Michael S. Nachtrieb

Michael S. Nachtreib
Born	Aug. 25, 1835 Wooster, Ohio
Died	Dec. 28, 1916 Wooster, Ohio
Resting place	Wooster Cemetery
Known for	Known mostly as a painter of portraits, still lifes, & landscapes
Parents	Jonas Nachtrieb & Nancy (Ponges) Nachtrieb

Biographical Sketches

Michael S. Nachtrieb, born in 1835 in Wooster, Ohio, was a civil war veteran and talented portrait painter. Though his father, Jonas Nachtreib a hat merchant, tried to get his son to continue the family business, Michael had aspirations to be an artist from his youth. Michael Nachtrieb traveled to New York City for his art education where he studied under former Wayne County resident and famous American artist, Benjamin Franklin Reinhart, and took classes at the New York School of Design and later the Academy of Fine Arts at Philadelphia. In 1859 he opened a Wooster portrait studio in the public square. However, when the Civil War broke out Nachtrieb spent some time in Pennsylvania militia before he enlisted in the 9^th Ohio Calvary. He served from January 1864 until October of the next year, under General Sherman. According to the Wooster Daily Record, Nachtrieb was part of Sherman’s famous march through the state of Georgia.

After returning to Ohio in the 1860s and 70s, Nachtrieb did work painting panels to decorate steamboat cabins that traveled up and down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Most of these examples of Nachtrieb’s art have not been found. His portraits, though probably all based on photographs of their subject, rather than a living model have been widely recognized as some of the finest in the nation. In particular his painting of the Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, was praised as incredibly accurate, able to show the personality of the General in a striking likeness. Copies of Nachtrieb’s portraits are now distributed as postcards at Strafford Hall, and the likeness was once used on the cover of Life magazine.

Though some museums fail to credit Nachtrieb, he also painted famous portraits of President Abraham Lincoln that are held in Washington D.C. Three are hung in the Lincoln Museum in the Ford Theatre, and one at the Lincoln Memorial. A copy of one of the Lincoln portraits can be seen at the Wayne County Historical Society, along with other Nachtrieb portraits of famous Wooster residents, such as the judges of the Wooster Court House. These paintings are a testament to the talent that rose from the town of Wooster.

List of Known Works of Art

Type	Date	Subject	Reference Source
Portrait	1900	Hon. Isaac Johnson	Wooster Republican, 1900-MAY-23 p.6
Portrait	1881	Pres. A.A.E. Taylor	Wooster Republican, 1881-FEB-03 p.1
Portrait	1878	Daniel Bates	Wooster Republican, 1878-APR-18 p.3
Portrait	1895	Bishop A. B. Leonard	Wooster Republican, 1895-MAR-08 p.4
Portrait	1897	Dr. J. G. Black	Wooster Republican, 1897-MAR-31 p.3
Portrait	1888	Hon. Edward S. Dowell	Wooster Republican, 1888-DEC-20 p.1
Portrait	1881	Hon. Joseph H. Downing	Wooster Republican, 1881-MAR-03 p.3
Portrait	1895	Hon. Thomas Ford, 1st Lieut. Gov.	Wooster Republican, 1895-JAN-02 p.4
Portrait	NA	Col. William Given	Jacksonian, 1895-FEB-28 p.3
Portrait	NA	Capt. John H. Kauke	Jacksonian, 1895-FEB-28 p.3
Portrait	NA	Jacob Frick	Jacksonian, 1895-FEB-28 p.3
Portrait	NA	R. R. Donnelly	Jacksonian, 1895-FEB-28 p.3
Portrait	1881	John Geitgey	Wayne County Democrat, 1881-AUG-24 p.3
Portrait	1897	Joseph Hawkins	Wayne County Democrat, 1897-NOV-10 p.3
Portrait	1887	Hon. John D. Nicholas	Wooster Republican, 1887-NOV-10 p.3
Portrait	1896	F. E. Hoover	Wooster Republican, 1896-JUN-17 p.6
Portrait	1886	Rev. Thomas Griffith Jones	Wayne County Democrat, 1886-AUG-04 p.3
Portrait	1895	Samuel Bell Sr.	Wayne County Democrat, 1895-MAR-27 p.1
Portrait	1885	Mrs. Thomas B. Keating	Wooster Republican, 1885-JUL-23 p.3
Portrait	NA	Gov. Gray, Indiana	Wooster Republican, 1885-JUL-23 p.3
Portrait	1875	Hon. Martin Welker	Wooster Republican, 1885-JUL-23 p.3
Portrait	NA	Simon Cameron	Wooster Republican, 1885-JUL-23 p.3
Portrait	NA	Salmon P. Chase	Wooster Republican, 1885-JUL-23 p.3
Portrait	NA	Henry Packer	Wooster Republican, 1885-JUL-23 p.3
Portrait	NA	Dr. McMasters, Miami University	Wooster Republican, 1885-JUL-23 p.3
Portrait	NA	Dr. David A. Wallace	Wooster Republican, 1885-JUL-23 p.3

Family

• Husband: Michael S. Nachtrieb
• Wife: Mary (Bentel) Nachtrieb
• Children:
  • Rebecca "Reba" Nachtrieb, never married.

Vital Records

Birth

• Aug. 25, 1835 in Wooster, Ohio

Marriage

• March 1876 to Mary Bentel at her home in Zelienople, Butler Co., Pennsylvania.

Death

• Dec. 28, 1916 in Wooster, Ohio

Burial

• Buried on December 30, 1916 in Wooster Cemetery in Wayne County, Wooster, Ohio.

Census Records

Include citations for Federal, State, and Local censuses. Abstracts may be included.

Places of Residence

• Wooster, Ohio
• New York City, NY c.1850s
• Philadelphia, PA c.1850s
• Coshocton, Ohio c.1866
• Kentucky c.1869
• Ironton, Ohio c.1873

Court Records

Court records may include wills, estates, guardianships, civil and or criminal activity.

Tax Records

These include personal tax (chattel such as horses, cattle, carriages) and real tax (land).

Land Records

List any known property owned by the individual.

Denomination Affiliations

List any churches the individual may have been affiliated.

Military

• Civil War veteran
  
  • Served in the Pennsylvania Militia as a corporal in the 1st battery light artillery. He took part in the battle of Antietam, where he was wounded when a musketball struck his right leg and passed through his kneecap. He was mustered out in 1863 because of his injuries.
    
  • After recovering, he re-enlisted on January 1, 1864 in Company E, 9th Ohio Volunteer cavalry. He served until the end of the war and was mustered out at Camp Dennison, Ohio in 1865.

Occupations

• Artist

Community Involvement

List any involvement with the community.

Newspaper articles

Newspaper full-text articles

• 

Notes

This is an area that other information regarding the individual may be placed.