Dr. Jerome Fry Honsberger

Other Events:

• Artifact: 97 Frederick St, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Coffin/Box used to hold and transport bodies from his practice.
• Name: J. F. Honsberger
• Residence: 97 Frederick St., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-186902P
• Occupation: 1901, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Physician - Doctor - Dr.
• Elected Office: 1902, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; councillor - Kitchener
• Public Service: 1906, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Council of the Board of Trade
• Occupation: 1911, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Medical Doctor, Physican
• Residence: 1911, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Methodist
• Occupation: 1921, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Doctor, Medical
• Residence: 1921, 97 Frederick St, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
• Residence: 1921, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Methodist
• Hall of Fame - Waterloo Region: Bef 2012, , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

Dr. Honsberger's outstanding contribution to welfare was made with Rev. Dr. F.E. Oberlander, Dr. G.H. Bowlby, Dr. H.G. Lackner and W.H. Schmalz in establishing Freeport Sanatorium in 1916.

After graduating from Trinity Medical College in 1882 he began his medical career at Delhi and during forty years of practice in Berlin from 1895 vigorously supported every movement for the betterment of the people. An alderman, he pioneered the first septic tank and sand filtration plant. In 1907 he was appointed medical officer of health. He was medical director of the Mutual Life for several years.

Honsberger helped organize and was a director of the YMCA was president of the Berlin Orphanage Board, and was responsible for Kitchener's first League of Nations Society. He was an education board member from 1911 and from 1923 was a member of the High School Board, including several years as chairman. He faithfully served Trinity Church in many capacities.

Past and Present Inductees. (2019). Waterlooregionmuseum.ca. Retrieved 16 January 2019, from https://www.waterlooregionmuseum.ca/en/exhibits/past-and-present-inductees.aspx

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Frederick Street, East Side.

On the corner Millar's store and at its rear a warehouse belonging to it, a two story building with gable toward Frederick Street.

A vacant lot, site of the present Market Building, surrounded by a six foot hoard fence, customary in those days to keep out cattle, which had the freedom of the streets. A one and one-half story frame building with porch in front occupied by Mr. Yeck who died of being bled by a layman when he was Dr. Scott's patient. A man Geiger married the widow and lived in the building.

A small frame building occupied by Geo. Schmidt.

A small frame building occupied by Wm. Stein.

A two story frame building with a small portico painted white over the front door, the house occupied by Thomas Pierce, then Principal of the Central School and later by Herman Rathman.

On the corner, now occupied by Dr. Honsberger's residence, a two story brick building for some time the residence of Sheriff Davidson. Before that, 1840-1860, Jacob Kramer occupied the building as a tavern. Kramer was known as Strumpf Weber (stocking weaver) from a former occupation in a shop on Oueen Street S.

Weber Street. On the corner a large brick building erected by Christian Enslin about 1855 with veranda along the entire Frederick Street front and on it a narrow gallery at the second floor. The building is still in use for stores with the veranda removed. At one time it was occupied as a tavern.

A one and one-half story frame building lengthwise with Frederick St. On the easterly corner of what is now Spetz St., a two story brick building, set back somewhat from the street, the house of Peter Rebscher. It had a large sign, "Peter Rebscher Brewer"; in the rear was the brewery, a two story frame building, and a large barn. A later brewer was Jacob Summer and after him, in 1862, Joseph Spetz had the house and brewery until he died.

A vacant lot belonging to John Roth and later to Simon Roy who used it as a nursery for shrubs and rare trees.

The old Central School and grounds, the school now remodelled and greatly enlarged to the present handsome Suddaby School. The Central School building had a belfry on top with at first a small bell and later a larger one. Jacob Stroh rang this bell as long as he attended the Central School, later W. H. Breithaupt had this charge for a time.

A frame building occupied by Yost Kimmel, a carpenter.

REMINISCENCES OF BERLIN (NOW KITCHENER) By JACOB STROH Contributed by Joseph M. Snyder.

Part I. Settlement - Early Villagers and Buildings, Waterloo Historical Society Annual Volume 1930

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Flash from the Past: Kitchener corner property held home of Dr. J.F. Honsberger
Honsberger home

From Busy Berlin: 20th Century Souvenir of the Best Town in The home and medical office of Dr. J. F. Honsberger still stands at Frederick and Weber streets in Kitchener. It now holds the Dental Solutions clinic of Dr. Mike Narayansingh.

Mar 30, 2012 Flash from the Past appears every Saturday in the Waterloo Region Record.

In the summer of 1895 a 35-year-old medical doctor sold his rural practice in Delhi, Ont., and moved to Berlin (now Kitchener), where over the next 40 years he would play a key role in projects and institutions involving everything from health and education to politics and the church.
Last week's "mystery" photo shows the three-storey house at 97 Frederick St. where Dr. Jerome Fry Honsberger saw patients and resided with his wife, Alberta, and their children, Gordon and Nina.

It still stands at Frederick and Weber streets, now the only building on the block - apart from the huge seven-storey Waterloo Region courthouse that's under construction and to open in 2013.

The home's front balcony and two verandas have been gone for years and the building - it now holds a dental clinic - is so close to the street it's hard to believe that it once had a front lawn, way back when Frederick and Weber were both two-lane streets.
"It is amazing that this house still survives," Margaret Rowell emailed from Wilmot Township, correctly identifying the building, which in recent decades has held medical and law offices.

"I worked there for 33 years andI miss it," emailed Anna Steffler, a real estate law clerk. "The interior retains all of the old charm of buildings from that era."

The house was likely built about the same time the Honsbergers arrived in Berlin, but exactly when isn't clear. In 1935, two years before his death, the doctor published an interesting memoir (a copy of The Life of Dr. J.F. Honsberger is in the Grace Schmidt Room of Local History at the Kitchener Public Library) but it barely mentions his residence.

The Honsberger house wasn't the first building on the corner lot.

Reminiscences of Berlin by Jacob Stroh, an article published by the Waterloo Historical Society in its 1930 volume, says this:
"On the corner, now occupied by Dr. Honsberger's residence, (there was) a two story brick building, for some time the residence of Sheriff (George) Davidson. Before that, 1840 -1860, Jacob Kramer occupied the building as a tavern."

Honsberger was born Oct. 6, 1959, near Fry's Corners in the Township of South Cayuga, south of Hamilton near Lake Erie. He was a school teacher for about five years before enrolling at Trinity Medical School in Toronto in 1882.

In his memoir he described the horror of an initiation rite he endured there when classmates tossed dissected animals parts at him. For several days, he wrote, he was unable to eat.

In 1886 Honsberger continued his studies at the Royal College of Physicians in London, England, then returned to Canada to set up a medical practice in Delhi.

Once in Kitchener, his work was focused on obstetrics and medical exams for life insurance firms. He was also a Waterloo County coroner for 33 years. Near the end of his career, in 1921, he joined the Mutual Life Assurance Co. in Waterloo as medical director and held that post until 1929.

In the community, Honsberger was a co-founder of the Freeport Sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, served as a school trustee and municipal councillor, became a Liberal Party candidate, served on the YMCA board of directors for 40 years, founded a local branch of the League of Nations Society, helped raise funds to build today's Trinity United Church . . . the list goes on and on.
Following Honsberger's death (he and his wife Alberta, who died in 1936, are buried in a Delhi cemetery) the building at 97 Frederick became the residence and law office of his son, Gordon.

The Honsbergers' daughter, Nina, married Harold Wagner, a Mutual Life administrator who for many years was a Waterloo school trustee and municipal councillor. They had two sons, Bob and Paul.

In an interview this week, Bob Wagner, a former Kitchener councillor, said he was born in 1930 and has only a very few memories of his grandparents.

"I can remember being babysat by them in that house. And I have a memory of sitting in the front room there, waiting for my parents to get back from a trip they had taken to Detroit," he said.

In an emailed message, Wagner noted: "On the left behind the house was a carriage house which would have held (Honsberger's) horse and buggy in early days and auto thereafter."

Wagner said that his mother, Nina, used to say the Frederick Street house sometimes "made her a little nervous" as a girl because she could look out and see prisoners being escorted to and from the county courthouse on the other side of Weber Street.
Paul Wagner, who was born in 1935, said he remembers little about his grandparents but is very interested in their former home.
"It's wonderful that it's still there," he said.

Mary Lou (Wagner) Thompson of Kitchener, Bob Wagner's daughter, wrote by email to say she immediately recognized her great-grandfather's home in the photo.
"Dr. Honsberger was the city coroner for many years and kept a wooden coffin in the attic of this house to be used to transport bodies," she wrote. "Two years ago when my family heard that the owners had sold the house, I paid a visit to have a good look around and found this same coffin still in the attic."

Flash From The Past: Kitchener Corner Property Held Home Of Dr. J.F. Honsberger". 2021. Cambridgetimes.Ca. https://www.cambridgetimes.ca/living-story/2599877-flash-from-the-past-kitchener-corner-property-held-home-of-dr-j-f-honsberger/. "

Artifact:
Mary Lou (Wagner) Thompson of Kitchener, Bob Wagner's daughter, wrote by email to say she immediately recognized her great-grandfather's home in the photo.
"Dr. Honsberger was the city coroner for many years and kept a wooden coffin in the attic of this house to be used to transport bodies," she wrote. "Two years ago when my family heard that the owners had sold the house, I paid a visit to have a good look around and found this same coffin still in the attic."

Elected Office:
Years Served: 1902-03

Jerome married Alberta C. Stoddard 14 Oct 1890, Delhi, Norfolk Co., Ontario, Canada. Alberta (daughter of Robert Stoddard and Caroline Chysler) was born 5 Jul 1867, Woodhouse Township, Norfolk Co., Ontario; died 23 Aug 1936, Kitchener Daily Record Newspaper, Kitchener, , Ontario, Canada; was buried , Delhi Cemetery, Norfolk Co., Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

1. Robert Gordon McK "Gordon" Honsberger was born 17 Dec 1896, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 1973; was buried , Woodland Cem., Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada.
2. Nina Stoddard Honsberger was born 21 Jul 1900, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 15 Jul 1988, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada.

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-33136

Valentine — Catherine Fry. Catherine died Yes, date unknown. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Catherine Honsberger
• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-33159