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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS
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Welcome to
PUTNAM COUNTY,
OHIO
History & Genealogy
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BIOGRAPHIES
 Source:
A Portrait and Biographical Record of Allen & Putnam
Counties, Ohio
Containing Biographical Sketches of Many
Prominent and Representative Citizens,
Together with Biographies and Portraits of all the
Presidents of the United States
and Biographies of the
Governors of Ohio
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Publ. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co.
1896
< CLICK HERE to
GO to 1896 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX PAGE >
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of TABLES of CONTENTS and BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES >
I. H. KAHLE |
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L. F. KONST,
a successful farmer and merchant, postmaster of
Elm Center, and trustee of Liberty township,
Putnam county, Ohio, is a native of Holland, and
was born Aug. 8, 1837. His parents were
Frank and Phena (Tenhaven) Knost, also
natives of the same country, where they were
married and where their four children were born.
The father was a shoemaker by trade, and in 1846
brought his family to this country, locating in
Medina county, Ohio, where he bought a farm and
united agriculture with shoemaking until 1852,
when he came to Putnam county and bought a tract
of wild lands in Ottawa township, on which,
however, was a small cabin. This land he
and his children soon cleared up and converted
into a comfortable home, and here his wife’s
death took place some years previous to his own,
which occurred about 1887. The four
children alluded to above were named John,
who is a farmer near New Cleveland, Putnam
county, Ohio; L. F., the subject of this
sketch; Peter, who served through the
Civil war, and died in 1891 of disease
contracted in the service, leaving a widow and
three children, and Catherine, wife of
Matthias Otto, a farmer residing near
the old Konst homestead.
This family was reared in the faith of their
parents, that of the Catholic church.
L. F. Konst, on arriving at New York from Europe
with his father, passed seven months in that
city, and then lived five years in Medina
county, Ohio, then came to Ottawa township,
Putnam county, where he grew to manhood.
He was fairly educated in German and English in
the common schools, and in 1856 left the home
farm and went to Cincincinnati, found
employment at carpentering, and remained there
until January, 1861, when he returned home, and
in the fall of the same year, October 8, married
Miss Caroline Burkhardt,
who was born in Ottawa township, Putnam county,
in 1843, a daughter of Adam Burkhardt, a
German by birth and a stonemason, who came to
this locality in an early day and did much work
for the county, and was also a prominent farmer.
For six years he has been living in retirement,
being now eighty-seven years of age. Mrs.
Burkhardt died about 1885, a member of
the Catholic church and the mother of seven
children, viz: Louis, a saw-mill
man; Theresa, widow of Charles
Stine; Caroline, wife of subject;
Joseph, a saw-mill man; Elizabeth,
who first married H. Radebaugh, then
William McCrary, and then a Mr.
Inman; Henry, a carpenter and a
farmer, and Martha, wife of John
Farley, a farmer. The happy union of
Mr. and Mrs. Konst
has been blessed with ten children, nine boys
and one girl, viz: Frank, proprietor of a
brick and tile factory, Continental; Charles,
employed by his brother Frank; John,
a barber of Geneva, Ohio; Joseph,
Louis and Thomas, farmers; and
Martha, Rudolph, William and
Matthias, at home. All of this
family are devout Catholics. After his
marriage Mr. Konst continued
carpentering for six years, then rented lands
and farmed until 1882, when he bought a
half-interest in a saw-mill at Elm Center, and
the same year purchased a tract of land, of
which a small piece was cleared, but on which
there was no house. Being a carpenter he
soon had a fine two-story dwelling erected and
moved into it. He conducted his saw-mill
several years and had his farm of fifty acres
cleared up and improved and placed in a good
state of cultivation. His dwelling, barn
and out-buildings are model structures and are
ornaments to the neighborhood and show evidence
of being erected by a master mechanic, while his
farm is a model of neatness and thrift.
Mr. Konst was first to suggest the
establishment of a post-office at Elm Center,
and in 1887 he succeeded in his design. He
was made the first postmaster and still holds
the position, having been appointed during the
first administration of President
Cleveland by Postmaster-General William
F. Vilas. Mr. Konst kept
the office the first year in his own house, and
in 1888 he erected a building to which he
transferred the office and also placed therein
some articles of merchandise on sale. In
1894 he erected a more pretentious building, in
which he now conducts the post-office and also
keeps for sale a well assorted stock of
groceries, tinware and miscellaneous
merchandise, and is doing a thriving trade.
As will be surmised, Mr. Konst is
a democrat, is greatly interested in public
affairs generally, is now serving his second
term as township trustee, and is president of
the board, and has also filled several of the
minor township offices. In fact, he is the
most active public man of his locality. By
persistent effort he has succeeded in securing a
telephone at his place of business, and seldom
fails in accomplishing anything he undertakes,
especially if it is to result in a benefit to
the public. Although he started in
business with no outside assistance, and with
but slender means, he has reared his ten
children in respectability and acquired a
handsome competence. Mr. Konst
remembers when Ottawa was a hamlet of four
families, and when quite a large lad his father
was in the habit of sending him to mill at
Glandorf on foot with a bushel of corn on his
shoulder, with which he had to wade through mud
and water a distance of three and a half miles,
and it is such early lessons of endurance,
intrepidity and persistency that have placed him
in the front rank of the business men of Liberty
township and Putnam county, where he is well
known and highly respected.
Source: A Portrait and
Biographical Record of Allen and Van Wert
Counties, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: A. W. Bowen &
Co. - 1896 - Page 286 |
GEO. D. KINDER |
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MATTHIAS KRAMER,
a popular citizen and employee of the tile
factory at Ottoville, Putnam county, Ohio, was
born in Glandorf, in this county, Mar. 14, 1862.
His grandfather, Theodore Kramer, was
born near the river Rhine, in Prussia, and
worked in an extensive iron furnace when the
iron was smithed and forged by hand. He
was the father of seven children named
Laurence, Christian, Antony, Maggie, Eva, Annie
and Clara. These children all
finally settled in America, coming at the same
time, with the exception of Laurence, the
eldest, who came last.
Christian Kramer, the second born of the above
family and father of Matthias, our
subject, received a good common German
education, worked at the trade followed by his
father and also at mining, and was still a young
man when he came to America, arriving at New
York city; thence he went to Buffalo, in the
same state, where he arrived at noon, and at one
o'clock, the same day, was at work as attendant
on a brickmason. He next moved to
Youngstown, Ohio, and there married Catherine
Klee a native of Germany and a daughter of
Charles Klee, a miller and farmer, who
died in his native land. Mr. Klee
has been twice married, and to his second union
were born four children - Barbara, Frank,
Charles and Catherine, who all came
to America, as did their half-brothers and
sisters. From Youngstown Mr. Kramer
moved to Beaver county, Pa., where he was
overseer in a cannel coal mine at Cannelton for
three years. In 1861 he came to Glandorf,
Ohio, and bought forty acres of cleared land, on
which he lived until March, 1875 or 1876, when
he sold his farm and came to Ottoville.
Here he bought a cleared farm of sixty acres one
mile east of the town, and on this he lived
until his retirement from active life, in 1892,
when he went to live with his son Antony,
in Stark county, Ohio. In politics Mr.
Kramer is a democrat. In religion
he and his wife are Catholic, and liberallyf
contributed toward the erection of Saint Mary’s
Catholic church at Ottoville, which is a
monument to the zeal and munificence of the
Catholic population of the county. To
Mr. and Mrs. Kramer have been born eleven
children, viz: Margaret, Antony,
Mary (who died at the age of eight
years), Clara, Lawrence, Frank,
Matthias, Mary, Lena,
Annie and Theodore.
Matthias Kramer came to Ottoville with
his parents when about fourteen years of age,
and worked on the home farm until he was
twenty-three, when he went to Beaver county,
Pa., and worked in the same mine his father had
worked in years before, and also worked as a
farm hand, making a stay there for two years; he
then returned to Ohio and mined coal in Stark
county; in 1894 he returned to Ottoville, and
May 1, 1895, married Miss Elizabeth
Zahner, who was born in Crawford county,
Ohio, May 9, 1873, a daughter of Thomas and
Margaret (Gruber) Zahner. Thomas
Zahner was born in Germany, was there
married and is a farmer. There have been
born to him and wife nine children, in the
following order: Mary, John, Lena, Andrew,
Albert, Katie, Elizabeth, Francis and Ann—the
first three in Germany and the remaining six in
America. From Crawford county, Ohio, the
Zahner family moved to Van Wert
county, with the exception of Mary, who
is married and resides in Huron county, Ohio,
and all are devout Catholics in religion.
Mr. Zahner and his family live on
a productive farm of eighty acres and are highly
respected by their neighbors. May 8, 1895,
Matthias Kramer accepted his present
situation as foreman of the tile works at
Ottoville. He is a first-class business
man and well fitted for the position; he has won
the esteem of his employers, and stands high
with many of the old German pioneers of the
township and with the community in general.
With his wife he is a member of Saint Mary’s
Catholic church, and both live well up to its
teachings.
Source: A Portrait and
Biographical Record of Allen and Van Wert
Counties, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: A. W. Bowen &
Co. - 1896 - Page 289 |
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PETER KRAMER,
one of the old settlers of Fort Jennings, Putnam
county, Ohio, and a most successful business
man, is a native of Gerolstein, Trier, Prussia,
one of ten children born to Lawrence
Kramer - four of whom had their nativity in
the buckeye state. Magdalene (Hahn)
Kramer, wife of Lawrence, was born
Dec. 26, 1825. Lawrence Kramer who
was born May 17, 1818, brought his family to
Ohio in April, 1857, and bought forty acres of
land near Glandorf, Putnam county, but in 1868
sold and moved to Jennings township, where he
bought 107 acres and farmed until 1881, when he
retired from the active duties of life and died
June 19, 1883, at the age of about sixty-six
years, a member of the Catholic church.
Peter Kramer, our subject, was born Oct. 6,
1851, and was consequently a mere child when
brought to Ohio by his parents, and seventeen
years old when they settled in Jennings
township. He was well educated in the
common schools and worked on the home farm until
1879, when he was appointed station agent at
Fort Jennings for the Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas
City Railroad, and where, also, he was connected
in the restaurant business with his father.
The agency he still holds, but discontinued the
restaurant business in 1883, and engaged in the
musical instrument business, carrying a large
assortment of organs and pianos. In 1880
he was appointed assistant postmaster under
President Hayes, and in October,
1885, he was appointed postmaster under
President Cleveland—still holding the
position.
May 30, 1881, Mr. Kramer was united in
marriage with Miss Julia Rekart,
who was born at Fort Jennings, Feb. 2, 1849, a
daughter of
Sigmund and Mary (Discher) Rekart, a
full sketch of which family will be found on
another page of this volume. The union of
Mr. and Mrs. Kramer has been blessed with
three children, named Carl S., Nellie and
Julius. In politics Mr. Kramer
is a democrat and an active worker for his
party, with whom he is very popular. He
has served his fellow citizens as township
treasurer, and fully took care of their
interests while thus employed. As
postmaster he has given entire satisfaction to
the public, and has won great credit for
himself. He is prosperous as a business
man, and as a member of society he stands, with
his amiable wife, in the center of a large and
constantly widening circle of admiring and truly
sincere friends.
Source: A Portrait and
Biographical Record of Allen and Van Wert
Counties, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: A. W. Bowen &
Co. - 1896 - Page 295 |
WM. C. G. KRAUSS |
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S. P. KROHN |
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