Adolph Eschmeyer

ADOLPH ESCHMEYER, former mayor of New Knoxville and formerly and for years engaged in that village as a building contractor and brickmaker, now living retired and giving his attention to his farming interests in the immediate vicinity of the village, was born on a farm just a half mile west of the village of New Knoxville, on February 13, 1851, and has lived there about all his life, a period of more than seventy years. Mr. Eschmeyer is a son of Adolph and Christina (Hoelscher) Eschmeyer, natives of Germany, who settled a small farm west of New Knoxville back in pioneer days and became substantial residents of that neighborhood. The senior Adolph Eschmeyer was about twenty-eight years of age when he came to this country and proceeded on out here into western Ohio. Not long afterward he bought a tract of sixty-seven acres in the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 19 of Washington township, in this county, and there established his home and farmed there the remainder of his life, meanwhile expanding his holdings until he became the owner of a good farm of 144 acres. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom but two are now living, the subject of this sketch having a brother, Ernest Eschmeyer. By a former marriage to Adolph Fledderjohann, Mrs. Christina Eschmeyer was the mother of a son, William Fledderjohann, who is now living at Richmond, Ind. Reared on the home farm, the junior Adolph Eschmeyer received his schooling in the schools of New Knoxville, and when sixteen years of age began to work at the carpenter's trade, a vocation which he followed for twenty years or more, meanwhile becoming a building contractor of his own account. He also after a while started a brick yard at New Knoxville and for twenty years continued to operate the same, during that time manufacturing much of the brick that entered into construction work throughout that trade area, the last sixteen years of his activity in the local industrial field having been given over largely to the operations of this brick yard, giving these a preference over his building operations. In 1898 Mr. Eschmeyer sold his brick-making plant and has since been giving his attention to his farming interests, living on his well-kept place of twenty-four acres on the outskirts of New Knoxville and renting the farm of something more than ninety-eight acres he owns in German township. Mr. Eschmeyer is a Republican and has ever given his thoughtful attention to local civic affairs. Years ago he served for some time as a constable in and for Washington township, and he also has served as mayor of the village of New Knoxville. Adolph Eschmeyer married Elizabeth Fennaman, daughter of William Fennaman, and also a member of one of the pioneer families of Washington township, and to that union were born three children, two of whom are living, Anna and Matilda, the latter of whom married Ernest Eversman and has four children, Oliver, Carl, Dorothy and Louise. Anna Eschmeyer, the elder daughter, married Henry Roediger and has twelve children, Esther, Leota, Walter, Frank, Marie, Chester, Elmer, Emiel, Ruth, Vernon, Mildred and Kenneth. Mrs. Elizabeth Eschmeyer died on May 16, 1922. Mr. Eschmeyer is a member of the Reformed Church at New Knoxville, as was his wife, and he has served the congregation of that church as a deacon.