My Genealogy Hound

Otto Rauschenbach, dealer in lumber and general merchandise, at Kimmswick, was born in that city in 1863, and was educated there and in St. Louis, graduating from the public schools of the latter city in 1878. He then spent three years at architecture and building, but was compelled to abandon this on account of his eyes. He then engaged in merchandising in partnership with F. D. Waters, at Kimmswick, the firm being Waters & Rauschenbach, until 1884, when Waters retired. Later, Mr. Rauschenbach erected a fine two-story frame building, opposite the hotel, where he has since continued the business with unusual success. Although a young man, his ability as a business man is excelled by few if any in the county, and a successful future evidently lies before him. He was married June 28, 1887, to Miss Josie, daughter of James Gilmartin, of St. Louis. He is a Republican in politics, and his first presidential vote was cast for J. G. Blaine, in 1884. His father, Gustave Rauschenbach, was born in the village of Kleimpoerten, Merseburg, Prussia, March 15, 1836. His father, Gottfried Rauschenbach, was a stone-cutter by trade, and, after leaving school, at the age of fourteen, Gustave learned the same trade, and worked at it in Germany until he was seventeen years of age, when he left the fatherland for America. He made the trip across the ocean unaccompanied by friends or relatives, and, in June, 1853, landed at New Orleans. He came at once to St. Louis, and worked at his trade in that city until 1854, and then went with Government troops to Kansas as a stone-cutter, and assisted in building Fort Riley. Returning to St. Louis, he next went to Louisville, Ky., came back again to St. Louis, and became a resident of Jefferson County, Mo., in 1856. February 19, 1857, he married Mrs. Elizabeth Rasch (Miss Meyer), who became the mother of Otto. In 1868 he abandoned farming, moved to Kimmswick, and undertook the marble business. In 1869 he built the National Hotel—a large brick structure, one of the finest in Kimmswick—of which he has been the proprietor up to the present time, He has four children living. He has been one of the active and enterprising business men of Kimmswick. In the fall of 1863 he revisited Europe, and spent some months among his relatives, and in the place in which he was born, returning to Missouri in the spring of 1864. In his political principles he has always been a Republican. He voted for Lincoln, in 1860. He is one of the representative Germans of his part of the town.