Founder of Hartman Jewelry Company Henry Hartman poses for this picture in 1898.
Courtesy of the 1898 Atlas of Auglaize County, Ohio
Every Saturday, Henry Hartman cranked the clock outside his jewelry store to reset its 150-pound weight. For 50 years the clock helped people of Wapakoneta keep time, becoming a fixture in the town. Hartman Jewelry Company, the business that it represented, had roots even deeper with its 96 years of service to the community.
The Hartmans’ ties to Wapakoneta go back to the pioneer days. Both Henry’s and his wife Sabina’s parents immigrated to the United States from Bavaria, Germany. As a brick maker, Henry’s father Otto supplied construction materials for many of the city’s buildings. Henry, born in 1854, and Sabina Goetz, born in 1859, started their lives in Wapakoneta. The couple married in 1879 and had four children: Otto in 1880, Clemense in 1882, Raymond in 1885 and Gertrude in 1891.
Henry’s father died in 1862, and his mother Theresa married Frank Ausman the following year. The family moved to Pomeroy, Ohio, in 1866. There young Henry began to learn the jewelry trade in 1872. He apprenticed at a local store to hone his skills as a silversmith and horologist, also known as a clock maker. He remained at that store until 1876, except for a short time the year before when he went to Iowa to work at another jewelry store.
Returning to Wapakoneta in September of 1876, Hartman started his own jewelry store. The optician’s business started out modestly with the purchase of a small amount of jewelry stock. He conducted business from a little space in C. N. Yokel’s cigar factory.
Hartman’s business location and owners changed several times within its first seven years. After four months, Hartman’s store moved from the cigar factory to a new location on West Auglaize Street. Hartman partnered for a few months but then served as the sole proprietor until he partnered with John H. Barr. They operated a branch of Hartman & Barr in St. Marys between 1878 and 1880.
The company’s name changed in 1880 when Hartman became its sole owner again. The store then moved to the corner of Auglaize and Park Streets. Three years later, Hartman bought half of what became known as the Hartman Block in the heart of downtown Wapakoneta. He later bought the entire building. In addition to his work in the jewelry business, Hartman served as Director of the People’s National Bank in 1898.
In the store’s earliest days with no electricity, Hartman and his employees worked by daylight and by oil lamps at night. At the turn of the century, customers walked up a center aisle flanked by glass cases of jewelry to get to the optical department in the back. A variety of clocks hanging on walls across the store ticked in time.
Hartman was “thoroughly acquainted with the details of every department of the trade, strictly honest in all his dealings, industrious and energetic,” according to the 1898 Atlas of Auglaize County. He instilled the love of the jewelry trade in his three boys, who learned the business from him.
While the oldest son’s siblings were in school, Otto Hartman joined the jewelry trade by 1900. With all of Henry’s sons joining him in his business by 1906, their company became known as Hartman Jewelry Company, sometimes referred to as Hartman Jewelry & Optical. Dr. Clemense Hartman, known as “Clem,” served as the vice-president and general manager. The Hartmans placed the large clock, a common symbol for jewelry companies, that advertised their new name outside their building that year.
Raymond “Ray” Hartman worked at his family business until 1909 when he moved to Salem, Oregon. He worked as a watchmaker, jeweler and engraver for John G. Barr Company. After Henry retired in 1915, he, Sabina, Otto and Gertrude moved to Salem. That year Otto and Ray bought out Ray’s employer and created the Hartman Brothers Company. The brothers’ family supported their efforts. By 1920 even their younger sister Gertrude served as a saleswoman, and their father Henry assisted as a watchmaker around 1930. The brothers operated their store together for 30 years until seven months before Ray’s death in 1945 when they had both retired and sold the business.
During those years Sabina lived primarily with Otto in Salem, and toward the end of her life she lived in Pasadena, California, with her daughter. Likewise, Henry spent his retirement in both Salem and Wapakoneta, living with either Otto or Clem and assisting them in their businesses. After his wife’s death in 1943, Henry remained in Wapakoneta where he passed away in 1950. Otto died in Salem in 1964.
Dr. Clem Hartman continued operating Wapakoneta’s branch while the rest of his family focused on the Oregon store. Like his father, he took interest in the jewelry trade since his boyhood. He graduated with a Doctor of Optometry degree from Philadelphia Optical College in 1899.
Returning from College, Dr. Hartman provided the family business with a formal optometry department. He served the Wapakoneta area as an optometrist for more than 65 years, examining more than 130,000 pairs of eyes from four generations of families. Throughout his career, he was an avid learner of the optometry profession, repeating post-graduate courses at Chicago and keeping his equipment up to date.
Dr. Hartman recalled in an interview with the Dayton Daily News that he had 14 diplomas from his studies. Dr. Hartman lived with a vision impairment. According to his 1918 draft registration card, the 35-year-old was blind in his right eye.
On July 26, 1906, the same year Dr. Hartman began managing Hartman’s Jewelry Company, he married Lauretta Neumeier of Wapakoneta. The couple had four children: Dean, Fern, Henry and Helen. Lauretta died in 1934.
An active member of the community, Dr. Hartman participated in several fraternal and professional organizations. He and 11 fellow Ohio optometrists founded the Optometrists Association in Ohio in 1902. Dr. Hartman was a member of the Holy Name Society, Rotary International Club, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks No. 1170 and Fraternal Order of Eagles. He was a charter member and grand knight of the Knights of Columbus Council 1272, and charter member of Wapakoneta Chamber of Commerce, serving as president in 1938. Dr. Hartman also acted as the vice president and director of People’s National Bank for at least 25 years.
On February 6, 1946 Dr. Hartman sold his business to Virginia Backus, who had been an employee for more than 10 years. Henry Hartman, still alive at 92, saw his legacy endure still under his name. Dr. Hartman continued his optometry business in connection with the jewelry store. He died on February 9, 1976.
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SOURCE
This feature is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Auglaize County Museum and Historical Society.
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