The George Rettig Family

George Rettig came to America from Germany because he was very dissatisfied in Germany. He married a lady with the name of Katrina. Very little is known about his wife. He spent 72 days on the water coming to the states. They later settled in a house a mile west of the former Reformed Church on Route 108, to which they belonged. George was a blacksmith and also farmed. To them were born 12 children: Adam, Charlie, Al, John, Louie, August, Elizabeth, Rosie, Margaret, Emma, and Mandy.

John married Emma Boesling and ran a butcher shop with his brother. They resided in Holgate in a house located across from St. John's parsonage. In 1902 they built a new house and barn in Marion Township on Road F. They later bought the Turney farm and the Curns farm which adjoined their property. This made 110 acres of good farm land. They had 5 children: Iden, Wilferd, Harold, Gladys, and Walter. Three of these, Wilferd, Harold, and Gladys died in infancy. The father John died in 1915 and the mother Emma died in 1949. Of the other two, Iden has a home in Holgate, and Walter, who lived in Defiance, died in 1974. Walter married Burnetta Deitrick and lived in Holgate for some years. They had two children Cloyce who died when an infant and Marlene who lives in Defiance. Burnetta also died in 1974. Iden, the oldest son, married Hildagard Badenhop in 1918. They lived 2 years with his mother on the farm and moved to Holgate in the house located north of the Methodist Church. In 1953 they built a house on Keyser Street in which they still reside. Iden bought into the hardware business with Clint Rettig; he bought out Clint and ran the Rettig Hardware until 1930. He sold the business to Cassius Bortz and Albert Welz and worked for them until 1942 when he went into electrical work. He kept working as an electrician until retiring. They had six children: Herbert married Mary Louise Berry of Ottawa Lake, Michigan, and they have three children and live in Perrysburg, Ohio; Rutheda married Marvin Smith of Holgate and they have two children and live in town; Rosalyn who married George Mullett of rural Leipsic has two children living, one deceased, and they live in Holgate; James who married Sandra Tonjes of Malinta has two children and they live in Holgate; Kendall married Kay Hoff of rural Malinta and they have two children and live in Napoleon; Linda who married James Peper of Holgate has one child and they live in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Submitted by Rosalyn Rettig Mullett