Captain George P. Emrich, a native of Berks county, Pa., was born September 15, 1821. His father, Joseph Emrich, was likewise a native of Berks, his occupation being that of tradesman and farmer. He removed to Wayne township in May, 1831, when the subject of this sketch was in his tenth year, and settled on the farm four miles north of Wooster now owned by his son, where he purchased a half section of land from William Elgin and Mordecai Boon, the government title for these lands being yet in possession of Captain Emrich, and signed by President Madison. He was married to Elizabeth Kiser, of Berks county, Pa., by which marriage there were three daughters and one son, George P. He died August 31, 1863, in his seventieth year, his wife dying in December of the same year, aged sixty-five.
G.P. Emrich remained with his father upon the farm until he was twenty-one years of age, with the exception of about eighteen months spent with J.P. Coulter & Co., in the drug store, and with Robison & Jacobs, in the dry goods business in Wooster. He has been twice married--first, May 9, 1843, to Sarah Fryberger, of East Greenville, Stark county, Ohio, who died April 15, 1863; second, August 24, 1865, to Kate Garver, of Chester township. By the two marriages he has six children--four by the former* and two by the latter. After leaving Wooster he returned to the country, and for three years cultivated his father's farm upon the shares, when he moved upon the west quarter of the original half section, having bought the same from his father. Here he labored eight years, and by that time paid for the farm, when he went to the old homestead, where he at present lives. By his energy and tact in matters in which he participated he was usually amply rewarded, and in a short time he owned a half interest in the old homestead.
Farming, speculating in stock, exchanging, buying and selling horses, until the breaking out of the war, constituted his chief employment. After the Rebellion opened he was commissioned, August 15, 1862, as Captain of Company D, 120th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. During his military service he was subjected to all the bitter experiences of his regiment. He withstood the malaria of the Mississippi swamps and the disaster of Chickasaw, where his company was without Lieutenant or Orderly, all being sick or detailed. He was at Arkansas Post; in fact participated in the vicissitudes of the army until the spring of 1863, when, on account of illness and disability, he was discharged, after which, for several years, he was in delicate health. Since 1866 he has been continuously in the banking business, and is at present President of the National Bank of Wooster. In 1856 he was elected Justice of the Peace of Wayne township, re-elected in 1859, being the first Republican elected to that office in Wayne township, and having no successor. Moreover, he is one of our progressive, public-spirited men. He has not only subjected his land to the highest cultivation and in other ways improved and adorned it, but he has constructed on North Market street, in Wooster, one of the finest and best-appointed private residences in the city. But he prefers the sober sweets of the rural life to the din and dust and confinements of the city, believing with Cowper, "that God made the country, but man made the town."
If there is a political meeting to get up he is on hand; if there is a railroad project before the people he takes hold of it. What he undertakes to do he does with all his might. He is as full of energy as his best horses are of mettle. He is proverbially courteous and polite in his intercourse with society; has a warm friendship for his friends, to whom the well-known hospitality of his house is ever open.
He has ever been a strong advocate of our present system of common schools, and believes in the universal diffusion of knowledge by every means of education, from the common school to the university. Probably no man in the county took a bolder and more decided stand for the Wooster University when its building was first agitated than Captain Emrich. He not only subscribed and paid $500 to the institution, but contributed liberally of his time and influence to procure funds for the same. He attended meetings, made speeches and aided in obtaining $65,000 toward its subscriptions.
He is a worker wherever you place him. He has sought to do his duty to the world and the world has not cheated him. He is of that temperament which inclines always to accept situations. He can exclaim with the great Goethe:
* Will. Emrich, Teller in the Wooster National Bank, is his son by the first marriage. He is a former student of the University of Wooster, and was a member of the scientific corps that visited the parks and canyons of Colorado under the direction of Dr. Stoddard, of the University.
Source: History of Wayne County, Ohio from the Days of the Pioneers and First Settlers to the Present Time, Ben Douglass, Indianapolis: Robert Douglass, Publisher, 1878, p. 720.
Contributed by: Nancy.