Carl B.
Rettig
CARL B. RETTIG has
the progressiveness and energy that make him aneffective executive in his
service as sales manager for the Waddell Steelcompany located in the City of
Niles, Trumbull County, a corporation that has done much to further the civic
and industrial advancement of this vital Ohio city.
Mr. Rettig was born
at Willard, Huron County, Ohio, on the 5th of October, 1893. His father, John
Leonard Rettig, was born near Holgate, Henry County, Ohio, in the year 1840,
and was a resident of Willard, Huron County, at the time of his death, in 1900.
He was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and during the course of his
entire independentcareer he continued his successful association with farm
enterprise. In 1870 he purchased and established his home on an excellent farm
near Willard, Huron County, and he continued actively as one of the
representative farmers of that county until 1893, when he retired from his farm
to the village of Willard, where he remained until his death. His widow
survived him about nine years, and her death there occurred in 1909. Both were
earnest members of the United Brethren Church, and his political alignment was
with the republican party. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and
the Grand Army of the Republican, he having been a member of an Ohio regiment
in the Civil war and having given gallant service in the great conflict by
which the integrity of the nation was preserved. Mrs. Rettig whose maiden name
was Hannah Carson, was born near Holgate, Henry County, in 1849, both she and
her husband having been reared and educated in that county, where their
marriage was solemnized. Of the children the eldest, Elmer E., is a retired farmer
residing at Baltimore, Fairfield County, this state; Mrs. Nellie Jackson, whose
husband is a railroad employe, residing at Willard, was thirty-six years of
age, at the time of her death; Melvin O. is a successful lawyer in the City of
Toledo; Adelbert S. is engaged in the steel brokerage business at Kansas City,
Missouri; Lettie is the wife of Albert Behn, a railroad machinist, and they
reside at Willard, Huron County; and Carl B., of this sketch is the youngest of
the number.
Carl B. Rettig was
graduated from the high school at Willard as a member of the class of 1910, and
thereafter he entered historic old Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio, in which
institution he was graduated in 1914, with the degree of Bachelor of Science,
he having there become affiliated with the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. In the
year of his graduation Mr. Rettig entered the employ of the Briar Hill Steel
Company at Youngstown, Mahoning County, and about two years later he retired
from this position with this corporation to enter the nation's military service
in connection with the troubles on the Mexican border. He enlisted July 1,
1916, and was assigned to service with the Third Field Hospital Corps, a
Youngstown organization, with which he served ten months on the Texas-Mexican
border. When the United States entered the World war, in April, 1917, Mr.
Rettig was sent to the Officers Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison,
Indiana, and there on the 15th of August, 1917, he was commissioned a second
lieutenant in the United States Army. He was shortly afterward assigned to
service with the Twenty-fourth United States Cavalry at Fort D.A. Russell,
Wyoming, and three months later he was transferred with this command to
Houston, Texas. One month later he was assigned to the Twentieth Field
Artillery at Leon Springs, near San Antonio, that state, and four months later
he entered the School of Fire at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he remained ten
months. He was then transferred to Camp Upton, New York, and on the 15th of
May, 1918, he embarked at Montreal, Canada, for overseas service. He landed
with this command at Liverpool, England, and thence proceeded across the
channel to France, where he landed, at Le Havre, on the 1st of June, 1918. He
took part in the now historic Vosges and St. Mihiel offensives, as well as
those of the Meuse-Argonne and the Metz, and in July, 1918, he was promoted to
the rank of first lieutenant, the following October having recorded his
advancement to the brevet rank of captain. After the signing of the armistice
he was with the allied Army of Occupation in Germany, where he was stationed at
Luxemburg. After his return to the United States he continued in service in the
Regular Army until October, 1920, when he received his honorable discharge. For
nine months thereafter he was engaged in the brokerage business at El Paso,
Texas, and he then came to Niles, Ohio, in May, 1921, and on the first of the
following August he was made secretary of the Niles Chamber of Commerce,
serving until February, 1924, when he resigned to take up his present work.
Mr. Rettig is a
thoroughgoing republican in politics and he and his wife are members of the
United Brethren Church. In his home city Mr. Rettig's Masonic affiliations are
with Mahoning Lodge No. 394, Free and Accepted Masons, and Niles Chapter No.
223, Royal Arch Masons, of which last named organization he is the secretary
(1923). At Warren, the county seat, he is affiliated with Warren Council No.
66, Royal and Select Masters, and Warren Commandery No. 39, Knights Templar.
His Scottish Rite affiliations are with the Consistory at San Antonio, Texas,
in the southern jurisdiction and in the same he has received the thirty-second
degree, besides which is a Noble of El Maida Temple of the Mystic Shrine at El
Paso, Texas. His is one of the most loyal and popular members of William
McKinley Post No. 126, American Legion, at Niles, and had the distinction of
serving as its commander in 1921.
August 18, 1917,
recorded the marriage of Mr. Rettig and Miss Selma Evans, who was born and
reared at Niles, and who is a popular figure in the representative social
activities of her native city.
_________________
HURON
COUNTY OHIO - BIOS: RETTIG, Carl B. (published 1925)
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Contributed
to the HURON Co., OH Biographies Project with permission of the OH-FOOTSTEPS
Mailing list coordinator (Maggie
Stewart-Zimmerman<73777.25@compuserve.com>) and the submitter.
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File
contributed to OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List by:
Mrs. Gina M. Reasoner
AUPQ38a@prodigy.com
1 August 1999
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HISTORY
OF OHIO
The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925
Volume V, page 16, 17
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