Harry N. Routzohn

Who was Harry N. Routzohn?

Harry Nelson Routzohn was an attorney, jurist and member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio.

Routzohn was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Henry and Mary Routzohn. Henry was a teamster man from Maryland. Harry Routzohn attended the Dayton public grade schools. He apprenticed one year at the blacksmith trade and then became a court page in Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, Ohio. About 1902, Harry Nelson Routzohn married Laura Eleanor Poock; they had four children. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1904, hanging out his shingle in Dayton.

In 1902, Harry Routzohn was one of the founders of the Humane Society of Dayton, the second oldest humane organization in Ohio and one of the oldest in the nation. He served on the governing board with Byron B. Harlan and other prominent Daytonians.

Harry Routzohn became assistant county prosecutor of Montgomery County in 1906 serving for three years. In 1917, he became a probate judge, in which position he served for twelve years until 1929. While on the court, he taught law at the University of Dayton from 1923 to 1930. Routzohn was a captain in the Officers’ Reserve Corps from 1925 to 1935.