H. F. Vortkamp
H. F. Vortkamp, pharmacist, whose place of business is at No. 300 North Main street, Lima, on the corner opposite the Court House, belongs to the city's representative business men. He was born in 1858, at Senora, Preble County, Ohio, and is a son of Bernard Vortkamp, long deceased, who was a faithful soldier in the Civil War.
H. F. Vortkamp was reared and educated in Cincinnati and was graduated from the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy in 1880. He had previously creditably passed through the parochial high school at Cincinnati and before entering the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy had read medicine in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery. After his final graduation in pharmacy, he engaged in the drug business in Cincinnati until 1886 and then removed his interests to Milford, Ohio, where he continued until 1893, when he came to Lima. He has continued here in the drug business ever since and has the confidence of the public; his experience and medical knowledge make his establishment regarded as the leading one in the city as to reliability. He is secretary of the Allen County Association of Retail Druggists and has held every office in the Association except that of treasurer. He has held every office in the Ohio State Pharmaceutical Association from the lowest to that of vice-president, and has on many occasions been a delegate to national and State pharmaceutical conventions. He was chairman of the Ohio delegation at the national pharmaceutical meeting held at Boston in 1905. At present he holds no official relation with that body, having felt compelled to resign on account of many pressing private matters of business.
Mr. Vortkamp is a Democrat and has always been more or less interested in politics. He was a delegate to the State convention that nominated Pattison for Governor, and was the only delegate that remained all through faithful to his convictions. He is a member of the Lima Progressive Association and has served in the Lima City Council. He has other business interest in addition to those in Lima, namely: Stock in the Hollister Drug Company, of Madison, Wisconsin; stock in the Sterling Remedy Company, of Kramer, Indiana; and stock in the United Drug Company, of Boston, Massachusetts.
In 1880 Mr. Vortkamp was married to Carrie F. Fleischman, of Cincinnati, a member of a distinguished family of that city, and they have three sons and two daughters, viz: Harry F., who has just completed a six-year course at Niagara University, New York; George J., who is a graduate of the Ohio Normal University at Ada and has passed his examination before the State Board of Pharmacy; Charles, who is a student in St. Rose Parochial School, Lima; Henrietta, who is a Sister of Charity, now teaching in Denver; and Elizabeth, who is a student in St. Rose Parochial School.
The family belong to St. Rose Catholic Church. Mr. Vortkamp is a member of the Catholic Knights of Ohio and is vice-president of Branch No. 23.