Introduction to the 1923 Biographical Sketches
This biographical sketch was published along with many others in the 1923 History of Auglaize County, Volume II, edited by William J. McMurray and published by the Historical Publishing Company of Indianapolis. In most cases the subject of the biography was of the first generation born in this country to German immigrants. In some cases the subject may have been born in Germany and came to this country at a young age. In most cases the story tells of the immigrant parents of the subject and also the children and grandchildren of the subject named at the beginning of the story. In some cases comments have been added after the biography to explain the locations of the farms where the immigrants settled. New Knoxville did not have rural addresses until 1955, and therefore the settlers had rural route addresses of St. Marys, Botkins, etc.
William Duhme
WILLIAM DUHME, postmaster and merchant at New Knoxville, and for years one of the leading citizens of that well-ordered village, is a European by birth, but has been a resident of this country and of Auglaize county since he was five years of age. Mr. Duhme was born on July 4, 1868, near the city of Osnabruck, the chief town of the territory of that name in the former kingdom of Hanover and the third commercial city of Hanover (incorporated with Prussia in 1866), and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Kuhlman) Duhme, also Hanoverians, who in 1873 came with their family to this country and proceeded on out into Ohio and settled at New Knoxville, where they established their home and spent the remainder of their lives. Henry Duhme and his wife were the parents of four children, of whom two are living, the subject of this sketch having a sister, Elizabeth. Having been but a child when he came to this county with his parents in 1873, William Duhme grew up at New Knoxville and his schooling was received in the schools of that village. For several years as a young man he was employed in the plant of the Walnut Grove creamery and then took employment as a clerk in the general store of Herman Kuhlman at New Knoxville where he acquired the taste for mercantile pursuits which ever she has kept him engaged along that line. Not long after becoming ernployed in the Kuhlman store Mr. Duhme decided to engage in business on his own account, and with this end in view opened a store at New Knoxville, and has ever since been thus engaged, one of the veteran merchants of the town. He carries a general line of merchandise adapted to the needs of his trade area, this including groceries, queensware, hardware, paints and the like, and also manages the local buying station of the White Mountain Creamery Company. On November 26, 1897, William McKinley then being President of the United States, Mr. Duhme was commissioned postmaster of New Knoxville, and he ever since has held that responsible position, his tenure of office thus covering a period of more than twenty-five years, which is certainly a notable record. Mr. Duhme has ever given a good citizen's attention to local civic affairs and has rendered further public service as a member of the New Knoxville town council and as a member of the school board. He and his family are members of the German Reformed church. William Duhme has been twice married. His first wife, Wilhelmina Lutterbein, a daughter of Henry Lutterbein, and a member of one of the old families of the New Knoxville settlement, died leaving three children, Raymond, Edna and Bertha. Mr. Duhme later married Lena Hinze, and to this latter union one child has been born, a daughter, Edith. Bertha Duhme married August Prueter and has three children, Earl, Naomi and Paul.
