This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: Rohrer, Danz, Reusser, Sprunger, Braun, Wulliman, Embler
Classification: Biography
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/kh.2ADE/913
Message Board Post:
This book has no cover, and no index, and no author. I bought it on Ebay; it just has the
insides, but it is full of Indiana biographies. I am not researching this family, just
thought I would share. I do not know anymore about these families or these surnames. I
don’t know if there is any additional mention of this family in the book, it has no index.
I do not want to sell this book. I am typing the biographies from it.
Typed by Lora Radiches:
Surnames in this biography are; Rohrer, Danz, Reusser, Sprunger, Braun, Wulliman, Embler,
Fred ROHRER is founder and publisher of the Berne Witness, the first newspaper of this
little Indiana city, which in name and people is reminiscent of the capital of
Switzerland, from which locality came the ancestors of a large proportion of the people
who make up the population of this section of Adams County. From the nucleus of a
small country newspaper Mr. Rohrer has developed an immense printing and publishing plant,
the publication of the Berne Witness being now only a part of its manifold
activities. The phrase manifold activities can well be applied to Mr. Rohrer’s
life as a citizen of Berne. Through youth and manhood he has lived there, and his
work and influence have always been on the constructive side. He was born near
the City of Bern, Switzerland, December 9, 1867, the second in a large family of fourteen
children. His parents were people of great industry, but bad to live in the utmost economy
and fruga!
lity, and food, clothing and the other necessities of living were parceled out most
sparingly. His father, John Christian Rohrer, was born at Bolligen, near the City of Bern,
March 24, 1839, being the son of a linen weaver. At the age of sixteen he began his
apprenticeship as a tailor, and from that time, in 1855, he followed this trade,
continuing it for over fifty-five years. After completing his apprenticeship he was a
journeyman and then returned to Bern as a master tailor. In April, 1883, he brought his
family to America, primarily to find better opportunities for his children. After two
years in Wayne County, Ohio, he joined many of his fellow countrymen at Berne, Indiana,
and was that city’s master tailor for over twenty-five years. He passed away March 6,
1913. He married in March, 1865, Rosina Danz, who was born in Canton Bern, Switzerland,
January 9, 1837, and passed away March 2, 1909, after they had been married almost
forty-four years. John Christian Ro!
hrer possessed an exceptional knowledge of the Bible. He was one of the charter members of
the Blue Cross, a temperance society in Switzerland, and did much to promote the cause of
temperance after coming to Indiana. Of the fourteen children of these parents those to
grow up were: Fred, Ernest, John, Robert, Miss Lizzie, and Miss Lydia, who died in 1904,
at the age of twenty-two. Fred Rohrer was nearly sixteen years old when he came to
America. He had attended the elementary and secondary schools of Bern, Switzerland, and
through the aid of a friend had his tuition paid through a high school course, during
which he gained knowledge of German and French. After locating at Berne, Indiana, he
clerked for a few years in the store of Sprunger, Lehman & Company, and then entered
the Tn-State Normal College at Angola. He was graduated with honors in 1896. During his
last year in the college he put in his spare hours learning the printer’s trade with the
Steuben Republican.!
On returning to Berne on July 31, 1896, he secured financial assistance from his brother
John, and an August 4th bought the job printing plant of Joel Welty. Some additions were
made to the equipment, including an old Washington hand press, but the total plant cost
less than six hundred dollars. On September 3, 1896, the first copy of the Berne Witness
was issued, and while predictions were made of its early failure it has continued a
flourishing organ of Indiana journalism for over thirty years, with constant accession to
its size and quality and its forcefulness as a local newspaper. For a time a German
edition was also published. In June, 1900, Mr. Rohrer secured a contract from the
Mennonite Book Concern for the printing of several of its periodical publications, this
involving an enlargement of the plant and the investment of considerable capital in new
equipment. During the first four years Mr. Rohrer was alone in the business, and in
November, 1900, formed a partner!
ship with three other men, retaining half of the interest. In 1906 the company was
incorporated, with a capital of $12,000, and the stock was increased in 1911 to $30,000 to
provide funds for the building of a new plant. In 1912 this plant, a brick and concrete
building, fireproof, was erected at a cost of $21,000. It has been occupied since
February, 1913. The plant today comprises complete facilities for general
commercial printing, bookbinding and press machines to enable the business to take care of
the publication of the Berne Witness and a dozen to eighteen other publications printed
there, chiefly religious and educational periodicals. The company also does a large amount
of book and catalogue printing and has a reputation for exceptionally fine color work.
Through all these years Mr. Rohrer has been managing editor and is also president of the
Berne Witness Company. The record of his career as a publisher is sufficient to indicate
his business initiative !
and enterprise. In his community he has never been a “yes man,” but has exemplified the
courage of his convictions and has shown on numerous occasions a real fighting courage,
particularly as the active leader of the antisaloon forces in clearing Berne of its
saloons in the notable campaign of 1903. In reality this war with the saloons of Berne
went on for four years. During that time his home was dynamited, he was mobbed one night,
and four times assaulted, but he carried through with the aid of his loyal friends and the
courageous support of his wife. Some years later he published in book form the Saloon
Fight at Berne, which went through three editions in English and one in German, and the
book had more than a national circulation. Mr. Rohrer since October 1, 1928, has held the
office of postmaster of Berne. He is also manager of the Berne Community Auditorium and
chairman of the board of directors of The Peoples State Bank. Mr. Rohrer married,
November 1!
6, 1893, Miss Emma Reusser. She was born March 12, 1868, and reared in Berne, her father,
Jacob Reusser, having been one of the founders of this Indiana community. Jacob Reusser
was born at Canton, Ohio, while his parents were on their way here from Switzerland. He
died in 1916. Her mother was Katherine Sprunger, a native of Switzerland, who was
brought to Berne, Indiana, in 1852. She died in 1904 and the parents rest in the
Mennonite-Reformed-Evangelical Cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. Rohrer had a family of
five children. Ira D., the oldest, born October 18, 1894, at Angola, Indiana, is now
manager of the John Wilding Paper Company of Fort Wayne. He married Miss Vera Braun and
has two daughters: Eleanor, born at Berne in August, 1916, attending school at
Fort Wayne, and Marjorie, born in September, 1920. Paul, the second son, was born July 4,
1897, at Berne, and his enthusiasms from early boyhood were for aviation. He made
kites and in 1914!
, at the age of seventeen, built a small monoplane. The day following his
graduation from the Berne High School in 1915 he went to Chicago and took the
course at the Cicero School of Aviation, returning in the fall with a pilot’s
license. The following winter he assembled and built an airplane and the next summer flew
it from a large field a few miles west of Berne. He made four successful flights,
and on Thanksgiving Day, 1916, decided to bring the plane home, and in attempting to make
a landing the machine was wrecked by a nose dive and Paul Rohrer was instantly
killed, an early martyr to the cause of aviation. The third child of Mr. and Mrs. Rohrer
is Ruth A., born January 28, 1901, at Berne, was educated in DePauw University and is the
wife of Orton Wulliman, with the Fort Wayne Printing Company of that city, and
they have two daughters, Hilda May and Mary Lucille. Margaret H. Rohrer, born April 28,
1904, is in the !
office of the Berne Witness. Evangeline, the youngest, was born October 25, 1907,
and is attending the Westminster School of Music at Ithaca, New York, where she
married David Embler, Jr., a senior in the school. Their wedding took place while
the choir was on a tour through the Southern States, including Florida. All the children
were educated in the common school and were graduates of the Berne High School.