USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 132
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Casper Grome, first German assistant in the Twenty- first district school, was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1849. He attended Hamelburg college in his native
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country, but graduated in Vincennes college, Westmore- land county, Pennsylvania, in 1867. He afterwards went to Oswego, Kansas, where he taught some time, but com- ing to Cincinnati in 1876, for his wife, Miss Martha Viola Striker (married at that time), he was induced to resign his position there and remain in the Paris of America- where he has since been in this school, in his present po- sition. He resides at No. 13 Fillmore street, Cincinnati.
M. D. Kellar, M. D., of No. 644 Main street, Cincin- nati, was born at Miamisburgh, Montgomery county, Ohio, January 7, 1843. He was three years in the army of the Cumberland, connected with the medical depart- ment at Nashville and Murfreesborough, Tennessee. He graduated at the Miami Medical college, Cincinnati, in 1868, and was in the Cincinnati hospital, since which time he has been in active practice in the city.
G. W. Oyler, principal of the Twenty-first intermedi- ate and district school, was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1828, and received his education in the public schools of Cincinnati, after which he taught school and went to Farmers college, completing its course in full. This was preparatory to a law course, which he completed in the Cincinnati Law school, graduating from that insti- tution in 1854. He has been teaching since 1856-a small portion of the time in a private school, but by far the largest portion as principal of the Twenty-first district. His labors have been onerous, inasmuch as he has charge of five buildings in all-there being twenty-seven teachers. He has both district and intermediate grades. He was married in 1858 to Miss Carrie Prudens, former- ly a teacher in the city schools.
Carl L. Nippert, first German assistant in the Twelfth district school, son of Rev. Louis Nippert, formerly well known in Cincinnati, now president of a college in Frankfort-on-the-Main, was born in that town, Germany, in 1852. He received his education in the Polytechnic school, in Zurich, Switzerland, and in Carlsrhue, graduat- ing in 1871. He came to Ainerica in 1876, in the inter- ests of the Centennial commission from that country, and from there to Cincinnati, where he has been teaching ever since, coming to the Twelfth district in 1877. His father was formerly a pioneer minister in the Methodist Episcopal church of this city, but was sent by the church to Europe in the interests of Methodism.
Hugo Haenger, of the Twenty-first district school, Cincinnati, was born in New York city, in 1848. He received his education in the public schools of that city, and in Dayton, Ohio, and has been in charge of the A grade of the intermediate department of this school since 874.
Charles S. Mueller, of the Twenty-first district school, was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, in 1842. He came with his sister to America in 1852, graduated in the old Polytechnic school of the city in 1864, since which time he has been teaching, now having charge of a building in Sedamsville, in the Twenty-first district. He was married to Miss Sophia Troescher, formerly of Germany. He has his residence on Price's Hill.
Alexander Torges, jr .- The hero of this sketch has passed through many storms, but as a good sailor, steered
his life-boat, with steady hand, over reefs and rocks, and reached the harbor in which safely anchored it can brave the storms of life. He has seen many lands and in the battles of life has gained many a victory, and though young in years, can look proudly to the past and in the future. "I will" is the motto on his coat of arms, and what he willed he has with clear head and rare perseverance carried out. He has lived through scenes which make men of youths, and his career shows that life counts not by years, but by deeds. Alexander Torges, jr., was born September 2, 1845, in Holzminden, a pleas- ant little city on the Weser, in the duchy of Braunsch- weig, in Germany, where his father was in the employ of the government, and later settled in Magdeburg and Seesen. After Alexander Torges, jr., had received his preliminary education at Jacobson institute in Seesen he visited the commercial college at Magdeburg. No- vember, 1860, the Torges family left for America, where young Alexander found employment directly on his arrival in New York, but not being to his taste he gave it up and followed a seafaring life, for which he had a decided inclination. He began his new life as cabin boy on the ship Edward, and gained a knowledge of the roughest side of sailor life, but his motto "I will" kept him up bravely; nothing could lessen his courage nor weaken his resolute determination. On the second trip of the Edward, while passing the Azores, they encoun- tered a severe storm, and coming across a disabled ship, the sailors at the risk of life saved twenty-six brave men from the jaws of death. A few years later, the Edward on her return trip from China, was pursued on the coast of Borneo by dastardly Chinese pirates, but a favorable breeze carried the ship Edward beyond their reach. Af- ter a voyage of two hundred days, the Edward landed in Bremenhaven, whence young Torges visited the places in which he had spent his youth, and then entered his name as sailor on a ship bound for Naples. In February, 1867, the ship was wrecked, but the crew took to the boats and after much suffering landed in Plymouth, where Alexander Torges, jr., was taken sick in conse- quence of so many hardships passed through during the last trip. On his recovery he returned to New York and entered the service of a coast steamer, but after repeated entreaties from his parents, he at last gave up the seafaring life and left for Cincinnati, where his parents at that time resided. Here he was engaged as agent for the Germania Life Insurance company. In 1869 he chose the business of commission agent, and as such has extended his business over the entire Pacific coast, which occasions a deal of travel, he having crossed the continent fifty times. On one of his stage trips through California, the passengers were robbed by high- waymen. Through his presence of mind a large sum of money which he had with him was not found, but a val- uable gold watch and chain were taken, which he, how- ever, recovered later. After Mr. Torges had travelled by land and water over one-half the world, he tried a new field for his labor, and spent large sums of money on the Courier, a newspaper which was at the time, May, 1874, in a sinking condition, and which it was impossible to
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save, but seeing that there was a field in Cincinnati for another German paper, he started, on the twenty-fifth of August, 1874, the Cincinnati Freie Presse, as a seven column four page evening paper, which was printed at another establishment. Despite the heavy opposition which met him on every side, he found it necessary after three months to enlarge and make a morning edition of his paper. One year later he edited his weekly paper, and later on started his penny evening paper, entitled the Tagliche Abend Presse. With steady perseverance and an energy that never flagged, he has accomplished wonders in the space of seven short years. Bought a Hoe press, the largest of its kind ever built, erecting and occupying a building devoted entirely to the business of his newspapers. Having fought for the true and right principles at all times, and won many a battle for the Republican party, we find him at the age of thirty-five the proprietor of the largest German paper ever issued, and the only man in the United States who edits two German daily papers, and can call them his own. Octo- ber 17, 1876, he married Miss L. Michaelis, a lady from New York city, from which marriage has sprung two children, a girl and boy. It seems the daring sailor has anchored his life-boat in safety, and we hope that love which is stronger than chains on anchors will keep it there.
Michael Kneiss, German, assistant in the Third inter- mediate was born at Hayenfeld, Bavaria, July 6, 1830. He received his education in the Latin academy and gymnasium in Speyer and Munich, and came to this country February 19, 1861. In 1862 he was appointed German teacher in the Sixth district, afterwards in the Seventeenth district, then the Twelfth district, coming to the Third intermediate September, 1871, where he has been ever since, and is known as one of our most com- petent and successful instructors.
Henry H. Fick, superintendent of drawing, Cincinnati public schools, born in the free city of Lubeck, Germany, August 16, 1849, came to this country after completing the course of studies of a widely renowned school of his native city, in May, 1864. Occupied for a period of five years in clerking in New York city and Cincinnati, his special aim was to extend and deepen the knowledge of the English language. Carrying out the dictates of his inclination, he turned his attention to teaching, having been appointed third reader teacher of the newly built Twentieth district school, which position he exchanged shortly for a place in the newly organized drawing de- partment. Under the supervision of Superintendent N. Forbriger he was in a short time promoted to the place of first assistant. The illness of Mr. Forbriger threw the ·responsibility of managing the department upon his shoulders, and upon the death of the same (November, 1878), Mr. Fick was, by resolution of the board of edu- cation designated acting superintendent. August, 1879, he was elected superintendent, which position he still holds. Besides being a member of many teachers' and pedagog- ical associations, Mr. Fick enjoys the membership of the Cincinnati Literary society and of the German Literary club. To the city of Cincinnati belongs the credit of
having been first in this country to organize a system of instruction in drawing for all the grades of the common school, and to place drawing upon a footing equal to that of the other studies of the curriculum. H. Eckel, esq., was instrumental in effecting the passage of a resolution of the school board, authorizing a reorganization of the drawing department, September, 1868. Previous to this time there had been isolated attempts at drawing in dif- ferent schools. There were even several drawing teach- ers. But the reorganization provided for_the uniformity of teaching, systematizing of subject matter, and by the election of Arthur Forbriger as superintendent gave the charge of the department to a responsible person. In the course of time one first assistant and three assistant teachers constituted the corps of drawing teachers. The success of drawing in the Cincinnati schools, attributable alike to the efficiency and conscientious work of those in charge and to the excellence of the system in use, has attracted the favorable notice of educators in all parts of the country and abroad. The reputation gained by the displays in the expositions at Vienna, Philadelphia and Paris, and sustained in our own annual industrial exposi- tions, is not only national but world-wide. All the chil- dren, from the lowest grade to the highest, take part in the study unless physically disabled. The beneficial in- fluence of the instruction is seen in the exactness, neat- ness, methodical arrangement and general appearance of the pupils' every-day work, in the intelligent appreciation of, and the love for, the beautiful in nature and art, and the value may be felt, as expressed in material dollars and cents, by increased aptitude and greater fitness for all mechanical work which presupposes a correct eye and a trained hand, guided by an intelligent and quick observation .:
O. Armleder, of the firm of O. Armleder & Co., 324 and 326 Elm street, is a native of Cincinnati, in which city he received his education after leaving the public schools, completing his course in St. Xavier's college in 1877. He also completed a commercial course in the Queen City college, and became book-keeper for the Cincinnati Lager Beer Bottling company until in the year 1879, when he became the head of the firm him- self.
William S. Flinn, principal of the Ninth district school, born November 30, 1845, is a great-grandson of Captain James Flinn, who was burned at the stake in 1790, and son of Ambrose Flinn, who now resides in Columbia township. Captain Flinn and his family, con- sisting of wife and two sons-Thomas and William -- came to Columbia with Major Stites, November 15, * 1788, where they remained during 1788 and 1789. During the winter of 1788, while in search of some horses, Captain Flinn was captured by the Indians, but in a few days afterwards made his escape. In the fall of 1789 he went back to his own home in western Pennsyl- vania, and after attending to his affairs there embarked in a flat-boat at the mouth of the Great Kanawha river with John May, Charles Johnson, and Jacob Skyles, and the two Misses Fleming, for Cincinnati, which place he was destined never to see. On their way down they
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were betrayed by two white men on shore, who feigning terror and destruction by the Indians induced the boat to land to take them in. The little crew, upon urgent solicitations of Captain Flinn and the Misses Fleming, but opposed by others, agreed to run near the shore to allow Captain Flinn to land, when, upon so doing, he was captured immediately by the decoy whites and the In- dians, who soon made their appearance, fired into the boat, and killed or captured them all. Captain Flinn was taken by the Indians up to Sandusky, and there cruelly tortured to death by burning him at the stake. His last words were: "May God have mercy on my soul." His widow was left with four children, and did not know for some years after what became of her hus- band. She and her children-Jacob, born March 16, 1790; William, Thomas and Elizabeth, moved to In- dian Hill about the year 1800, and, in 1838, having lived to a good ripe old age, she died. Thomas died when twenty years of age. Elizabeth married Jacob Parker, and reared a large family, and her youngest son, Jacob, has a large number of descendants in Indiana. William, her eldest son, died in April, 1867, aged eighty-two years. One of his sons was Judge Jacob Flinn, of the common pleas court of Hamilton county. But two children of William Flinn are now alive-Isaac, aged sixty-six, and Ambrose aged sixty- one.
Christian Rapp, principal of the Brown Street school, was born in Cincinnati the fourth of March, 1850. Dur- ing his early years he worked in a rolling-mill and took private lessons at night, and in this way educated him- self, with the exception of a short stay in Lebanon schools, Lebanon, Ohio. He had charge of a colony in the Twenty-first district school in 1872. In 1873 he was transferred to the Fourth district, where he remained un- til September, 1880, when he came here. He is the patentee of the reversible slate invented in 1876, and now generally used in the schools of the city and coun -. try. He is also patentee of a fire hydrant, now meeting with success.
Theodore Meyder, German assistant of the Brown Street school, is a native of Germany; received his edu- cation in the gymnasium of Nuertinger, and taught three years in Germany; emigrated to America in 1860. In 1862-63 he was in the army, as leader of the regimental band of the Fifty-second regiment, Kentucky volunteers. He had charge of the high school in Piqua, Ohio, also in Hamilton City, Ohio. In 1878 he came to Cincin- nati, where he has been since, as German assistant of this school.
George F. Sands, principal of the Fourth intermediate schools, Cincinnati, is a native of Columbus, Ohio. He graduated in the Hughes high school, Cincinnati, in 1855, since which time he has been teaching in the city schools of Cincinnati, taking charge of these schools twenty years ago.
R. P. McGregor, principal of the deaf mute school, was born in Lockland, Hamilton county, Ohio, April 26, 1849. Lost hearing by brain fever at the age of eight; went to the State institution for the deaf and dumb, at
Columbus, to be educated, and graduated therefrom in 1866; graduated from the National deaf mute college in 1872; taught for three years in the Maryland institution for the deaf and dumb at Frederick, Maryland; came to this city in the fall of 1875, when the day school for deaf mutes was opened and was placed in charge thereof. This school is the second of its kind established in the United States. There are only three others, viz: in Boston, Chicago and St. Louis, but the time is not far distant when every large city will have one of its own.
John B. Heich, of Cincinnati, was born in England in 1835. He was educated in his native country and emigrated to America when fourteen years of age. He was appointed clerk of the board of directors of the Ohio Mechanics institute in 1856, and has held that position ever since. He was the originator of the school of design, founded in 1856, and sustains the relationship of principal to the institution at the present time, having in charge ten teachers this year. During the war he was secretary of the Cincinnati United States sanitary com- mission of this city, and from 1857 to 1860 he was sec- retary of the Cincinnati industrial exposition each year. He takes great interest in the Ohio Mechanics institute, and shares largely in the responsibility of its manage- ment.
W. S. Jaques, of 130 West Sixth street, Cincinnati, is a graduate of one of the oldest colleges of medicine in the city. He has an extensive practice that not only reaches the States and territories of this country, but the foreign countries also. The Cincinnati Commercial, Gazette, Enquirer, and Times, have each commended the doctor in the highest terms of his treatment of the various cu- taneous, nervous and chronic diseases, and recommend him as an honorable and conscientious medical practi- tioner. He has been an energetic worker, and has suc- ceeded in establishing a large patronage.
Bernard Tauber, M. D., of Cincinnati, was born in Austria in 1849; studied in the gymnasium at Teschen, and entered the university in 1866. He also perfected a course of study in the Virginia university, and also in the- Bellevue hospital, New York. In 1871 he also graduated in the Cincinnati College of Medicine, after which he practiced his profession in Paducah, Kentucky, and was appointed examiner of army pensioners of the Government at that place. He returned to Europe and took up a specialty, studying the diseases of the throat and lungs, and attended courses in the various colleges of Vienna, Tubinger, London, Paris and Heidlebergh. In 1875 he came to Cincinnati and located as a specialist, paying his sole attention to the diseases of the nose, throat and larynx, and lectures on these branches. He fills the chair of hygiene in the Cincinnati College of Medicine; is an honorary member of the Tri-State Medical society; of the Ohio State Medical society; of the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati; of the South- western Kentucky Medical society ; and the only mnem- ber from Ohio of the Laryngological association of New York. The doctor is yet but a young man, but he seems . to have attained some eminence in his specialty.
E. Bonaparte Reynolds, M. D)., specialist, was born in
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1831 in the State of New York. In 1851 he graduated in Woorcester, Massachusetts, and afterwards practiced his profession in Albany and Rochester, New York. In 1854 he came to Cincinnati and located on Sycamore street, and has during these intervening years built up for himself a large paying practice. He was married, in 1854, to Miss Sarah Van Horsen, of New York. His father was a Revolutionary soldier, and his mother drew a pension on this account up to the year 1880, when she died.
James Pursell Geppert, M. D., physician and surgeon, was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, on the fifth of Decem- ber, 1850. His early education was received in the public schools, and later he attended the Gallia academy, from which he received a diploma. After graduating he was connected with his father, who was the leading mer- chant in his line, traveling principally. Afterwards he entered the printing and publishing business, and ac- quired a practical knowledge of the art preservative. He owned in whole or part a number of printing and publishing establishments which were attended with vary- ing success. At different times there were published in these establishments two dailies, one weekly and four monthly publications. During 1873, while connected with the Cincinnati Medical Advance, he began the study of medicine, and in 1877 graduated from Pulte Medical college and the School of Opthalmology and Otology. After this he pursued a special course of study in science in the University of Cincinnati for two years. In 1877 he was appointed to the chair of chemisty and toxicology. In 1878 he delivered lectures on microscopy and histol- ogy. In 1879 he was appointed to fill the chair of sani- tary science, upon which subject he is at present lecturer in the Pulte Medical college. The doctor is a member of the American Institute of homeopathy, Western Academy of homœopathy, chairman of the Bureau of Sanitary Science, and member of the publishing com- mittee of the Homeopathic Medical society of Ohio; secretary (for the past three years) of the Cincinnati Homeopathic Medical society, through whose efforts mainly this society was reorganized and sustained ; vice- president of the Institute of Heredity, Ohio Mechanics Institute Department for the Promotion of Science, etc. He is also publisher and editor of the Cincinnati Medi- cal Advance, having been associated with the journal since its first volume, or during the publication of eleven volumes.
Thomas F. Shay, of the law firm of Shay & Kary, Temple Bar, Cincinnati, is of Irish parentage, his father coming from Longford, Leinster, of that country, when about nineteen years of age, and died in Cincinnati about the year 1866. Thomas Shay completed his course of education in St. Xavier's college, after which he studied law under Charles H. Blackburn, and upon grad- uation entered into partnership and practiced his profes- sion conjointly with his instructor. He remained with Mr. Blackburn seven years as a member of the firm, but was compelled to retire for short time on account of a severe case of sunstroke. Mr. Shay afterward started alone in Temple Bar, but has lately formed a partnership
with Mr. Kary. In 1879 he was elected a member of the Cincinnati school board of education, which position he still holds. His practice has been largely of a crim- inal character, having had, in his time (and he is yet a young man), one hundred and eighteen cases of murder in the first degree to defend, beside a large list of cases of a less serious character. Mr. Shay is a hard worker, has a fine law library, and a good practice. In 1879 he was married to Miss Josephine Costigan, of Somerset, Ohio, whose father and brothers were lawyers of that place.
Lewis G. Bernard, general manager of the Cincinnati Mutual Life Insurance company, was a native of New York State, and having received his education in the nor- mal school at Albany, he came to Cincinnati in 1864. For a while he kept books for Dixon, Clarke & Co. In 1874 he was elected clerk of the board of city improve- ments, and afterwards for the board of public works, or- ganizing the first set of books used for the purpose. In 1877 he was elected county clerk, the only Democrat, we believe, ever elected to that office, either before or since. He is at present managing the Cincinnati Mutual Life Insurance company.
A. E. Berkhardt, who was very well known in the fur trade, was born in 1835, in Herschberg, near Zenis- beucken, in the Palatinate of the Rhine. When he was ten years of age, his father died, leaving his mother with three children, one of whom, a daughter, was already in America. The rest of the family, consisting of the mother, a daughter, and the subject of the sketch, came to America and came immediately to Cincinnati. Mr. Berkhardt's education was begun in Germany and was continued until his fourteenth year, when his mother died. He then entered the manufactory of Mitchell, Rammelsburg & Co. at a salary of one dollar a week; afterwards he went to work for a hatter, Jacob Theis. He advanced step by step until he attained the highest post. He then went into partnership with F. B. Berkhardt and took charge of his principal's business. They moved into larger quarters at 113 West Fourth street, where they are now. They export vast quantities of hides and furs from foreign markets. Their business is very extensive. Mr. Berkhardt was married in 1871, to Miss Emma A. Erk- enbrecher, and is now the father of four children, three sons and one daughter.
Mr. Robert Mitchell, one of the most prominent busi- ness men of Cincinnati, was born in the north of Ireland in 1811, and came to this country with his family in 1824. The family went to Indiana, then a part of the western wilderness. After enduring the hardships of pioneer life and by hard application acquiring an education al- most without a teacher, Mr. Mitchell came to Cincinnati at the age of twenty, with no capital excepting his strong personal character and indomitable will. After trying various employments, Mr. Mitchell apprenticed himself to the business in which he is now engaged. He served his time and there commenced business on his own ac- count which he carried on for five or six years. He then took advantage of the introduction of wood-working ma- chinery and established a small factory. Mr. Frederick
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