Ernest Negelspach
Ernest Negelspach is a native of Germany, born in 1826, at Wachbach, Jaxt Kreiss, Wurtemberg, a son of Henry John and Rosana (Fahbaugh) Negelspach. He was reared and educated in his native country, attending the common and high schools, and when fourteen years old he began mercantile life as a clerk in a wholesale and retail grocery store in the city of Nuremberg, Bavaria. From the age of eighteen to twenty-one years he was employed in a hardware store in Memmingen, Bavaria. On September 18, 1848, he left his native land for the United States, landing November 12, that year, in New York City, and Salem, Mass. He first settled in Winesburg, Holmes Co., Ohio, where, from January, 1849, to June, 1851, he was in mercantile business with Joss & Shallioll, and June 1, latter year, he commenced, in partnership with Edward Cranz, a samll country store in Bakersville, Coshocton Co., Ohio, continuing the same until the spring of 1854, when he bought out Cranz, and continued the business in connection with farming until the fall of 1861; then bought, at the outbreak of the war, a farm of 200 acres of land in Bethlehem Township, Coshocton Co., Ohio. This he sold at the close of the war, and then located and bought two improved farms, containing 626 acres, in Lincoln Township, Grundy Co., Mo. Of this he sold 326 acres, retaining 400 acres, and returned to Ohio with his family locating in Millersburgh, where he purchased the Irvin Block, 107 Main Street, and again embarked in mercantile business, which he continued until 1886, in which year he sold his stock of goods to Louis Forlow.
Mr. Negelspach has been one of the most successful business men in Holmes County. Commencing life with modest means he has by his own good management, proper information and industry become one of the most prosperous merchants of Millersburgh. He now owns 205 acres of good land, the cultivation of which he superintends, and now lives in Millersburgh. Mr. Negelspach was married in 1854 to Susanna, daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Lepper) Hoffman, and they have had four children: Henry William, Emilia Louisa, Otto Martin and Orpha, three of them yet living. In politics Mr. Negelspach is a Democrat. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian Church.
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Wayne and Holmes, Ohio, J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, 1889