NIChOLAS LAUBENTHAL.

As indicated by the name, the subject of this sketch is of foreign birth, being one of the sturdy citizens who came to this country from Germany and, like so many of his compatriots from the fatherland, he inherits the sterling qualities which distinguish his nationality. Nicholas Laubenthal, farmer, of Nottawa township and an ex-soldier in one of the greatest civil wars in the annals of time, was born in Prussia in the year 1841. When eleven years old he came to America with his parents and during the ensuing ten years lived in Lorraine county, Ohio, where he grew up on a farm and received a common school education. At the breaking out of the great rebellion he was among the first young men of the above county to tender his services to the government, enlisting, at the age of twenty-one, in Company G, One Hundred Seventh Ohio Infantry, with which he served for a period of three years and four months, during which time he took part in a number of campaigns in Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere and participated in some of the most noted battles of the war. His regiment was with the Army of the Potomac and he shared with his comrades the vicissitudes of warfare in many thrilling and dangerous experiences. In the battle of Gettysburg he was wounded by a musket ball in the right arm and right hand, which necessitated his being taken to a hospital in Baltimore, where he remained but two days, going thence to a Philadelphia hospital, in which he received treatment for about five weeks.

From the latter city Mr. Latibenthal was transferred to a hospital at Cincinnati, thence to Covington, Kentucky, and two weeks later was removed with a number of others to Camp Dennison, Ohio, where he remained nearly one year in the invalid corps. During the greater part of that time he received treatment, but when his wound improved, he was made master of one of the hospital wards. At the expiration of the period indicated he, with thirty others of his own company, was removed to a hospital in the city of Cleveland, where he remained on duty for ten months and then re- turned to Camp Dennison, where, three weeks later, he received his discharge. His military career was an active and eminently honorable one, and he left the service with a record of which any soldier might well feel proud. While at the front, he was always ready for duty, never shirked a responsibility and whether on the march, in camp, or amid the din and confusion of battle his conduct was ever above reproach and right nobly did he sustain the reputation of a brave and gallant soldier.

For some time after the war Mr. Laubenthal was employed by a gentleman in Lorain county, Ohio, to oversee the latter's farm and nursery, in connection with which he subsequently took charge of a general store also. Still later a saw and shingle machine were added, and for several months he looked after and managed these several lines of enterprise and that, too, in a manner entirely satisfactory to the proprietor. He remained in Ohio for a number of years, devoting his attention principally to agricultural pursuits, but in 1899 he disposed of his interests in that state and came to Isabella county, Michigan, settling in May of that year in the woods of Nottawa township and began operating a saw mill. He also purchased a tract of land in that township, from which he cut the timber, and which he later cleared and improved, making a good farm, on which he still resides.

Mr. Laubenthal has been a very industrious man and has always made his labors count, as his present fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres with its up-to-date improvements abundantly attest. He erected all of his buildings, principally by his own labor, enclosed his farm with first-class fences and by artificial drainage has increased the productiveness of the soil in no small degree. He is an excellent farmer, in that he has made a careful study of soils and their adaptation to the different kinds of crops and by judicious rotation and the use of modern methods of cultivation, he seldom, if ever, fails to realize ample returns for his time and labor.

In politics he is an independent, refusing to be bound by any strictly party ties, and in religion is a Roman Catholic, belonging with his family to the local church at Beal City. He served as three years as supervisor of his township, ten years as school director, and at the present time holds the office of school treasurer, in all of which positions he discharged his duty with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the public.

In the year 1867 Mr. Laubenthal and Mary Cotton were united in the holy bonds of wedlock, the latter being a native of Lorain county, Ohio, where she was born November 18, 1850, being a daughter of George W. and Eliza Cotton. The children that have blessed this union are as follows: Anna C., wife of Stephen Schon, of Ohio; Joseph G., who married Emma Simmer and lives in Nottawa township; Elizabeth M., now Mrs. Mat Dietrich, lives in Henry county, Ohio; Emma T. lives in Nottawa township and is the wife of Joseph Zimmer; Frank J. married Christine Pung and lives in Cadillac, this state; William J., of Nottawa township, married Helena Dolli; Myra J., wife of James Mead, resides in the township of Nottawa; Clara J., who married Albert Giesige. lives in Henry county, Ohio; Elnora, of Henry county, that state, married to Walter Westrick, of Henry county, Ohio; Mary L., unmarried, is still with her parents.