|
a.
|
Continued: Charles F. Urban, retired shoemaker, was born at Clotra, Germany, in November, 1821, the youngest of seven children born to Gotleib and Wilhelmina (Phenn) Urban, the former of whom was an officer in the German army, and died in his seventieth year, his wife dying in 1827 at the age of forty years. Charles F. Urban commenced learning the shoemaker's trade at the age of fifteen years, working for three years as an apprentice, after which he commenced business on his own account and in 1846 opened a shop in the town of his birth. In 1854 he came to America to seek his fortune, and landed at Baltimore on the 20th of May of that year with only $5 as a cash capital to go to work upon. He went to Wheeling by rail, which was the terminus of the road, and then by wagon to Cambridge, Ohio, and in Perry township, Muskingum county, he opened a shoe shop. After two years of hard work, and by practicing the economy which is so characteristic of the German people, he had saved enough money to purchase a house and lot, and to this property he continued to add for sixteen years and then came to Springfield township, Muskingum county, where he purchased an excellent little farm of forty eight acres near Zanesville, Ohio, which he cleared and otherwise improved to the value of $1,500. When the war opened he joined Company G, One Hundred and Fifty-ninth regiment, Ohio Volunteers, and was mustered into the service on the 6th of May, 1864, at Zanesville. After participating in a number of battles and numerous skirmishes, he was taken sick and sent to his home from the hospital. He soon regained his health, but was not ordered out again, being discharged the following November. In 1846 he was united in marriage to Miss Hannah S. Dittmar, by whom he became the father of nine children: Ernestine, wife of John Young, a carpenter of Columbus, Ohio; August was accidentally killed at Cambridge while assisting in the construction of the tunnel of that city, at which time he was twenty-one years of age; Henrietta is the wife of Charles Griffin of Zanesville; Charles married Miss Birdie Swagert and resides in Zanesville; Benjamin F. married Miss Mary Tanner and was accidentally killed in Griffith & Wedges' foundry in August of 1890; Henry married Miss Eva Vankirk and was a prosperous farmer of Indiana; Louis is single and follows the trade of a molder in Zanesville; John resides at home and is unmarried, and Rosa also resides at home. Mr Urban has held the office of superintendent of highways a number of years and has been school director and township trustee. He and his wife are members of the German Protestant church of Zanesville and are upright and useful citizens and are considered acquisitions to the community in which they reside.
(The above was abstracted from the book "History of Muskingum County" page 599; found at The Sutro Library in San Francisco, California)
|
