Robert E. Rosenstein of Baxter Springs is a man of varied talents and abilities and has successfully performed the services of a minister of the Gospel and lawyer at the same time. And though his time and attention are now given to the law, he occasionally preaches and is widely known over several states in the ministry of the Christian Church.
While Mr. Rosenstein spent most of his early life in Texas, he was born at Cairo, Illinois, January 4, 1871. His father Rudolph Rosenstein was born at Mecklenberg-Schwerin, Germany, in 1826, and came to America at the age of nineteen, settling in Monroe County, Tennessee. He was a machinist by trade, and it was that occupation that took him from place to place over various states. He lived a time at Cairo, Illinois, and finally located at Tyler, Texas, where he died in 1889. He was a democrat in politics and was reared in the Jewish Church. During the war between the states he served in the Confederate army, enlisting from Tennessee, and for a time was under General Marmaduke of Missouri. He was married in Tennessee to Elizabeth M. Webb, who was born in the eastern part of that state in 1830 and died at Tyler, Texas, in 1906. Their children were Hannah, who is the wife of James K. Boman, a farmer in Barry County, Missouri; Emma, wife of A. D. Beeler, a music teacher at Houston, Texas; William C., who is a contractor and builder and died at Los Angeles, California, in 1912; E. P. Bosenstein, a farmer in East Tennessee; H. N. Rosenstein, who was a tin and coppersmith and died at Tyler, Texas, in January, 1914; Robert E.; Laura, wife of J. W. Powell, a locomotive engineer living at Waco Texas; Rosa, twin sister of Laura, wife of W. H. Hudson, a car repairer living at Tyler, Texas; and J. F. Rosenstein, who is foreman in a tin and copper shop at Tyler, Texas.
The public schools of East Texas gave Robert E. Rosenstein his early education, and he afterwards took a two years course in the old Christian University at Thorp Springs, Texas. He had also begun reading law before he entered the ministry. After leaving Christian University he was pastor of different Christian churches in Texas, Missouri and Kansas. In 1898 he became pastor at Howard, Kansas, where he remained two years, and then successively spent three years at Manhattan, one year at Burlington, and then returned to Texas for one year. Coming back to Kansas he was located at Chanute one year and then removed to Oklahoma, where he engaged in the active practice of law until March, 1916, at which date he located at Baxter Springs. Mr. Rosenstein has a large general practice, and his offices are on Military Avenue.
While he was pastor of the church at Manhattan, Kansas, he read law in the office of Judge A. M. Story, and continued his reading at Burlington with the firm of Ganse and Hannon. He was admitted to the bar September 8, 1902.
Politically he is a democrat, is a member of the Baxter Springs Commercial Club, and is affiliated with Lodge No. 416 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons at Skiatook, Oklahoma, and also belongs to the Royal Arch Chapter. On October 29, 1891, at Tyler, Texas, he married Miss Effie Gould of a West Virginia family. They have two children. Claude H., is a graduate of the Oklahoma University at Norman in the law department and is now practicing law at Tulsa. Aretta who lives at home and assists in her father’s office, is a graduate of the high school of Skiatook, Oklahoma.