USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 69
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Peter A. Kemper received his early education at the district schools of Lewis county, West Virginia. From there he went to the Broaddus Classic and Scien- tific Institute at Clarksburg, West Virginia, where he pursued a classical course. Upon graduation he engaged in teaching for a period of three years, having had previously some experience in this profession, and later he entered a medical college at Cincinnati. From this school he received a medical degree in 1903, whereupon he returned to West Virginia, being engaged in practice at French Creek for a year and a half, and at Vandalia for two years. He then came to Ger- mantown in 1906, where he has since resided, and where he has built up a good practice.
On the 16th of March. 1904, Dr. Kemper was married to Miss Laurs Gertrude Hefner, the daughter of Henry J. and Rhoda (Gould) Hefner. Her father was a farmer and stockman and one of the prominent citizens of French Creek, West Virginia, taking an active part in local affairs and evincing much public spirit. Two children, a son and a daughter, Harold and Frieda Virginia, have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Kemper.
Although his professional duties require the larger share of Dr. Kemper's time he is yet able to attend many of the meetings of the Masons, among whom he is an active worker, and of the Modern Woodmen. In his college days he was initiated into the Tau Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and in the occasional meetings of the alumni chapter finds much diversion and enjoyment. Through his member- ship in the Ohio State Eclectic Society he keeps abreast of his profession and acquainted with the efforts and work of his fellow physicians. The best years of his life are still ahead of him, and as preparation for them he has laid a sub- stantial present, with the good-will of the people among whom he has practiced, given in return for faithful services and a skill in the mastery of a difficult pro- fession.
JACOB BENNER, SR.
Jacob Benner, Sr., one of Montgomery county's oldest farmers, owns and lives upon eighty-five acres of land, excellently adapted to farming, situated on the Centerville road, about one and a half miles from Miamisburg in an easterly direction. He is the son of Jacob and Polly (Gebhart) Benner. The former was the first of this large family to come to this locality. He came from Maryland, which was the birthplace and the lifelong home of his father,
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JACOB BENNER, SR.
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who was also named Jacob, and drove across the mountains to Ohio, settling on the old Kline farm, about three miles east of our subject's home. He faced successfully the many hardships that confronted the settlers of those early days, and when his life's work was over the country was the better for his having lived. His children were Philip and Valentine, both deceased; Jacob, of this review ; Alfred, deceased ; and a daughter who died in infancy.
Jacob Benner, Sr., was born in this county and is now one of its oldest men. From the schools here he received all that they could give him in the way of education, and from his father he learned the value of hard work, which has ever been one of his distinguishing characteristics through his long life. Self- made he may truly be called, for upon his own efforts alone did his advance- ment in life depend, and by them has he attained to his present position and been enabled to transmit a noble legacy to his children.
On the 3Ist of October, 1852, Mr. Benner was united in the holy bonds of wedlock to Miss Lusetta Leiss, who was the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Dubbs) Leiss, well known among the farmers of this county. She died on the Ist of March, 1909. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Benner. namely, Ebon, Elwood J., Hortense, Navy and Blanch. Elwood J. is the vir- tual manager of his father's farm and lives thereon with his family. He received his education in the school of district No. 7, and from his youngest days helped his father in the work on the farm. After attaining his majority he traveled for about two years, carrying a line of general merchandise. On the 3d of September, 1896, he was married to Miss Carrie McWinnie, the daughter of Mason and Mary ( Phillips) McWinnie. Two children, Jacob and Mary Lusetta, have since been born to him.
Mr. Benner, Sr., with the rest of his household, belongs to the Lutheran church and during his long life has ever been a credit to its teachings. As one of the oldest citizens of this county, he holds an enviable record, not alone for longevity but usefulness, strong character, and the other qualities that go to- ward making a man indispensable to a community. It is to be hoped that the years of his influence may not soon be curtailed.
REV. PROFESSOR F. W. E. PESCHAU, D. D.
The Peschau family has had its home in the city of Clansthal-Zellerfield, on the Hartz mountains, in the kingdom of Hanover, Germany, for about one hun- dred and fifty years. Two branches of the family migrated from the old family seat and their descendants are chiefly residing in the United States.
Hon. Edward Peschau, German imperial consul in the port of Wilmington, is the son of Rev. George Ludwig Peschau, who spent his whole life in Germany and was the first minister in the family's history. He was a graduate of the far- famed University of Goettingen and, after being ordained to the holy ministry, took charge of the Lutheran church at Altenbroch, near the city of Bremen. Here he lived and labored for fifty-two years, and here he died and is buried. One
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of his sons is a physician in Germany, and a nephew of his, Dr. Herman Peschau, resides in Nebraska.
Rev. Professor F. W. E. Peschau, D. D., of Miamisburg, Ohio, the subject of this sketch, was born in the city of of Clansthal-Zellerfield, Hanover, February 17, 1849. He is the eldest child and only son of Henry and Wilhelmine (Muehl- hahn) Peschau and had but one sister. The family came to the United States in 1853, on the ship North Carolina, and landed in Baltimore, where they re- sided a short time, and then removed to Wheeling, West Virginia, to take up a permanent residence. In Wheeling the aged father, Henry Peschau, did in 1897. The only daughter, Mrs. Augusta Fuhi, still resides there. The mother died March 9, 1877. She and her husband were buried in Mount Zion Evangelical Lutheran cemetery. Having spent his boyhood days in Wheeling, where he attended both a German parochial school and the public school, and having been confirmed, he was sent in 1867 to study for the holy ministry in the celebrated Lutheran college and theological seminary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There he spent six years. At his graduation he had the honor of delivering the German oration of his class, which was the largest the institution had graduated up to that time.
It is customary in Germany that when young Lutheran theologues have fin- ished their course that they teach either in private families or in a school, to use what they have learned and to get practical experience and to learn to understand life and the world, that their public teaching may be practical, wise and useful. This wish was cherished by the father, and so Professor Peschau accepted the honorable position tendered him and became superintendent of German in the public schools and professor of German in the high school in the city of Evans- ville, Indiana. This position he held three years, when he resigned that he might give himself exclusively to the ministry. He was asked by the board to reconsider and recall his resignation after its presentation, as he had given entire satisfaction. Called as Lutheran pastor to Nebraska City, Nebraska, he was soon after his removal there unanimously chosen superintendent of the public schools and served in that capacity two years. He also became professor of German in Nebraska College, an Episcopal institution located there, and for two years taught therein under the lamented Bishop Clarkson. All this was done in addition to his pastoral labors. Shortly after his removal to Nashville, Tennessee, he became professor of German in Dr. Ward's large female seminary, at that time the largest in the south, and also in Vanderbilt University, so that he taught continuously for about ten years.
Recognizing his talents, proficiency, experience and success both as a profes- sor and superintendent, the board of trustees of North Carolina College in 1883 unanimously elected him president of the college, but he declined the high and distinguished honor of a college presidency. As superintendent and professor he has had under his care about one hundred teachers and thirty-eight hundred children and students. He has been a prolific writer. For years he was editor of the German Gleanings, in the Lutheran Observer, of Philadelphia, the largest and most widely circulated English Lutheran church paper in the world. When the Southern Illustrated Monthly Magazine was begun in Nashville, Tennessee, which was one of the finest efforts in this line ever made in the south, but for lack
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of means failed, he was chosen editor. For about ten years he was associate editor of The Lutheran Visitor, the leading southern Lutheran church paper. Besides all this he has been special correspondent of several papers in both Eng- lish and German. He has not only lectured to his students in German university style, but has also delivered many addresses and lectures on educational and other topics before teachers' institutes, county, district and state conventions, schools, seminaries, colleges and universities. He has lectured in the following twenty states : Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia and West Vir- ginia. His lectures on The Cemetery of the Sea, Foreigners, Luther, The Lutheran Church, Moral Training in Public Schools and the Sons of Issachar have been delivered before thousands of people and received great encomiums from the press, from faculties of institutions, from private letters, etc. We apend just a few. The Charleston News and Courier says: "The learned and gifted speaker selected as his subject 'Foreigners,' and answered who and what they are and what they have done for this country. The effort was grand and the audience was delighted." The Die Deutsche Zeitung of Wheeling, West Vir- ginia, said: "Pastor Peschau is an extraordinarily fine speaker." Charlotte North Carolina Observer: "Mr. Peschau is a lecturer of fine ability and his lecture is one of the finest literary productions we have known to emanate from the pen of our home talent." Nashville Daily American: "In regard to the lecture I can only repeat what all others have said who have heard it, that it was grand, beautiful, sublime."
The sole aim and object of his public life has been to prove himself a faithful pastor and gospel preacher in the Evangelical Lutheran church; while he has talents in other directions and delights to use them to do good, the ministry is his chief delight, as it is his chief calling. Even as a student he organized two Sunday schools, and while engaged in the busy duties of superintendent and pro- fessor at Evansville, Indiana, he began and maintained and built up a mission in the courthouse that had a Sunday school of almost four hundred scholars.
His first regular pastorate was at Nebraska City, Nebraska, where he suc- ceeded the distinguished Rev. Dr. Eli Huber, who had been called to Philadel- phia as pastor of the large Messiah church. One Easter Sunday while pastor here he confirmed forty-eight catechumens. The work prospered in every direc- tion but the climate was too severe for the young pastor, and so on the united and urgent advice of several physicians he went south, accepting a call to the First church in the city of Nashville, Tennessee. The parting of the pastor and the people in Nebraska City was a touching one. The most pleasant relations possible had existed, the work was prosperous, and the pastor and people were mutually pleased and satisfied, so that it was painful to each side to speak the parting word. In Nashville, Tennessee, the pastoral relations were always pleasant and both the congregation and Sunday school grew steadily for years. The church being German, English services were introduced that were much appreciated and well attended, and proved to be of incalculable advantage to the church and its work.
About four years were spent in the famous capital of Tennessee and Rev. Mr. Peschau often' speaks of them with delight and of the kindness shown him while
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there, from the governor down to the humblest citizen. Having been unanimously called as pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran church of Wilmington, North Carolina, in December, 1881, he accepted the call and removed to that city in February, 1882. He has ever enjoyed the esteem of his congregation. The first two pastorates he served have endeavored several times to have him return as pastor when there was a vacancy and St. Paul's in Wilmington paid him the unusual honor and kindness of adopting, unanimously and heartily, a resolution in 1884, expressing the desire that he might remain its pastor during the days of his natural life. During his labors in Wilmington the parsonage interior has been completed and much improved and the exterior painted. The interior of the church has also undergone entire renovation. The interior has been finely fres- coed, new chandeliers and carpets have been supplied and a grand new pipe organ secured, and improvements made in many directions. Lutheran Memorial build- ing, an elegant edifice, was erected in 1884. In 1890 a lot was purchased and a fine chapel erected thereon in Brooklyn, known as St. Mathews Mission, which mission he started and organized. The congregation and Sunday school have both enjoyed a steady growth and are both in a flourishing condition. Up to the present time Rev. Peschau has had charge of and under his own supervision about eighteen hundred Sunday school scholars. Being an active church worker he has held many positions of trust and has received many church honors. Fully two-thirds of his time in the ministry he has been a synodical officer. He has occupied almost every possible office of ecclesiastical secretaryship from the lowest to the highest. For four consecutive years he was president of the North Carolina Synod, an honor no other man ever enjoyed in the history of this old body. He was the last president of the General Synod, South, at Roanoke, Virginia, and as the first president of the United Synod, South, opened its convention in Savannah, Georgia, in 1887, so that he was twice the chief officer in the entire Southern Lutheran church. The general Southern Lutheran body chose him as its repre- sentative to the Northern General Synod in 1887. He has frequently represented district synods, both as delegate to the general body and also to other district synods.
On the Ioth of June, 1891, he was complimented with the honorary degree of D. D., which was unanimously and heartily bestowed upon him by the board of trustees and the faculty of North Carolina College. Dr. Bernheim, his prede- cessor, wrote: "Your congregation is certainly advancing under your administra- tion and I say this sincerely and not as a mere compliment, the work speaks for itself." The Lutheran Home in a notice of him said: "We are glad to have such a worker in so important a field of labor."
Those who bear the banner of the cross successfully are worthy of all honor. We sometimes overlook the esteem due them-due not to pamper pride, but to "give honor to whom honor is due." We offer; therefore, no apology for this extended biography of one to whom God has given superior talents and the energy to use them.
On the 3d of June, 1873, Rev. Peschau was united in marriage to Miss Clara J. Myers, eldest daughter of Hon. A. K. Myers, Sr., of York Springs, Pennsyl- vania. They have six children living, four daughters and two sons. Dr. Peschau has published a number of songs of his own composition, including Ode to Gen-
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eral Andrew Jackson, which was sung by the Philharmonic Society and played by the Columbia (Tenn.) band at the unveiling of the Jackson Equestrian Statue in Nashville in 1880; Ode to Mrs. ex-President James K. Polk; God Bless Our Noble Firemen; There is no Home but Heaven; The Orphan's Plea ; and Father Ryan's celebrated Conquered Banner, which he later translated into German and set to music. He has published tracts, quite a number of sermons, a small book of poems, a sketch of Mrs. James K. Polk, dozens of pamphlets, etc. He has been elected honorary member by a number of literary societies con- nected with literary institutions, as Vanderbilt University, North Carolina Col- lege, etc. Various historical societies of national reputation and influence have elected him an honorary member, these including the Tennessee Historical So- ciety, the finest in all the southland ; and the German Historical Society of Mary- land, which is the finest in its line in the United States; Trinity Historical So- ciety, of Dallas, Texas; and others. He is corresponding secretary of the Wil- mington Historical Society, has been a director of the Wilmington Library Asso- ciation for about eight years, was acting chaplain of the Porter Rifles, the best infantry company of Nashville, Tennessee, and has often officiated as chaplain in both the house and senate of the Tennessee legislative bodies. He has been a delegate to county, state and international Sunday school conventions a number of times and was chosen a vice president of the North Carolina Sunday school convention in Charlotte.
The Doctor has received a number of calls from different churches and be- sides these has been offered other calls during his stay in Wilmington but he declined them all. Prominent among them was the call by the church of the Holy Ascension, of Savannah, Georgia, this being extended in February, 1891. This is the largest Lutheran church and congregation in the southern states, the church having cost about seventy-five thousand dollars. All these facts prove a recognition and appreciation of his talents and services on the part of the church. As to his scholarship we need but say that he not only studied Hebrew, Greek and Latin and the full college course but that he speaks, writes and uses English and German with equal fluency, ease and accuracy and has so far mastered the Norwegian language as to be able to hold services for Scandinavian seamen, which are most highly appre- ciated. His ability as a writer is demonstrated in the fact of his having been editor so many years. The many church offices he has held prove that he is a parliamentarian of recognized merit. The positions occupied in educational in- stitutions demonstrate that he is a successful educator. The many things written and accomplished by him establish his reputation as a many sided and indefa- tigable worker. His success as pastor and preacher is attested by the work done and the calls with which he has been honored. His theological attainments have been recognized and endorsed by the honorary degree of D. D. which has been conferred upon him. His oratorical powers have often been complimented and at the eighty-eight convention of the North Carolina synod he was publicly in- troduced as "the silver tongued orator of the North Carolina synod," and the Lutheran Visitor's reporter from South Carolina, who was present, published in his account the following: "He was introduced as the silver tongued orator of the North Carolina synod, and fully sustained that reputation. The address
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was a learned, able and eloquent presentation of the subject and is highly com- plimented by all."
While Rev. Peschau has talents, he has that which is better-industry; and while he has an enviable popularity, he has that which is better-humility. He ascribes all he has and all he has been able to do to the blessing and help of God, whose child and servant he is, and his one ambition is to spend and be spent, to fullest extent, in the Master's service.
In closing this sketch, which is a labor of love, the writer, Colonel T. G. Burr, wishes to add to what has been said above, that he has known Rev. Mr. Peschau intimately for the past ten years, although he is not a member of his church. No minister in the city of Wilmington of any denomination has the confidence and general esteem of the entire community to a greater degree than has Dr. Peschau. He is the only minister in our knowledge, experience and observation of fifty years, in all the south, that has the extraordinary ability to conduct the services of the church in three different languages, a thing he has done and is doing from Sabbath to Sabbath in the German, Norwegian and English languages. Rev. Peschau is still in the prime of life and we feel sure still higher honors await him in the golden future. In whatever way and from whatever source they may come, they cannot be bestowed upon one more worthy in every way, for he would grace any station in life and give dignity and worth to the highest official position.
From Wilmington, North Carolina, he was called to the pastorate of Zion Lutheran congregation, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, the oldest English Lutheran church west of the Allegheny mountains and one of the wealthiest in western Pennsylvania. This is the congregation to which the celebrated Hon. George F. Huff belongs. Here he spent seven years, from 1893 to 1900. Called from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to Miamisburg, Ohio, where he is at present living and laboring, he entered upon his duties in Ohio in 1900. Three churches have been greatly improved, thoroughly renovated, under his ministry and supervision, namely : St. John's, Grace of West Carrollton and the St. Jacob's of Miamisburg, which latter church has a membership of nearly a thousand.
For three years Rev. Peschau has been the secretary of the District Synod of - Ohio, and five years president of the Southwestern Conference, and for two years president of the Ohio State Lutheran League. He was elected and extended calls from the following congregations, which calls he, however, declined to ac- cept: St. Marks of Williamsport, Pennsylvania; the First English Lutheran, of Goshen, Indiana, and the St. John's English Lutheran, of Dayton, Ohio. He has been honored with twelve calls. The golden jubilees, in which he took a prominent part and delivered the principal sermons are as follows: the Pittsburg Synod's Jubilee in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; the District Synod of Ohio, at Lan- caster, Ohio ; Zion congregation, Greensburg, Pennsylvania ; St. Paul's, Wilming- ton, North Carolina ; the First church, Nashville, Tennessee ; and the centennials of the old historical Organ church, near Salisbury, North Carolina; and the Emmanuel congregation of Germantown, Ohio.
At the Nashville (Tenn.) centennial, he was the orator on German day, and on German day in Dayton he addressed thousands in German; and in Nova
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Scotia, near Bridgewater, in September, 1908, he with his excellency, Governor Duncan Fraser, were the orators before an audience of several thousand.
Thus far in his ministry, he has married over six hundred couples, officiated at over seven hundred funerals, baptized over one thousand five hundred persons, received into church membership, by confirmation and certificate, over one thou- sand five hundred persons. In his present pastorate he has a Sunday school of over seven hundred, which makes it one among the largest Lutheran Sunday schools in the state of Ohio, and has a thousand church members under his spiritual care and supervision.
SAMUEL M. BENNER.
Samuel M. Benner, a well-to-do farmer of Miami township, is the owner of seventy acres of fine land on the Centerville pike about two miles east of Miamis- burg. He was born on a part of this farm, July 10, 1865, and is the son of Val- entine and Caroline (Goudy) Benner. The paternal grandfather, Jacob Ben- ner, came here with his father Daniel Benner when a small boy and was among the first settlers in this part of the country, bringing many of the traditions of Virginia, their native state, with them. Jacob Benner's wife was Miss Elizabeth Gebhardt in her maidenhood, and in the family which she bore him was Valentine Benner. He was born on the old Benner farm that lay just below the one occu- pied by his son. Seventy-seven were the number of the span of years alloted to him, and when he died on the 17th of November, 1907, he was mourned as one of the best citizens of this county, for his years had been spent in useful labor, he was accounted a man of means and had ever been distinguished for the interest he took in public affairs. He lies buried in Miamisburg. Thirteen children were granted to him and his devoted wife, several of whom are living in this section of the county. They are Mary; Charles, deceased; Mason, of Dayton; Cornelia, of Miamisburg; Lucella; Edith, deceased; Samuel M.,; Wil- liam and Albert, both residents of Miamisburg; Gracie, deceased; Emma; Caro- line; and Robert.
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