BIOGRAPHY:
Son of: Martin Michael4 Lehmann and Agnes Katharina Reichert |
MARTIN MICHAEL LEHMANN was the sixth child of John Michael Lehmann and Mary Catherine Mills. He was born 7 November 1904 at the family home in Piqua, Miami County, Ohio.
Parents Sitting: John & Mary
Children in Front: Martin, Jean, and Heine (Henrietta)
Like his siblings he was baptized at St. Boniface Catholic Church. Like his siblings he received his first communion and was confirmed in the church. Like his siblings he attended St. Boniface Catholic School. He grew to adulthood in his family's loving home.
In later years, his sister Rita said, "I don't recall any special memories of his younger years, only that he was on the quiet side. He was always inclined to be mechanically talented and in his teens he worked for Tony Hemm on his farm. The other HEMM brothers sold Buicks and Pontiacs and did mechanic repairs. They gave Mart a job in their garage and sent him to Pontiac, Michigan for a training course."
Rita continued, "He stayed and worked with the HEMM brothers for some time. Eventually, he and Mr. Schmatters became partners in an auto mechanic shop in Sidney [Shelby County, Ohio]."
One Christmas when Mart was working as a mechanic in Minster probably before he married Vera Knostman, he came to Piqua and brought Mom her first electric toaster. You could put a piece of bread in each side, and put the side up, watch as it toasted to what you wanted, and let the sides down. When you let the side down this would cause the toast to flip to the other side and you would have to put the side up again to toast the opposite side. This was manually operated...quite primitive, but quite nice for 1927-1928. He also gave Gert and me a $10 goldpiece. I had never seen one before, so I can remember saying, `Oh, a gold penny!' I can remember holding onto it for a few years until I needed something. Mart also brought a few other things for Mom. He was very generous to Mom.
One special thing that stands out in my mind is that Mart almost always came home to see Mom on his birthday. While in Minster one time, in the 1920's, he drove 21 miles to Piqua, which would take almost an hour one way, just to see Mom on his birthday.
In 1929 at Minster, Auglaize County, Ohio he married his first wife, Elvira "Vera" Knostman. According to Rita, his sister, "Mart met and married Vera, then came back to Piqua and started his own garage business on Spring Street, then later on Greene Street, where Terry's Cafeteria is now. Vera was a beautician, and she fixed my hair at various times.
Mart and Vera had a son, but both Vera and the son, Bobby, died from Bright's disease [a kidney ailment]." She was born on 21 August 1907 at Minster and died on 8 October 1940 at the age of 33 years, 1 month, and 17 days. Vera was the godmother of Mary Sandra Iris (Lehmann-Shields) Mast, daughter of Rita.
Reminiscing about those old times, Rita recalled, "He always called me WeeWee, never Rita, and another name I'd like to forget...Shit Pot! Sometimes he'd call me WeeWee manure. I don't know why, probably just for the fun of it. Mart like to have fun and we got along quite well as I grew older."
Front: Rita, Mart, Joe Beihl (future hus/o Gert), Eddie Meyer
Right Photo: Martin, Joe, Daisy Meyer, Gert (Lehmann) Beihl & Eddie
Shared by: Jo Antionette (Wilkins-Sherman) Childers
Rita recalled, "Following Vera's death, Martin married in 1940 in a Civil Ceremony to his second wife, Mildred Cotterman, and following their marriage they went to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. He started a garage there, sold it, and returned to Ohio, where he worked at a garage in Sidney.
Leo Lehmann, Robert Rittenhouse, Roy Zimmer, & Martin Lehmann
Joseph Beihl & Bernard Wilkins
Mildred and Mart had two children Martin "Marty" and Barbara. Mildred died 4 June 1945 at Wilson Hospital, Sidney, Shelby County, Ohio of Uremic Poisoning. At her bedside in Wilson Hospital, Martin & Mildred were remarried in 1945 by a Catholic priest. After Mildred's death the children went to stay with their Grandfather and Grandmother Cotterman in Sidney for a time."
Following the death of Mildred, he married on 29 May 1948 to his third wife, Mrs. Alida (Covault) Bayman, a widow of Thomas Bayman with two children, Richard and Joyce.
The couple made a blended family home with her children (Joyce & Richard), his children (Barbara & Martin), and their children (Carol Sue and Michael).
Rita remembered, "His last job was driving and testing hearses for the Meteor Motor Company in Piqua. He had the job of finding 'bugs' in them.
ca 1965
ca 1965
Like many men of his day, Martin smoked. In later years, because of the years of smoking, Martin suffered from lung cancer and salivary gland cancer of the mouth. He had to have a portion of his jaw removed which caused him great embarrassment. Martin died 17 October 1975 at Piqua, Miami County, Ohio.
2004
Carol Sue (Lehmann) Braun, dau/o Martin Lehmann & Alida Covault
Barbara (Lehmann) Rust, dau/o Martin Lehmann & Mildred Cotterman
Gail, wf/o Michael Lehmann
Joyce (Bayman) Holthaus, dau/o Thomas Bayman & Alida Covault
Arnold "Bennie" Braun, hus/o Carol Sue (Lehmann) Holthaus
Michael Lehmann, s/o Martin Lehmann & Alida Covault
Richard "Dick" Bayman, s/o Thomas Bayman & Alida Covault
Eugene "Gene" Holthaus, hus/o Joyce (Bayman) Holthaus
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