Christian Pabst

The Pabst Family. Christian Pabst, for years one of the well-known business men of Hamilton, and long a public official, whose services in various civic positions reflected credit upon himself and his community, was born December 6, 1853, in Bavaria, Germany, and was twelve years of age when, in 1866, he accompanied his parents to the United States, the family settling at Hamilton. Here he completed his schooling, following which he began to learn the trade of printer, serving his apprenticeship with L. B. DelaCourt. For a time he was job compositor in the office of Jacob Long, of Hamilton, and eventually became known as one of the city's expert job printers, a line in which he had much success and in which he continued until 1879, when he joined his father and brothers in the manufacture and bottling of mineral waters and soft drinks, under the style of J. Pabst & Sons, a concern that did a large and profitable business and which bore an excellent reputation in business circles. While he was prominent in business affairs, however, it was probably for his public service that Christian Pabst was best known. From his youth he had been interested in public matters and had been a staunch supporter of the Democratic party. In March, 1892, he was nominated as clerk of the Butler County Common Pleas Court, and was elected the same year for a term of three years. In 1895 he was again nominated to succeed himself. His nomination by the democracy of the county was equivalent to election, yet his signal triumph at the polls was beyond the most sanguine expectations of either himself or his friends, as he received the largest majority ever given in Butler county. He did much to systematize the work of the office of clerk of the court and gave the people a clean and intelligent administration. Mr. Pabst was nominated and elected to the office of county auditor in November, 1900, taking office October 21, 1901, and in the election of November, 1903, was chosen as his own successor. In 1907, his party placed him in nomination as a member of the board of public service and he was elected, holding that office for two years. In 1910, Governor Judson Harmon appointed Mr. Pabst as a member of the state tax commission for a term of three years, and Governor James M. Cox reappointed him in 1914, but in 1915 he resigned the office in order that he might devote all of his time to the bottling plant of The J. Pabst Sons Co. Throughout the time that he was the incumbent of public office he was extremely popular, and his record was one upon which there was not the slightest blemish. Mr. Pabst was always a staunch supporter of the public school system and did much to elevate its standards, and generaly speaking, is a booster for the city of Hamilton. In 1882 he was chosen one of the trustees of the Lane Free library, a position in which he was retained for many years. Fraternally he was also well known, belonging to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, The Modern Woodmen of America, and other fraternal and social societies. With his family he belonged to the German Evangelical church. April 15, 1896, Mr. Pabst married Catherine A., daughter of Peter Gerlach of Cleveland, and to this union there were born three sons: Robert P. and , twins, born November 12, 1898; and Herbert G., born March 15, 1901.