USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912, Volume II > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
Joseph Hypolit Pulte was born at Meschede, Westphalia, studied medicine and came in 1834 to America. His brother was at the time an established physi- cian in St. Louis, and Joseph there became an enthusiastic student of homeop -. athy. In 1840 he came to Cincinnati to practice medicine. In 1850 he pub- lished a scientific work entitled "Hänsliche Praxis der Homeopathischen Heil- kunde." This book was issued in English in London and in Spanish in Havana. Dr. Pulte edited for several years the American Magazine of Homeopathy and
15
CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
Hydropathy, and in 1852 became professor of clinical practice and obstetrics in the Homeopathic College at Cleveland. He established by his own resources the Pulte Homeopathic Medical College in Cincinnati in 1872.
Heinrich A. Rattermann was born at Ankum, Osnabruck, October 14, 1832, and came with his family in 1846 to Cincinnati. After the death of his father, a carpenter, in 1850, young Rattermann had charge of the family. During leisure hours he studied. Later he attended a commercial college, and became a book- keeper. He obtained a partnership in a lumber business. In 1858 he was chiefly influential in founding the German Mutual Fire Insurance company, which be- came very successful. During his whole career he has been a literary man and devotee of music. His specialty has been German life in America. He was prominent in the founding of the Sängerbund, the Maennerchor and the Orpheus.
Friedrich Roelker was born in Osnabruck in 1809, graduated at the College Karolinum in Osnabruck and then studied at Munster. Having taught for some time in Osnabruck he came to America in 1835, spending two years in New York in teaching. He came to Cincinnati in 1837, teaching English for two years, and then became principal of the Catholic Dreifaltigkeits-Schule. At the end of a year he began to study medicine at the Ohio Medical college, and after graduation he began to practice medicine in this city. In 1843 he was elected a member of the school board. Later he became chairman of the committee on . instruction in German and he accomplished much for the German-English schools, to the great delight of the Germans. He proposed and took a large part in the founding of the Deutsche Lese-und-Bildgungsverein, which had for its ideal the preservation of the German language. To him as much as to any one was due the introduction and success of the teaching of German in the public schools.
August Renz was born in Würtemberg in 1803, studied law at Tübingen, practiced for a time in Würtemberg, and arrived in Cincinnati in 1836. Here he became a notary public, entered journalism, and was one of the editors, in 1839, of Der Deutsch-Amerikaner, and in 1841-45 of Die Volksbühne.
Joseph Anton Hemann was born at Oesede, near Osnabruck, in 1816, was a pupil at the College of Osnabruck, and came to America in 1837. He taught in Canton, Ohio, in 1838. In 1839 he became a teacher in the parochial school of St. Mary's parish, Cincinnati. When the teaching of German had been intro- duced into Cincinnati schools, Hemann passed an examination and received the position of principal of the German school. In 1841 the school board attempted to dispense with the teaching of German, and the Germans by private contribu- tions established a school of their own. Of this, Hemann became the principal. He held this position until the next year, when he once more became the principal of the St. Mary's school. In 1850 he established the Volksfreund and continued with that journal until 1863. He removed afterward to Canton and there edited a German paper.
Stephen Molitor was born at Cheslitz, Oberfranken, January 5, 1806, studied at Wurtzburg, was for a time police reporter at Munchen, and came to America in 1830. In 1835 he was engaged on the New Yorker Staats Zeitung; he was for a time on the Weltbürger in Buffalo ; and in 1837 he came to Cincinnati. He entered into a partnership here with Heinrich Rodter in the Volksblatt. He soon became
16
CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
sole owner of that paper and managed it until 1863. Molitor was an able and highly educated man, whose influence in politics was felt throughout the nation.
George Walker was born in Urach, Würtemberg, in 1808. He studied the- ology at Tübingen, was influenced by the teachings of Hegel and Straus. When the Lutheran synod of Baltimore, asked the Tübingen theological faculty to furnish some young teachers for their theological school at Gettysburg and as pastors, Walker was one of those who were chosen. He came about 1833, but soon discovered that his ideas were considered heretical. Coming to Ohio he entered upon work in Tuscarawas county, where there was a small congregation of people from Würtemberg; but the Lutheran synod at Columbus were not satisfied with his orthodoxy, and in 1838 he went to Germantown, Ohio. He, with Dr. Espich, established the Protestant in that place, and soon afterward he brought his paper to Cincinnati. Here he became also one of the managers of the Volksblatt. His Protestant having failed, as well as a political paper, the Deutsch-Amerikaner, with which he became connected, he went to Louisville. In 1840 he took charge of a paper in Louisville called Die Volksbühne, which he soon brought to Cincinnati. This paper soon failed and he established the Hochwächter, which was a semi-religious and semi-political journal. While a man of talent, Walker kept himself too exclusively among his own countrymen and failed to adapt himself to American conditions. He died in 1849.
Ludwig Rehfuss was born at Ebingen, January 26, 1806, and studied chemis- try, pharmacy and botany. Joining the agitators after the July revolution, he left Germany in 1833 and established a drug store in Cincinnati. He took part in founding the German society, and in establishing the Volksblatt ; had a share in the struggle for the German schools; helped organize the Lafayette guard and became its captain. He was among the founders of the German Reading and Educational society, and took a large part in the social affairs of the city. He achieved much reputation for his scientific attainments, was a member of the Association of Natural Sciences of the United States, and en- tertained Agassiz and Professor Henry at a meeting of scientists in this city. He died in 1855.
August Moor was born in Leipzig, March 28, 1814; was a pupil of a mili- tary school; was concerned in the revolutionary troubles of 1830; was imprisoned for eight months, and after he was set free started for America. Landing in Baltimore in 1833, he went to Philadelphia, became a lieutenant in the Wash- ington guard of that city. In 1836 he enlisted for the Seminole war in a volun- teer company and became a lieutenant-colonel. In 1838 he was in Cincinnati, in charge of a bake shop, a business which he managed successfully for several years. In 1846 he became captain of a company of Ohio volunteers for the Mexican war; he became major, lieutenant-colonel and then colonel. Some years later, he became major-general of the first division of Ohio militia, but soon resigned. When the Civil war opened he speedily enlisted and became colonel of the Twenty-eighth Ohio volunteer regiment,-the Second German regiment, which was part of the army of Rosecrans. He gained great distinction by his bravery, and led a brigade for the three years of his time in the service. When he was discharged he was appointed brevet brigadier-general.
i.
V
NORTHI CINCINNATI TURNER HALL
COUNTRY CLUB
17
CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
August V. Kautz was born at Pforzheim, Baden, in 1828 and was brought in childhood to America by his parents. They made their home at Ripley, and were living at that place in 1846 when the Mexican war opened, and August enlisted as a private in the First Volunteer regiment of Ohio. When that war was over he became a lieutenant in the regular army. When the Civil war began Kautz was a cavalry captain but in fact commanded his regiment before Richmond in 1862. He was soon appointed colonel of the Second Ohio Cavalry, and then commanding general of the cavalry of the Twenty-third army corps. He was made brevet major-general in the volunteer and regular service, and when the war was over he went back to the regular service as lieutenant colonel of the Fifteenth Infantry.
Gottfried Weitzel was born November 1, 1835, at Winzlen, Rheinpfalz, and was brought to America by his parents in his childhood. They made their home in Cincinnati, and when Gottfried was seventeen years of age he became a cadet at West Point. Graduating there in 1855 he became a second lieutenant of the engineer corps. When the Civil war broke out he had reached the cap- taincy, and as a captain was on Butler's staff at the siege of New Orleans. He later was put in command of a brigade in the corps of Banks. When transferred to the Army of the Potomac, under Grant, Weitzel was given command of a division. Weitzel, after the war, became a major in the engineer corps, with the brevet rank of a major-general.
Nikolaus Hofer was born at Rulzheim, Rheinpfalz, in 1810. He came to this city in 1832. After having spent some time in the business of a gardener, he became a real estate agent. He entered into all the activities of the Germans for their advancement and was foremost in advocating the establishment of German schools. He entered into politics, was the first vice president of the democratic association, and was a number of times a delegate in the local and state conventions of the democrats. He was distinctively a leader among the Germans of the city.
August Kroll, known as Pastor Kroll, was born at Rorhback, Hessen, July 22, 1806. He studied at the gymnasium in Budingen, and at the end of his labors there took a theological course at Giessen. He became an assistant pastor in a German parish, and then in 1833 came to America with the Follenius emi- gration society. After having spent some time with other members of the society in Missouri and having cultivated land there, he became in 1838 pastor of a German Evangelical church in Louisville. In 1841 he became pastor of the oldest German parish in Cincinnati, the Protestant Johannis church, which position he occupied until his death in 1874. He was also associated with the Rev. Friedrich Botticher in founding the Protestantische Zeitblätter.
Friedrich Eckstein was born in Berlin in 1787. He studied in the Academy of Arts in that city under Johann Schadow. Coming to America he arrived in Cincinnati about 1825. In 1826 he founded an Academy of Fine Arts here, which was sustained until his death in 1832 of cholera. His bust of Governor Morrow and that of General W. H. Harrison, rank high artistically. He made a great reputation. Eckstein, in addition to his own fine work, was the inspira- tion and the teacher of Hiram Powers.
Vol. II-2
18
CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
Friedrich Botticher was born at Mackerock, Prussia, in 1800. He studied theology at Halle, taught at Nordhausen, was a pastor at Habernegen and came to America in 1832. He was co-founder with Pastor Kroll, of the Protestantische and was a representative of liberal Christianity.
Gottfried and Johann Frankenstein were painters. Gottfried executed a large landscape painting of Niagara Falls, which has been widely copied by engravers and lithographers. He executed a notable bust of Judge John Mc- Lean. Gottfried revived the Academy of Fine Arts, became its president, but did not succeed in making it permanent.
Samuel N. Pike was the son of Jewish parents named Hecht, Hecht signify- ing Pike in English. He was born in Schwetzingen and came to America with his parents in 1837. After having lived a time in New York, then in Connecticut and having been well educated, the young man went to Florida and engaged in storekeeping for a year. Then in Richmond, Virginia, he became an importer of wines. He removed to Baltimore, then to St. Louis and in 1844 to Cincinnati. He engaged in all these places in the dry goods business. In Cincinnati he be- came rich in the liquor business. Having been fascinated by the wonderful con- certs of Jenny Lind, he declared if ever rich enough he would build a temple of music in Cincinnati that would be the pride of the city. He began in 1856 and completed in 1859, Pike's opera house, then the largest in America and one of the largest in the world. In 1866, Pike erected in New York the Grand opera house, afterwards sold to Fisk for $850,000. In the spring of 1866 the Cincin- nati structure was burned, but was later rebuilt. Mr. Pike was at his death worth several millions of dollars.
Johann Bernhard Stallo was born March 16, 1823, at Sierhausen in the grand dukedom of Oldenburg. He came to America when he was seventeen years of age and began teaching. He said of himself: "All my ancestors, as well on my father's as on my mother's side, were, so far as I can trace back our family genealogy, village schoolmasters. My grandfather, after whom I was named, was my first teacher. He was an honorable old Frisian (Stallo is not an Italian name, but a real Frisian name, meaning forester), and wore up to the time of his death a three-cornered hat, knee breeches and buckled shoes. He reserved my education to himself, notwithstanding his seventy years, and was made very happy when I could read and solve all sorts of arithmetical prob- lems, before my fourth year." His father was a fine mathematician and in- structed him in this study. He had his son study the ancient languages and French. The son was sent at fifteen, to Vechta, where he prepared for the university, but his father was not able to pay his way there. Stallo recorded: "The only choice left me was either to lengthen the chain of schoolmasters in our family by another link, or go to America. The idea of emigrating was brought near to me through my father's brother, Franz Joseph Stallo, who, about the year 1830, had led the line of emigrants from the Oldenburg country."
This uncle was a man of ideas, inventions and of revolutionary opinions. Having been arrested in his native country as an agitator, he came to Cincinnati in 1831, and worked at his trade as printer and bookbinder. By correspondence with his old home he induced a large number of people to immigrate from that vicinity. He founded a community of these immigrants which grew to one
19
CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
hundred members in 1833. The town was at first called Stallotown. Franz Joseph Stallo died of cholera.
It was in 1839 that J. B. Stallo came to this country, armed with letters of introduction to pastors and teachers in this city. Here he became a teacher in a private school. He soon issued a German spelling and reading book, which filled a want and became popular. He was soon called to teach the St. Xavier's college, where he gave instruction in German, in the ancient languages and mathematics. At the same time he studied physics and chemistry. In 1843 he was invited to be teacher of mathematics, physics and chemistry in St. John's college, New York city, and occupied that position until the close of 1847. In 1848 he published a philosophical work, "General Principles of the Philosophy of Nature."
Returning to Cincinnati, Mr. Stallo studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1849. In 1853 he was appointed by the governor, judge of the court of common pleas, to fill a vacancy. He was chosen the same year by popular, election for the same position. Mr. Stallo having married and being in need of more money than his salary provided, resigned the judgeship, which he had filled ably, and in 1855 took up the general practice of the law, in which he gained a great reputation.
Charles Henry Niehaus, sculptor, born in Cincinnati in 1855 of German parents, educated at the Royal Academy of Munich, is one of the great sculptors of modern times. His statue of Garfield, in Garfield place, Cincinnati, is one of his greatest monuments. "His conception of the man was adequate. The figure has dignity, distinction and personality." Another of his great works is the statue of Hahnemann, founder of homeopathy. Another is "The Driller," a figure of the monument of Colonel Drake, who sank the first oil well in Pennsylvania in 1859. His "Moses" and his "Gibbon" are in the Congressional library.
The Germans themselves were responsible for the introduction of the teach- ing of German in the Cincinnati public schools. In 1836, the Lane Theological, seminary (Presbyterian), had been influential in the establishment of a German school, called the Emigrants school, sustained by the Emigrants' Friends society. Of this institution Bellamy Storer was president, Johann Meyer, vice president, and Jakob Gulich, chairman of the executive committee. Johann J. Lehmanow- sky, a German Pole, was general agent of the society, and F. C. F. Salomon was principal of the school. German schools had been founded in half a dozen other cities by Lehmanowsky. There arose some dissension because of pre- dominant Presbyterian influence in this school. The Catholics established a German school of their own.
A strong movement now began to have German taught in the public schools. In 1838 the legislature passed a law permitting school boards to introduce Ger- man as a study where a sufficient number of petitioners were found and there were enough pupils to justify it. The board of education refused the petition. During the election of 1839, candidates for the legislature were asked to promise to endeavor to have the law modified that it should read "shall," instead of "might" and so command the school boards to act. March 19, 1840, the law was altered to read as desired. In the summer of 1840 the first German-English
20
CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
public school was founded. While there has been agitation from time to time on this point, the teaching of German is still general in the Cincinnati public schools.
The Germans have from 1840 on, since the German vote became large enough to be of importance, taken a large and influential and progressive part in the politics of the city.
To the Germans have been due chiefly the beginnings and the remarkable advancement of music in this city. They have also a large share in the progress of art in other directions. Cincinnati owes much in every way to its large German element. Many of the prominent families of today are of German descent. A considerable number of the leading men of the city are of the same race.
CHAPTER VII.
JUDAISM IN CINCINNATI.
TO THE JEWS CINCINNATI THE PIONEER CITY OF THE WEST-MAGNIFICENT CHURCHES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL-ISAAC M. WISE AND OTHER NOTED RABBIS-THE HEBREW UNION COLLEGE AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS-HOMES FOR THE AGED-HOMES FOR CHILDREN-BENEFACTORS AND THEIR BOUNTEOUS LARGESSES-CLUBS-SOCIETIES, ETC.
By Isador Wise.
Cincinnati is the pioneer city of the west; so far as the Jews are concerned she is the pioneer city of the world. To the long suffering children of Israel she is indeed the "Queen City," and so will ever remain, though she lose her com- mercial preeminence ten times over, and though a dozen newer cities have wrested her material laurels from her. How many of her children, scattered throughout the new and vast territory beyond the Mississippi, may cry with the Maccabean, "If ever I forget thee may my right hand be withered."
Jewish charity work in Cincinnati began with the congregation and for many years was coextensive with it. But that is easily understood when it is consid- ered that the handful of Jews who formed the early congregation had no people to spare for separate organizations. Furthermore, up to the settling of the early Jews in this city they had been hounded, derided and ostracised the world over. Even in the Atlantic coast cities they found no congenial environment, except in the south, where, even at this late day, the Jew is as exclusive as his Christian neighbor. It was to the then far west that it was left to provide a home for "the exile of the world," a home that meant much at the start, and more and more as the fortunate years advanced.
The relations of the Jews of Cincinnati to their fellow citizens were always peculiarly pleasant, cordial, mutually forbearing. If the fact that the earlier Jews worked and fought shoulder to shoulder with the non-Jews is to be con- sidered, then equally good qualities must be attributed to both. Somewhere about this point lies the real truth. It cannot be gainsaid that the early Jewish settlers were of a superior class, counting among their number men of culture and wealth, and the truly aristocratic character of the Virginian or South Caro- linian who came here first there is no cause to question. To the south, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi. Louisiana and other territories came the cream of the cultured east, and Cincinnati's relations with that section of the country placed her on a par with her southern friends and made her the Queen City of
21
22
CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
the West. The growth of music, literature, art, science, commerce, churches, institutions, public schools, public organizations, all these grew with the spirit of these early comers. The misery, the squalor, the actual penury which existed among the Jews of the eastern cities, at no time was pronounced in Cincinnati.
How the Jews in Cincinnati won such an eminent and enviable position among their fellows the world over, is told at the proper places elsewhere. Suffice it to say here that in civic, communal and mercantile matters the Jews of Cincinnati have proved themselves progressive, liberal, earnest, sincere. Wherever the com- munity was menaced or attacked the Jew has stood beside the Christian in the forefront of the defense. The Cincinnati Jew was the first to attack the "Bible in the Public Schools," as he has always been among the foremost in demanding justice and the sacred guarding of personal rights, and in one instance as in another, until it has come to be the recognized rule, he was on the winning side,- the side of right and justice.
But the strongest tie that binds north, west and south to Cincinnati is the great educational institution, the Hebrew Union College, from whence came the rabbis of American Judaism that now fill nearly every prominent pulpit in the United States and scores of lesser ones. The growth of Jewish congregations throughout the country is phenomenal, not only among the Reform, but among the conservative and Orthodox elements as well. Aside from the Orthodox, whose growth is to be accounted for by the great influx of refugees, this regenera- tive movement is attributable directly and unquestionably to the Hebrew Union College, the greatest institution of its character in the world, born of Cincinnati brains, nurtured by Cincinnati enterprise and means, and placed in its proud position by masterful Cincinnati ability. That is the tie that binds the Jews of this great country to the mother city of the west. The Hebrew Union College has sent forth its graduates to preach the doctrines taught them here, to intro- duce the methods which here prevail, in the temple, in the Sabbath school, in the charity organizations, in the social, the intellectual, the daily life of the Cincin- natian, just as our young men went forth in the early days to introduce business methods in the new sections to the westward. In like manner has Cincinnati charity work been made the exemplar of the whole country, and in like manner has Cincinnati always stood for the highest in education, refinement, art, music, literature and the brotherhood of man.
Since the passing of Dr. Wise it has become a kind of habit with writers on this subject to trace the origin of the Hebrew Union College back to former cen- turies and continental countries ; to connect with the establishment of the Union of American Hebrew congregations and the Hebrew Union College many names. Such is not the fact. For a quarter of a century before the founding of the col- lege Dr. Wise worked alone, aided only by his paper, the Israelite, and in the face of every discouragement and difficulty to establish these two institutions he succeeded, not with the assistance, but in spite of those who should have stood by him. The loyalty and unwavering faith and support of the Cincinnati Jews made it possible to carry into effect the plans which he, and he alone, had formu- lated. For half a century Dr. Wise devoted more hours daily to this great work, at his own expense, than any merchant ever did to his business in the same space of time.
23
CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY
What Dr. Wise's idea was with reference to the establishment of a seat of higher learning is clearly shown in the minute book of K. K. Bene Yeshurun. In October, 1853, it was recorded that Dr. Wise was unanimously elected "Rabbi for life," and in accepting the call Dr. Wise wrote as follows, from Albany, N. Y., where he was at that time officiating as rabbi: "I am a friend of bold. plans and grand schemes, therefore I entertain the hope that the Talmud Yelodim Institute will in a few years realize my fervent wishes of a Hebrew college, in which our national literature may flourish alongside the classical and commercial education."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.