Michael Bauer

As printed in 1902

MICHAEL BAUER. Michael Bauer, who was formerly engaged in blacksmithing and now follows farming in Harmony township, is one of the worthy citizens that Germany has furnished to Clark county. A native of Hesse Damstadt, he was born July 11, 1843, his parents being Michael and “Barbara (Winkler) Bauer. In the town where his birth occurred he was reared to manhood and while in the tended school there until fourteen years of age, when he began learning the blacksmith's trade, serving an apprenticeship of two years. Instead of receiving añy pecuniary compensation for his services, lhe had to pay his employer one hundred dollars for the privilege of learning the business. When his term of apprenticeship was ended he received about twelve cents a week for his services for a year. He was afterward paid one dollar a week, and later commanded two dollars a week for his labor. This was considered good wages in the fatherland. Hearing favorable reports of the business opportunities of the new world, Mr. Bauer believed that he might better his financial condition in America, and after attaining his majority. he crossed the Atlantic. In the meantime, however, when he had reached the age of twenty-one years, he was called to serve in the army according to the laws of his native land, and was on military duty for three years. He was then granted a furlough. At ihe end of another year the war between Prussia and Austria broke out and he was again called to service, participating in the battle of Aschaffenburg, in Bavaria, in which his knapsack was pierced with bullets, but he was uninjured. He was also in the battle at Schaffhauser. The year 1868 witnessed the emigration of Mr. Bauer to the United States. He came in company with his parents, who located in Hancock county, Ohio, where they are still living, both having reached an advanced age, the father having been born in 1819, the mother in 1816. Mr. Bauer of

“this review secured work at West Milton in Miami county, Ohio, and there remained for about two years, after which he went to the vicinity of Xenia, where he conducted a shop of his own. After his marriage he resided near Cedarville for a few years and then went to Clifton and there conducted a smith. There he also bought twenty acres of land, and in connection with work at his trade he engaged in the cultivation of his fields. Removing to Harmony township, he purchased ninety acres of his present farm and has erected good buildings upon this ‘place, developing an excellent property highly improved with modern equipments.

On the 23d of March, 1871, Mr. Bauer was joined in Stormtown, Greene county, Ohio, to Miss Lizzie German, who was born in Springfield township, Clark county, July 14, 1850. Her parents, Bals and Barbara (Hartmann) German, were both natives of the fatherland, and the former was about twenty-three years of age and the latter eighteen years of age when they came to America with their respective parents. They were married in Springfield September 15, 1849, and for some time thereafter Mr. German worked at his trade of shoemaking in order to provide for his family. Eventually, however, he abandoned that pursuit and purchased land in Green township, Clark county, where he died, October 8, 1900. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Bauer have been born three children: Anna, born in Greene county, January 17, 1872, is the wife of George Conrad, of Great Falls, Montana, and they have three children—Daisy, Clarence and Frances; John, born in Greene county, July 7, 1874, was married in Great Falls, Montana, to Nellie Tyler, and now lives in the state of Washington; and William, born in Clifton, Greene county, November 12, 1870, is also living in Great Falls, Montana, Democracy.

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Mr. Bauer votes with the Both he and his wife were reared in the faith of the German Lutheran church and were confirmed therein at the age of fourteen years. All that he has acquired he owes to his own industry and. perseverance. He has been a faithful toiler in the field of business activity, and his good farm is the visible evidence of his enterprising life.

As printed in A Biographical Record of Clark County Ohio (1902). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.