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Another Old Resident of This City, Robert Baur.

HE CAME HERE BY STAGE COACH TO TRY HIS FORTUNE IN A NEW TERRITORY

Among the prominent citizens of this valley who have lived to an advanced age is Robert Baur, the senior member of the well known publishing firm of R. Baur & Son.

Mr. Baur was born Dec. 25, 1825, at Ettenschies, County Ulm, Kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, and is consequently in his seventy-third year. Mr. Baur enjoys remarkably rugged health for a man of his age, and even to this day is constantly at work conducting the affairs of his extensive establishment.

His Is frequently a picturesque figure on our streets, and even the severest weather often finds him about doing errands without hat or coat, with sleeves rolled up, thoroughly unmindful of exposure, having become completely inured to the climatic changes peculiar to this section. It is not because Mr. Baur desires to be peculiar that he adopts this method. He believes in plenty of fresh air and rather regards the present mode or fashion of dressing heavily as really injurious.

He is the son of Rev. Frederick Jacob Baur, who was a prominent Lutheran clergyman in Wurtemberg, and died at the advanced age of 84 years in 1876. His mother was Carolina Hahn of Wurtemberg, who died In 1862, aged 54.

During his early days in Wurtemberg Mr. Baur was educated in the high school of Ulm, then and now a prominent fortress of Germany. Concluding his education and confirmation— which is a rite that is always conferred upon the young man after leaving school—Mr. Baur entered the apprenticeship of a book binder at the age of 14. After serving four years in the bindery Mr. Baur followed the custom— which was an unwritten law—of traveling abroad and learning of the methods used by concerns in foreign countries, where he spent three years. He then returned to Wurtemberg at the age of 21 and was subject to the conscription customs of the country for military service. Lots were drawn among the young men, whose names were returned to the government from that district, and fortune favored him to such an extent that he drew No. 171, which number gave him freedom from military service for all time, excepting in the emergency of one of those men conscripted having died within four weeks from the date of the drawing. In that event Mr. Baur would have been compelled to enter the military service.

In those days the young man was not permitted to enter Switzerland until he had passed the conscription, as this little Alps republic would not give up the young German who had once crossed the frontier into that country. Mr. Baur was therefore eligible to visit Switzerland and was given a passport by the German authorities. He remained in Switzerland two years, principally at Zurich, Vevey, Lausanne and Geneva. He returned to Germany In 1848, in company with a large number of Germans, who left Switzerland to participate in the revolution of that year. The revolution was straightaway suppressed by the regular army of Germany, but the movement was the entering wedge that resulted In popular suffrage indeed the German government and people at the present day are celebrating the semi-centennial anniversary of this great movement.

It was Mr. Baur's connection with the revolution that resulted in his coming to America, as he realized that he would be deprived of his liberty had he remained. He took passage on a sailing vessel, and it required six weeks to cross the Atlantic and land in Philadelphia.

He remained at Philadelphia with relatives until 1851, following his trade. Accidentally he learned that a book binder was wanted in Wilkes-Barre, and without any knowledge concerning the city or valley came on at once.
Leaving Philadelphia Mr. Baur boarded the Reading Railroad train for Port Clinton. From this point the Little Schuylklll Railroad landed him at Tamaqua. A stage was in waiting, which ran from Tamaqua to this city via Hazleton. Mr. Baur had as companions in the stage Gen. William Ross and wife and George P. Steele, who was then sheriff of Luzerne County. Mr. Baur remembers well the long trip through the forests that sultry June afternoon. He knew not where he was going and felt uncommonly blue. But a telegraph wire was noticed all along the route and he thought that if this marvel of communication had been carried into Wllkes-Barre It could not be such a terrible place.

Another circumstance gave him an exalted opinion of the place which was to be his home for nearly fifty years thereafter.

Just at this time P. T. Barnum had introduced the great songstress, Jenny Llnd, to the American public. She had appeared In Philadelphia and Gen. and Mrs. Ross and Sheriff Steele had been present at the concert. During the afternoon, as the stage was slowly passing through a section of woods, affording a moment's relief from the scorching rays of the sun, Gen. Ross suddenly asked:

"Did you hear Jenny Lind while in Philadelphia, sheriff?"

When he nodded that he had been present the general further inquired of Mr. Steele:

"How did you like her?"

"Ah!" said the sheriff. "We've got plenty of girls In Wilkes-Barre who can beat Jenny Lind all to pieces!" and then all was silent.

Mr Baur thought that if he was destined for a town where there were plenty of Jenny Linds It couldn't be a bad place in which to locate. He remarks, however, that had Jenny Lind sung "Yankee Doodle" or "The Star Spangled Banner" the measure of appreciation on the part of Sheriff Steele would have been much more satisfactory, as his musical education was not such as to furnish him much enjoyment at hearing Jenny Llnd's classic songs.

The party reached Wilkes-Barre at 10 o'clock in the evening and Mr. Baur stopped at the American House, the same building which is now the Bristol House, then kept by Mr. Knapp. He had a recommendation to Capt. John Reichard and was well received by a number of the prominent German citizens then here, among them being Charles Roth, Ernest Roth, Leonhart Hesse, Louis Hitchler, Major Waelder and Dr. Louis Hartman. Though not very favorably Impressed with Wilkes-Barre at first sight, the Public Square, then furnishing little evidence of public spirit on the part of its people, while the business houses were unassuming, he was kindly received and assisted.

He at once started in the bindery business on North Main street near Union, on the site of the present Mutter's hotel, Robert Kilmer, a dealer In furniture, being his next door neighbor.

At that time the late Hendrick B. Wright, a great friend of the Germans, was a rising man in politics who had succeeded in passing a law at Harrisburg compelling all of the sheriff's sales to be published in German. Major Waelder had founded the Democratischer Wachter in 1842. The major had gone to the Mexican war as first lieutenant of the Wyoming Artillerists, selling the paper to Mader & Rullman. This paper was enjoying the privilege of the sheriff's sales, but owing to an allusion in their issue of July 4. 1851, to Capt. Retchard so much dissatisfaction ensued that Mader & Rullman were compelled to give up the plant. It was then that Mr. Baur entered Journalism under the direction of Major Waelder.

The offce was then in a building on the site of the Weltzenkorn block and Mr. Baur moved his bindery to this building and occupied the two floors. In 1862 Mr. Baur, in connection with Herz Lowensteln, Samuel Frauenthal and Seth Tuck, purchased from the Hollenback heirs the plot of ground from the Laning building on Public Square down to the Raeder property, 9 South Main street, for $125 per foot front, at that time considered an excessive price. He then erected the three story building still occupied by him and removed his business from the Wood building opposite.

Mr. Baur conducted the Democratischer Wachter forty-six years, and, with the exception of a six weeks' visit to his birthplace in Germany in 1871, and two weeks of emergency service under Capt. Gustav Hahn at the time of the threatened invasion of Pennsylvania by the Southern forces In 1863, when Lee crossed the Potomac, he edited and personally mailed every issue of the Wachter during that long period. He disposed of the paper in July, 1897, to Herman Barring, Louis Tisch and Fred Wagner, who entertain silver views not at all in accord with those held by Mr. Baur, who Is a pronounced gold Democrat. He started a semi-weekly German paper named the Samstag Abend In 1874 and conducted that in connection with the Wachter, which was included in the sale of the latter sheet. These publications as conducted by Mr. Baur were always on a high plane, ably edited and were a force among the community and constituency in which they circulated.


Mr. Baur lost a brother, Richard, in the late civil war, who was a member of the 11th Ohio Battery. He was killed in the battle of Iuca under Gen. Rosencrans. Another brother, Charles, enlisted In a Pennsylvania regiment from Philadelphia and died a short time after the war from the effects of exposure.

Mr. Baur was married in 1856 to Pauline Hassold of Philadelphia, and six children were born of their union, only two remaining, Adolph, the junior member of the firm of R. Baur & Son, and Mrs. Emma Baur Powell of Hazleton. Mrs. Baur Is living, at the age of 69 and enjoying good health.
(Historical Record, 1899)