William Jr. and Elizabeth Tieman
 

History of Kentucky and Kentuckians, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes,
Lewis Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, Vol. III,
p. 1159. (Campbell Co)


William Tieman Jr.--This long prominent citizen of Campbell county was born in Hanover, Germany, November, 9, 1843, a son of William Tieman Sr., who was his wife, was a native of Hanover.  The elder Tieman was a rope maker by trade and a musician by profession.  In 1844 he brought his wife and their infant son to America and the little family settled first at Cincinnati.  There they remained till (sic) 1855, when they moved across the river to Jamestown, now Dayton, Kentucky, where Mr. Tieman embarked in the grocery trade and was successful as a merchant for several years. 

A Baptist, he developed into a musical evangelist and long labored among churches of that denomination as an employe (sic) of the Baptist Association.  So successful was he in that capacity and so well known did he become in all the region round about that he grew to fill a warm place in the hearts of Cristians (sic) not only of the Baptist faith but of other creeds as well.  He was especially skillful as a player of the clarinet and scarcely less so as a player of the tuba bass horn, and for many years he was a member of some of the best orchestras of Cincinnati, a city noted in all its history for its musical talent. 

A great lover of children, he was peculiarly happy in Sunday-school work, and there in churches his music was very helpful to him and was highly appreciated by all who had opporunity (sic) to hear it.  He died at the home of his daughter in Pendleton county, Kentucky, aged seventy-three years, and he was survived by his widow only about, two years, when she too passed away in Pendleton county.

     Of the eight children of William Tieman Sr., one died in Germany, the others were living in 1910.   William Tieman Jr. was the second in order of birth and was only about a year old when his parents brought him across the ocean to a home in the New World.  He was reared in Cincinnati and in Dayton and educated in common schools and at Nelson's Business College,
in the Queen City.  As a boy he worked in his father's grocery, learning the business thoroughly behind the counter, and in the buying of goods and by contact with the buying and consuming community as well as with the manufacturer and the wholesaler, and at twenty engaged in the business on his own account, with Henry E. Spilman, later pastor of the Baptist
church of Dayton, as his partner. 

After the expiration of a year he turned over his interest to his father and then gave his attention to real estate and building.  Several years ago he helped to organize the Dayton Lot and Home Company, of which he was president during the entire period of its
existence.  The association did much toward the development of Dayton as a town of homes, buying tracts of land, platting it and laying out streets and improving and selling lots and assisting purchasers to build on them.

     Mr. Tieman, a stanch Democrat of the old school, is under the new order of things political as stanch a Republican.  While he was as yet a young man, in the days before the organization of Dayton, he was village clerk of Jamestown, which later was consolidated with Brooklyn under the present name.  Afterward he was at different times elected a member of the city council of Dayton, in which capacity he served faithfully eighteen years in all.  Governor Harmon of Ohio was one of Mr. Tieman's boyhood friends, and the ties that bound them so long ago have never been severed but have been drawn tighter as years have come and gone, and after the formers nomination to his present great office Mr. Tieman wrote him, referring to the old times and congratulating him on the probability of his election, adding that though a Republican the writer would gladly vote for the friend of his youth if the latter were only a candidate for the governorship of Kentucky instead of the probable next
chief magistrate of the Buckeye State. 

One of Mr. Tieman's cherished possessions is Governor Harmon's reply, acknowledging the receipt of that letter, referring to their former intimacy and thanking him for the friendship that had prompted him to send his message of good cheer.

     Mr. Tieman married Elizabeth Krantz in February, 1864.  Her father, Jacob Krantz, was a native of Pennsylvania and an early settler at Jamestown.  His old house, built in 1830, is now the property of one of his descendants.  By trade he was a ship carpenter.  Mr. and Mrs. Tieman have children named Lillie, Fred and Nelson.  Clifford, another son, is deceased.  Adopting the religious ideas of his respected father, Mr. Tieman has long been a Baptist, and he and his wife are devout and helpful members of the local organization of the denomination.  For some years he was active in the work of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

He has been prominent as a Knight of Pythias.  In 1886 he was made a Mason and he has since attained the Thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite. As a citizen he as been progressive and public spirited, aiding to the extent of his ability every movement which is his judgment had promised to advance the best interests of his city, county and state, and in national politics his outlook is broad and optimistic.


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