Daniel Reintzel

[2][3] The family came from the Imperial Free City of Hamburg in the Holy Roman Empire (now Germany),[2] emigrating to North America in the early 1700s.

The town's charter provided for a mayor, recorder, several aldermen, and a "common council" of 10 people.

[8] On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River.

The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who chose a portion of the states of Maryland and Virginia on January 24, 1791.

[9] Until December 1, 1800, citizens of the District of Columbia were able to vote in federal, state, and local elections in both Maryland and Virginia.

[13] Other members of the Reintzel family were also prominent in town affairs at this time: Valentine Reintzel served on the Georgetown Common Council in 1791,[8] and brothers Anthony and Johan served on separate committees in 1800 which investigated incidents of yellow fever in the mid-Atlantic area.

[16] In the last two decades of his life, Reintzel was involved in two legal actions—both of which ended up before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Maryland law allowed the lenders to avoid seizure of their goods if they swore before two justices of the peace that they were liable for the loan.

But Daniel Reintzel signed his name as Mayor of Georgetown, rather than as Justice of the Peace for Washington County.

[20] He was initially interred at the Presbyterian Burying Ground in Georgetown, a cemetery for the town's elite.

By 1907, its owners had agreed to have all bodies in the cemetery removed so that the land might be converted to a city park.

Reintzel's body was disinterred in November 1907 and—according to the Washington Evening Star newspaper—was reburied at Prospect Hill Cemetery.

[21] This report was incorrect; Daniel Reintzel was reburied in the Masonic Circle at Glenwood Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[22]