History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 134

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 134

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

Robert H. West, of the firm Daniel Wunder & Co., was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1847. His father died when he was but twelve years of age, when he came to Cincinnati; and being in poor circumstances, had to make his own way, get his own education at odd hours and during leisure times, all of which he has suc- ceeeded in doing. He began working for Joseph A. Patterson, in whose family he also lived three years. His mother came to the city afterwards, and his work largely contributed towards supporting her and her fam- ily. His father was a steamboat captain, but lost his wealth in 1857. Mr. West was with Krohn, Feiss & Co., wholesale and retail cigar manufacturers, eight years, until 1868, when he married Miss Kate Wunder, daugh- ter of Daniel Wunder, since which time he has been in the live stock business. Mr. Wunder going out in 1875, he, in company with Mr. Long, has had charge of the business since.

Daniel Weber, of Cincinnati, was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1833. He removed with his parents to Cincinnati, in 1841, where he has since resided. He engaged in mechanical pursuits until the breaking out of the war, in 1861, when he entered as a private in the .Thirty-ninth regiment Ohio volunteers, and served with that regiment until the close of the war, in 1865. He was successively promoted to lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel and colonel of the regiment. He was elected sheriff of Hamilton county in 1868, and served one term; has since been engaged in mercantile pursuits. He is now a member of the well-known firm of Weber, Luper & Co., one of the leading firms in the city en- gaged in the live stock trade.

Henry Behring, carpenter and builder, No. 12 Baker street, is a native of Hanover, Germany. When about fifteen years of age he emigrated to this country, coming directly to Cincinnati, where he embarked in business for himself. In 1865 he built a good, substantial house, No. 249 Dayton street, at that time on the edge of the city. In 1854 he was married to Miss Margaret Ort- man, who is also a native of Germany. Mr. Behring is a member of the Cincinnati board of education, now ser- ving out a second term in that office.

H. J. Berens, wholesale and retail grocer, Cincinnati, was born near the river Weser, in Germany, in 1843. In 1850, when seven years of age, he came to Cincinnati, where he has received his education and performed the part of a prominent citizen, having served first on the board of aldermen, and also as a member of the board of education for six years of his life. He was married in 1877 to Miss Mary Jane Malloy, of Cincinnati, a native of Ireland. His father was a teacher in Germany, also his eldest brother, who is engaged in that work in Han- over, of that country.

W. Kleinoehle, receiving clerk of the county treas- urer's office, also proprietor of an establishment corner of Twelfth and Walnut streets, was born in Freiburg, Baden, Germany, October 29, 1828, in which country he followed merchandising until about 1850, when he emi- grated to America. He did business awhile in the cities of New Orleans, Shreveport, Louisiana, Louis-

ville, Kentucky, Evansville, Indiana, and came to Cin- cinnati in 1855, where he still lives. He was book- keeper for ex-mayor Jacob nine years; was United States assistant assessor for five yaars; was with Wernert Goettneim & Co. four years; was cashier of the county treasurer's office for four years. Mr. Kleinoehle has for many years suffered severely with rheumatism, so much so that he is now more or less compelled to confine him- self to the duties of his restaurant and saloon.

Frederick Pfeister, assistant superintendent of the United Railroad Stock-yards company, was born in Cincinnati in April, 1846. He received his education in the Cincinnati public schools, graduating in Woodward in 1858. He was with Tyler, Davidson & Co., hardware merchants, Nos. 140 and 142 Main street, eight years, and afterwards superintendent of the yards at Brighton station, but left that to accept the assistant superintend- ency of the United Railroad Stock-yards company, having himself an interest in the company. The Twenty- fourth ward, in 1879, elected him by a large majority to a membership in the city council, he running ahead of his own party ticket. He has also held the presidency of two building associations. His father, Frederick Pfeister, came over from Rahrbach, Germany, in 1831. He kept a boot and shoe store on Main street, and was a prominent man, filling many positions of honor and trust in the city before he died, in 1873. Mr. Pfeister was married to Caroline Hagenbush. She was born in Billigheim, Germany, February 28, 1848, and was a daughter of Dr. John and Barbara Hagenbush, her great- or grand-uncles being Carl Joseph Boye, chief officer of customs, and Adolph Boye, chief justice under King Ludwig, and George Boye, general under Napoleon I.

Mr. F. Thompson, of Cincinnati, was born June 7, 1822, in the city of Wheeling, Virginia, where he was educated. In 1835 he removed to Hebron, Licking county, Ohio, and in the service of Cully & Taylor, pork packers and grain dealers, he remained three years, re- ceiving sixty dollars for the first year and board. From there he went to Taylor & Brother, Zanesville, Ohio, and remained there several years as their salesman. In April, 1843, he came to Cincinnati, to a dry goods establishment formerly known as the Bee Hive, where, after remaining several years, he entered the wholesale grocery house of Thomas H. Miner & Co., and was there several years, and afterwards formed a partnership with Mr. Fisher, senior member of the firin, and went into the pork-pack- ing business, but withdrew from the firm in the year 1848. He next engaged with the firm of Bales, Whit- cher & Co., wholesale dealers in hats, caps, furs, etc., and afterwards went into the business, with Mr. Whitcher as partner, under the name of M. F. Thompson & Co., and continued until the death of his partner, when. he as- sumed all liabilities and paid to the administrators of the estate a profit of nearly twenty thousand dollars. He afterwards associated with S. Goodrich and Calvin Feeble, under the firm name of Thompson, Goodrich & Co., and continued the business some time. The city of Cincinnati has called him to the city council, in which membership he has filled the chairmanship of commit-

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tees on finance, water works, and of other important interests represented by that body. He has been con- nected with the mercantile library for over twenty years.

Fred Klimper, a native of Germany, born March 10, 1832, at Velssa and Vechta, grand duchy of Aldenburg. When three and one-half years old his father died and his mother moved to Lohne in 1839, emigrated to Am- erica, and came to Cincinnati in the fall of the same year, and settled at the northeast corner of Sixth and Sycamore streets. In 1840 his mother married Captain J. H. Puttmann, and for twenty years carried on the grocery business at 64 Sycamore street. Fred, the name by which he is generally known, received but a limited school education. In 1845 he started out in time to earn his bread at the printing business, first with A. Pugh, corner Fifth and Main street, from there to the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, where he remained until 1847, when, tiring of the printing business, he engaged with A. & J. Wolf, No. 76 Main street, as stock-keeper in the clothing business. In February, 1851, he entered the employ of Messrs. Heidelback, Seasongood & Co., in the same capacity, and from stock-keeper advanced to salesman, and for a number of years represented said firm on the road. Remained with said firm until 1875, nearly a quarter of a century. In 1874 he opened a merchant tailoring store at the northwest corner of Main and Seventh streets. In 1877 he was elected a member of the Sixty-third general assembly, and has proved himself an industrious, sensible legislator. He is a peerless, constant old-line Democrat, and deserves the confidence of the people irrespective of party. In 1852 he married Miss Dora Kroger, by whom he had ten chil- dren, seven boys and three girls, of whom nine are living-six boys and three girls.

Z. Getchell, of Cincinnati, is a native of Maine, born in the year 1832. He became an orphan when three years of age, and was thrown in a helpless condition upon a cold, unsympathizing world, receiving nothing except what he earned himself. This was true even to the wearing of his first pair of shoes. When eight years of age he formed two resolutions which he has carried out to the letter; the first was never to drink a drop of ardent spirits, the second was never to use tobacco in any form. He was the colaborer of Neal Dow, and helped to form the famous Maine liquor law. Before the war he went to New Orleans on his way to Europe, but sickness detained him, and he was made superin- tendent of the street railway of that city, but upon the breaking out of the Rebellion he was pressed into the service and required to build the famous New Orleans howitzers-a battery of six pieces of flying artillery. He had formerly superintended the manufacturing of cotton gins and presses for Chapman & Gunison, and being found a mechanic of no ordinary genius, was put to this work, but he constructed the batteries in such a manner as to render them inoperative. He was next pressed into the naval service, and was the assistant superintend- ent in the construction of the Great Louisiana, but again keeping his right hand from knowing what his left hand did, secretly tunnelled the sliding and bilge ways together

and so detained the launching of the boat for twenty-one days. For this he was suspected, and the day he was to be hung Farragut entered the harbor. He again served the Union, being on the Louisiana. Commodore Mc- Intosh ordered that the heavy sixty-four Parrot rifle changed in position so as to bring it to bear upon the Union forces. But all the guns then bearing on our forces were dismantled, first to make ready and the big gun changed, but not mounted for use, when Farragut let loose hail and shot, clearing the boat, the river, and captured the forts. Such is a brief outline of this remark- able man.

James Hopple, 42 and 44 West Second street, whole- sale grocer, was born in Cincinnati in 1815. His father was a tobacconist, having come from Philadelphia and located on lower Market street in .1805. His store, cor- ner of Third and Main streets, was near a large apple orchard, which Mr. Hopple remembers well. James was raised in the store, received a good education, and afterwards completed a course in the Ohio Medical col- lege, of Cincinnati, graduating about the year 1849. He practiced his profession some ten years, but lived on his farm in Clermont county nearly twenty years. He has always been prominently connected with the busi -. ness interests of Cincinnati, he and his brother Richard having built the Spring Grove railroad in 1860; and he having also been connected with various positions of the fire department of the city. In 1837 he was married to Miss Julia L. Pease, who was raised by W. L. Clark, a large pork dealer of the city at that time. He is the father of three children, of whom one son, James C., is with him in the business.

Julius Engelke, of Cincinnati, was the youngest of four brothers, and was born at Hartzberg, at the foot of Hartz mountains, Prussia, in Hanover, in the year 1839. His parents were wealthy and of the Protestant persua- sion. His father died about the time he was born; and when nine years of age he was put in charge of an uncle, where he remained until fourteen years old. He then went to another uncle, who taught him the saddlery trade, and whom he served four years as an apprentice. When about twenty years of age, in 1854, he emigrated to America, following his brothers Fred and William, and worked at his trade. When the war broke out he served in the hundred-day service. In 1864 he began business for himself, in which he has been successful up to the present time. He has been a member of the Turners' association for twenty-five years, and its presi- dent several terms; has been an Odd Fellow for twenty years; has been eight years in the city council; has been president of several building associations; has been a member of Fire Company No. 2, on George street, using a hand engine from 1855 to 1858; and has worked in Chicago, Louisville, St. Louis and Cincinnati.

John Straehly, the well-known dry goods merchant, at 501 Vine street, came to Cincinnati with his parents from Germany, when but ten years of age. His father was poor and empty-handed, making it necessary for John to do for himself even during the tender years of his life. He secured work in a dry goods house, and for

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seven years plied his apprenticeship, after which he opened up a store on Central avenue, and remained there from 1855 to 1861. He then removed to where he is at present located, since which time, owing to close application to business, having not lost a day from the store in seventeen years, he has succeeded in accumula- ting a small fortune. He has been honored with position in the city council, and is at present a member of the board of education of the Cincinnati schools.

John W. Legner is a native of Europe, but in 1847, when about two and a half years old, his parents came to Cincinnati. Since 1860 he has been on Central ave- nue, near Ninth, now over twenty-one years in one place. He is a strong Republican, and is a member of the city council, now serving out his second term. During the war he was a member of company B, Ohio cavalry, and was wounded December 16, 1864, at Nashville, Tennes- see, while in the act of discharging his carbine. His wife, Miss Lydia Leonard, is a daughter of John Leon- ard, a wealthy retired merchant of Urbana, Ohio.

Henry Schlotman, president of the board of equaliza- tion of Hamilton county, is a native of Germany; came to this country with an older brother and sister when but thirteen years of age, his parents having died when he was but three years of age. His career has been va- ried. For a time he followed the river, then became a manufacturer of the Venetian blinds, on Sixth and Vine. From 1863 to 1867 he served in the city council; in 1866 was elected sheriff of the county; in 1871 was nominated by the Republican party for the legislature, but the whole ticket was defeated. He then again be- came a manufacturer until 1878, when he was elected by the council as a member of the decennial board of equalization.

H. Wiethoff, deputy State supervisor of oils, No. 26 East Second street, Cincinnati, was born in Prussia April 12, 1833. His parents both died when he was but twelve years of age, since which time and until eighteen years old, he worked upon different farms as helper, but at the end of this time he emigrated to this country, landing in Baltimore in 1851, and came to Cin- cinnati in 1852, and until the year 1856 worked as day laborer, assisting gaugers and helping in brick-yards, the former employment helping him in what seemed to be his life-work afterwards. He was first appointed assistant gauger under W. R. Taylor, and remained so until 1863, when he received the appointment as assistant gauger by the city council. In 1865 he was appointed United States gauger, and 1871 commercial gauger by the Cin- cinnati Chamber of Commerce, which position he now holds. In April, 1881, he was reelected a member of the city council, and in May, 1881, he received his com- mission as a deputy supervisor of oils, which lasts until 1883.

F. W. Gerstle, of Cincinnati, was born in Flemlingen, Bavaria, Germany, in 1819. He received a good educa- tion, and then taught two years in Hainfield. His father died when he was but eleven years of age. His brother is a Catholic priest and has officiated in that capacity now over fifty years. He came to America in 1850, and

travelled over the whole of the United States during a period of about six years with different circuses, the last of which was with Dan Rice. In 1847 he visited his fatherland, and again was there a few years ago. He is a member of the German Pioneer association, being one of two who started it. He has been its president, and has also served as its secretary for many years, and as a token of regard the society, in 1880, presented him an elegant gold watch in consideration for services rendered. Mr. Gerstle has been for fourteen years president of the Cincinnati Philharmonic society; three years its secre- tary and two years its treasurer. He has always taken an interest in that branch of study, having been a music teacher in Germany. In 1873 he was struck with par- alysis, one whole side being seriously effected. In 1875 he began the livery business with his son, at 120 and 122 Court street.

Hon. Joseph Siefert, of Cincinnati, was born Decem- ber II, 1810, in Waldburg, Germany. He attended the common schools until fourteen years of age, and then learned the trade of masonry and stone-cutting, which he followed for several years, when, in the military draft, he drew number five and was booked for six years, but, after serving three years in the service, he hired a substitute, which cost him a hundred American dollars, and in 1834 left home for America, landing at Baltimore, and travel- ling on foot via Wheeling, Virginia, and Portsmouth, Ohio, came to Cincinnati, where he began, in a half hour after his arrival, a vigorous use of the trowel, laying stone for Mr. Hickcock, from whom he received one dollar and seventy-five cents a day. At the end of six months he obtained a contract on his own account from Mr. William Doman, building agent of the United States bank. From this on he entered largely into this busi- ness, frequently employing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty hands. He built the Little Miami depot, the first large tank for the gas company, Lang- worth's nine cellars and a number of brewers' vaults. He was member of the Soldiers' Relief union, for the Tenth ward, and for eight years represented that ward in council. For seven years he was chairman of the sewerage committee, and headed the committee on the city in- firmary for four years; was a director of Longview asy- lum for nine years; was captain of a company during Kirby Smith's raid, and has done much to relieve his ward from the draft. He has made two trips to Europe, the city council seeing him off with a band of music and was welcomed back by the Pioneer association in the same way, of which society he was an honored member.

George Weber, of the firm of Weber Brothers, on Main near Ninth street, was born August 28, 1845. His parents came from Hanover, Germany, in 1826, and his father afterwards established the large factory now owned by Mr. Weber and his brother Martin. In 1876 Mr. Weber was put forth by the Republican party for county sheriff but defeated, and again in 1878, when he carried the county by a majority of two thousand votes, defeat- ing the ex-mayor, W. E. Johnson, the opposing candi- date. The party has received his services many times and in many ways in performing committee work, and

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especially during the Hayes campaign. He was married to Miss Hortye, of Cincinnati, December 14, 1867, and is pleasantly located in a nice residence on Eighth street.

John Schneider, proprietor of mills and bakery 524- 528 Walnut street, is a Bavarian by birth, coming to this city in 1854. He was educated in Germany, and served the allotted soldier period required by the laws of that country, after which time he went into the bakery busi- ness. In 1857 he started just opposite his present loca- tion, but changed over to the spacious buildings he now owns in 1865, since which time his business has increased to large proportions. He is patronized now by every State in the great south, and makes a specialty of rye flour and rye bread. During the war he took an active part in drilling companies for active service. He is a strong Republican and has served in the council cham- ber, but does not want nor care for office. He was mar- ried in 1857 to Miss Kate K. Shaeffer, a former school- mate of his in Europe.

Frank H. Talke, farrier, 1171 Vine street, was born in Prussia August 13, 1832. He was one of ten children and learned his trade under his father. He came to Cincinnati in 1853 and started a shop near the corner of Main street and the Old Hamilton road, afterwards at the corner of Linn and Hopkins streets, then at 58 Free- man street. In 1858 he entered the army of the west in the United States quartermaster's department, but re- turned to his old trade soon after on Vine street, No. 702, coming to 1171 of that street, where he is now com- fortably situated in business, in 1865. His wife, Miss Dora Neunecke, of Germany, came to this country about the same time he did. They were married in the year 1856.

Shaller & Gerke, now located at the corner of Canal and Plum streets, is a firm having had an existence of thirty years standing. The firm, Eagle brewery, employs a force of fifty men, who are all engaged in the manufac- ture of beer, its production being about fifty thousand barrels per annum. About three-fourths of this is sold as city trade, the rest being shipped to their customers in Ohio and Indiana. The premises upon which the brew- ery stands measure one hundred and fifty feet on Plum to two hundred and seventy-five feet on Canal street.

Frederick Roos, of Cincinnati, was born in Witten- burg, Germany, in 1834. Came to Cleveland when eighteen years of age, and was head waiter for the Weddell House of that city for ten years, after which he came to Cincinnati and entered into business with Mr. Rebel, under the firm name of Roos & Rebel, on Vine street; but after a short time commenced operations for himself in the famous Atlantic garden, where he continued until his death which occurred September 25, 1880, having been proprietor of the last-named place for thirteen years. He was married in 1874 to Miss Haveria Hoch, who emigrated to America in 1866.

John Remier, a native of Cincinnati, received his early education in the city schools, and at the breaking out of the late war went into the service as forage master, going first to Clarksburgh, Virginia. He was in General Rose- crans' headquarters, and with the army in the two great

battles of Stone River and Chickamauga. He was after- wards in the one hundred day service, also in the Fifth Ohio cavalry when the army was disbanded. After re- turning to Cincinnati he began his present business, but did not move to his sample rooms on Fourth and Cen- tral avenue until the year 1871.

D. L. Billingheimer, proprietor of billiard hall 210- 212 Vine Street, was born in New York June 28, 1849. His parents were emigrants from Germany in 1834. In 1860 they removed to Cincinnati, where Mr. Billing- heimer received his education, and taking a liking to bil- liard playing became engaged in that business. In 1868 he took lessons of Professor Deery, the champion player of America, and became a known billiardist throughout the country himself, having no equal for one of his age. After leaving the International billiard hall he took charge of the billiard hall of the St. James' hotel, working un- der H. P. Elias, where he remained three years, and after a short stay in Chicago returned to Cincinnati and opened a daily market on Central avenue, and began in the commission business, but was burned out, losing every dollar he owned. He next embarked in the bil- liard business, starting up where the coliseum now stands, with five tables; but after two years' stay reinoved where Frederick Hunt kept a hall, next to the Enquirer office, and opened up with eleven tables, and from there re- moved "over the Rhine," tore up the old Germania the- atre, and established a hall having fifteen tables. He came here during the year 1879, having bought out the property that formerly belonged to Philip Tie- mans, where he is nicely located with a large paying cus- tom. His hall is lighted by the Brush dynamo-electric machine, and gives a light equal in power to twelve thou- sand candles, and is said to be the only billiard hall in the United States lighted by this kind of machine.

F. Vormohr, proprietor of a flourishing dye house on Woodward avenue, was born in October, 1843, in Ger- many. He came here about the year 1860, and, after working in a harness shop three or four years, started for himself in the dyeing business on Green street, afterwards moving to his present location, where he has been suc- cessfully engaged for some years. He married a Miss Anna Wessaler, formerly of Germany.

George A. Hauck, of Cincinnati, was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1829, and when twenty-eight years of age -in 1865-came to this city, since which time he has built up for himself a successful business, operating first on Plum and Findlay streets, but finally opened up at No. 823 Central avenue, near Mohawk bridge, where he is at present manufacturing for beer brewers and wine merchants. He has been twice married; his present wife, Maggie Boller, came over in 1865.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 134

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666