When I first began speaking with Lisa Kleman about our respective family histories and their mutual experience as immigrants in Rochester, I was struck by how similar the story of Kleman’s immigrant ancestor was to my own. Both Kleman and I are present-day representatives of the family lines of two determined German men, who came to America and attempted to improve their lot.

Kleman’s ancestor, Mathias Dossenbach, was a native of Baden who arrived in the United States in 1851, whereas my ancestor Jacob Zeiner, native of Württemberg, came over just short of twenty years later. Both men were subject to times of great political upheaval in their neighboring native homelands, as the loose confederation of autocratic German states began to feel the weight of a burgeoning Prussian hegemony.

While Kleman knows Dossenbach’s direct motivations for emigrating in the violent reprisal period after revolution, I have no such insight. Württemberg avoided much of the revolutionary violence that affected neighboring Baden, but backed the wrong side during the Austro-Prussian War. After their defeat, much territory of Württemberg was occupied by Prussia. It is just after this event, in 1869, that my 3rd great-grandfather, Jacob Zeiner, emigrated to America. Perhaps it was related to the events outlined; perhaps it was for other reasons unknown to me.

I read with interest Kleman’s account of the Dossenbach journey as it took place before their arrival in Rochester, on her blog Living in the Past. It is the account of one man’s attempts to provide for his children blossoming into something greater, something musical.

Kleman was kind enough to invite me to respond with a Gonechester entry. I will survey the addresses of Mathias Dossenbach as he moves his family through the city and the decades, until his death in 1887. So either before or after you read below, check out part two of Lisa Kleman’s post, “My Immigrant”.

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No. 4 York Street

The first Dossenbach home in Rochester was No. 4 York Street in 1873.

York Street, being on the western edge of the city and nearby the railroad tracks, was still fairly sparsely-populated as of the 1870s. The area started filling in during this time as the city developed westward.

Mathias Dossenbach was not the only working man to board at the residence. Also boarding at No. 4 York Street was Henry Blust, a shoemaker at No. 111 Jay Street, and William Vohs, a plater at No. 3 Canal Street.

Determining exactly where No. 4 was took a surprising amount of work. There were several confounding factors; for one thing, there was a North York and a South York, but part of South York had been changed to Briggs Place, etc. etc. yada yada, who cares.

It was the 1884 directory that confirmed that No. 4 York Street was property of Michael Leidecker, and that it would next become No. 103 York Street.

By 1950, No. 103 York Street had become No. 231 York Street, the address it maintains today.

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No. 107 Hudson Avenue

The next of Mathias Dossenbach’s homes was at No. 107 Hudson Avenue, which appears to have been been provided for boarding by Daniel Loebs, a seller of flour and grain.

It is between 1892 and 1900 that the small, rectangular house at No. 231 Hudson was replaced with a new house.

By 1918, No. 231 Hudson was renumbered to No. 393 Hudson, and had a storefront built onto the front.

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No. 17 Vose Street

Next up, the Dossenbachs lived at the nearby No. 17 Vose Street.

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No. 81 Joiner Street

Between 1878 and 1879, Mathias Dossenbach lived at No. 81 Joiner Street, a house belonging to William H. Blackmore who lived in No. 83 Joiner, two doors north.

No. 81 Joiner St. was adjacent to the rear yard of the Turn Halle at No. 175 North Clinton; this was the club headquarters of the Turners Association. “Turner” being German for Acrobat, the Turner Halle was a home for athletic association, cultural education, and liberal political organization. In 1877 Mrs. Charles Rau, wife of the important local brewer, changed the name to Germania Hall; this would become a central place of German cultural and political life, and famously was the hall where Emma Goldman was first exposed to socialist and anarchist speakers who informed her own radicalization.

Though Blackmore died with no living children, his name carried on in the plat maps like a ghost.

Across the street lived Arendt William Hopeman, father of Albert Arendt Hopeman who founded the construction contracting company that would go on to build numerous great Rochester buildings. Hopeman Place on the east side of Joiner Street was named after them; in 1933 it was changed to Hope Place.

Between 1875 and 1888, No. 81 Joiner Street would become No. 99 Joiner Street.

Joiner Street was discontinued in 1975 as part of the Upper Falls Urban Renewal Project.

The site where No. 99 Joiner Street used to be is this parking lot on the Kelly Street side of the Alvin Wesley Childhood Development Center of Baden Street Settlement, No. 500 North Clinton Avenue.

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The Comb Factory

In 1879, Mathias Dossenbach manufactured combs out of No. 149 North Water Street.

No. 149 was in a complex of buildings owned by the Rochester Hydraulic Co.; the buildings were outfitted with a mill race under the buildings that led to a flume down the Upper Falls, providing hydraulic power which was used by numerous small industries: carpenters, cabinetmakers, lathe operators, et al, including Mathias Dossenbach for cutting his comb-teeth.

This complex of buildings was often known as the “Hydraulic Building”. Then again, so were a lot of buildings with hydraulic power.

One interesting former industry in the building was the printing press for Von Nah und Fern, or “From Near and Far“, a weekly German-Language publication. Fairly short-lived, Von Nah und Fern was printed between 1874 and 1877; it was edited by Wilhelm Thiese and published by George Feuchtinger. It was apparently somewhat prone to libel, netting Thiese and Feuchtinger a warrant of arrest on that charge in 1875.

A large portion of the building was owned by David Bantleon, a wood-turner and moulder. The building between Nos. 221-223 North Water Street became known as the Bantleon Building. David Bantleon’s sons William H. and George Bantleon would carry on their father’s business as the Bantleon Brothers Company, No. 97 Railroad Street, present-day home of Rohrbach Brewing Company’s Railroad Street Beer Hall.

Note that the above advertisement for David Bantleon makes mention that the building was previously occupied by the Rochester Comb Co. One wonders if any of that machinery was purchased for use by Mathias Dossenbach.

For much of their later lives, the buildings served as storage warehouses for Rochester Gas & Electric Co.

The buildings are still extant as of 1950. The below map shows much of the detail of its operation, including the path of the covered race under the Central Avenue bridge, and the platform and retaining wall over the raceway.

The Inner Loop bridge over the Genesee runs through most of the buildings that made up the hydraulic complex; the land that was left is now used for a parking garage at No. 217 North Water Street.

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No. 66/93 Sanford Street

The next Dossenbach home was at No. 66 Sanford, which would become No. 93 Sanford in 1884.

A mission of the First German Baptist Church on Sanford Street, a door to the west, was officially recognized as the Second German Baptist Church.

Sometime between 1888 and 1892, No. 91 Sanford Street was torn down, leaving No. 93 as the next-door neighbor of the German Baptist Church. This was probably pretty pleasant; they regularly had strawberry festivals!

In 1890, the Second German Baptist Church would construct and move to a new church at No. 830 South Clinton Avenue. The church on Sanford Street would become a chapel of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

It is while the family lived at the Sanford Street address that Mathias died, 28th of January, 1887.

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No. 6 Nicholson Park

The family made another move in 1892, four years after the death of their patriarch. This would take them to No. 6 Nicholson Park.

This would be the home where Mathias’s widow, Regula or “Rachel” Dossenbach died on April 29th, 1906.

The family would go on to move several more times; Mathias’s four sons would divide into their own individual homes As they leave in the past the last dwelling place of Mathias Dossenbach, so do I leave behind the Dossenbach family in the past.

Thanks once again to Lisa Kleman for the opportunity to take part in the history of her family. It’s always interesting to know the experiences of another family who shared Rochester’s past with my own!

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