Centennial portrait and biographical record of the city of Dayton and of Montgomery County, Ohio: containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of the presidents of the United States and biographies of the governors of Ohio. (A.W. Bowen, 1897).
CHARLES BAUM [pages 930-931] (deceased), late proprietor of the Baum house, Miamisburg, Ohio, was born in Rhinefaltz, Germany, February 2, 1852, a son of Philip and Caroline (Retterbach) Baum, and was the third child of a family of five sons and two daughters. In 1869 he came to America and for about one year resided in New York city; in the fall of 1870 he came to Ohio and located in Miamisburg; from 1874 to 1878 he conducted the Miami house for Mrs. Dr. John Treon; in the interval, in 1875, he purchased the lot on which the Baum house now stands, began the erection of his hotel in 1877, opened it to the public in February, 1878, and at once met with a pronounced success, securing for the place a reputation which has never since diminished. In the winter of 1884-85, he erected the Star City opera house, with a seating capacity for 800 persons, one of the first built in the state for a town of the size of Miamisburg. He was, in fact, one of the most enterprising business men that ever lived in Miamisburg, and his death was a great loss to the community, viewed even from the material standpoint alone.
February 11, 1873, Mr. Baum was united in marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Dorothea (Schmerz) Schneider, of Hesse Cassel, Germany, and the marriage was blessed with eleven children, seven of whom still survive, viz: William, Julia, George, Kate, Jennie, Lewis and Charles. The death of the honored father of this family took place January 22, 1895, and since that lamentable event the Baum house has been conducted by his widow, who has fully maintained its high reputation.
Probably no name was more widely known or was oftener on the lips of the people than that of Charley Baum, either as proprietor of the Baum house or of the opera house, and his acquaintance extended throughout Ohio and adjoining states, and yet he was personally known to but comparatively few of the residents of Miamisburg, as he never left his hotel, except to make a brief trip to his bank once a month, and this covered the extent of his appearance on the streets. This close attention to his business was undoubtedly one of the hastening causes of his early death. He was a man of genial and obliging disposition and was possessed of indefatigable energy and industry, which never tired in making his guests happy and comfortable, and from these he made hosts of friends. He was always best pleased when adding means for the accommodation of his guests, or when adding to or building on his large landed property. His great energy and devotion to business were so notable that the remark was frequently made by those capable of judging, that the possession of these qualities, coupled with his native abilities, would have made him one of the greatest of merchants, had he embarked in mercantile trade in his earlier youth.
