My Genealogy Hound

J. A. BAUMGARDNER. In reviewing the history of the past fifty years and noting the many improvements which have been made in various departments of science and art, that which preserves the lineaments of our loved ones should not pass unnoted. A marked change has taken place in this art and the country is now flooded with photographs, where not many decades since but a few daguerreotypes and ambrotypes were to be seen. It requires mechanical skill and artistic talent to produce pictures which will satisfy the taste of the public in these days, and when we state that the gentleman above named has a fine patronage, it is scarcely necessary to add that he is a master of the art of photography. His studio is pleasant and well furnished, every means being taken by the proprietor to keep up with the times in the conveniences for carrying on this work to the best advantage and adding to the comforts of his patrons.

Mr. Baumgardner is of Swiss lineage, his grandfather having been a native of Berne, Switzerland, in which city he was reared and married. He emigrated to America, settling nine miles north of Lancaster, Ohio, where he was numbered among the pioneers. There his son Henry, the father of our subject, was born. Grandfather Baumgardner died a short time after his settlement in America and his widow ere long removed to Fairfield County, purchasing a tract of land in Berne Township, where she reared her family. She contracted a second matrimonial alliance, becoming the wife of a Mr. Caley. She lived to the age of eighty-five years, dying in the township in which she had resided so long.

The father of our subject was reared on a farm but learned the trade of a blacksmith which he followed some years. He then purchased a farm and is still engaged in farming in Fairfield County. He married Miss Catherine Crook of that county who has borne him seven children — our subject, Agnes, Hunter H., William, Lizzie, George and Talmage. Both parents are members of the German Reformed Church. The maternal grandfather of our subject was John Crook, who was born in 1800 and who died April 27, 1890. He was but a boy when his parents came to the wilds of Ohio and he became one of the pioneers of Berne Township, Fairfield County, where he bought land and tilled the soil. He was very industrious, possessed of sound judgment, and for these reasons accumulated a large amount of this world’s goods.

J. A. Baumgardner was born in Berne Township, Fairfield County, January 25, 1851. He was reared on the home farm, like other farmer’s sons assisted in farm work and attended the common schools. He remained with his parents until he had reached man’s estate and in 1873 went to Iowa, in which State he spent a year. Returning to Ohio he entered a studio at Lancaster in order to learn the art of photography. After serving there eight months his employer sent him to New Lexington, Perry County, to open a gallery. This he did, operating it in their interest sixteen months, after which he engaged in the business on his own account. He remained in that place seven years, after which he came to Springfield, opened a studio and began a business career in this city which has proved remunerative and given him an excellent reputation as an artist and a man of honor in business relations.