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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History of Noble
County, Ohio
with portraits and biographical sketches of some of
its pioneers and prominent men.
Chicago: L. H. Watkins & Co.,
1887
For Reference: Noble County was formed in 1851
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I. C. Wernecke |
I. C.
WERNECKE, son of Diedrich Henry and Frederica
Charlotta Lizabeta (Galbernagle) Wernecke, was born in
Vorden by Osnabruck, kingdom of Hanover, Germany, Dec. 6,
1818 and was educated in the common schools (Volkschule).
At the age of fourteen his ambition was to become a
professional teacher, and to obtain the means necessary to
prosecute his studies he taught the small scholars, ranging
in their ages from six to ten years. He was thus
enabled to obtain private instruction in music and other
branches not taught in the common schools at that time.
At the age of eighteen he passed a successful examination
and was licensed to teach. Shortly after, a teacher in
the seminary received an injury to one of his eyes, and had
to give up his place. Mr. Wernecke was invited
to fill the vacant chair. Upon inquiry he found that
he must take charge of nearly 150 pupils. This was a
responsibility he did not like to assume, and as many of his
friends were preparing to emigrate to America, he decided to
cast his lot with theirs and try what fortunes or
misfortunes the New World had in store for him. He
accordingly left Germany in May, 1837, and reached New York
in July. In August of the same year he went to
Savannah, Ga. A short time after his arrival at
Savannah he was prostrated by fever, from which he did not
recover until the following March. In May of 1838 he
returned to New York, remaining a few days in the city.
He took a trip up the Hudson to Rondout. At Rosendale
he got employment in a cement quarry, where he remained till
the spring of 1839, when the company employing him
suspended, and he was thrown out of employment. By the
advice of a friend in Baltimore, Md., he left New York and
went to that city. From Baltimore, in company with
Judge John Davenport, he came to Barnesville, Ohio.
Finding no employment here, he visited J. F. Bidenhorn
at Malaga, Monroe County, Ohio. He had known Mr.
Bindenhorn in Germany. "At this time," says Mr.
Wernecke, "I had barely fifty cents in the world."
Here he attended an English school for a few months, then
entered J. F. Bidenhorn's tobacco house. The
next year he was so fortunate as to obtain a situation in a
store as a clerk. He was taken in as a partner in
1847. In May of 1849 he married Mrs. Sarah Neptune,
daughter of Albert and Sarah Lambert. She died
in 1858. Five children were born to them, tow of whom
died in infancy. The others are Herman A., who
married Albertine Werlitz, and is in business with
his father at Harriettsville; Charles T. married
Jane Finney, and resides in Montana, and William G.
married Hester Dickison and lives in Harriettsville.
In the fall of 1849 he formed a partnership with
Theodore Beninghaus, and moved to Harrietttsville, Noble
County, Ohio, where he continues to reside with his youngest
son. In 1858 Mr. Beninghaus died, after which
he set up in business for himself.
In 1852 or 1853 Mr. Conrad Shankburg came from
the city of New York to clerk for Mr. Wernecke.
He married Lydia Jane Neptune, the stepdaughter of
Mr. Wernecke, by whom he had three children:
Albert, Rupert and Frantz. In 1873 Mr.
Shankburg took his two oldest sons to Germany to be
educated there. Albert is still in Heidelberg,
studying medicine. Rupert came home in 1880.
The two youngest sons are now with their father.
Mrs. Shankburg died in 1872. In 1880 Mr.
Shankburg left Mr. Wernecke, with whom he had
been in business for several years and went to Marietta,
Ohio, and engaged in the wholesale grocery trade, and later
to Sioux City, Iowa, where he has a prosperous business.
Mr. Wernecke married in 1860, Mrs. Temperance
Ogle, daughter of Butler and Chloe
Wells who died Jan. 19, 1885. By this marriage he
had one daughter, wife of A. W. Sutton; she resides
in Kentucky.
Mr. Wernecke has 265 acres of fine agricultural
and pasture lands near the town of Harriettsville. He
has a large and convenient store room in town, filled with a
fine assortment of merchandise, and in addition to his fine
family residence owns several houses and lots. He has
handled every year, since 1849, 250 hogsheads of tobacco,
and has on hand now (April, 1887) some twenty thousand
dollars' worth. In 1870 he laid out the addition to
the town of Harriettsville, improving the town very much.
He was postmaster from 1856 to 1886. He was an
old-line Whig until the organization of the Republican
party, with which he affiliated, and with which he has acted
ever since. He has long been connected with the
Lutheran church, and contributed largely in building the
German Lutheran church near Harriettsville, of which he has
been secretary and a member of the financial board of the
society. He has been school director also, and
treasurer of the township for a number of years. His
life has been a busy and useful one; by industry and economy
he has acquired much wealth. In his varied business
transactions he has associated with men of all classes, yet
no man is more highly esteemed for his integrity and correct
business habits than he.
Source:
History of Noble County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: L. H.
Watkins & Co., 1887 - Page 527 |
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
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