Ohio County, West Virginia    Biography of Hermann BENTZ

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Submitted by Suzie Crump <suzie@goodnet.com>, March 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 255

HERMANN BENTZ.  Behind the large and impressive success of the Cooey-Bentz
Company, Incorporated, of Wheeling is an interesting story based upon the
thrift and enterprise of the two original partners constituting the firm
that preceded the corporation.  Close application to their work and a genius
in understanding and meeting the demands of the trade have been responsible
for the success of the company.  This business, handling home furnishings
and undertaking, has its main location at 3601-3603 Jacob Street, at least a
mile from the main business center of Wheeling, and yet the stock carried
and the annual volume of sales compare favorably with any of the more
centrally located concerns.  Both the proprietors are royal good fellows,
substantial citizens, and the present article is devoted chiefly to the
career of Mr. Bentz, another article being published concerning Mr. Cooey.

Mr. Bentz was born in the south end of Wheeling, not far from his present
business, on November 22, 1877, son of Christian and Mary (Lewis) Bentz.
His father was a native of Germany, but came to American when a lad and for
a number of years was employed as a puddler in the La Belle Iron Works at
Wheeling.  He married in Wheeling, Mary Lewis, who came of a prominent
Brooke County family, daughter of Job and Mary (Miller) Lewis, farmers in
that section of West Virginia.  Mrs. Bentz at the death of her husband was
left with a family of four children, and she provided for them and lived
with them and died, after seeing them all well established, when she was
seventy-nine years of age.  These children were: John, a puddler in iron
mills who died at the age of sixty-there; Mrs. Sudie Rasel, of Wheeling;
Hermann; and Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Hoffman.

Hermann Bentz at the age of fifteen became the principal support of his
widowed mother.  Thereafter he remained with her, providing not only for her
material comfort by giving the utmost of a son’s devotion to a devoted
mother who earned fully the love of her children and the esteem in which she
was held by all her neighbors.  Hermann Bentz at the age of ten began doing
some work in the La Belle mills, learning the trade of cooper for nail kegs
at that plant.  He worked there through all his boyhood, and later as a
young man he served four years as deputy sheriff under Sheriff Steenrod.

It was on August 1, 1897, that Mr. Bentz and Mr. W. R. Cooey began their
modest partnership of Cooey-Bentz.  They bought the business of a former
dealer, paying his widow $1,000.  They had only $500 of operating capital,
and that was borrowed.  During the early months, when the prosperity of the
venture was not entirely assured, Mr. Bentz and Mr. Cooey allowed themselves
from the proceeds of the business only enough to insure a bare subsistence
for the partners, Mr. Bentz, a bachelor, taking only $8 a week, while Mr.
Cooey, with his family, took $12.  Their stock was kept in one small room,
20 by 60 feet, and comprised an ordinary line of furniture, and from the
first they emphasized their undertaking service.  Seven years later, in
1904, they incorporated, and since then the capitalization of $75,000 has
been increased to $200,000, and in 1914 they erected a substantial
five-story brick block 50 by 100 feet, all of which is now occupied by their
business and they have planned additional quarters which will provide at
least double the capacity.  The business is strictly retail, and their
customers extend over a radius of fifty miles from points in Ohio and
Pennsylvania.  There are twenty-eight employes, and for the past ten years a
branch store has been conducted at Benwood, being under the personal charge
of Mr. Edward Cooey.

Mr. Hermann Bentz has never married.  He is a popular citizen, a Knight
Templar Mason, a democrat without political aspirations and is a director of
the South Side Bank & Trust Company.