Joseph A. Hemann
Encyclopedia
Osnabrück
Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
and studied at the Gymnasium Carolinum in Osnabrück
Gymnasium Carolinum (Osnabrück)
The Gymnasium Carolinum in Osnabrück, Germany, was founded in 804 by Charlemagne, king of the Franks. It is reputedly the oldest school in Germany and is also one of the oldest schools in the world.-Twentieth Century:...
, one of the most celebrated colleges of Germany. He acquired a thorough knowledge of the Latin, Greek, French, and English languages, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, and history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
. In the spring of 1837, at the age of 20, without his parents or other family members, he embarked at the harbor of Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
and sailed for the American shores. Two months later the ship Favorite entered the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
and dropped anchor in the harbor of Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
.
Shortly after his arrival, young Hemann, who had brought with him prominent credentials, visited with Professor Beleke at Mount St. Mary's College near Emmitsburg, Maryland
Emmitsburg, Maryland
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 2,290 people, 811 households, and 553 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,992.9 people per square mile . There were 862 housing units at an average density of 750.2 per square mile...
. The professor advised him to go to Cincinnati where he might complete his studies at the Athenæum
Athenaeum of Ohio
The Athenaeum of Ohio – Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West, originally St. Francis Xavier Seminary, is the third-oldest Roman Catholic seminary in the United States and is currently located at 6616 Beechmont Avenue in the Cincinnati, Ohio neighborhood of Mt. Washington, in the former Saint...
, the Catholic seminary of the diocese. Having no further means, Mr. Hemann worked a month on the canal near Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown, Maryland
Hagerstown is a city in northwestern Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Washington County, and, by many definitions, the largest city in a region known as Western Maryland. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2010 census was 39,662, and the population of the...
, to earn sufficient money to enable him to make the journey.
In the fall of 1837, he joined an emigrant train of large mountain wagons and in their company crossed the Alleghenies on the National Road
National Road
The National Road or Cumberland Road was the first major improved highway in the United States to be built by the federal government. Construction began heading west in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River. It crossed the Allegheny Mountains and southwestern Pennsylvania, reaching...
to Wheeling. Being the only one in the company who could speak the English language, Mr. Hemann acted as interpreter for the rest, bought the provisions, and was held in high esteem by his companions. During the prolonged voyage the young traveler was able to study the romantic scenery and the people of the country. They landed safely in the port of the Queen City of the West on the 7th of October, 1837.
The letters of credence from Professor Beleke were given to Dr. Joshua Young
Joshua Maria Young
Joshua Maria Young was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Erie from 1854 until his death in 1866.-Biography:...
, the prefect at the Athenæum, who later became the Bishop of Erie. Hemann was welcomed at the seminary, where he continued his studies until he followed a call of Rev. Ferdinand Kuehr, whose acquaintance he made at the Athenæum, and accepted a position as teacher at the Catholic parochial school in Canton, Ohio
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, where he remained about a year and a half.
It was during his stay in Canton when he met his wife. On the 28th of January 1839, in Stark County, Canton, Ohio, at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, he married Anna Margaret, daughter of John Baptiste DeVille, who had emigrated in 1831 from the town of Hachy in the Province of Luxembourg, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
He then returned to Cincinnati and took charge of the new German Catholic school in the Over-the-Rhine
Over-the-Rhine
Over-the-Rhine, sometimes shortened to OTR, is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is believed to be the largest, most intact urban historic district in the United States. Over-the-Rhine was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 with 943 contributing buildings...
area, which he opened from the large hall of the then Rising Sun tavern, on the corner of Main and Thirteenth streets. This school became the nucleus of the second German Catholic congregation of Cincinnati, which in the next year became St. Mary's Church
Old St. Mary's Church
Old St. Mary's Church is a parish church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati in the United States. It is located at 123 E. Thirteenth Street in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. This Roman Catholic parish was organized in 1840 by German immigrants...
, at the corner of Thirteenth and Clay streets.
In Cincinnati, at that time, the question of introducing the German language as a regular branch of instruction in the public schools was agitated with great vehemence, and after a severe struggle the Legislature of Ohio passed a law, making it the duty of the trustees of the common schools of Cincinnati to have the German language taught in the schools under their care. Accordingly an examination for teachership was advertised, and Mr. Hemann was among the several candidates that passed successfully and received a certificate. He shortly afterwards received his appointment, and accordingly began the organization of the first public German-English school in America in 1840.
Differing, however, from the majority of the school trustees, who endeavored to squelch the efficiency of the whole system, he resigned in July, 1841, when the celebrated German-English school struggle ensued, which caused great commotion in the then quiet annals of the city. The Germans withdrew their children from the public schools, and organized schools of their own, and Hemann was appointed principal. There were differences of opinion between Mr. Hemann and the Germans on one side, and the school-trustees on the other. The Germans insisted upon a system of comparative education, whilst the board wanted separate instructions. The Germans kept up their own schools until the next year, when they induced the majority of the trustees to modify their system, and adopt that of comparative tuition. Mr. Hemann, however, quit the public schools, and went back again to the principalship of St. Mary's school. Here he remained for five or six years, during which period he also kept an evening school, in which class several of the most prominent citizens of Cincinnati, such as Uncle Joe Siefert, John H. Koehnken, and others, were then sitting to study English.
Mr. Hemann was also very active in the fostering of charitable and educational institutions of Cincinnati. In 1840, when German books were very scarce in the city, he was the first mover for the organization of a library society, the Schul und Lese Verein, which was in successful operation for many years, and laid the foundation for many of Cincinnati's best educated citizens. The founding of the Catholic Institute in Cincinnati was prominently the work of Mr. Hemann.
"We Germans," he said in an oration delivered July 4th, 1844, "have learned in the land of our fathers only to obey. We had no power to decide our own good, our own welfare. For the love of freedom we left the land of our birth, friends, relatives, all that was dear to us, to gather here in a strange country, the fruits of liberty so magnanimously offered to the oppressed of all the world. It is our special duty to make ourselves acquainted with the language, the laws and the institutions of this our self-chosen new home."
Hemann became tired of the schoolmaster's baculus, and opened a dry-goods store on Main Street, opposite Twelfth Street. In 1848, he relocated the store to the corner of Linn and Laurel streets. Here he made the acquaintance of a prominent literary gentleman, who advised Mr. Hemann not to bury his talents in a dry-goods shelf, but to go into the literary pursuit. While on a journey to his native country in the summer of 1850, subject to his instruction by letter, the Wahrheitsfreund
Der Wahrheitsfreund
Der Wahrheitsfreund or Der Wahrheits-Freund was the first German-language Catholic newspaper in the United States and one of four German newspapers in Cincinnati, Ohio. Published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, proceeds went to the St...
, the first German Catholic newspaper in the United States, was purchased for him. He then hastened home and took the publishing of the paper in his own hand; and on the 12th of October, 1850, he began the publication of the Cincinnati Volksfreund
Cincinnati Volksfreund
The Cincinnati Volksfreund was a daily and weekly German-language newspaper based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and published between 1850 and 1908. The paper was founded in October 1850 by Joseph A. Hemann and his editorials began appearing in March 1853 in the weekly edition called the Cincinnati...
, one of the principal German daily newspapers of the country. Originally neutral in politics, it afterwards, when the Demokratisches Tageblatt, one of the organs of the Democratic party, ceased to exist, and when the Volksblatt went over to the Republican party, became the leading German Democratic paper of Ohio.
Mr. Hemann was, however, very conservative in his views, and when, in 1863, the waves of political agitation ran high, which peaked with the nomination of Clement Vallandigham
Clement Vallandigham
Clement Laird Vallandigham was an Ohio resident of the Copperhead faction of anti-war Democrats during the American Civil War. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives.-Biography:...
, then in exile in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, for governor of Ohio, he declined to advocate Vallandigham's election in his paper. This caused a spirit of opposition among his subscribers, which led Mr. Hemann to dispose of his interest in the Volksfreund, and to retire from a long and eventful literary career, in which he had been prominently successful. The Volksfreund however, continued to be published in Cincinnati until June 1908.
When John P. Walsh retired in January 1862, Hemann became the new publisher of The Catholic Telegraph
The Catholic Telegraph
The Catholic Telegraph is a newspaper published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, which covers the Cincinnati metropolitan area, the greater Dayton area and other communities in the southwest region of Ohio, with a total diocesan population of approximately 500,000...
newspaper in Cincinnati through December 1864. At the time it was ably edited by Rev. S. H. Rosecrans and the Very Rev. Edward Purcell.
In 1863 after he sold the Volksfreund to Mr. John B. Jeup, Hemann and his family moved from Cincinnati to Glendale, Ohio
Glendale, Ohio
Glendale is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,188 at the 2000 census. It is site of the Glendale Historic District.-Geography:Glendale is located at ....
for a couple years. In 1865, Joseph embarked in the life of a banker and in 1868 established the Joseph A. Hemann and Co., a Banking House located downtown Cincinnati on the southwest corner of Third and Walnut Streets. The firm specialized in foreign exchange and in assisting immigrants until its demise in October 1878.
In June 1868, he was one of the first projectors of the German Pioneer Society and the first man to urge the publication of the historic monthly magazine, the Deutsche Pionier, published by this society, of which he edited the first volume.
In 1870, Joseph built the two-story red brick house in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Corryville on the corner of West McMillan and Hollister. Over a hundred years later, because the house represents a distinctive period in urban vernacular architecture, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1980 as the Joseph A. Hemann House
Joseph A. Hemann House
The Joseph A. Hemann House in Cincinnati, Ohio, was built in 1870 by Joseph A. Hemann and served as his residence for about ten years. It is located in Hamilton County in the neighborhood of Clifton on the corner of West McMillan and Hollister. Mr...
.
In 1872, Hemann was appointed to the building committee for the new St. George Church in Clifton on Calhoun Street, a parish that both physically and spiritually attracted immigrant Germans to lower Corryville.
The marriage between Joseph and his wife Anna Margaret was blessed with eleven children, six sons and five daughters. In January 1876, there were seventeen grandchildren, five of their children being married. In 1879, at the age of 63, he and his wife returned to Canton, Ohio
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, where he established the weekly edition of the German newspaper Ohio Volks Zeitung.