William H. Donges
William H. Donges, for some years past a member of the school board of the city of Xenia and the proprietor of a drug store at the northwest corner of Detroit and Second streets, is a native son of Ohio and has lived in this state all his life, a resident of Xenia since he was twenty-five years of age. He was born in the city of Hamilton, county seat of Butler county, November 27, 1875, a son of Henry and Marie (Schmaedecke) Donges, the former of whom also was born in that city, of German parentage, in 1842, and the latter, in the city of Berlin, Germany, in 1850, who were married in Hamilton and there established their home, Henry Donges being there for years employed in a packing house. Henry Donges and wife were the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being the following: Minnie, wife of J. Rentschlar, now living at Middletown, this state; Susan, who is married and is now living in Michigan; Louis, who married a Miss Neidermann and who was drowned at Hamilton during the great flood of 1913; Phoebe, wife of Edward Knox, of Hamilton, and David, unmarried, who is also living at Hamilton.
Reared at Hamilton, William H. Donges left school at eleven years of age to take a place in a foundry and machine shop. He was engaged at that form of labor for some time, but presently his health began to break under the strain and he turned his attention to the study of chemistry and the drug business in a drug store in Cincinnati, in which city he remained until 1900, in which year, he then being twenty-five years of age, he came up to Xenia and bought out the store of the Cunningham Drug Company at the corner of Detroit and Second streets and has ever since been operating the same. Seven years ago Mr. Donges was elected a member of the city school board, for a term of four years, and three years ago was re-elected to that position, his term of service having yet a year or two to run.
At Hamilton, Ohio, William H. Donges was united in marriage to Magdaline Mistier, who was born in the town of Kroppen, in Prussian Saxony, and who was but a child when rhe came to this country with her parents, the family locating at Hamilton. To that union three children have been born, Marie, Eleanor and Ralph. Mr. and Mrs. Donges and their children are identified with the United Presbvterian church at Xenia.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918