Sacramento County
Biographies
GEORGE PHILIP HARTMAN
To many of the early settlers of Sacramento
the name of George Philip Hartmann was known as the synonym for all that was
patient in industry, purposeful in action, honorable in all business and
patriotic in citizenship. An identification with Sacramento
covering only a little less than one-half century brought him into association
with the pioneers of the city and gave him an intimate knowledge of the
measures and civic projects that ultimately brought their return in permanent
prosperity. Although he came to America
with little knowledge of the language and even less knowledge of the customs of
the people, out of adversity and poverty he struggled forward to competence and
success. Nor was he the sole member of his family who gave of his time and
influence to the country of his adoption, for he had a
brother, Frank, who crossed the ocean during early youth and became a soldier
of the Union army, fighting for the stars and stripes.
Descended
from pure Teutonic ancestry unmingled with alien races, George Philip Hartmann
was born in the city of Darmstadt, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany,
January 1, 1828, and received excellent educational advantages in that
prosperous German city. Upon starting out to make his own way in life, crossing
the ocean to America, he settled in St. Louis, Mo., about 1850 and there
secured employment at his trade of a butcher. However, the west was then
appealing to young men by reason of its great mines and other possibilities and
in 1852 he joined an expedition that came across the plains to Sacramento.
After one fruitful year in the mines he located permanently in Sacramento
and here engaged in the butcher business. For thirty years he conducted a shop
of his own, having his place of business at No. 2229 P
street in 1892 and here
his death occurred August 12, 1898, thus bringing to a close a long and
honorable identification with his adopted city.
The
marriage of George Philip Hartmann and Christine Nehrbass
was solemnized September 27, 1864, in San Francisco.
Mrs. Hartmann was born near Mentz, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany.
At the age of nine years she left Darmstadt for America
in company with her parents, Wendell and Christine (Fischer) Nehrbass. For a brief period before coming to California
they sojourned in Buffalo, N. Y.,
then a town of insignificant proportions and the market town of a near-by tribe
of Indians. When twenty-two years of age, in 1859, she came to California
via the Isthmus of Panama, and after her marriage began housekeeping in Sacramento,
where now she continues to reside in the home acquired by Mr. Hartmann many
years ago. One of her brothers, Jacob Nehrbass, is
still a resident of Sacramento,
where for many years he was connected with the Southern Pacific Railroad
Company. It was the privilege of Mr. and Mrs. Hartmann to assist in promoting
the organization of the German Lutheran
Church in Sacramento
and they had the honor of being its oldest members, as they also were among its
most generous contributors. Not only religious but other enterprises received
the kindly aid of Mr. Hartmann, who possessed a generous heart and the most
philanthropic impulses toward those in need. As far as possible he contributed
to all movements of unquestioned importance in the development of the city and the
expansion of its interests. Various fraternities received his active
co-operation, including the Improved Order of Red Men, the Exempt Firemen and
the Chosen Friends.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 696-699. Historic
Record Company, Los
Angeles,
CA. 1913.
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.