JOHN HARTSTEIN, who, in association with his son, owns 279 acres of fine farm land situated in Concord Township, Miami County, is one of the most highly respected German-American citizens of this section. He was born August 15, 1836, in Wurtemberg, Germany, and is a son of John and Mary Hartstein. The parents of Mr. Hartstein lived and died in Germany. The father operated a paper mill. Of his five children three are living. Two came to America, John and a brother, Louis, the latter of whom was a member of the Eleventh Ohio, Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil War and was killed while on guard duty.

When Mr. Hartstein was a boy in his own land he attended school for a time and when he went to work he drove the oxen for a farmer until he, secured a position in a cotton mill, where he worked for five years, at first as a cotton sorter and later as a fine lace-maker. In 1857 he came to America with his brother and they went to Piqua, Ohio, and started in the wagon making, business. Finding that this did not pay at that time, John Hartstein went into the woods, being willing to do any kind of work, and made some money chopping wood. The first land he bought was a tract of swamp, fifty acres of it in Concord Township. This land he cleared and drained and lived on it for forty years. In 1886 he bought eighty- two adjoining acres and lived there until 1906, when be moved to his present farm containing 126 acres, at the edge of Troy, on the Covington Turnpike Road. His other land lies on the Pleasant Hill Turnpike. Mr. Hartstein has helped to build a number of the excellent highways that run through Miami County and he has always been a man of hard work. He is one of the most independent farmers of Concord Township and has earned all he has through his own unassisted efforts.

In 1862 Mr. Hartstein married Miss Hannah Weber, who was born in Germany and came to America with her parents when young. Her father, Philip Weber, settled near Sidney, Ohio. They have had seven children.: Mary, Louisa, Clara, John, Charles, Anna and Catherine, the latter of whom died when aged twenty years. Mr. Hartstein and family belong to the German Reformed Church. He is a Democrat in politics.