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PHILIP B. LESEMANN, D. D. S.
A representative member of the dental fraternity in Nashville, one who holds high rank in his profession and whose ability and courtesy have won him the confidence and patronage of a large class of citizens, is Dr. Philip B. Lesemann. He comes of a pioneer German family whose identity with the United States dates from 1844, when its founders immigrated from the village of Bergkirche, Prussia, and established themselves in Washington county, Illinois. That historic year of the Mississippi flood Henry Lesemann expatriated himself from his native land and brought his family to the New World. His father was then an old man, and the family settlement was made some six miles northeast of Nashville, where, upon the Henry Huck farm, the father and mother and other members of the family lie buried. Henry's first wife died in young womanhood and his second one died about four years after their arrival in Illinois. Farming claimed Henry Lesemann after he came to the United States, but in his native Prussia he was a cabinet-maker and fashioned and finished spinning wheels. The children by his last marriage were: Louisa, who married Louis Wehking and both are deceased; Frederick, the father of the Doctor; Christiana, who married William Schlake, both being now deceased; and Ernst. He was a theological student in Boston when he died. The children of Henry's first wife were William, of Kinmundy, Illinois; and Mrs. Henry Steffen, who is deceased.
Frederick Lesemann was born in 1838, and passed an uneventful life in the country near Nashville. Toward the evening of life he moved into the county seat and died there in 1903. He married (first) Louisa Grote, who died, the mother of Augusta, who passed away as Mrs. Fred Hoffman; and Matilda, now Mrs. Charles Millier, of Granite City, Illinois. For his second wife Mr. Lesemann married Matilda Poehler, who still survives, and the issue of this marriage were Rev. Louis, a graduate of Central Wesleyan College, at Warrenton, Missouri, and a degree man of the Biblical Institute of the Northwestern University, is a Methodist minister of Chicago, and married Miss Eleanor Tieman; Dr. Philip B., of Nashville; Samuel J., D. D. S., of Altamont, Illinois, and a graduate of the Louisville College of Dentistry; Amelia, the wife of Albert Lyons, of Granite City, Illinois; and Dr. Frederick J., a physician of Chicago, who is a graduate of Rush Medical College.
Dr. Philip B. Lesemann was born in a country home near Nashville, August 1, 1871. While coming to mature years he had both rural and urban experience and his career in school was passed chiefly in the county seat. At twenty years of age he began his preparation for
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dentistry as a student in the Louisville College of Dentistry and took his diploma from that institution in June, 1895. He opened his office in Nashville the same year and his citizenship has been maintained here since. He is a member of the State Dental Society and is expresident of the St. Clair District Dental Society. He is secretary and -treasurer of the Bridget Hughes Hospital of Nashville, and has devoted his energy and his skill to the achievement of desirable results in his profession. He is in close touch with advanced thought, keeps thoroughly abreast of the advances made in dentistry, and has secured a practice of unmistakably representative character.
On June 26, 1895, Dr. Lesemann was married to Miss Anna Franzlau, of Nashville. Her father and mother, Frederick and Minnie (Krumwieder) Franzlau, were German people, and the parents of Lizzie, wife of Dr. Krumsieck, of Nashville; Frank H.; engaged in the drug business at Manito, Illinois; William, of Hartford City, Indiana; Mrs. Lesemann; Ella, the wife of Rev. Charles Krugoff, residing at Jamestown, Missouri; Emma, who married Oscar Grote, of St. Louis; and Harry, a resident of Freeburg, Illinois. Dr. and Mrs. Lesemann have two children: Ralph, twelve years old; and Ferrol, who is four years his brother's junior. The family are members of the German Methodist church, of which Dr. Lesemann is steward.