Bernhard Mescher
Bernhard Mescher, of Dayton, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 10, 1855. His parents, Joseph and Mary A. Mescher, were natives of Germany, and came to this country while young, their marriage occurring in Cincinnati, whence they came to Dayton in 1856. The father engaged first in the shoe business on Second Street the same year, but in 1869 relinquished the shoe trade and opened a grocery on Washington Street. In 1890 he closed out his business and retired, and in July. 1891, his death occurred. He was a member of St. Emanuel's Catholic Church. His widow still lives in Dayton, residing at 123 Washington Street. To the parents nine children were born, six of whom are still living, as follows: Bernhard; Mary, wife of John Hoban, ex-president of the Dayton city council, and at present a member of that body; Joseph, a molder of Dayton; Clara, wife of Raymond Lachey, a brass finisher; Henry, also a brass finisher, and George, a machinist, all of Dayton.
Bernhard Mescher was reared in Dayton, and was educated at St. Emanuel parochial school. He learned the machinist's trade with the Davis Sewing Machine company and after three years' time was made shipping clerk and foreman of the sorting and packing department of the works, remaining with that company seven years.
In the spring of 1876 he left Dayton, going to Cincinnati, where he took a position as clerk in the clothing house of J. H. Richter, with whom he remained nine years, being manager of one of the departments the last two years of that time. In the fall of 1885 he returned to Dayton, and took a half interest in his father's grocery business on Washington street, and thus continued until the fall of 1887, when they dissolved, and he went into the grocery business for himself on the northeast corner of Cincinnati and Albany streets. He conducted that business until the spring of 1888, when he sold it out, and opened his present business in the fall of the same year at the southeast corner of the same streets.
Mr. Mescher was married on October 13, 1880, to Miss Annie M. Kemper, daughter of Henry and Margaret Kemper, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in which city she was born February 22, 1861. To this marriage two children have been born, as follows: Joseph, August 13, 1881, in Cincinnati; and Louis, June 10, 1884, in Covington, Ky.
Mr. Mescher has always been a member of the Democratic Party. In 1891 he was appointed a member of the Decennial Equalization board of Dayton, which board inspected every piece of property in the city. He is a member of St. Emanuel's Catholic Church, and of Carroll commandery, No. 225, Catholic Knights of St. John; also of the St. Joseph's Catholic Orphans' society. In September, 1894, he was appointed by Mayor McMillin to the board of city infirmary directors, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Charles Spatz, and served until the following spring.
From Centennial Portrait and Biographical Record of the City of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio, A. W. Bowen & Co., 1897