchant and postmaster. In 1860 he purchased a book store and news- stand from a Mr. Abeles. In the meantime, the father, Balthasar Rosenberger, and the brother, Henry J. Rosenberger, had engaged in the hardware busi- ness. It was about 1868 when the father retired and John M. and Henry J. formed the company of Rosenberger Brothers, hardware dealers. At one time this concern was the strongest in the city. The brothers erected a store on the corner now occupied by C. F. Ladner, and there did a large business. In 1878 they started a foundry known as the Vulcan Iron Works. The fol- lowing year, the name was changed to the Rosenberger Manufacturing Co. In 1880 John P. Hammerel and Nicola Weber were admitted to the firm, and the name became Rosenberger, Hammerel & Weber. In 1881, the Rosen- bergers again became the sole owners, and the name of Rosenberger Manu- facturing Co. was once more resumed. This company manufactured the North Star seeders and the Cornelius Stump puller, and did a large business. In 1884 the hardware business was sold to Valentine Batz. In 1886 the Rosen- bergers consolidated with the Phoenix Iron Works of Minneapolis, and de- cided to engage in the manufacture of flour milling machinery. They erected a large brick building on the flat near the dam, and for a while business flour- ished. The plant was later moved to North St. Paul. It proved a financial failure, and the Rosenbergers lost the savings of many years. In 1872, John M. Rosenberger sat in the lower house of the Minnesota legislature. He was elected city treasurer in 1868 and with the exception of a dozen or so years held that office until his death. For twenty-three years he was a volunteer fireman as a member of the Little Giant Engine Co. For several years he was secretary of the St. Cloud Building Association. At the time of his death he was bookkeeper for the St. Cloud Iron Works. He was secretary of the Old Settlers Association of St. Cloud from the time of its organization, and also a member of the St. Joseph Society from the time of its beginning. Mr. Rosenberger died April 8, 1903. Press and public united in their expressions of sorrow, and it was said that no one in the county had more friends than he.

He was of kindly, genial disposition, and a gentleman by instinct. Mr. Rosenberger married Anna Lieser, and they had four children, George (died in infancy), Joseph B., Mary E. and Matilda. Joseph B. is an iron manufac- turer of St. Cloud. Mary E. is the widow of John Renz, a teacher in St. Paul. Matilda married Howard MeKinzie, and they live in St. Paul, Minne- sota. Mrs. Anna Rosenberger was born in Bittburg, Trier, Germany, April 16, 1843. She lost her parents as an infant. In 1855 she came to America and in 1858 reached St. Cloud, where for many years, she was employed in the Edel- brock home. She was married in 1860. After her husband's death she was

JOHN M. ROSENBERGER

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cared for in St. Joseph's Home for the Aged. She died March 20, 1908. Mrs. Rosenberger was of kindly disposition and a devout Catholic.

Joseph B. Rosenberger, iron manufacturer of St. Cloud, was born in the city where he now resides, May 7, 1861, son of John M. and Anna (Lieser) Rosenberger. He received his early education in the parochial schools, and later entered St. John's College, in Collegeville, this county. As a youth he worked two years in the dry goods store of Young & Bradford, at St. Cloud. Subsequently he learned the trade of iron working, and on October 29, 1893, purchased a half interest in the iron works of Dyer & Bingham. When the concern was incorporated as the St. Cloud Iron Works Co., founders, machin- ists and boiler makers, Mr. Rosenberger became the secretary and treasurer, a position he still retains. He is a progressive man in every respect, a member of the Manufacturers' Association of Minnesota, and of the Commercial Club of St. Cloud. He is president of the Granite City Savings & Loan Co., vice president of the North-Western Bridge Co., treasurer of the Anderson Stump Puller Co., and director in the Security State Bank, of St. Cloud, and the St. Cloud Building Association. Joseph B. Rosenberger was married May 10, 1887, to Maggie Molitor, daughter of Michael and Margaret Molitor. They have ten children: Leo M., born March 3, 1888; Genevieve, born January 27, 1890; Lorretta, born June 23, 1892; Carl J., born October 3, 1894; Marie R., born February 27, 1897; Raymond R., born Angust 9, 1899 (died January 25, 1900) ; Alma, born February 5, 1901; Roman, born July 7, 1903 (died May 7, 1906) ; John G., born December 18, 1905, and Ruth M., born September 23, 1908.

Henry J. Rosenberger was born on the banks of the Potomac river in Cumberland, Maryland, October 15, 1844. He attended common school in Cumberland from the age of 6 to 11 years. At the age of 11 he came to Minnesota with his parents and landed in St. Cloud, Minn., on May 9, 1856, where he resided until the time of his death. At that time there were no schools in St. Cloud. In 1861 he attended school in St. Cloud for three months. Incidentally it might be mentioned that it took him with his father and mother four weeks to travel the distance from Cumberland to St. Cloud. They left Cumberland April 13, 1856, in the Baltimore & Ohio Railway for Wheeling. There they embarked in a stern wheel steamboat down the Ohio river to Cin- cinnati, Ohio, where they changed boats again and went to St. Louis. There again they changed boats and landed in St. Paul, Minn., early in May, 1856. From St. Paul to St. Anthony Falls they were transported by farm wagons. At. St. Anthony Falls they took a steamboat for St. Cloud. Henry J. Rosen- berger worked in lumber, yards for his father in 1858 and was clerk for Joseph Edelbrock in the hardware store. In 1866 he started a hardware business and continued same until 1884. He started in foundry business in 1878, and manufacturing business in 1881. In 1893 he went in the paper business. He and his brother were among the organizers of the first brass band and the first fire company in St. Cloud. They were also the first in St. Cloud to put in and use a telephone from store to foundry, and the first to put an elevator into a building. He was married to Magdalen Schaefer October 1, 1875. They raised a family of nine children. He died Jannary 15, 1910.

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John Rengel, one of the frontiersmen of Minnesota, and probably the oldest living pioneer of St. Cloud, was born in Prussia, near the historic Rhine river, August 15, 1830, son of Peter J. and Annie C. (Schwab) Rengel, who brought him to America in 1847, lived a while in Milwaukee, and then located on a farm fifteen miles from Chicago. John Rengel left home in 1855 in com- pany with Anton Ruehle, and started for the Northwest. After reaching the Mississippi they took a boat to Reeds Landing, in which is now Wabasha county, this state, and from there came on foot to St. Cloud. Mr. Rengel secured a quarter section in section 15, St. Cloud township, for which he after- ward paid the government $1.25 an acre. There he farmed until 1896 when he retired and moved to St. Paul. Mr. Rengel is one of those men who are a delight to historians and to all who seek knowledge of the early days. Though eighty-three years of age, time has brought increasing wisdom instead of diminishing powers, and he appears to be just in the prime of life. His ca- reer, of which merely the outline is here given, would, if written in full, make a most thrilling and interesting volume of early history. He visits St. Cloud frequently, and people never fail to ask him for stories of the first settlers. His memory is wonderfully clear, and there is no one living better qualified than he to furnish information for a History of Stearns county. While living on his farm, Mr. Rengel served in various town and school offices. John Rengel was first married November 25, 1858, to Josepha Meyers, and to them were born eleven children: Charles, John, Peter J., Catharine, Mary, Henry J., Josephine, Frank, Anna, Mathias and Martin A. Charles died in infancy. John died at the age of forty-four years. He married Ellen Nugent, and left five children: Lillian, Leo, Clarence, Raymond and Charles. The oldest of these children, Lillian, married Roscoe G. Goddard, and their son, Virgil John Goddard, represents the fourth generation in direct descent, from the subject of this sketch. Peter J., the third son of John Rengel, married Emma Marie Halfmann, and they have four children: John, Robert, Marie and Helen. Catharine died at eleven years of age. Mary died at seven years of age. Henry J. lives in St. Cloud He married Elizabeth Richter, and they have four children: Estella, Eleanor, Irene and Cyril. Josephine married William H. Nugent, and they live on a farm in Norfolk Minnesota. They have four children : Claude, Irene, Helen and Harold. Frank died at the age of two years and four months. Anna married Joseph Wolf. They live in Chicago and have three children: Genevieve, Dorothy and Helen. Mathias married Mary Reinert. They live in St. Cloud and have seven children: Wil- fred, Mathias, Julius, Lucille, Alice, Harold and Earl. Martin A. lives in St. Cloud. He married Ida A. Kaufman, and they have three children: Cor- nelius, Mercedes and Eugene. Mrs. Josepha Meyers Rengel, the mother of these eleven children, died August 8, 1876. August 26, 1878, John Rengel married Mrs. Rosalia Pohl Waldorf, a native of Germany, and the widow of William Waldorf. By this union, Mr. Rengel had four children: Margaret M. and Peter (twins), Aloysius, and Rosalia. Margaret lives with her father in St. Paul. Peter died at seven and a half years of age. Aloysius lives in Duluth. Rosalia married Adolph Lachenmayer, and they have four chil- dren : Margaret, Evelyn, Roman and Rita. Mrs. Rosalia Pohl Waldorf Rengel

MR. AND MRS. JOHN RENGEL

A. J. DANIEL

ST. BONIFACE SCHOOL

ST. BONIFACE SCHOOL AND RECTORY

ST. BONIFACE CHURCH

---

RT. REV. B. RICHTER

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died July 28, 1913. William and Rosalia (Pohl) Waldorf had twelve chil- dren. Of these there are living nine: Elizabeth, Mary, Barbara, Catherine, Michael W., Anna, Andrew J., Susan, and Gertrude. Frank and two un- named infants are dead. Elizabeth is the wife of John Reinhart, and they have four children: William, Mary, Peter and Rosalia. This family gave to Mrs. Rosalia Rengel, three great grandchildren. Mary Reinhart married Valentine Mullery, and they have two children: Charles and Helen. Rosalia Reinhart married F. G. Reichert, and they have one son, Waldorf Ignatius. Mary Waldorf, the second child of William and Rosalia Waldorf, married John Wilson, and has one son, Floyd. Barbara is the wife of Thomas Hogan, and has one son, Murray. Catherine is the wife of Joseph Hempton. Michael W. married Ida Wample. Anna is the wife of Albert Henning, and they have nine children: Edward, Clara, Alfred, Genevieve, Otto, Bernard, Alma, Ray- mond and Lloyd. Andrew J. married Lucy Schaaf, and they have two chil- dren: Earl and Howard. Susan married James Hurley and they have three children: Fred, Marie and Frank. Gertrude married John Griebler, and they have four children: Ralph, Rudolph, Bernice and Edith.

Peter J. Rengel, a resident of St. Cloud, was born in a log cabin in sec- tion 15, St. Cloud township, now Twenty-fourtli avenue, St. Cloud, January 11, 1862, son of John and Josepha (Meyers) Rengel, and grandson of Peter J. and Annie C. (Schwab) Rengel, a sketch of whom is found elsewhere in this work. He stayed on the home farm until his marriage, and then bought land in Rengel's addition, on Twenty-first avenue, St. Cloud, where he built a brick house, and where he and his family still reside. He carries on general farming and has been very successful. Mr. Rengel was married, November 28, 1893, to Anna Marie Halfman, a native of Germany, and they have four chil- dren: John, Robert, Marie and Helen. John is pressman for the Nordstern Publishing Co., of St. Cloud.

Arnold J. Daniel, furniture dealer and undertaker of St. Cloud, was born October 5, 1851, in Oberlahnstein-on-the-Rhine, Germany, son of Arnold and Magdalena (Zell) Daniel, the former of whom was a ship builder. Arnold J. came to America in 1879, bringing his wife and two children, Arnold J., Jr., and Anton. He came at once to St. Cloud, worked as a cabinet maker for Spicer & Carlisle a year ; for F. H. Dam, maker of sash, doors and blinds, two years; and for Henry Herschbach, contractor and builder, a short time. In 1882 he and Rudolph Huhu engaged in the furniture business, and so con- tinued for four years. In 1886 they dissolved partnership and the same year, July 5, Mr. Daniel rented an establishment on St. Germain street, where he engaged in business four years. April 15, 1890, he moved into his building, which he had previously erected, on Seventh avenue, North, his present place of business. He is a member of the Commercial club and of St. Joseph's soci- ety. Mr. Daniel has made his own way in the world, and is a splendid ex- ample of what a man with pluck and energy can accomplish. Coming to this country at an age when most men are already established in their life work, he worked for many years by the day, and out of his savings was at last enabled to embark in business. The appearance of his establishment speaks for itself as to his success and ability. Mr. Daniel married Clara Peterman, and of

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their ten children, there are living eight : Arnold J., Jr., Anton, Helen, Clara, Frank, Edward, Peter and Clotilda. August and Frances, who were born between Frank and Edward, are dead. Arnold J., Jr., married Bertha Sep- pel, and they have four children : Eleanor, Herbert, Louise and William. He is employed in his father's store. Edward and Peter are also in the employ of their father. Anton is married and lives in St. Paul. Frank married Winnifred Spooner. Edward married Elizabeth Winkel.

John P. Rau, for some years a prominent official of Stearns county, was born July 5, 1869, in the township of St. Joseph, in this county, son of John M. and Elizabeth (Haggmann) Rau. He received excellent educational equip- ment in the district schools, in St. Johns College, at Collegeville, and at the Brown Business College in St. Cloud. He came to St. Cloud to work at the age of twenty-one. While he had several more or less brief employments, his early business career focused about the clothing store of the Abeles Broth- ers, where he was a clerk for some seven or eight years. He was also book- keeper for the Preiss Brewing Co., St. Cloud. After this he opened a grocery store on St. Germain street, which he conducted for two years. He first entered the employ of the county as deputy auditor under P. J. Gruber, con- tinuing in the same position under J. C. Crever. He was elected to the office of auditor in the fall of 1908, and served continuously until his sudden death, October 19, 1913. Fraternally he was a Forester, an Eagle and a mein- ber of the Red Men. In 1912 he erected his beautiful new residence at 115 Ninth avenue, North. Mr. Rau was married October 11, 1892, to Anna Blom- mer, of St. Joseph, daughter of Peter and Anna (Casper) Blommer, residents of St. Joseph.

John M. Rau, father of John P. Rau, came to America in 1863, and located in St. Joseph township, in this county. He has devoted himself to his farm work, and has been very successful. He is very proud of his splendid family of six sons and three daughters.

William Stratton. A wave of progress, improvement, and local "boost- ing" has been felt by the better cities of Minnesota in the past few years, and St. Cloud has not been backward in this movement. Numbering among her citizens men who are willing to devote time and energy to her advancement, various plans have been set on foot to make the place one of the best small cities in the state. An important factor in this new and successful move has been the St. Cloud Commercial club, and one of the leading spirits of the Commercial club is its former president, the subject of these notes, who has been called by one of his friends, "one of the 'go-ahead boosters' of the 'busy, gritty, granite city.' "

William Stratton, vice-president and manager of the Tileston Milling Co., of St. Cloud, was born in Cambridge, England, May 1, 1853, son of Thomas and Maria (Beard) Stratton. As a youth he received a thorough business education in his native land. In 1870 he came to America, and found em- ployment as a billing clerk, in the office of the Chicago & Alton Railroad Co., at St. Louis. In 1873 he started work for the Yaeger Milling Co., in the same city, remaining five years. Then he went with the Camp-Spring Milling Co., also in that city. In 1892, having been continually connected with the milling

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interests of St. Louis since 1873, he left that city, and was subsequently identified with milling enterprises in Illinois and Indiana until 1908. It was in the latter year that he came to St. Cloud, and took up the duties of his present position. Mr. Stratton is prominent in the business and social cir- cles of St. Cloud. He is serving his third year as president of the board of education, and is still an active member of the Commercial club, of which he was formerly the presiding officer. He was made a Mason by Anchor Lodge, No. 443, A. F. & A. M., of St. Louis, and an Elk by St. Cloud Lodge, No. 516, B. P. O. E., of St. Cloud. Mr. Stratton married Elizabeth Beggs Whiteford, who was born in Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland, and died in St. Louis, July 10, 1904, leaving two children, Thomas A. and Mary Ann, both of whom live with their father at 602 Sixth avenue, South, St. Cloud. Thomas A. is super- intendent in the Tileston mill, at St. Cloud. Mary Ann is a graduate of the St. Cloud high school.

C. F. Davis, born in Oxford county, Maine, September 4, 1819; died in St. Cloud, Minn., February 17, 1888. He settled in St. Cloud in 1867; built a flour mill at Clearwater, was a representative in the legislature in 1863, from Meeker Co., where he resided before coming to Stearns county.

O. F. Carver, was born in Genese county, N. Y., in 1830; came to St. Paul in 1858, and engaged in teaching and bookkeeping; settled in St. Cloud in 1870; was manager of a lumber yard and flouring mill at Sauk Centre, 1870-74; and afterward was employed in McClure's bank in St. Cloud.

Charles Bridgman, lumberman, was born in Amherst, Mass., December 22, 1829; came to St. Cloud in 1856, where he was one of the earliest lumber manufacturers and dealers.

James F. Bradford, merchant, was born in Lebanon, Ill., September 10, 1834; settled in St. Cloud, in 1865, and died there January 7, 1909.

Nathan F. Barnes, was born in Portland, Maine, June 26, 1817; served in the United States navy five years, and afterward studied law and practiced several years; came to Minnesota in 1858, and settled as a farmer at Alexan- dria; resided in St. Cloud after 1865, being editor of the Times, and later city clerk; was a representative in the legislature in 1866 and 1874, and was in- fluential in securing the location of a state normal school at St. Cloud.

Frederick Schilplin, an early pioneer of Stearns county, was born in Brugg, Canton Argau, Switzerland, and came from an old and honored fam- ily in that liberty-loving country. In the state archives of Switzerland there are numerous references to the Schilply family, as his ancestors wrote their name. They are referred to as being "a very honorable family whose mem- bers were frequently learned men, students of philosophy and theology." In the archives of the town of Bern there is mentioned one Ulrius Schilply as a student of theology in the year 1545. During the period of the French revo- lution in 1792, one Simon Schilply was the richest man in Brugg, and the one to plant the tree of liberty there, which, with the other liberty trees planted by the other Helvetian cities, marked the welding of the Swiss republic. Mr. Schilplin received a thorough education in the schools of his native town. During his boyhood his ambitions were stirred by the visits of his Uncle Worthorst, from America. This uncle, a German civil engineer, had acquired

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fame and wealth in the United States in the engineering and construction work of the first railroad built along Lake Superior. As a result when Fred- erick was fifteen or sixteen years of age, his uncle brought him to America and took him into his home in Massillon, Ohio. There he lived until 1859, when he determined to satisfy his boyhood ambitions and seek his fortune in the great frontier then just opened to settlement in Minnesota, and other states in the West. With the money he had saved and some that his father sent him, he purchased 220 acres in the township of St. Joseph. On this farm stood one of the first frame houses erected in that part of the county. Here Mr. Schilplin spent his time in opening up the farm until 1861. When the Civil War broke out, and Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers, Mr. Schil- plin and many of his neighbors, responded. He enlisted in Company I, Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. C. C. Andrews, afterwards General Andrews, his neighbor and friend, was captain of the company. He served with this regiment until July 13, 1862, when it was attacked at daybreak by the wily Confederate Cavalry General, N. B. Forest, at Murfeesboro, and that same afternoon surrendered by the commanding officers as prisoners of war. The men were marched off into the Cumberland mountains, some 75 miles away and there made to sign a parole not to serve again until exchanged. About this time the 82nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, known as the German "Hecker Regiment," was being organized and Schilplin, together with a comrade named John Pope, smarting under what they considered the disgrace so un- justly deserved by the enlisted men of the Third Minnesota, re-enlisted in Com- pany F. By this act they violated their parole and were reported on the rolls of the Third Minnesota as "deserters." While serving with the 82d Illinois he participated in the ill-starred battle of Chancellorsville. The 82d Illinois was on outpost duty with General Frederick Hecker, who was a bull-dog of a fighter, in command. As General Jackson's Confederates came charging to- ward the Eighty-second, General Hecker ordered his men across a hollow and up a ridge, but before the regiment had rushed half way up the hill, it re- ceived a Confederate volley that laid low 117 men including General Hecker, who was shot through the thigh. It was in this battle that Schilplin received the only wound during his five-year service in the army, being hit with a charge of three buckshot. In the meantime, President Lincoln had issued a proclamation offering all deserters a complete pardon if they would return to their regiments before a certain date. Schilplin's old comrades in the Third Minnesota sent him word to rejoin them and he agreed to leave the army of the Potomac if he and Pope were given a pledge that they would not be punished. When the matter came to the attention of the officers of the 82d Illinois they raised vigorous objections and ordered the arrest and imprison- ment of both Schilplin and Pope. They were confined in the "Bull Pen" in Washington for six weeks, where they suffered much hardship, but were finally released and allowed to rejoin their old regiment through the inter- cession of Schilplin's old friend, Captain Andrews, who had in the meantime become a general. Schilplin was then detached on recruiting service in Min- nesota for several months and later received as a reward for service, a com- mission as first lieutenant in Company I, 113 U. S. Colored Infantry. He re-

FRED SCHILPLIN

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mained with the army of observation in the South until April 9, 1866, when the regiment was mustered out of service. He was then offered a commission in the regular army as an instructor at West Point, but a military carcer in time of peace was not to the liking of the young lieutenant. Instead, he went to Massillon, Ohio, to see old friends, and then returned to Switzerland, to visit his parents, whom he had not seen for ten years. There at Brugg, in 1866, he was married to his boyhood sweetheart, Elsie Kieser. They at once sailed for America and took up their home on the farm in the township of St. Joseph. He added to his holdings in land and developed a fine farm. He took a promi- nent part in many movements that were for the best interests of the com- munity, and was active in both town and school affairs. In the long winter evenings on the farm he spent much time in translating from the French some of the works of Roussean and in other literary pursuits. In 1887 he sold his farm and moved to St. Cloud and that fall issued the first number of the "Minnesota," a German weekly newspaper. At the end of one year he dis- continued the paper as it failed to prove a financially successful venture. Lieutenant Schilplin died April 14, 1888. In the family there were six chil- dren : Fred, a representative business man of St. Cloud; Mary, who died in Switzerland in 1911; Jacob, who died at two years of age; William, of Seat- tle, Washington ; Elsie L., of the same city; and Walter, of Victor, Colorado. Mrs. Schilplin now resides in St. Cloud.

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History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I, Part 42

Author: Mitchell, William Bell, 1843- Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago : H. S. Cooper Number of Pages: 964

Author: Mitchell, William Bell, 1843-
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago : H. S. Cooper
Number of Pages: 964