John Henry Bernard "J.B." Holthouse was born Feb.27, 1855 to Johan Bernard Holthouse, Sr. and Johanna Catherine Mescher Holthaus. He was baptized at St. Mary's Church in Decatur on Mar. 25, 1855. His godparents were Herman Bosse and Mary Ann Tettmann, his uncle and aunt.

J.B. began clerking in the drug store of Dr. Dorwin at the age of 16 yrs. He studied the drug business well and made it his profession. When Dorwin died J.B. succeeded him in business, and ran the store for several years with different partners. Later he owned other drug stores and at the time of his death there was still a Holthouse Drug Company, though he had no active connection with it.

Included in his various business interests were a cement business in Bluffton IN, store buildings in Decatur, a livery barn, and several farms in both Indiana and Ohio.

The editorial from the Daily Democrat at the time of J.B.'s death

read:

"The death of John B. Holthouse removes from this community a man who has been conspicuous in the banking and business life here for many years. (He was director and vice president of the First National Bank of Decatur.)

He was industrious, careful and successful. He watched public officials, studied the workings of the local governmental machinery and had the courage, ability and took time to advise and assist when and where he could.

He accumulated much of this world's goods and while it may not have been generally known was one of the most liberal and charitable men of the city, giving to every worthy cause and always without blare of trumpet, his donation being usually sent in a blank envelope.... There was much in his life to be admired and his death is mourned by many besides his near relatives.

It is a fitting tribute that business in Decatur cease during the last services for this good citizen."

Mary Reuland and J. B. had eight children. These children were:

Jesse Barbara (1899)

John Bernard (1901)

Henry Charles (1902 - died at age 6 mos)

Margaret Agnes (1904 - Was a successful car salesperson at the Brandt's and then Schwartz's

                                             dealerships in Decatur.  She could probably have sold refrigerators to

                                             Eskimos.)

Hugh Aloysius (1906)

Helen Elizabeth (1908)

Maria Louisa (1910 -died at age 2yrs)

Robert Joseph (1913)

Then J.B. died of liver cancer in 1916, leaving Mary alone with a large family.  Fortunately, the children of the first family were old enough to fend for themselves so Mary had only her lot to look after. She died in 1953 at the age of 85.

John Bernard Holthouse was a citizen who established a reputation second to none in point of business success and integrity of character in Adams County. For many years he was a well known and popular druggist, the oldest man in the profession in point of years and experience. He was very popular with everyone who knew him and was regarded in the highest esteem by all and greatly admired for his manly and high ideals. For years he had been a leading figure about the city and on account of his safe and sound judgment his advice was sought on all sides. It was characteristic of him that he followed the light of his own counsels, and while never taking advantage of anyone succeeded in building up a considerable fortune and at the time of his death was one of the largest holders of real estate in the city. But with all his wealth he had always an open hand for the poor and needy, and donated liberally and delighted in seeing others not so fortunate as himself made happy.

John B. Holthouse was born February 27, 1855, on a farm two miles west of Decatur in Adams County. He lacked a month of celebrating his sixty-first birthday. His death followed a long and painful illness and occurred at his home on Third Street in Decatur, January 23, 1916. Mr. Holthouse belongs to pioneer stock in Adams County. His father Bernard Holthouse arrived in Adams County in 1837, and was one of the three or four pioneer Catholic settlers in the county, and one of the original members of St. Mary’s Church, with which the Holthouse family have for many years been identified and to which John B. Holthouse during his life was one of the most liberal contributors. Bernard Holthouse was a native of Hanover, Germany, and came to Adams County about a year after his arrival in this country. He died in Washington Township in 1871.

John B. Holthouse was educated in the district schools, and while his advantages in that direction were somewhat limited he had that intellectual curiosity which makes a man a student all his life and hardly a day of his life but he added something to his acquisition of learning and gained the reputation of being a man of mature wisdom.

At the age of sixteen he went to Decatur and began clerking in the drug store of Doctor Dorwin, one of Adams County’s best known early physicians. He set himself with enthusiasm to the task of learning the drug business, and mastered it and made it a profession. When Doctor Dorwin died Mr. Holthouse was in a position to succeed him in business, and he conducted the old store for many years with different partners. Later he owned and had other drug stores and at the time of his death there was still a Holthouse Drug Company, thought he had had no active connection with it for several years. He was a man of many and varied business interests, and everything he touched seemed to prosper. At Bluffington he started and developed a cement business, which after a few years he sold out at a large profit. He added several store buildings to Decatur, and put up one of the largest and best livery barns in the county on North Second Street. He owned a fine home on North Third Street, and at different times acquired several farm properties both in Ohio and Indiana. At the time of his death he owned a place of 240 acres a mile north of Monroe in Adams County. In polities Mr. Holthouse was a democrat, and was active in his church, and also in the Knights of Columbus and at the time of his death was deputy grand knight of the order.

The position he occupied so long in Decatur and the esteem in which he was held is well reflected in an editorial which appeared in the Daily Democrat at the time of his death. “The death of John B. Holthouse removes from this community a man who has been conspicuous in the banking and business life here for many years. (He was director and vice president of the First National Bank of Decatur.) He was industrious, careful and successful. He watched public officials, studied the workings of the local governmental machinery and had the courage, ability and took the time to advise and assist when and where he could. He accumulated much of this world’s good and while it may not have been generally known was one of the most liberal and charitable men of the city, giving to every worthy cause and always without blare of trumpet, his donation being usually sent in a blank envelope. He met death with the same fearlessness that he met life, realizing for several weeks that he would have time only to arrange his affairs before the summons would come, yet he did not complain and quietly and carefully prepared. There was much in his life to be admired and his death is mourned by many besides his near relatives. It is a fitting tribute that business in Decatur cease during the last services for this good citizen.�

In 1880 Mr. Holthouse married Miss Mary S. Gast of Louisville, Kentucky. She died in Decatur December 21, 1896. She was the mother of eight children, five of whom are still living: Louis, proprietor of the Holthouse Garage at Decatur, married and father of one son and two daughters; Clarence of Fort Wayne, who is married and has three daughters; May, wife of Robert McMahan of Chicago; Felix, who is a farmer east of Decatur and is married; Catherine, who took the veil in 1915 and is now known as Sister Mary Grace of the Order of St. Agnes, a teacher at Victoria, Kansas. On June 15, 1898, at Decatur Mr. Holthouse married Miss Mary T. Reuland, who was born in Sauk County, Wisconsin, forty-eight years ago. She had lived in Decatur for two years before her marriage.

Mrs. Holthouse is of German ancestry. Her father, John Reuland, was born in Luxemberg, Germany, and when twelve years of age was brought to the United States by his parents who located as pioneers in Sauk County, Wisconsin, where they spent the rest of their years and where John grew to manhood and became a farmer. John Reuland married Barbara Liken, who was born in the city of Chicago when that metropolis was chiefly a small rural village surrounded Fort Dearborn. When she was very young her family removed to Southern Wisconsin and her parents spent the rest of their active lives as farmers in Sauk County. John Reuland and wife were Sauk County farmers and he died at the age of seventy and his wife at forty-five. They were very active members of the Catholic Church.

Mrs. Holthouse besides rearing and looking after her large family has done much work in St. Mary's Church, is a member of the Red Cross Society and is active in St. Vincent de Paul Society. She became the mother of eight children and the six still living are Jessie, John, Margaret, Hugh, Helen and Robert, the last now four years of age. Jessie was educated in the local parochial schools and St. Mary's College at Notre Dame. John is now a student in St. Joseph College at Rensselaer, Indiana. The other children except Robert are students in the parochial schools.