Carl Wilhelm Christian "Charles" Kranz^[1]

1803 - 1875  (71 years)

• Name	Carl Wilhelm Christian "Charles" Kranz
  Born	26 Aug 1803	Altenburg, Hessen, Germany   [2, 3, 4, 5]
  Gender	Male
  Business	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  	C. Kranz & Son
  		Waterloo Directory 1884-1885
  Business	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
  	Kranz & Stroh - general store
  Name	Carl Wilhelm Kranz
  Name	Charles William Kranz
  Occupation	1861	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [3]
  	Merchant
  Residence	1861	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [3]
  	Lutheran
  Occupation	1871	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  	Merchant
  Residence	1871	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [2]
  	Lutheran
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-138539P
  Died	30 Jan 1875	Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [4, 5]
  Buried	Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [4]
  Person ID	I138539	Generations
  Last Modified	6 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family	Franzeska Hornug,   b. CA 1802,   d. Bef 1861  (Age ~ 58 years)
  Children	1. Mayor Hugo Carl Kranz, MPP,   b. 13 Jun 1834, Lahrbach, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany ,   d. 1 Jun 1902, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 67 years)   2. Henrietta Kranz,   b. 7 Feb 1836, Lahrbach, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany ,   d. 22 Oct 1918, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 82 years)   3. Mary Krantz,   b. 1837, Lahrbach, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Last Modified	7 Apr 2024
  Family ID	F38678	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  In 1855 we find Henry Stroh ... in business with Carl Kranz, a native of Altenburg, in the Grand Duchy of Hessen, where he was born in 1803, the son of a Lutheran clergyman. Kranz received a thorough education and was for a long time steward of Count von Erbach. He came to America in 1851 and to Berlin in 1855, where he at once started business, as stated. Kranz's business, later C. Kranz & Son, was for many years in a frame building on King street, in the centre of the block between Queen and Elizabeth streets, now known as 22-24 King street east. He died in 1875, when his son, Hugo Kranz, was Mayor of Berlin. First Annual Report of the Waterloo Historical Society ____________________________ King Street , North Side Queen St. North. On the corner there was a frame building lengthwise with King Street, occupied by J. U. Tyson, dealer in groceries, wines, liquors and meats, erected about 1833. In 1841 Sheriff George Davidson bought this building and in it opened the first Post Office in 1842. His brother William was associated with him. Probably during 1845 Doering & Ahrens occupied the premises as a general store. A little later the firm was Huber & Ahrens. Mr. Huber acted as magistrate for a number of years, in which occupation he was popular and had much to do, people coming from small surrounding villages to Mr. Huber for fair trial. He was the second reeve in Berlin. Next came a barber shop occupied by George A. Fischer who also served as dentist and as fruit dealer. A house erected by C. A. Ahrens of Huber and Ahrens. Mr. Ahrens had a brick vault at the back of his kitchen, lined with an iron chest and considered fire proof. He was the first treasurer of Waterloo County and had this vault for safe keeping of his books and papers. The house was later occupied by Dr. Mylius. Louis Breithaupt, who came from Buffalo in 1861 after having started his tanning business in Berlin in 1857, previously bought the corner of King and Queen Streets, and erected there the first section of the American Block in 1862. Next to the Dr. Mylius house there was a two story brick building erected about 1855. It was occupied by Baedeker and Steubing who had a considerable business as book sellers and stationers, also as dealers in wallpaper, etc., besides doing some publishing. This business, moved later to the corner of King and Frederick Streets, continued until Mr. Steubing's death. In his younger years Mr. Baedeker was a carpenter and had cut his knee with an adze, necessitating amputation and substitution of a cork leg. On the site of the present Steel's store, George Davidson, later sheriff, erected a building in 1845 and moved the Post Office there when Doering and Ahrens occupied the corner store. Mr. Davidson also had a general store in this new building. About 1855 Kranz & Stroh occupied the building as a general store. Next came a building occupied at first by George Klein and later the site of Henry Knell's jewelery shop. John Winger's pump shop. Wooden pipe called pump logs were of about ten-inch timber, tamarack or pine logs with a bore of about 3". The pumps were mostly finished square and surmounted with turned tops. A two story frame building painted white. John Winger's house. Eby's history mentions John Winger as having come from Pennsylvania in 1836. A ten-foot lane leading back to the Public School grounds and into Winger's yard. The highest ground in this vicinity was in Winger's yard. Children were in the habit of sliding down the hill in winter to King Street. In 1840 Mr. Bentler erected a building and occupied the second floor as dwelling and shoe shop. Martin Messner had a music store on the ground floor which was a few steps above the street level. In 1855-6 Andrew Nicolaus took over the Winger house and changed it to a hotel. The first considerable street grading operation in Berlin was the lowering of the corner of King and Frederick and vicinity 8 to 10 feet. This put the St. Nicholas Hotel, as it was called, under the necessity of being extended downward one story and this lower part became the hotel office and bar room. At the westerly end of the hotel there was a shed and stable for horses. Over the shed, approached by a stairway, there was a hall known as St. Nicholas Hall used for concerts, balls and entertainments generally. At the rear of the adjoining St. Nicholas Hall there was a building on the high ground known as the Turner Hall and used as German Turnverein. 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 _____________________ QUEEN STREET SOUTH, EAST SIDE. On the corner of King Street Rehscher's vaulted cellar already spoken of. An open space. A two-story rough-cast building with two-story veranda along the Queen Street front built by Martin Anthes (father of John S. Anthes) in 1835 when it was considered one of the best houses in the village. Henry Stroh purchased this house from Mr. Anthes about 1837. Jacob Stroh was born in this house. Behind it there was a garden of about an acre of land. There were 31 pine stumps on the property when Mr. Stroh took possession and these stumps had to be laboriously removed as stump- pulling machines, which came later, were not then available. The well on the lot was only nine feet deep. Henry Stroh carried on a shoe shop in his house until he entered into partnership with Carl Kranz, on King Street. In 1857, after he had dissolved partnership with Kranz, Henry Stroh built a one and one-half story frame building next to his house and used it as a shoe store. Mr. Stroh continued in this shoe business until 1863 when he went into partnership with Mr. Reinhold Lang, the tanner. The Queen Street shoe shop was changed to a dwelling. Later Mr. Vanderhart, a tailor, had his shop in this building and after him Carl Englehart had it as photographer. Henry Stroh sold his house to George King. Later Charles Ahrens owned it and had it moved to the corner of Shanley and Braun Streets about 1880. A one and one-half story frame building erected about 1837 by Jacob Kraemer, later on Frederick Street, as spoken of. Later an addition was added to the front and the building used as the local post office, with William Davidson in charge. Later George Seip purchased the building and used it as a saloon, with a bowling alley in the rear, the first bowling alley in Berlin. William Jaffray lived in the house for a time and later William Knell, son-in-law of Mr. Seip. A one and one-half story frame building, originally a cooper shop, later the dwelling of Mr. Seip, after he sold the other building. In 1860 he built a brewery, known as Seip's brewery. Under the whole building he had a vaulted cellar built of field stone. Power for the brewery was supplied by a horse-power contained in an attached shed, shelter for the horses. Seip had a high reputation for good beer. He at first made his own malt, but later purchased it. After George Seip's death his son Louis continued the business until about 1880. The building was finally torn down to make room for the present auditorium. The cooper shop, a small one story building, with brick chimney such as coopers used to heat staves for their barrel making, operated by Henry Brickner who later had his shop at the corner of Young and King Streets. Later Adam Stein had the Queen Street cooper shop. The Berlin coopers were experts in the making of what was called tight-wear,that is water-tight barrels, in large tuns which they made for the brewers. A very early building, occupied by John Peters, a cabinet maker in Hoffman's factory, about 1860. The building had an outside stairway at the back. Peters was a bird lover and expert in trapping native song birds, mocking birds, cat birds, finches, etc., which he hung under his veranda roof in public display. On the corner of Church Street a frame house occupied by Mr. Knechtel, a weaver, about 1842-1850. Knechtel moved to a farm in Mannheim where later he was injured in the spine by a falling tree to such an extent that he was bedfast for fourteen or fifteen years. He lived to about 1871. Conrad Doering occupied the Queen Street house for a time. He also was a weaver and made coverlets, etc. The house was torn down to make room for the present one of brick built by Dr. Clemens and later occupied by the late Dr. Walters. Church Street. On the south side St. Paul's Lutheran Church. A one and one-half story unpainted frame building with gable towards the street, the dwelling, about 1860, of John Fleischauer, a laborer, a native of Hessen, Germany. A one and one-half story house occupied by E. Kern, cabinet maker, about 1860 and later by John Ansted. A vacant lot. George Street. Joseph Schneider originally owned all the land between George Street and Mill Street, mostly woods at that time, and extending to Benton and Eby Streets. 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

  
  

• Sources

  [S7] News - ON, Waterloo, Kitchener - Berliner Journal (1859-1917), Obituary of Henry Knell - February 19, 1903. [S229] Census - ON, Waterloo, Berlin - 1871, Div. 1, Pg. 32. [S123] Census - ON, Waterloo, Berlin - 1861, Div. 1 Page 7. [S166] Cemetery - ON, Waterloo, Kitchener - Mount Hope CC#4508 Internet Link . Hier ruhet/ in Frieden/ Carl Wilhelm/ Christian Krantz/ geb. zu/ Altenburg in Hessen/ am 26 August 1803/ gest. 30 Januar 1875/ Harry P./ Bingham/ 1864-1948/ Marie W. Kranz/ his beloved wife/ 1867-1934 [S7] News - ON, Waterloo, Kitchener - Berliner Journal (1859-1917), 4 Feb 1875. Died 30 Jan 1875 In Berlin, Carl Wilhelm Christian Kranz died at the age of 71 years, 5 months, 4 days.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 26 Aug 1803 - Altenburg, Hessen, Germany Business - C. Kranz & Son - - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Business - Kranz & Stroh - general store - - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Occupation - Merchant - 1861 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Lutheran - 1861 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Occupation - Merchant - 1871 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Lutheran - 1871 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Died - 30 Jan 1875 - Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Buried - - Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  = Link to Google Earth