Photographer William G. Brengelman

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Photographer William G. Brengelman was born in Cincinnati in 1879. He grew up on Hopkins Street just across from, what was then, beautiful Lincoln Park. In the1930s Lincoln Park would become the site of the parking lot for Cincinnati’s Union Terminal. The photographer’s father was a German emigrant who manufactured cigars at his home and often sold them during baseball games at Crosley Field.

As a young adult William Brengelman played semi-professional baseball as a left-handed pitcher. By 1900 baseball had become ‘the’ American sport and there were as many as 200 semi-professional teams in the Cincinnati area.

On November 1, 1910, William married Bertha Rickels whose parents lived at 514 2nd Ave in Dayton. The couple set up housekeeping in Dayton on 8th Ave. In 1916 they moved to a home on McKinney Street. During this time the couple reared three children in the Dayton community. From 1910-1918 Mr. Brengelman accumulated the accompanying collection of photographs capturing life in Dayton, Kentucky at the time.

In 1918 the photographer and his family moved to Middletown, Ohio and so ended this photographic record of life in Dayton. In Middletown, he worked from 1918 to 1962 as a printer with Naegle and Auer Printing Company. During WWII Mr. Brengelman worked as a machinist at the Aronca Aircaft plant in Middletown.