Henry Grottendick
Henry Grottendick, who for more than forty years was engaged in the bakery business in Xenia and who is now living retired in that city, where he has made his home continuously since 1869, is a Hanoverian by birth, but has been a resident of this country since he was fourteen years of age. He was born in the village of Altendorf, nine miles east of Neuhaus, in what then was the kingdom of Hanover, but now a Prussian province, January 29, 1831, a son of William and Catherine (Von Felder) Grottendick, also Hanoverians, the former a butcher by trade, who spent all their lives in their native country. William Grottendick and wife were the parents of six children, the subject of this sketch having had five sisters, three of whom also came to America, namely: Catherine, who located in Cincinnati, where her last days were spent, and Mellis and Lena, who are living at Ludlow, Kentucky.
It was in 1865 that Henry Grottendick came to the United States, he then being fourteen years of age. He located at Cincinnati and there learned the baker's trade, four years later, in 1869, moving up to Xenia, where he became engaged as foreman in George Grauer's "Eagle" bakery, and was thus engaged when Mr. Grauer died in 1877. He continued operating the bakery for Mr. Grauer's widow and when the latter died in 1886 he bought the bakery, meanwhile having married a niece of Mr. Grauer and continued to conduct the same until his retirement from business in 1913, when he sold the bakery plant and settled down to "take things easy," after a continuous service as baker to the people of Xenia for more than forty years. During that time Mr. Grottendick built up a splendid business and his famous "King" butter-cracker attained a reputation that created for it a demand from coast to coast. For fifteen years during the latter period of Mr. Grottendick's connection with the business his son, George Grottendick, acted as manager of the establishment. Mr. Grottendick and his wife still own the building in which the bakery is situated in East Main street, besides several other bits of realty in the city. In 1914 they erected a new residence at 215 West Second street and are now living there.
In 1879 Henry Grottendick was united in marriage to Judith Brinder, who had been reared in the household of her uncle, George Grauer. at Xenia. To this union four children have been born, William, George, Fannie and Elsie May, all of whom received their schooling in the Xenia schools and the latter of whom is still at home with her parents. William Grottendick is now a traveling representative of the Time Lock and Safe Company of Cincinnati. He married May Fisher and has one child, a daughter, Freda. George Grottendick, who continues as manager of the bakery his father sold in 1913, married Rosa Carroll and has two children, George and Francis. Fannie Grottendick married John Osterly, who is now conducting a restaurant in Colusa county, California, and has two children. William and Judith. Mr. Grottendick is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the local encampment, Patriarchs Militant, and is also affiliated with the local lodge of the Improved Order of Red Men. Mrs. Grottendick and her children are members of the Catholic church.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918