Bernard Schlesinger
Bernhard Schlesinger, for the past thirty-six years or more clerk of the Xenia school board, is of European birth, but has been a resident of this country since he was fourteen years of age and of Xenia since the year 1865. He was born in the town of Koenigswalde, in the province of Brandenburg, November 11, 1846, son of Nathan and Marianne (Fleischer) Schlesinger, who were the parents of five children, the subject of this sketch having had three brothers and one sister. Nathan Sclilesinger, who was a horse buyer for the government, died in his native land and his widow married Herman Neuman and in 1872 came to the United States with the latter, settling in Madison, Indiana, where both spent their last days. To that union was born one child, a son, Paul Neuman, who later became a clerk in the store of his half-brother, Bernhard Schlesinger, at Xenia.
Bernhard Schlesinger received his early schooling in his native town and remained there until he was fourteen years of age. when he came to the United States and joined his elder brother, Harry Schlesinger, who had become engaged in the manufacture of trunks and handbags at Newark, New Jersey. It was in May, 1860, that Bernhard Schlesinger came to this country and during the progress of the Civil War he was engaged at Newark in the manufacture of knapsacks for the government. In 1865 he came to Ohio and became engaged as a clerk in a clothing store at Springfield, but did not remain there long, coming down to Xenia in May of that year to take charge of a store the Frankels had started in that city, and he was thus engaged until in 1872, when he and William Brady bought the stock of a store that then was located on the present site of the Gazette office on Detroit street, and continued in business there, under the firm name of Schlesinger & Brady, until 1885, when they sold out. Mr. Schlesinger then opened a store on the present site of the Howard building on East Main street and continued there in the clothing business until he closed out the business in 1895, Since which time he has been engaged in the insurance business at Xenia. Though a Democrat in a Republican town Mr. Schlesinger has been serving, with the exception of four years, as a member of the school board of Xenia for the, last thirty-six years or more, or ever since his first election to that office in 1881, and during all this long period of service has been retained as clerk of the board. It was not long after he took up his residence in Xenia that Mr. Schlesinger came under the influence of the companionship of Col. Coates Kinney, who inspired in him a love of learning and a desire to advance the cause of education. Colonel Kinney was able to set the young "foreigner's" feet on the right path in the way of perfecting himself in the use of the English language, which had been presenting numerous difficulties, and in turn young Schlesinger was able to help the Colonel out in the matter of the latter's none too brilliant linguistic performance in the Teutonic tongue. This love of learning Mr. Schlesinger was able to impart to his children, to all of whom he gave the opportunity to acquire a liberal education. At the time of the dedication of the Orange Hill school house in Xenia township Mr. Schlesinger delivered an address on "The History of Education in Greene County," which is said to have been a thorough and comprehensive delivery on that subject. Mr. Schlesinger is a Royal Arch Mason, an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias and a Red Man. He is a charter member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and has been a delegate to the grand lodge of that order for the state of Ohio. He also has been a delegate to the state grand lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has been a delegate to the great council of the United States of the Improved Order of Red Men for the past eleven years and has served as the great sachem of that order for the state of Ohio.
In 1873 Bernhard Schlesinger was united in marriage to Kate Feurle, who also is of European birth, born in the town of Bregenz, in the Austrian Tyrol, and who was but a girl when she came to this country with her parents, George and Rosina Feurle, who settled in Xenia, where they presently opened a boarding house and where they spent the remainder of their lives. To Bernhard and Kate (Feurle) Schlesinger have been born five children, namely: Olga, who married E. C. Spitler, a London, Ohio, drygoods merchant, and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased; Marione, who is a teacher in the high school at Dayton; Hugo, who was graduated from Ohio State University and is now practicing law at Columbus, this state, where he is serving as assistant prosecuting attorney of Franklin county; George F., who was graduated from the civil engineering department of Ohio State University, married Frances Kendall, of Xenia, and is now living at Columbus, a member of the faculty of his alma mater, and Arthur Meier, who also was graduated from Ohio State University, later received his master degree from Columbia University at New York City and is now a member of the faculty of Ohio State University, holding there the chair of American history.
From Portrait and Biographical Album of Clark and Greene Counties, Chapman Bros., Chicago, published 1890