Elsa Kortsch was born October 1, 1905 in Dayton Ohio. Her parents were Carl and Margarete (Bohnefeld) Kortsch. Both parents were born in Germany. Carl came to America in 1897 on the ship Pennsylvania. The Kortsch family had a bakery in Dayton and then moved it to Osborn. In 1913 they had their second daughter, Freida Margaret.
Elsa graduated from Bath Township School in the spring of 1924. In the fall of that year, Carl Kortsch and his family moved to Pleasant Hill, leasing a bakery from Herman Albers. It was an ideal location for a small town of 800. They sold bread…. three loaves for a quarter. Elsa loved the flat ginger spice cookies. At Easter, the bakery’s specialty was a 12 inch bunny made from bun dough cut by hand. Elsa’s job was to put on the raisin eyes.
In 1928, the lease expired and the bakery faded into history. Later the space became a Kroger store and then Bean Stout’s barbershop took its place. (27 North Main Street)
Elsa attended the Miami County Normal School in West Milton and took classes at Miami and Wittenberg College. She started teaching first grade at Newton Elementary School, in 1925. She later taught fifth grade. She taught a total of 44 years at Newton.
Elsa was the Building Fund treasurer and the secretary of the Women`s Fellowship at The Congregational Christian Church for more than 30 years. She was a charter member of the Astrobuds Garden Club.
In 1937, her sister Frieda died of Pneumonia in Dayton. Her father died 2 years later in 1939. She lived with her mother on Main Street in Pleasant Hill until her mother died in 1959. She continued to teach at Newton until her retirement at the end of the 1971 school year.
Elsa moved into the Brethren Home in Greenville in 1994. On March 4, 2007, Elsa died at the age of 101. She is buried in the Old Greencastle Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio.
“Give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.” - Elsa Kortsch
