Clarence N. Baer
One of the younger business men of Washington C. H. is Clarence N. Baer, the manager of the ice company in that city. His father before him was a business man and his son has inherited those qualities which go to make the successful man of affairs. Equipped with a college education and trained in business by his father, he has demonstrated his ability to handle business affairs in an able manner. He is an excellent manager and a man of sound judgment, foresight and progressive methods. He has that indomitable energy and unfailing optimism which are capable of winning the trust and confidence of his fellow citizens and has ever enjoyed the respect and esteem of those who have been associated with him.
Clarence N. Baer, the son of Louis and Charlotte R. (Naret) Baer, was born in Gallipolis, Ohio. January 22, 1881. Louis Baer was the son of Abram and Emily (Henking) Baer, natives of Aaran, Switzerland, and Heidelberg, Germany, respectively, and was one of four children, the other three being Julius, Emma and Pauline.
Louis Baer was born in Verona, Italy, of German-Swiss parentage and grew up in canton Aarau, Switzerland, where he received a good education. He came to America before the Civil War, being twenty years of age at the time, and located at Gallipolis. Ohio. Shortly after coming to this country the Civil War opened and he enlisted in the Second Regiment of Ohio Heavy Artillery and served for nearly four years with distinction. After the close of the war he returned to Gallipolis, Ohio, where he became interested in the wholesale grocery business and operated a wdiolesale grocery in that city until 1885. In that year Louis Baer moved with his family to Washington C. H., where he was engaged in tlie same line of business for several years. He then moved to Cincinnati for the purpose of educating his children, at the same time disposing of his Washington C. H. wholesale interests and reentering at Gallipolis the wholesale business as a silent partner. Afterward he moved to Arkansas, where his death occurred in Little Rock in 1913, at the age of seventy-five. His widow, Charlotte R. Naret, of Buffalo, West Virginia, whom he had married while living at Gallipolis, Ohio, is still living and is now a resident of Hope, Arkansas. Louis and Charlotte (Naret) Baer married at the ages of thirty and twenty and reared a family of hve children: Naret. who died at the age of ten; Carl J., of Little Rock, Arkansas; Marie Louise, of Hope, Arkansas; Clarence N., of Washington C. H., and one who died in infancy. The parents of Mrs. Louis Baer were Edward E. and Henrette R. (Pitrat) Naret, natives of France. Thee Pitrat family lived in Lyons, and the Narets were from Paris. Edward E. Naret met Miss Pitrat. after which they were married in Virginia, living together in Gallipolis and Buffalo, West Virginia, where he followed his profession of physician for over forty years. Doctor Naret and wife were the parents of four children, Charles C, Mrs. Julia N. Beard, Edward, and Charlotte R., the wife of Louis Baer.
Clarence N. Baer was four years of age when his parents left Gallipollis and located in Washington C. H. He spent his summers in Washington C. H., while he lived in Cincinnati with his parents during the wnnter, and in the schools of Cincinnati received his education. He graduated from a high school of Cincinnati, and later from Cincinnati University, after which he took a course in a business college in that city. After completing his studies in 1901 he became right of way agent for the American Telephone and Telegraph Companies, and worked with them until his marriage in 1906. After spending a year in the South, he returned to Washington C. H. with his young bride and became the manager of the Washington C. H. Ice Company, which had been organized in 1890 with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. The present officers of the company are as follows : President, Louis Baer; vice-president. Carl J. Baer; secretary and treasurer, Clarence N. Baer, who is also acting as manager of the company. The capacity of the plant is thirty-five tons of ice per day, which is sufficient to supply the city in addition to various towns in the surrounding community.
Mr. Baer was married September 11, 1906, to Virginia Townsend, the daughter of Frank M. and Ann U. (Turner) Townsend, and to this union three children have been born, Townsend, Louis Naret and one who died in infancy, the first-born. Mrs. Baer was born in Cleveland. Ohio, her father being a native of the same city, while her mother was born in Wheeling. West Virginia. Her father died in 1911, at the age of fifty-three years, and her mother is still living. Frank M. Townsend had two children, Virginia and Oscar E. The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Baer were Oscar and Elizabeth (Martin) Townsend, while her maternal grandparents were Ewing Turner and Margaret Bartlet Turner.
Politically, Mr. Baer is identified with the Republican party, but has never been active in political matters. He and his wife and family are consistent members of the Presbyterian church.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)