Name of Deceased: Herman Ulrich

County Name: Noble

State: OH

Newspaper: Caldwell Press

Submitters Name: Sandra Miller

Obit: From the Caldwell Press, Caldwell, Ohio, January 23, 1902:

"DEATH OF HERMAN ULRICH  On the early morning of January 15, 1902, the subject of this sketch reached the goal of his life.

He died at the residence of his son-in-law, John Miley and daughter Sebille, one mile north of Mr. Ephraim at the advanced age of 83 years, and the body was buried in the beautiful cemetery at that place on the following day at 2 o'clock p.m.

The funeral service was conducted by Rev. Martin of Sarahsville charge, M.E. Church, assisted by the writer.  The service at the M. E. Church as well as at the grave, was attended by an unusually large and deeply sympathetic throng of his old time friends and acquaintances, every one of whom feeling they had lost a friend.

After a short, but fervid funeral sermon by the minister to a congregation overflowing the church, and a wonderfully affecting final view of the body by the whole congregation, the remains, which were encased in a beautiful casket, were tenderly and tearfully borne to a house in the silent city of the dead, where they rest beside his wife who preceded him by several years, in the journey to the "great beyond."

Herman Ulrich was born at Gottingen, Kingdom of Hanover, Germany, on the 18th day of October, 1818.  After securing a training in the schools of his native city, he was sent at the age of 10 to a higher school at Goslar in the Hartz mountains.  He remained in school till he was 17 years old, when he went to the city of Bremen as a clerk in a counting house where he remained 18 months, then, concluding to be a sailor, he took shipping on the "Augusta", a sailing vessel bound for the West Indies.  After touching all the principal ports in this group of islands he again sailed for Bremen.  Thence to New York, Havana, Matanzas, Plymounth, England, and back to Bremen.

Thence to Richmond, Philadelphia, New York, and finally to Lisbon, Portugal and Rio de-Janerio, S.A., remaining at the latter place one year.  From there to New Orleans, by way of Porto Rico, Jamaica, St. Domingo, and Cuba.  From New Orleans back to Bremen, Germany, thence home to Gottingen where he remained till 1842 when he took passage in the ship "Anna" for Baltimore, landing on the 4th of July, 1842; thence the same month to New Gottingen, Guernsey county, where he was in the employ of Chas. and Washington Heidelbach, merchants, for 5 years.  He again visited his parents in Germany in 1847, remaining there till February of the next year, when he again set out for Ohio, arriving at Mt. Ephraim in September,1848, where he settled down for life marrying Susan Hill, November, 1849.

There were born to them 8 children of whom 5 survive him, vis.:  Henry, Herman, George, Sibille and Frank.  Thus one-half the family are here and the other half "over there."

It would certainly be no disparagement to others to say that a more elegantly polished gentleman never lived among us; and few, if any among us have come in social and sympathetic touch with a larger circle of admiring friends than Herman Ulrich.  As a husband he was faithful and true.  As a father, kind and indulgent to a fault.  As a citizen he was one of those German Americans whose immigration to this country has been , and is now, a potent factor in making the United States a great nation in the highest and best sense of the term.  As a neighbor his genial smile and helpful hand to all whose burden of life sometimes grew too heavy, almost, to be borne, will live in the memory of all who ever were so fortunate as to number him among their acquaintances.  As a business man he was the embodiment of honesty and integrity of character.  He had few if any superiors in his day as a rapid penman and reliable accountant.

But his large and successful mercantile business was completely wiped out in 1865 by the unprecedented decline in the price of tobacco of which he was a buyer and shipper.  But he went down his flag flying--no man, after the collapse, could say he had lost a penny by his failure.

While at school at Goslar, Hanover, Germany, according to a memoir of his own hand, and lying before me, he was confirmed in the German Lutheran Church.  He doubtless had faults, because he was human, which is the joining in mysterious union of the mortal and immortal; but in all the virtues which go to make up "riches toward God" that a man carries with him into the realms of the eternal--good deeds of loving kindness to all about him--his whole life abounded.

He told one of his neighbors shortly before his death that no day passed with him without communion with his Maker.  He died without a pain as one "falling on sleep;" and like a ripe shock of corn he was gathered to his fathers.

Noble, faithful, generous brother, Farewell!  Thou hast joined the ranks of the immortals, but thy rich, fruitful life will forever live in our memories as a sweet benediction.  L.W. Finley."

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