My Genealogy Hound

JOHN REUTZEL, carpenter, Wilkinsburg, was born in Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany, April 27, 1842, and is the youngest of the six children of John and Kate Reutzel, the latter of whom died when John was two years old. Our subject attended school till fourteen years old, and was apprenticed for three years to a cabinet-maker. In 1859 he immigrated to the United States, and located at Allegheny City, where he learned the carpenter’s trade, working the first year for three dollars per week and the second year for four dollars. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. D, 123d P. V. I., with which he took part in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At the close of his nine-months enlistment he went into the one hundred days’ service in the 193d, and two months later joined the 97th Regt., under Capt. W. R. Jones. With the last body he remained at Baltimore till discharged, in June, 1865. Returning to Allegheny, he resumed building operations, but lost his savings through a dishonest partner. In 1878 Mr. Reutzel came to Wilkinsburg, where he has built three dwellings, one of which he occupies. Sept. 20, 1868, he married Mary B., daughter of Henry and Mary (Butts) Meixner, of Baden, Germany, and their children are Annie Elizabeth (wife of Jacob Weser, in East Liberty), John Nicholas F., John George Washington, Kate F., Henry Frederick William, John George, Margaret Matilda, Edward Franklin and Oscar Alexander (twins), and Henry Emil. Mr. Reutzel, with his family, is a member of the East End G. L. Church; he belongs to the G. A. R., A. O. U. W., and politically is a republican.