My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM REINECKE is a native of Hanover, Germany, and was born January 23, 1842. He is a son of Adolph and Wilhelmina (Wagner) Reinecke — the former a Lutheran clergyman, and a writer of great prominence. The subject was reared and educated in Germany, and graduated at the age of eighteen. He then spent one year in a university, studying theology. At the commencement of the civil war he came to America, and engaged as a reporter on a Baltimore German paper; then went to Chicago, and became editor on the staff of the Staats Zeitung, where he remained until 1864, when he was prevailed on to come to Louisville, and take charge of the Union Press, a Republican newspaper — two daily editions, one in English and one in German. After the death of President Lincoln he returned to Chicago, where he remained until 1866, when he came to Louisville, and became cashier of the Western Bank, which position he held until 1870, when he was admitted to the bar, and has since practiced his profession. His specialty is corporation and insurance law, and he is attorney for some of the largest corporations of the city and State. He has attained distinction in legal circles beyond Kentucky by his able advocacy of a general codification of all the laws. Since 1886 he has been manager of the Kentucky State agency of the Germania Life Insurance Company of New York. Together with Bishop Dudley, he edits The Church Chronicle, the organ of the Episcopal Church in Kentucky. He was married in 1881 to Miss Alvina Marckworth, of Cincinnati. He is a prominent Mason, being the Grand Master of the Grand Consistory of Kentucky, of Scottish Rite Masons, and having attained the thirty-third degree. He was also Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows, Grand Patriarch of the Grand Encampment of Odd Fellows, and served a number of years as Grand Representative of both grand bodies in the Sovereign Grand Lodge of that Order.