USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 2 > Part 6
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No effort had been made to gather a congregation of size until the church was ready. Yet the body grew slowly. The first year nineteen members were received, the second, four; the third, eight; the fourth, two: the fifth:, eleven ; the sixth, none; the seventh, eighteen. The whole number of members up to 1876 were seventy- seven, and then appearing on the Church rolls forty-six. Number of members dismissed, seven ; deaths, six: re- moved from the bonds of the congregation, nineteen; dis-
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
affected, seven. Up to the present time there have been one hundred and five persons on the list. The Church belongs to the Reformed Church in the United States of America, and is commonly known as the German Re- formed. Its standard of faith is in the Heidelberg Cat- ecbism, and its government is Presbyterian. In con- nection with the Church is a' flourishing Sunday-school. The Rev. G. Z. Mechling has been the pastor since the beginning.
CHRISTIAN HENRY SOHN.
Christian Henry Sohn, of the firm of Sohn & Rentsch- ler, was born in the city of Bissingen, in Wirtemberg, Germany, May 15, 1846. His father, Charles Frederick Sohn, came to America about 1849, and after a brief ; interval settled in Cincinnati, where he followed the calling of a brewer. About that time the mother of Christian Henry died, leaving a family of two sons and two daughters, and a year after her death the father sent for his family of little children from Germany, and they were brought over by a cousin. Upon his arrival, J. G. Sohn, the unele of the boy, took charge of hiin, keeping him at school until his fourteenth year, when he went to work.
In 1860 he came to Hamilton, being apprenticed to Jacob Rupp, a butcher, and remained with him until the breaking out of the war. Filled with patriotic ardor for his adopted country, he enlisted, but was soon bronght back on a writ of habeas corpus, as he had enlisted with- out the consent of his father, and was only fifteen years of age. In 1863 he went to Cincinnati and engaged as clerk in a grocery store, remaining there until his eight- eenth year, when he again enlisted, in Company B, One Hundred and Eighty-first Ohio Regiment. With this regiment he stayed until the 23d of November, 1864. On that day he was wounded in the head by a shell, during the progress of the battle of Murfreesboro. He remained in the hospital at Murfreesboro for about seventy days, when he received a furlough, and returned home, reporting at Columbus. His company was mustered out at Salisbury, North Carolina, and his discharge, which was dated July 14, 1865, was sent to him.
The effects of the wound which he had received were such as to disable him for more than a year, and for that period he was unable to work. That year he remained in Cincinnati, and at its expiration came to Hamilton, where he engaged to work in a brick-yard. He stayed here with Jacob Rupp until 1869, in that year becoming book- keeper for Henry Eger, in a brewery. In 1875 the firm of Sohn, Rentschler & Balle, founders and manufacturers of shelf hardware, was formed, with a very small capital. Their business rapidly increased, and on July 25, 1876, the first two partners bought out Mr. Balle, and formed a firm under the name of Sohn & Rentschler. Mr. Somm's partner is G. A. Rentschler, an active and able business man, who is interested in several other enterprises. They make shelf hardware, all kinds of gray iron castings, and
machinery to order, having a large and rapidly increas- ing business. Mr. Sohn has also one-sixth interest in the stock company of Hooven, Owens, Rentschler & Co., manufacturers of portable and stationary engines and threshers; one-fourth of the Phoenix Castor Company, and one-third interest in an ice-house in Fairfield Town- ship, with a capacity of four thousand tons. He is in- terested in what is known as the Cincinnati Brewing Company. He is a member of Hamilton Lodge, No. 409, of Free and Accepted Masons, and is a prominent. man in all social organizations,
He was married the twentieth day of Decemle", 1876, to Anna Sophia Morgenthaler, daughter of Chris- tian Morgenthaler, who was born July 25, 1813. His wife is now thirty-four years of age, having been born in April, 1848. The different concerns in which he is a partner employ about three hundred men. The Ohio Iron Works, as the firm of Sohn & Rentschler is known, started with three thousand dollars, caeh one contrib- uting a thousand, but the partners have persevered, and by industry and forethought have made the business val- uable. They erected their own buildings, the partners themselves. working. Mr. Soha is a shrewd, practical man, and in all his dealings is upright and just, and is considered one of Hamilton's most prominent and enter- prising young business men. In society and among his friends he is genial and affable, while in business he is careful, prudent, and foreseeing. From small beginnings their trade has gradually increased, until it has reached large dimensions. Mr. Sohn is an excellent example of a self-made man, and his career shows plainly what can be accomplished by industry and strict attention to business.
JEWISH SYNAGOGUE.
The first organization of the Israelites in this town was in August, 1866, at the residence of Mr. Moses Klein, Mr. Klein being elected president, pro tem., and F. Sternfield, secretary. Mr. Rosenthal, of Dayton, was the first one to officiate at services. Those belonging to this organization were as follows : Jacob Maas, Jacob Grabenhewer, David Koppel, Mayer Roth, Moritz Saner, Hermann Gugenheimer, Louis Davis, Jonas Hirsch, F. Sternfield, Samuel Ganz. The first place used for public worship was at Morner's building, on High Street. Ou April 6, 1878, they bought a buikling lot on Fourth Street, upon which there was erceted a synagogue, which was built by the members and the public. Its cost was $2,450. It was dedicated by the Rev. Dr. Wise, of Cincinnati, September 21, 1878.
ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH.
The first Roman Catholic that ever preached at Han- ihon was the Rev. Mr. Hill, who delivered two or three discourses in the court-house in the year 1825. In the early part of the year 1829 the Rev. James Mullin, then of Cincinnati, but who now has charge of St. Peter's
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HAMILTON.
Church in the city of New Orleans, visited Hamilton, and preached a sermon in the court-house to a large and respectable assembly of people, many of whom had never heard a Roman Catholic preach before. He occasionally visited Hamilton several times afterwards, during that and the succeeding year, and delivered discourses in the court-house to large and attentive audiences. His man- ner and eloquence, which was of the first order, attracted considerable attention, and tended much to dissipate and do away with the prejudices existing against that denom- iuation of Christians.
The Right Reverend Edward Fenwick, bishop of the diocese of Cincinnati, also delivered two or three dis- courses, and the Rev. Mr. Montgomery preached several times about the same period. A proposal was made by some of the citizens, that if the Catholics would build a church in Hamilton a lot of ground should be furnished them free of expense. The proposal was acceded to by Bishop Fenwick. A subscription was accordingly put in circulation, and lots numbered 151 and 152 in the town of Hamilton were purchased for the sum of four hundred dollars, which were conveyed to Bishop Fenwick in 1830, in trust for the purpose of erecting a Roman Catholic Church thereon.
At this time there were no persons belonging to the Roman Catholic Church residing in Hamilton, and not more than a dozen known to live within the limits of Butler County. The subscription to purchase the lots was obtained wholly from persons belonging to other de- nominations, and those who were not attached to any particular church. An additional subscription of three hundred dollars was afterwards obtained to aid in the erection of the building. The lots are beautifully situ- ated, on the corner of Dayton and Second Streets, form- ing, together, a plat of ground two hundred feet square, the most eligible location for a church in the town. In the year 1832, a brick building in the Gothic style was erected, and inclosed on the ground under the superinten- dence of Mr. A. White, of Cincinnati. The wood-work for finishing the interior of the building, was got out and prepared in Cincinnati, but when nearly ready to be brought out and put up in the Fall of the year 1833, the carpenter shop of Mr. White was consumed by fire with all the work which had been prepared ready for finishing the interior of the church. Consequently the finishing of the building was delayed for some time. Mr. James Murray was afterwards employed to finish the interior of the building, which was completed in the year 1836.
The church was of brick with a stone foundation, built in the Gothic style, sixty feet long by forty feet wide, and twenty-two feet high to the caves. The en- trance was from Daytou Street by a door on the south. The altar was at the north end. The interior was finished in a plain but neat manner, having pews capa- ble of seating at least five hundred persons. Over the
altar was a splendid painting, and on the east a figure of our Savior on the cross as large as life. An excel- lent organ was obtained and placed in the church. On the south end of the building was a very neat steeple cov- ered with tin and surmounted by a small gilt cross. The whole presented a handsome appearance, the princi- pal defect being that the foundation of the building was not raised high enough from the ground.
A neat brick building, two stories high, with an attic story, was afterwards erected near the south-west corner of the lot, on which a select school was taught. The rest of the building was designed for the accommodation of the officiating priest and others having the immediate charge of the Church.
The number of members belonging to the Roman Catholic Church of Hamilton, in 1844, was about six hundred. In June, 1840, the Rev. Thomas R. Butier arrived at Hamilton and took charge of the Church and congregation, and continued as the officiating priest from that time until about the first of January, 1845, when he removed from Hamilton to St. Louis. During Mr. But- ler's residence his urbanity and gentlemanly deportment acquired him the esteem of all those with whom he had intercourse. As a speaker he was eloquent, and as a polemic debater he acquired considerable celebrity.
Up to 1848 the German and English speaking Cath- olics were united in their services, but there were serious difficulties connected with this mode of worship. Many of the Germans understood no English, and none of the Irish people understood any German. So it was thought advisable to separate, each nationality to have its own church. A plan was laid before the members of the congregation by which it was stipulated that, as the church property then was appraised at six thousand dol- lars, one of the two parties was to raise three thousand and pay it to the other portion of the congregation, which would go out and erect a new church. The Germans being successful in obtaining subscriptions to that amount, became, by decision of Archbishop Purcell, the owners of the existing church building and the property thereto at- tached. The Rev. Nicholas Wachter, of the Franciscans, became their first pastor. The congregation increased in numbers steadily until it was found necessary to replace the old church by a new house of worship. In the year 1852 the corner-stone of the present edifice was laid, the church being completed in 1853, at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars, under the supervision and pas- torate of the Rev. Pirmin Eberhard. The congregation increased and flourished, it having its own school as early as 1849. In the course of time other buildings, such as a new school, vestry-room, and parsonage, were built, each attended with considerable expense. At present. St. Stephen's is one of the most complete churches of the arch-diocese of Cincinnati, a monument to the zeal and liberality of the German Catholies of Hamilton. The congregation numbers at present three hundred and
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seventy-five families, or very nearly sixteeen hundred souls. Ever since the congregation became entirely Ger- man, the Franciscan order has had charge of it. The present pastor is the Rev. Nicholas Holtel.
The school, which is under the supervision of the pastor, is divided into classes for the boys and girls. The male pupils are taught by brothers of the Holy Cross, from Notre Dame, Indiana, while the female pupils are taught by the sisters of Notre Dame. Three hundred and eighty children attend the school, and are taught all the eleraentary branches. A branch from this Church is known as St. Joseph's, and is situated in the lower part of the town. Its pastor is the Rev. A. Biene. It was organized in 1866. There is a cemetery belonging to St. Stephen's, in which are many handsome monuments.
GEORGE ADAM RENTSCHLER.
. George Adam Rentschler was born in Schmee, Wir- temberg, Coanty Calw, Germany, on the 8th of July, 1846, and is the son of Jacob and Catherine Reutschler. His mother died in his infancy, and in 1852 his father, with a family of seven children, came to America, George being the youngest. They first settled in Newark, New Jersey. There he attended school up to the time of his father's deatlı, in 1858. He then commenced to learn the trade of molding and pattern-making, with Oscar Barnett & Co., with whom he remained for seven years, learning the business thoroughly .: . While serving his time he attended night-school, and supported himself by his earnings.
In 1864 he went to Peru, Indiana, where he was em- ployed at molding for one year. He then removed to Indianapolis, where he had charge of the Novelty Iron Works until 1870. From 1870 to 1871 he was in Cin- "cinnati with Adams & Brith, in charge of their stove foundry. In 1872 he returned to Indianapolis, acting as superintendent of the Variety Iron Works, where he remained until their removal to Hamilton in March, 1873. Mr. Rentschiler accompanied thein and remained in the same position until June, 1875, when the firm of Sohn, Rentschler & Balle was formed. By this time Mr. Rentschler had acquired a vast stock of experience, and he thought he could utilize it more thoroughly for him- self than by working for another man. Although the capital of the concern was small, the industry and pains of the partners supplied all defects. Their chief line was shelf hardware. July 25, 1876, Mr. Balle withdrew, and the new firin was known as Sohn & Rentschler, and their establishment as the Ohio Iron Works. In the firm of Hoover, Owens, Rentschler & Co., which mann- factures portable and stationary engines and threshers, Mr. Rentschler owns a large interest.
In conjunction with Joseph B. Hughes, now the county auditor, he founded the Royal Pottery Works, which make a class of goods never before attempted in the United States, and of rare beauty and utility. He
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has also an interest in the Phoenix Caster Company, in an ice-house in Fairfield Township, which will hold four thousand tons, and is interested in what is known as the Cincinnati Brewing Company of Hamilton. The great- est portion of his time, however, is taken up in his iron works. Here they manufacture gray iron castings, make machinery to order, and supply a large line of shelf hardware. It was some time before they were able to obviate the difficulties occasioned by a lack of money, but since that trouble disappeared, they have rapidly increased, year by year, until cheir business now is of large size.
Mr. Rentschler was married in 1864, at Newark, New Jersey, to Miss Kate Graf, by whom he had two sons. She died December 29, 1869. He is a member of the Blue Lodge of Free and Accepted Masous, of Hamil- ton, No. 409, and is also a member of Germania Lodge, No. 129, of Odd Fellows, at Indianapolis. It will be seen, therefore, that the enviable position which Mr. Rentschler now occupies is not owing to any advantages given him by his parents or his friends, but is the result of his own hard labor and great capacity for taking trouble. He was only able to invest one thousand dol- lars in the establishment when it began, but the value of the knowledge he had attained can not be estinated. He is thoroughly informed as to every detail of the busi- ness, and has worked at every part of it, so that, if ne- cessity required, he could do the work with his own hands. His judgment is excellent, and he looks after every portion. In manner he is social and genial, and a visitor at once feels at home in his society. Mr. Rentsch- ler is a model of physical strength and manhood, and his standing in business and social circles in the city of Hamilton is of the highest order. Without having auy particular early educational advantages, he has qualified himself, by observation and reading, until he has stored his mind with good and useful knowledge; and with his practical experience has no superior in his several lines of business.
WILLIAM HUBER.
Dr. William Huber was born in Lebanon, Peunsyl- vania, on the 5th of July, 1813. He was educated in the schools in that vicinity, and when fifteen years of age attended au academy at Lebanon. He began reading medicine when sixteen years old, and attended a course of lectures at the University of New York, in Fairfield, in 1831 and 1832, and a second course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City, in 1833 and 1834. He was graduated from that institution in 1834, and began the practice of his profession at Lebanon. April 1, 1834. He continued there until ill health com- pelled him to seek a more congenial climate, and he then came to Columbus, Ohio, where he improved so rapidly that he concluded to remain in this State. He went to West Alexandria, Preble County, where he remained one year, then going to Eaton. There, in company with Dr.
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HAMILTON.
A. H. Baker, he stayed two years, then coming to Ham- ilton. He located here in 1841, and has ever since been in the practice of his profession in this town.
Dr. Huber is one of the oldest members of the Butler County Medical Society, and is a member also of the Union District Medical Society. He is a very prominent physician. Dr. Huber was married in 1846 to Miss Mary D. Budd, who was born in New Jersey. They are the parents of eleven children, of whom six survive. He is a member of the Episcopal Church and of the Masonic order.
F. B. PUTHOFF.
Frederick B. Puthoff, mayor of the city of Hamilton, was born at Cincinnati, April 20, 1843. His parents, John Henry and Mary Elizabeth (Borger) Puthoff, were natives of Osnabruck, in Hanover. Mr. and Mrs. Puthoff came to this country about 1834, settling in Cin- cinnati, where the fatlier soon built up a prosperous busi- ness, and where he still lives, at the age of seventy-five. Mrs. Puthoff died in 1879. Frederick B. Puthoff attended the schools of Cincinnati, and at the age of eleven was sent to boarding school at Dayton, where he remained for two years, and exhibited marked profi- ciency in his studies. He then returned to Cincinnati, where he entered St. Xavier College, being there for two years more. He then was employed as a clerk in different stores, being in this occupation until he had reached huis eighteenth year.
He tried to enlist at the beginning of the war, but on account of his age, and from the fact that he had two older brothers already in the service, they refused to take him. Mr. Puthoff did not take the refusal of the recruiting officers to accept him with resignation. He ran away from home and boarded the boat that took the regiment to Ripley, Ohio, where he found his two older brothers, who informed the officers of the circumstances, and requested thein to return him to Cincinnati, which was done. Four months after, he ran away again, join- ing the commissary department, and acting as one of the clerks. With this department he remained for a year.
He then returned home and began learning the cabi- net-maker's trade, at which he continued until of age in 1864. One day shortly after, he left the shop with his working cap and apron on, and walked up to the recruit- ing office, where he enlisted in the Second Ohio Cavalry, returning to his employer's place in uniform. With other recruits he was sent to Harper's Ferry, after being drilled for some time at Columbus, and was placed in the brigade under command of General Custer. They re- mained in Virginia until the close of the war, and after the grand review at Washington were sent to Arkansas.
Upon his return home to Cincinnati he engaged as a salesman in the furniture business with Duncan & Will- inms, wholesale dealers, remaining there until 1867. He was married in 1867, and every thing went on well. He was then living in St. Louis, his employers in that place
being Comstock & Haywood. After being there some months he was sent by them to Peoria, Illinois, to act as salesman and assistant manager of a branch house. His wife died the year following, on the 14th of May, 1868, one week after giving birth to twins.
Mr. Puthoff remained in Peoria until 1870, when he came to Hamilton, where a brother was engaged in the drug business. Here also was his daughter. With what means he had saved from his salary as salesman he bought a stock of goods and opened a hat store, con- tinuing in that business until May, 1881. A short time after his coming to the town his fellow-citizens perceived that he had a natural adaptability to the public service. He was always ready for committee work or for labor at the polls, and spoke readily and effectively. He was elected a member of the city council from the First Ward in 1878, and signalized his term of two years in that capacity by vigorous and successful efforts for sewerage, parks, improvements of streets, and other municipal im- provements. He refused a re-election, which was prof- fered him, but his popularity brought hin out as a candidate, against his own wishes, for the State Legis- lature, but he failed to secure the nomination in con- vention.
In 1881 he was named for the office of mayor, and was triumphantly elected, receiving the largest majority ever given in the city-six hundred. The candidate on the other side was the popular M. N. Maginnis. During his administration of affairs the city has been distinguished by its quiet and the respect paid to law. The death of Garfield happened since he was in office. Every prepara- tion had been made here for celebrating the anniversary of the nation's birth with unusual distinction. Mayor Pethoff issued a manifesto requesting the citizens to desist. from the public demonstrations intended. A citizens' meeting was called by him to express sorrow and deresta- tion of the crime, and at this meeting the mayor spoke weightily and with feeling. The proposed celebration was abandoned. He exerted himself at the time of the pro- posed execution of the new liquor law by his efforts to secure a hearty and free submission to it, and to allay any animosities that might have sprung from this cause.
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Mayor Puthoff is a member of the Knights of Honor and the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and is a member of the Soldiers and Sailors' Association. He was married to his second and present wife, Helen MeCafferty, of Macomb, Illinois, but a native of Nauvoo. in the same State, on the 18th of July, 1870. Three children by this wife are living. The oldest, Fred. L., is nine years of age; the second, Mary E., died at the age of three; Eva H. is two years of age; and the youngest, a little girl a year old. Anna M., the daughter of the first wife, is fourteen years of age, aud attends a boarding school in Cincinnati. Mr. Puthott has well discharged the du- ties of the offices contided to him, and has shown by his ability his capacity to take other and larger trusts.
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CONSTANTINE MARKT.
Constantine Markt, M. D., president of the Eclectic Medical Society of the State of Ohio, is a native of Spaichingen, iu the kingdom of Wirtemberg, Germany, where he was born on the 25th of February, 1832. His father, Karl Markt, was a dealer in clothing, and for sixteen years was one of the twelve associate judges of the district, to whom was confided the duty of sitting in judgment at the trial of offenders, two with the supreme judge constituting a quorum. His mother was named Mary. One of Dr. Markt's brothers had been forced to leave Germany on account of political troubles in 1848, and bad settled in Thompson, Lake County, Ohio. He wrote repeatedly to his father to come over with his fam- ily, and settle bere also. Constantine was opposed to this, but after the death of his mother, which happened in 1852, he abandoned opposition to the plan, and, with his father, one brother, and three sisters, embarked for America in 1854. What they should do in the New World he did not know. He had received his early education in the schools of his native town, and at the age of fourteen began attending a seminary, where he prepared himself for the university, and where he grad- uated three years later, having taken the classical course. He was then made a teacher under the government, re- maining attentive to his duties until his departure for America.
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