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.

 

 

 



Sacramento County Biographies