Behlmer, Kratzer, Schuch, Dreyer, Haas, Nieman, Feller, Schmidt, Dieselberg, Zimmer, Wullner, Feist, Lange, Kneer, Brinkman, Horman, Bauerlein, Trautman, Ester, Endres, Bruns, Nordloh, Schule, Mendel, Schwab, Kammeyer, Westrick, Hoff, Vogelsang, Hillman, Schneider, Beer, Cors, Wippel, Neukam, Dupp, Schorling, Meyers, Wittkamper, Goldschmidt, Groseklouse, Ketchum, Newfarth, Scheivley, Minger, Kress, Holowadel & Huber were constant reminders of their diverse German origins overseas, even if the given names of Herman and Wilhelm were seen less frequently.

The sauerkraut and potato salad at church socials and German "grits"(known variously as goetta, knipp, and stopsel) served today at some area restaurants suggest another element of German culture as do the graveyards filled with poetic German stones that no one can translate anymore

By 1930 the German language ceased to be taght in schools or used in churches; and a few old-timers no longer even pretended to speak Platt-Deutsch. Yet there were still some cultural habits of German origins, orderliness, tidyness, and promtpness. Home furnishings and tombstones were a little more substantial in size than those of most "Yankee Hoosiers". Afer WWI, Sunman ceased to be overtly ethnic, but may have remained covertly so.

Sunman was named for a Yorkshire family of Viking Descent which settled in Adams Twp before the arrival of most Germans, who other than Pennsylvania-Germans, did not begin arriving in the area in great numbers before 1833. Pennsylvaniaburg

(Penntown) had been platted 2 miles north in 1837. By 1856 when Sunmansville was platted, German immigration had reached its peak in the area.

Nieman also built a large hay barn and hay press at the site of the feed store immediately across the R.R. track to the north. Even though it burned several times, it was always rebuilt. He also had a cattle barn on the northeast corner of the track. There he operated a slaughter house and stock yard where hogs were dressed and shipped to Cincinnati. Herman Nieman and Herman Dreyer (also of Engter) were in partnership in a brickmaking business, and Herman Nieman was also the first to bring the reaper, dropper and binder to Sunman which replaced the sickle, scythe & cradle. His son Chris and his son-in-law Fred Peters, Jr.owned and operated the first creamery in Sunman beginning in 1885. In 1904 Chris Nieman platted the Nieman addition to the town consisting of 13 lots on the northeast side where Lew Wallace camped during Morgan's Raid, not knowing that Morgan was 2 miles to the south of Sunman, trying to rest.

In 1900, a number of influential business men met and established Sunman's first bank, the Sunman State Bank, and Chris Nieman became its first President

and remained so until his death in 1918.

The Herman Nieman family was the single-most important force in Sunman's economic development. If it had not already been named Sunman the town might well have been given the German name of "Nieman". Just as well, since Sunman street signs still mis-spell the name as "Neiman".

ED BEHLMER & THA STORE
Ed Behlmer drove a huckster wagon from nearby Morris, and married Anna Huber from Penntown. Then several tragedies struck---a fire burned the store he had just purchased from the Niemans and his wife died. He remarried a local girl, Sarah Bruns whose people came from Heiligenfelde Parish, the same parish his family had come from. His business flourished, esp. with the annual "Turkey Day" in which turkeys were brought to town for slaughter the holidays, and dressed and shipped to Cincinnati. Eventually, he turned the business over to his cousin, Harry Behlmer, while Ed ran the telephone company. The store was finally sold in 1939 to cousins on his mother's side named Gunter, a family from Wildeshausen. Later the Gillmans and Forthoffers operated the store, and today Louis Gillman's daughter runs the store as restaurant and is chairperson of the Committee organizing the Sunman Sesquicentenial.

LEWIS SIEG & SOME SUNMAN BUILDINGS  Sunman is noted for its carpenter-builder, Lewis Sieg, who built over 40 homes snd business buildings in Sunman during his career. Among the more substantial is the brick "Sieg Building" on the east side of Meridian St. facing the corner of Meridian & Vine. It is not known exactly which other buildings are his, but "Tha Store' is probably one of them. Its face was changed to widen the street. Lewis Sieg's fathr, Henry Sieg, was from Bavaria(probably the Palatinate), and his wife Kate was