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OSCAR R. KRICKENBERGER. The
success of men in business or any professional vocation depends upon
character as well as upon knowledge, it being a self-evident
proposition that honesty is the best policy. Business and
professional life demand confidence and where that is lacking
business ceases. In every community some men are known for
their upright lives, strong common sense and persistent energy
rather than for their wealth or political standing. Their
neighbors and acquaintances respect them, the younger generations
heed their example and when "they wrap the drapery of their couches
about them and lie down to pleasant dreams" posterity will listen
with reverence to the story of their useful lives. Among such
men in Darke county is he whose name appears at the head of this
paragraph, who is not only an eminently successful lawyer and a
progressive man of affairs, but a man of modest and unassuming
demeanor, a fine type of the reliable, self-made American, a friend
to the poor, charitable to the faults of his neighbors, and who has
always stood ready to unite with them in every good work and active
in the support of laudable public enterprises. He is proud of
Greenville and the grand State of Ohio and zealous of their progress
and prosperity. He in every respect merits the high esteem in
which he is universally held, because of his intellectual
attainments, professional success and public spirit.
Oscar R. Krickenberger is descended from good
old German stock, an element which has contributed so materially to
the growth and development of this country. His paternal
grandparents were Carl and Wilhelmina (Endorff) Kruckenberg,
which was the original spelling of the family name. Leaving
their native land in 1852, they came to the United States, settling
two and a half miles northeast of Greenville, Darke county, Ohio,
where they cleared and improved a farm of forty acres. There
they spent the rest of their days, he dying in 1880, at the age of
seventy-nine years, and she in 1884, aged about eighty-two years.
They were the parents of four children, namely: Charles; Henry
a., father of the subject of this sketch; Caroline W.,
who became the wife of John Mohr, and Frederick F.
Carl Henry Augustus Krickenberger was born and
reared in Germany and received a good practical education in the
splendid schools of that country. In 1855, at the age of
nineteen years, he bought his time from his uncle, Ferdinand,
to whom he had been apprenticed, and came to America, coming direct
to Darke county, Ohio, and locating in Greenville township, where he
obtained work on a farm. Soon afterwards he went to Missouri,
and on the outbreak of the Civil war he joined one of the Union
guerilla bands operating in that State. In 1861 he returned to
Darke county, and on July 22, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the
Ninety-fourth regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry, with which he
served faithfully until January, 1863, when he was discharged
because of physical disability. His command had been assigned
to the Army of the Tennessee and he took part in all the battles and
campaigns in which that army was engaged up to the time of his
discharge, his last battle having been the important one at
Murfreesboro. Upon his return from the army, Mr.
Krickenberger engaged in farming in German township, this
county, where he had acquired a fine farm of one hundred and sixty
acres, and there he died on Mar. 20, 1877, at the comparatively
early age of thirty-nine years. He had married Lydia A.
Drew, a native of Darke county, and who is still living, at the
age of about seventy-four years. She is a daughter of
Robert and Lydia (Bliss) Drew, the former of whom was a native
of New Jersey and the latter of Darke county, Ohio. In an
early day Robert Drew walked the entire distance from New
Jersey to Arcanum, this county, and from here walked to below
Covington, Ky., where he put out a crop of wheat. He then
walked back to Darke county, and the following summer walked back to
Kentucky and harvested his wheat. That was in the early
twenties. He made his permanent home in Darke county, where he
had homesteaded a small piece of land, and he afterwards accumulated
much other land, leaving to each of his children a farm. He
died in 1879, aged seventy-three years, and his wife died in 1896,
at the age of eighty-eight years. They were the parents of the
following children: John, deceased; William, who
is still living; Joseph, who died in Iowa; James, who
lives near Castine, this county; Lydia A., mother of the
subject of this sketch; Mollie, wife of John B. Hans;
Julia A., wife of Louis P. Newbauer; Martha, wife of
Peter Brown; Amanda, wife of William Folkerth; Mary Jane,
deceased wife of F. F. Krickenberger, and two who died in
infancy. To Carl Henry A. and Lydia A. (Drew) Krickenberger
were born six children, as follows: Henry F., of
Greenville, Ohio; Charles F., of Iditarod, Alaska;
Caroline Wilhelmina, wife of Frank Brown, of Greenville;
Oscar R., the immediate subject of this review; Carl A.,
of Greenville; and George, the first born, who died in
infancy.
Oscar R. Krickenberger was but six years old
when death deprived him of a father's guidance and protection and at
the early age of eleven years he began life's battle on his own
account, his first employment being at farm work. He had been
deprived of the opportunities for an education for which he yearned
and something of the character of the man was revealed in the boy
when, with nineteen other boys, each put twenty dollars into the
common fund and employed a tutor, Clement L. Brumbaugh, now
Congressman from the Twelfth Ohio District. Under the letter,
the subject attended school for five months in the years 1886 and
1887, and he made such rapid progress in his studies that he was
deemed qualified to teach school, which vocation he followed during
the winter months for several years, farming during the summer
vacations. The young man was ambitious to become a lawyer, and
in 1891, about the time he attained his majority, he entered the law
offices of Allread & Bickel, under whose directions he
pursued his studies, and on June 8, 1893, he was admitted to the bar
of Darke county. He at once entered upon the active practice
of his profession and has been successful to a notable degree,
having been for several years one of the conspicuous members of the
local bar. Exactness and thoroughness have characterized all
his labors, for early in life he absorbed the truth of that old and
time-tried maxim, that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing
well. As a lawyer he has been a credit to his profession,
while as a citizen he has been of that sterling type who have added
to the stability of our government and its institutions. There
is in him a weight of character, a native sagacity, a far-seeing
judgment and a fidelity of purpose that has commanded the respect of
all and made him an influential factor in the public and civic life
of the community. Mr. Krickenberger has been very
successful in his material affairs and in 1911 he erected the fine
office and business block, located at Nos. 112 and 114 West Fourth
street, Greenville, in which he has his law offices.
On the 10th day of May, 1899, Mr.
Krickenberger was united in marriage with Ella Stull,
who was born at Lambertville, N. J., the daughter of John W. and
Hannah (Kooker) Stull, both of whom also were natives of New
Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Stull came to Darke county in
1878, and here the father died on July 8, 1909, aged seventy-three
years; his widow is still living, at the age of sixty-nine years. Mrs.
Krickenberger is their only child now living. Mrs.
Krickenberger’s grandparents were, on the paternal side,
Henry and Sarah Wert) Stull, natives of New Jersey, and on the
maternal side, Samuel and Louisa (Hinkle) Kooker, natives of
Pennsylvania. To Mr. and Mrs. Krickenberger has been
born a daughter, Lydia Virginia, now two years old.
Politically, Mr. Krickenberger is a supporter of
the Democratic party, and takes a live interest in public affairs.
Mrs. Krickenberger is an earnest and faithful member of the
Presbyterian Church.
As a member of the bar Mr. Krickenberger has
faithfully and honestly discharged his every duty. He has
always counseled and maintained only such actions and defenses as
have appeared to him to be just, and in the trial of cases he has
never sought to employ means other than were entirely consistent
with truth and the law, never seeking to mislead court or jury by
any artifice or false statement of fact or law, and he has adhered
so closely to the professional code of ethics as at all times to
command the confidence and respect of bench and bar.
Personally, he possesses those qualities which invite friendship and
in the large circle of acquaintances which he enjoys he has many
warm and loyal friends.
Source: History of Darke County, Ohio - From its earliest
Settlement to the Present Time - Vol. II - Milford, Ohio - The
Hobart Publ. Co. - 1914 - pg. 51 |
