Joseph Rohner, 1899 Biography

ROHNER

Posted By: David Reineke (email)
Date: 9/13/2004 at 00:50:33

I translated the following biography from Der Carroll Demokrat, a German-language newspaper published in Carroll, Iowa, between about 1874 and 1920. It was originally published in a special 25th Anniversary Edition of the paper on Friday, 20 September 1899. I have not changed the place or name spellings. Information in brackets and notes at the end are my own explanations. It reads as follows:

Joseph Rohner

Mr. Joseph Rohner, of whom we publish a fine photograph, is the oldest photographer in Carroll. This gentleman has run a photography studio in Carroll for 21 years, and just as the city has grown to its current size, so has his business also developed, so that it can justly be said that he enjoys the best and largest patronage in Carroll County. His reputation as the best photographer in the county has long been established, so that for most families he has made photographs of parents, children and grandchildren. For some time, his strength has not been adequate to operate his photograph business, and so he has taken on a capable assistant to fulfill his numerous commissions. In addition to his usual photographic likenesses, Mr. Rohner also creates enlargements in oil, chalk, and watercolors, and his works are so well done that he is engaged by many customers.

NOTES: Carroll cemetery records list his birth as 1850 and death as 1926, and his wife Mary as 1855 to 1944. I believe his business was taken over by his son Lambert Rohner.