City Directories and History: 1908 – 1913 – Charles K. Chreitzberg, wife Margaret – Resident Eng. of Roanoke Bridge Co., and Nellie Roach, 1917 – Same, 1920 – Same – with the Rock Hill Furniture Co., 1922 – Same – Sec. Treasure of the RH Furniture Co., and licensed embalmer, 1925 – Same but Margaret A. (daughter – teacher), associated with Bass Furniture Co., 1933 – Same – living on Saint John’s Court with Harriet and Margaret in the household, 1936 – Charles K. Chreitzberg and Margaret – Sec. Treasurer of Reid Funeral Home and Office Manager of Sterchi Brother’s Store at #136 Saint Johns Court. Harriet is a bookkeeper at RH Gas Co., and Margaret remains a teacher. 1938 – Margaret R. wife, he is Sec. and Cashier of Met. Mutual Fire Insurance at #136 Saint Johns Court, 1946 – Mrs. Margaret Chreitzberg….at same address. 1959 – Margaret L. Chreitzberg living at #136 St. John’s Ct., and Harriet and Margaret A. Chreitsberg, Asst. Librarian.
Also see the same address associated with the Roach family home. RH City Directory 1922/23: Ms. Nellie Roach and C.K. Chreitzberg,
The RH Herald of Aug. 19, 1899 – “Mr. T.M. Carothers of India Hook has sold fifty acres to the Catawba Power Water Company. Much of this land will be underwater. Mr. Carothers says , their is an expert engineer on the site now from Anderson by the name of Chreitzberg. He will decide which of two sites will be used for the dam. One site is above the old Mill site and other below Neely’s Old Ferry.” (From the Yorkville Yeoman)
The Rock Hill Record reported on March 25, 1907 – “That a contract has been let for an iron bridge on Sugar Creek to connect York and Lancaster Counties. The bid meeting was held at the Commercial Club room in Fort Mill by the Supervisors of both counties. Of the four bidders the contract was awarded to C.K. Chrietzberg, representing the Roanoke Bridge Company. The low bid is $2,800. and each country will pay half. The bridge will be 130 ft long and 25 ft high.”
The Herald reported on Aug. 12, 1930 – “Mr. and Mrs. G.K. Chreitzberg and family and the Misses Nelle and Mary Roach have moved into their home on Saint John’s Court, which was recently moved there from its former location on Caldwell Street.”
CHARLES A. CHREITZBERG – Researched and written by Paul M. Gettys, 2017
Charles Chreitzberg had a presence in the life of Rock Hill for about fifty years, and his wife, the former Margaret Roach, represents one of the oldest families in the Rock Hill area. This is an attempt to sketch their lives.
Charles Chreitzberg was the son of a Methodist minister, Rev. Able M. Chrietzberg (1820-1908) and his wife Harriet Kilgore.[1] As a result of his father’s ministry appointments, the family moved frequently. He was born in 1874 in Sumter, but by 1880, the family was living at 118 Bull Street in Columbia. The family included three younger children.[2] When he finished high school, Charles attended Clemson College, where he received a degree in Civil Engineering in 1899.[3] By this time, the family was living in Charleston County, and he returned home for some time, living with his parents, two brothers and two sisters.[4] He soon came to Rock Hill, where he was elected as a lieutenant in the Catawba Rifles, a local militia group, in 1901.[5] He was employed as a civil engineer by the Southern Power Company (the precursor of Duke Energy) during the construction of the Catawba River Dam, now known as the Lake Wylie Dam.[6] The dam was under construction beginning about 1901.
The elder Chreitzberg was a well-known author of the important work Early Methodism in the Carolinas, published in 1897. His full name was Rev. Abel McKee Chreitzberg, D. D. and he was born in Charleston to parents of German and Irish extraction.[7] During his long career, he served in Chester, Newberry, and other localities. In retirement, he preached on Sullivan’s Island and surrounding areas. He died in Charleston in 1908 and is buried in Columbia at Washington Street United Methodist Church.
On June 18, 1903, Charles married Margaret Hope Roach. She was from one of the oldest families in the Rock Hill area. She was born in 1880 to John James Roach and his wife Margaret Adams Watson. Her father was a Civil War veteran, serving from the fall of 1862 through the war. The Roach family lived in a home built in 1811 a few miles southwest of Rock Hill by J. J. Roach’s father, Major Thomas Roach. Major Roach, a veteran of the War of 1812, had begun buying land in York County as early as 1800. Following his service in the war, J. J. Roach moved into Rock Hill, where he and his wife were charter members of First Presbyterian Church in 1869. He was a merchant, working with J. M. Ivy. The family built a home on Rock Hill’s Main Street, now the corner of Main and Caldwell. Margaret Hope Roach was the youngest daughter in the family.[8] She lived in Rock Hill for her entire life. She graduated from Winthrop College with a degree in music and did some further study at Agnes Scott College.[9]
After their marriage in 1903, Charles and Margaret probably moved into the Roach house. Shortly before their wedding, the Roach family home on Main Street had been sold to the Federal Government for the erection of a new post office. The original home was moved to the rear of the lot and heavily remodeled, facing Caldwell Street (Rock Hill Herald April 22, 1903). This was a nine-room house built for three Roach sisters (Margaret, Nellie R., and Mary A.) by contractor S. A. Clark.[10] The newlyweds moved into this house, sharing it with Margaret’s sisters. They are recorded in City Directories and census reports as living in the house at 114 Caldwell from the time it was built until 1930. Nellie Roach, the oldest sister, is sometimes listed as head of household and as housekeeper. Mary was a teacher and principal in the Rock Hill Public Schools and an active member of First Presbyterian Church.[11]
The Chreitzbergs had two daughters. Margaret Adams was born in 1904 and Harriet Kilgore was born in 1910. Neither were married. Margaret graduated from Winthrop College and received a Masters degree from the University of North Carolina. She taught school at St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, Virginia. Later, she moved back home and worked as an assistant Librarian with the Rock Hill Public Library.[12] Harriet graduated from Rock Hill High School and received her undergraduate and Masters degrees from Winthrop. She lived in the family home her whole life. She was employed with the Rock Hill Gas Company and with Celanese Corporation. Harriet died in 1964 at the age of 54, and Margaret died in 1977 at the age of 73.[13]
Charles Chreitzberg had an interesting and varied business career. He was an engineer with Southern Power Company working on the Lake Wylie Dam in 1901-1904.[14] By 1907, he was the resident engineer for the Roanoke Bridge Company.[15] This company was a major designer and builder of bridges in the southeast, and Chreitzberg traveled extensively representing the company. In 1907, Chreitzberg won an important bid for the company, securing the right to build the Sugar Creek bridge connecting York and Lancaster counties,[16] and he won a similar bid in 1912 for the iron bridge over King’s Creek between York and Cherokee counties on the Chester and Rutherford Railroad.[17] In 1910, when the new Peoples National Bank Building was opened on Main Street, Chreitzberg was listed with an office on the third floor, probably the local office of the Roanoke Bridge Company. In 1914, Rock Hill voted to become one of the first cities in South Carolina to adopt the City Manager system. Chreitzberg was mentioned as a potential candidate for the position, although he was not selected.[18] In 1915, Chreitzberg had a position as fiscal agent for the South Carolina State Board of Charities and Corrections. The legislature had created this position to investigate the ability of families to pay for the care of patients at the State Hospital for the Insane in Columbia. Chreitzberg was appointed to the position, but it is not known how long he served in this capacity.[19] By 1918, he reported that he was an agent for the Syleecau Manufacturing Company in Rock Hill, which manufactured and sold lumber and building supplies.[20] In 1920, he was working for Rock Hill Furniture Company, and by 1922, he was secretary/treasurer of the company and also listed as a licensed embalmer.[21] Local newspapers carried advertisements for his services as an embalmer with the company. In 1936, he was secretary/treasurer of Reid Furniture Company, and in 1938 was reported as secretary and cashier of the Metropolitan Mutual Fire Insurance Company.[22] Sometime later, he worked as an accountant at the Rock Hill Printing & Finishing Company, retiring in 1954.[23] During his career, he was active in a number of civic organizations. He was especially devoted to the Masonic movement, and served in a number of important positions on the state level.
The family lived in the Roach family home at 114 Caldwell Street from its construction in 1903 until about 1930. In the late 1920s, the federal government determined that the post office, which has been built on the site of the first Roach home, was too small to serve the growing city, and it was determined that a new post office and federal building would be constructed. This required a larger lot, and the government offered to purchase the Roach house. The Chreitzberg-Roach family then purchased a lot on St. John’s Court, located off Oakland Avenue, and the house was moved to that location about 1930. The house, located at 136 St. John’s Court, would serve the family until the death of daughter Margaret in 1977. After that date, it was razed and the property was used as a parking area for St. John’s United Methodist Church.
Charles Chreitzberg died in January 1956 at the age of 81 and Margaret died in the home on St. John’s Court in October 1959. The family is buried in Laurelwood Cemetery.
[1] Charles’ obituary, printed in the Rock Hill Herald on January 23, 1956, gives this as his parents’ names. Census reports also give his father’s name as Albert M. or Adam and his mother’s name as Hester or Henrietta.
[2] 1880 Census.
[3] List of Clemson graduates printed in 1940.
[4] 1900 Census.
[5] Rock Hill Herald, June 22, 1901.
[6] Rock Hill Herald, January 23, 1956.
[7] Keowee Courier, October 23, 1908.
[8] Biographical information on the Roach family from Along the Land’s Ford Road: A History of the Ante-Bellum Village of Rock Hill, South Carolina, Vol. II, pages 74-77, William Boyce White, Jr., published by Historic Rock Hill, 2008.
[9] Rock Hill Herald, October 31, 1959.
[10] Rock Hill Herald, July 18, 1903.
[11] White, page 75.
[12] Charlotte News, September 26, 1952.
[13] Biographical information from Census reports and the Rock Hill Herald, July 3, 1964 and May 5, 1977.
[14] Rock Hill Herald, January 23, 1956.
[15] Rock Hill Record, March 25, 1907.
[16] Rock Hill Record, March 25, 1907.
[17] Rock Hill Record, July 18, 1912.
[18] Rock Hill Herald, January 15, 1915.
[19] Keowee Courier, July 7, 1915.
[20] World War I draft registration form, dated September 12, 1918.
[21] Rock Hill City Directory, 1922.
[22] Rock Hill City Directory, 1936 and 1938.
[23] Rock Hill Herald, January 23, 1956.
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