Biography/Notes

Martin Reinhart was the youngest child of Petrus (Peter) Reinhard and Maria Anna Hartlaub. He was born August 8, 1832 in the small Bavarian village of Niedernberg, Germany. He was baptised in the local church, St. Cyriakus constructed in 1461 along the Main River. Before he was born, Martin had an older brother, also named Martin, but he died at the age of four years in 1825. Martin's parents changed the spelling of their last name from Reinhard to Reinhart in 1830 with the birth of their eighth child, Thomas.

Martin was only one year old when he left Niedernberg and journeyed to America with his family. Soon after
Window donated by Martin Reinhart,
St. Peter's Church  D landing at the port of New York, they came west to the town of Somerset in Perry County, Ohio, where they stayed with German friends. Martin's father, Peter, journeyed north on foot to Seneca County, Ohio to purchase land. Martin's mother, Maria, died shortly after their arrival in Somerset while Peter was away. Martin's father took the children north to newly established farmland near Alvada, Ohio in the spring of 1834 where all the children grew up, married, and bought farms near Alvada.

When Martin was nineteen years old, he and his twenty one year old brother, Thomas, went to California with two neighbor boys (the Werlings) for the 1849 California Gold Rush. In 1851, they traveled by way of New York, at that time a sailboat around the tip of South America. As 49'ers they were reported to have gone to Hangtown (modern day Placerville, CA) and Sutter's Mill. Going to the gold rush in the 1850's was considered to be an adventure of a lifetime. Those who never quite made it all the way to the gold fields referred to the experience as "seeing the tail of the elephant."

During the 1949 Gold Rush, the young German immigrants reported that eggs were selling for $5 per dozen and
St. Peter's Church, Alvada, Ohio  D chickens for $50. The price of a drink at a bar was a pinch of gold dust from the prospector's poke. For this reason, only large fingered bartenders were employed. They stayed in California for four years. In 1856, the men journeyed home. On their return trip two accounts exist. One is that they walked across the Isthmus of Panama then took passage to New York and from there proceeded to Ohio. The other account is that they used wagons as prairie schooners in their trek back across the country to Ohio. Since they left with two other local boys, Simon and Martin Wherling, it is possible that both stories are true. One story for Wherlings and the other for the Reinharts.

Martin married Catherine Thom on April 27, 1858 in St. Peter's Church, Alvada, Ohio, and bought a farm and established a home just north of his father's farmland. They had twelve children.

On his deathbead, Martin Reinhart called one of his neighbors and revealed to him where he had buried his surplus of gold in his garden. This information was not revealed until after his burial as he had wished. Each of the twelve children received shares of gold to purchase their farms in the area. Martin and Catherine are buried at St. Peter Catholic Cemetery near Alvada, Ohio.

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Graves of Martin and Catherine (Thom)
Reinhart, St. Peter Cemetery, Alvada, Ohio