Historic Hood River
Mystery upon Mystery
Notes
Preparing yesterday’s post I ran across this portrait from the same collection, and noticed it has an inscription with a name: Fritz Rossinger. It seems likely that is the name of the man associated with the “mystery collection” of glass negatives from Hood River, Portland and Paris. His face appears in some of the other images.
Unfortunately I can’t seem to tie the name Fritz Rossinger to Hood River, or to much of anything. “Rossinger” barely appears in the Oregon Digital Newspaper Archives. I suppose there is a remote possibility he was the outfielder and third baseman signed to the Chicago Feds in 1915, but that seems like a stretch. Let us know if you find anything more plausible.
A few clues:Â the images include some views of the Ideal Grader Company, and there are some pictures of strawberry farms and other farming in the same general area where August Guignard manufactured those machines. There is also this legal document which includes a reference to “Rossinger and Guignard”.
Jeffrey Bryant
Fritz was likely a nickname for Friedrich or Frederick. A Fred Rossinger is listed in the 1897 Portland City Directory as a carpenter, and there was a John Frederick Rosinger in Ohio, but I don’t find much else.
L.E.
Inventor August Guignard was born in Illinois. In the 1900 census he was 24 years old and living in Clackamas County.
In the 1910 census, he is living in HR on Mt Hood Road on a fruit farm.
Living with him are his wife Mary, daughter Laura, son John, mother Julia, partner Fredrick Rosiger. Also three Japanese hired men.
Rosiger is age 51. Born in Germany. Single.
In the 1920 census, Fred Rosiger is living on Barrett, on a farm, single and a car builder. His industry is Grading Machine.
He is not listed in a 1930 census. In the 1940 Census he is 82 years old, single and living with the John Guignard family. John was son of August.
It says on the census that in 1935 he was living in Wallaceburg Germany.
He died April 22, 1947. He is buried at Idlewilde.
This is his FAG https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/43947874/frederick-rosiger
L.E.
There are other links in the HR Glacier about Guignard and Rosiger, but I thought this one told a good story about their move to HR. It sounds like Rosiger was the one interested in farming. Not Guignard.
https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1923-12-27/ed-1/seq-6.pdf
Jeffrey Bryant
Frederick Rosiger shared the following patents with August Guignard:
“Tractor Safety Device,” U.S. Patent No. 1,399,552, patented Dec. 6, 1921.
“Fruit Grader,” U.S. Patent No. 1,318,990, patented Oct. 14, 1919.
L.E.
Fred Rosiger is supposedly in this photo.
https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org/one-first-ideal-apple-grader/
Arthur Babitz
Good work tracking Fritz down! Looks like I added the “n” to his last name, but removing the double “s” makes the search much easier.