Urban Bauman, of the firm of Skinner & Bauman, cigar manufacturers and restaurateurs, is a native of St. Clair county, Ill., born in the city of Belleville, on the 31^st day of July, 1853. His parents were Frederick and Katherine Bauman, both natives of Germany, in which country the father married his first wife, a Miss Frey, who died on the voyage to America and was buried at sea. She left a son, John Bauman, who died in Belleville, Ill., at the age of sixty-three years.

Some time after coming to this country, Frederick Bauman married in the above city Katherine Cinzer, who bore him seven children, four sons and three daughters, namely: Mary, who died at the age of forty, unmarried; Anton died when three years old; Gertrude, wife of John W. Wright, a locomotive engineer of Belleville, Ill.; Urban, whose name appears at the beginning of this article; John A., a cigar manufacturer of Grand Rapids, and Lizzie, a dressmaker of this city. The paents are both deceased, the father having departed this life at the advanced age of eighty-four, and the mother at sixty-three years. By occupation Frederick Bauman was a carpenter, which trade he followed all his life with encouraging success; with the exception of five years in Kalamazoo, Mich., his life in America was spent in the city of Belleville, Ill., at which place the bodies of himself and wife were laid to rest.

Urban Bauman was reared to manhood in his native town, and at an early age began working at the cigar maker’s trade, which he followed in Belleville for a period of four years. He then gave up his trade, and during the thirteen succeeding years was employed in a rolling mill in Belleville; retiring from the same and resuming his former vocation, he in 1886 located in Grand Rapids, where for five years he was foreman in the shops of his brother, John A. Bauman, one of the largest manufacturers of cigars in the city.

Mr. Bauman engaged in business for himself in 1891, at No. 19 East Bridge street, and after one year sold his stock to a partner, and resumed his former position as foreman with his brother three months later. In March, 1893, he purchased his brother’s business, and has since conducted one of the best-known cigar houses of the city, manufacturing only goods of high grade, which find ready sale by reason of the great local demand for the output of his establishment. Associated with him is Wesley Skinner, who gives personal attention to the lunch room and billiard hall, connected with the factory, and it is a compliment well bestowed to state that every department of their stand is well patronized, their reputation as caterers being strictly first class. Especially is this true in the matter of light lunches, and no one disputes the fact that the most delicious coffee made in the city of Grand Rapids is to be found at the popular stand of Skinner & Bauman.

Mr. Bauman entered into marriage relation on the 1^st day of May, 1878, with Miss Caroline Born, who was born in July, 1854, in Freeburg, Ill. Six children have been born to this union: Frederick, a lithographer of Minneapolis, Minn.; Frank, a candy maker of Grand Rapids; Walter died at the age of nine years; Lewis, a bright lad of twelve years; Oscar died when one year old, and Archibald is a promising boy of eight summers.

Fraternally, Mr. Bauman is connected with the A.O.U.W. and in religion was reared a Catholic, to which faith he still adheres. In politics he exercises his best judgment, irrespective of party, and votes for the candidate best qualified for the position sought. He has never aspired to official preferment of any kind, and is known as a wide-awake, progressive and successful business man.