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. 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 and gained national fame.

Family

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

Vital Records

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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

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Places of Residence

• Wooster, Ohio

Court Records

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Tax Records

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Land Records

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Occupations

• Artist

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