Johann Adam Essinger (1796-1840) and Anna Marie Simmermacher (1799-1890), my fourth great-grandparents

Modern Map of German States
Hesse is in blue & we are from the far south portion of Hesse
Map is n the public domain
Click to make bigger

One of the complications I have discovered in trying to research my German ancestors is the traditional naming system called “rufnahmen”. By this custom, all children in the same family of the same sex shared the same first name, a favorite saint’s name given a baptism. They then went by secular middle name or rufnahmen which they were called by the rest of their life. About half of all German men were named after St. John for their Saint’s name; it was usually spelled Johann or Johan.  If a man’s “called by” name, or rufnahmen, was really John, it was spelled Johannes and no middle name was given. Similarly, most German women were named after St. Anna or St. Maria, such that the first name of all the women in any given family would be Anna or Maria. Once you figure out a given families’ chosen Saint it does help a bit in determining if a person in a specific record may belong to your family when you have a common last name, because they don’t seem to switch up Saints names mid-family.

Johann Adam Essinger was born the second son of Johann Heinrich Essinger (1766-1830) and Anna Elisabetha Kaffeberger on March 2, 1796, in Reichenbach Hesse-Darmstadt. His parents, Johann Heinrich Essinger and Anna Elisabetha Kaffeberger, were married on September 15, 1791, in Reichenbach, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt. Their children (or, at least the ones I’ve found) were: Johann Nicolaus Essinger (1792-1865, m. Anna Barbara Seeger); Johann Adam Essinger (1796-1840, m. Anna Marie Simmermacher); Johan Peter Essinger (1799-1866, m. Maria Margaretha Kindinger); and Johannes Essinger (1804-1866, m. Anna Elisabetha Kaffeberger).

The family was likely farmers as were most of the people in that area of the Odenwald, and most of the men would have served in the military at some point especially in the early 1800s in the Napoleonic wars. After the wars, the economy was bad and inflation was high, making it difficult for farmers to obtain more land to support growing families.

Map of Hessen, Germany arrow points to Reichenbach (now Lautertal) area,
 where my 4th great-grandparents lived.
Map from: http://ontheworldmap.com/germany/state/hesse/hesse-physical-map.html
Click to Make Bigger

I don’t know anything about Adam Essinger’s younger life. On May 9, 1830, he married Anna Catherina Simmermacher in a protestant church in Reichenbach, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt. He was 34 and she was 30.  The Germanic states in the 19^th century imposed restrictions on marriage in an effort to control overpopulation in a poor economy, including requiring high minimum ages at marriage, and proof of having sufficient wealth or property, or a secure income, to be able to support children.  (These laws led to an increase in the number illegitimately born children, and an increase in emigration.)

According to Adam and Catharina’s marriage record, her father was Johann Wilhelm Simmermacher and her mother was Anna Elisabetha Boewer (but on Catharina’s birth record her mother is named Anna Elisabetha Loeber). Just a month after the wedding, Adam’s father’s died, on June 20, 1830. And, a month after that, on 20 July 1830, Adam and Anna’s first son, Johannes Essinger, was born. He was baptized in a protestant church in Reichenbach, Starkenburg, Hesse-Darmstadt – likely the same one his parents were married in.

 SHIP IN THE STORMY SEA, by Ivan Aivazovsky, 1887
in the public domain
Click to make bigger

In the area in which the Essingers lived, a group of some 150 friends and neighbors decided to move to America in 1931 for the possibility of a better future. I told the dramatic story of their travels and shipwreck HERE. Based on a partial remaining passenger list for the James Beacham (Famous Dove), Adam Essinger and his older brother Nicholas and their families were part of that group who emigrated to America.  However, it is also possible that Adam and his brother arrived in the U.S. at a later date, as there is a book which abstracts customs passenger lists of arrival for the Port of Baltimore from 1820 through 1834 that shows “Essinger, Ad. & Nic,” farmers from Germany arrived in the port on 30 Sep 1832; the ship’s name is not given.   I think that his two younger brothers’ families stayed behind in Hesse-Darmstadt. I don’t know whether his mother stayed behind or came with them to America; nor do I know what happened to Catherina’s parents.

Map of Pennsylvania with Washington County highlighted
in the public domain
Click to make bigger

Adam and Catharina did not immediately move to Ohio. Their second child daughter, my 3^rd great-grandmother, Hannah Essinger was born in Washington County PA on 25 December 1834. Washington County PA is just southwest of the county in which Pittsburgh PA is. Later that year, the family moved to Hancock County, Ohio.

The History of Hancock County, published in 1886, says, “Adam Essinger, Martin Funk and Napoleon B. Martz all came to the township in 1834. Mr. Essinger and his wife, Catherine, emigrated from Germany to Pennsylvania in 1832, then removed to Hancock County, with the families of his brother, Nicholas, Adam Gossman and Peter Pifer in the fall of 1834, locating on Section 14, where he soon afterward died. His widow and three children are residents of the township.”  A later entry on his brother Nicholas indicates the brothers’ families spent at least two years in Pennsylvania before moving to Ohio, as two of his brother’s children were born during their stay in Pennsylvania.

Map of Ohio, Hancock County highlighted
In the public domain
Click to make bigger

At the time they moved there, it was not Madison Township as the township was first formed in 1840. It was still thick forest which had to be cleared before it could be farmed. The tall timber was made into a log cabin to house the family, chinked together with mud mortar to stave off the winter winds, it was heated by a fireplace at one end that was both heat source and kitchen stove. Furniture was also made from the cleared timber. After the trees were taken down, the land was further cleared by fire, to become fields for planting. The whole family would have participated in this work of clearing the land, and then farming it, with Catharina also maintaining the home: cooking over the fire, looking after the children, cleaning, drawing water from the well, making clothing, gardening for the kitchen.

Map of Hancock County Townships,
Madison Townsip is in the bottom row
 (Attribution By US Census, Ruhrfisch [GFDL (httpwww.gnu.orgcopyleftfdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http//:creativecommons.orglicensesby-sa3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
Click to make bigger

On February 18, 1840 Adam and Catherine’s last child, Nicholas Essinger was born in Hancock County Ohio. Unfortunately, he likely never really knew his father as Adam died less than eight months later on November 3, 1840, and, by some accounts, was the first person buried in the St. Paul’s Lutheran church cemetery.

After Adam’s death, I lost Catherine for thirty years. In that time, her eldest son John married Catherine Goetzinger (1835-1923) on November 6, 1855, her daughter Hannah married my 3^rd great grandfather Johann Phillip Schneider (1831-1909), and her youngest son Nicholas married Maria Katherina Wertenouger (1847-1933) on August 21, 1866.

I found her in the 1870 Census living with her son John (age 40) and his family (wife Catherine, age 25; daughter Catherine, age 12; daughter Mary, age 11; daughter Hannah, age 8; daughter Barbra, age 6; son Henry, age 4, and daughter Margaret, age 1). He is a farmer in Madison Township, Hancock County, Ohio; his farm is worth $2600 and he has personal property worth $1025 (not the highest in the neighborhood, but in today’s dollars the real property is worth $46,794 and the personal property is worth $18,447).  In 1880, she is still living with her son John and his family, on their farm, and they have three more kid:, Nicholas, age 8; Emma, age 4; and Charles, age 1 (this census doesn’t ask for property values this time).

Catherine died on January 23, 1890, before the next census was taken. She was laid to rest beside her husband in St. Paul’s cemetery in Jenera, Ohio.

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German Genealogical Research, A Few Introductory Comments, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kriegbaum/hist01.html;  18th Century German Naming Customs, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~familycentre/klein/germanname.html ; Passenger Arrivals at the Port of Baltimore 1820-1834, from Customs Passenger Lists, General Editor Michael H Tepper, Transcribed by Elizabeth P Bentley (Genealogical Publishing Co. 1982), found at Ancestrycom; https://www.genealoger.com/german/ger_emigration_records.htm ; Demographic Behavior in the Past: A Study of Fourteen German Village Populations in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, by John E, Knodel (Cambridge University Press 1988); History of Hancock County. Ohio. Containing a History of the County, its Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of the Northwest Territory: History of Ohio; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated.  (Warner, Bees & Co., Chicago, 1886.); History of Hancock County, Ohio , Geographical and Statistical, by Jacob Spathe (B F Wade Printing Co, Toledo OH, 1903); Find-a-grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8782010; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8782002; http://www.in2013dollars.com/1870-dollars-in-2017?amount=2600 

Coming to America: Shipwreck!

 SHIP IN THE STORMY SEA, by Ivan Aivazovsky, 1887
 in the public domain

This is more of a community history post than a profile post, but my ancestors were part of that community, and it is a wonderful story. They are not name-players in this story, and I will later do separate posts on each of them, but a surviving partial passenger list for the James Beacham/Famous Dove includes my fourth great-grandfather, Johan Adam Essinger, and information received from a new cousin may place some of my Schneiders on this trip. I am posting the story now, so that my family (and maternal side cousins), the descendants of the shipwreck survivors, may recognize and honor the importance of September 17 in the fact that we exist.

My ancestors came from the southern part of Germany, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt. They lived in small villages in the wooded hills of the Odenwald, just east of the Rhine River. The Essingers came from Reichenbach and the Schneiders came from the Gadernheim; others on this journey also came those villages and from the villages of Lautern and Raidelbach. They all attended a small Lutheran Church on a hill in the village of Reichenbach. Most of the members of the church were farmers, some were smiths, and at least one owned and operated the local mill.

Detail of the portion of Hesse that was once Hesse-Darmstadt,
and home to those who emigrated to NW Ohio on the Famous Dove
Used with permission of R.M. (Click to make bigger)

First, a little bit about the history of Hesse-Darmstadt to understand the home of the people who eventually left it to move to northwestern Ohio.  In 1806, with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, Hesse-Darmstadt became part of Napoleon’s Confederation of the Rhine and became a Grand Duchy (had been a Landgraviate, a German principality headed by a Landgrave). Hesse-Darmstadt troops served with the French from 1806-1813, and then Hesse-Darmstadt joined the allies in 1813 and fought on the side of the Coalition against France, succeeding in pushing France out of Germany in 1814. Between 1813 and 1815 citizens and laborers supported the wars of liberation against the Napoleonic foreign rule, giving rise to a new German patriotism. On 30 May 1814, the Treaty of Paris declared the German States independent. Hesse-Darmstadt entered the German Confederation in 1815.

In the aftermath of nearly a decade of war, Hesse-Darmstadt’s economy was bad, inflation was high, and the Grand Duke had imposed high taxes to fund the rebuild of the country. Additionally, forced military service required that once a boy was 16, he had to serve three years in the service. All of these conditions caused the small farmers and craftsmen to look to emigrating from Germany. Emigrating to America was a popular choice because Germans who had already gone to America were writing letters home telling of the contrast in land values between Germany and America. America was painted as a bounteous land of opportunity while in Germany the cost of land was disproportionately high, making it difficult for the small farmer to acquire enough land to feed his family, let alone to pass down land to his sons in amounts that would allow each to survive. Ironically, that same issue made it easier for the small farmer to sell his farm in Hesse at a price that would enable him and his family to cross the sea to America and buy a larger farm which could support his family.

Used with permission of R.M.
(Click to make bigger)

In the Odenwald, in Hesse-Darmstadt, two men decided to organize a group of friends and neighbors to travel to America. One was Johan Tracht; the other was Johan Peter Arras. Between the two groups, there were at least 150 friends and neighbors leaving for a new life in America in 1831.  It must have been a difficult decision to leave. Most Germans in that time period, unless they had fought with the army, had never been further from home than the nearest village.  Those deciding to emigrate with Tracht and Arras knew that they were unlikely to see anyone they were leaving behind ever again. Moreover, not only were they leaving their homes, they had to leave behind or sell many of their possessions to move to this new unknown land. The first leg of their trip took them through Darmstadt and Kassel to Bremen, approximately 300 miles away. They arrived at Bremen sometime in July, and on July 29 they went to Bremen’s seaport. On July 31, 1831, they loaded their possessions onto two ships. One of these ships was the British ship, the James Beacham, sailing for Baltimore. The other ship was a Dutch ship which was sailing to New York. As the English ship was newer, everyone wanted to board it. The partial passenger list surviving shows that the Essingers managed to make it onto this ship. The James Beacham has been described as 118 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 20 feet high, with two masts and 24 sails. It was large enough to carry 7800 tons of cargo. I don’t have a description of the older ship or even its name.

At this time, when immigrants reserved passage on a ship, it was understood that they had to provide their own food for the entire trip. The history of the Trinity Lutheran Church, by Jon Rossman, includes an excerpt from a letter written by Johan Peter Arras that tells what some of these provisions were: “we needed potatoes, beans, peas, barley, rice, white flour, tea, sugar, coffee, the herring are very good, eggs, cheese, sausage, vinegar, wine, white and dark Zweiback, the white is tastier than the dark. We could take bread for 15 days also meat for 14 days, you salted some, or else it would sour and could not be eaten. The water was terrible. Pork kept better, it would not sour as fast.” They left port on August 1, 1831. The captain of the ship had told them that it this trip would take 32 days. During the course of the trip, the immigrants renamed the ship, the “Famous Dove” as a symbol of their hope and freedom.

However, there were some problems on the trip: they did not have any wind for 12 days and there were also a few days when the wind blew in the wrong direction; they were also hit by a couple of storms at sea. It also became apparent that the captain was inexperienced and often drunk. Also while they were at sea, two of the families lost a child (not my families). However, that wasn’t the worst part of the trip.

  

On their last day at sea, September 16, 1831, a strong gale came up near America and they were blown off course, losing both the mast and the rudder, and waves were washing the decks.  Off the coast of Virginia, east of Norfolk, just south of Cape Henry, the ship hit a sandbar which tore a large hole in the bottom of the ship. The ship quickly filled up with water. When the captain realized what was happening he ordered his crew to launch a lifeboat so they could escape, without the passengers. When the immigrants realized what was going on, one of the leaders, Johan Tracht, took seven guns he had brought to hunt with out of his trunk and armed himself and six other men. He gave orders to shoot anyone who attempted to abandon ship and thus persuaded the crew to stay aboard. Subsequently, in order to stop the ship from being tossed about by the storm, the brother of the other leader, Arras, ordered the men to cut down the mast so that the wind would not be able to catch in the sails and bounce the ship about on the waves. This helped, but the storm continued and the ship was quickly filling up with water and appeared that it would sink within a few hours. The people were afraid. The story then says that the 13-year-old Margaret Arras reminded the people of how Jesus quieted the waters of the sea of Galilee and saved his disciples; she said he would save them also. One of the sailors wanted to slap her for talking foolishly, but then she started to sing a hymn. All of the immigrants joined her in the singing and praying, and even some of the sailors. They vowed, “if we are saved, the 17^th of each September shall be kept as a holy day by us and by our descendants, even unto the third and fourth generation.”

Map of the coastline of Virginia, focusing on the Cape Henry area
(Click to make bigger)

When morning came,  the storm had stopped and when they looked out towards the West they discovered that they were only 100 yards from land, and people had gathered on land to help rescue them, including a number of the first black people they had ever seen. Lines were run to the wrecked ship and the opposite end fastened to trees on the shoreline, and the immigrants then made the trip to shore in small boats pulled along the cables. Families left the ship first and then the single men. Even though all of the people were saved, many of them lost some or all their possessions.  When they were all safe on shore, they gathered and thanked God for saving them from the storm.  I found the wreck reported in papers as far away as Washington DC and Yorkshire, England.

The James Beacham Shipwreck, 16 Sep 1831,
as reported in The Washington National Intelligencer 23 Sep 1831 p3
Click to make bigger

The James Beachem Shipwreck 10 Sept 1931,
as reported in The Hull Packet and Humber Mercury (East Riding of Yorkshire, England), 18 Oct 1931, p 3
Found in British Newspaper Archive website
Click to make bigger

They initially set up camp in the Norfolk area as they needed some time to recover and plan. They still had a long way to go before they reach their planned new home in Ohio. They stayed in Norfolk until September 21, then they went to New York by boat and arrived on September 22. They stayed in New York one day and left for Baltimore on a steamship at on the 23^rd. At that point, since they had lost many of their possessions, the people split up and decided that each family would have to earn its own way to Ohio. For a while, a number of the families settled in Maryland and in Washington County, PA, to earn the money to continue their journey. They were moving to undeveloped frontier lands so they would have to bring everything that they thought they would need to survive.  The first settlers from the Famous Dove arrived in Hancock County, Ohio, in 1834; It took approximately seven years for all of the families, except two, to arrive. 

The other ship carrying the rest of the community, being older, traveled more slowly, and missed being caught in the gale. It arrived at its port intact, with its passengers and cargo safe.

Oh, and that vow that was made on the sinking ship off the coast of Virginia? It has been kept by two congregations in Hancock County,  well beyond the promised third and fourth generations: Trinity Lutheran Church in Jenera, and St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran, in Van Buren Township, both of which were founded by some of the families from the Famous Dove. The first recorded shipwreck service was held on September 17, 1836. The 186^th Shipwreck service will be held this Sunday, September 17, 2017, at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church. And, to my family, now that you know about it, you can add your own thanksgivings this Sunday, if you so wish, since, if they had drowned you wouldn’t be here!

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http://en.geschichte-abitur.de/restoration-and-vormarz/napoleons-supremacy; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hesse;  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_of_the_Rhine; “GERMANY AND THE EMIGRATION 1816-1885” by Mack Walker (1964, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College}, http://www.mrhalliday.com/gbhalliday/Genealogywebpg/Hommerding/GermanyEmigration1816-1885%20.pdf; “Schiffbruchsgottesdienst Trinity Lutheran Church, Jenera, Ohio: the church with a 152 year vow” by Jon Rossman (1983), http://essays.wls.wels.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/4036/RossmanTrinityJeneraOH.pdf?sequence=1; “Historic Hancock County, an illustrated history” by Paulette Weiser (2007, a publication of the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce, historical publishing network, San Antonio Texas); Shipwreck Festival, http://www.stpaulevlutheran.org/about-us/shipwreck; http://www.stpaulevlutheran.org/; “My Genealogy Home Page: Information about Nicholas Price”, http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/b/o/w/Brian-E-Bowers-VA/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0052.html; Neuendetteslau Nostalgia, http://www.stjohnsmarysville.org/story; Lutheran Forum, “Lutherans in Peril on the Sea”, https://www.lutheranforum.com/blog/2017/8/3/lutherans-in-peril-on-the-sea; German History in Hancock County, http://downtownfindlay.com/about/oktoberfest/about-oktoberfest/

Margaretha Pink (about 1825 – May 1890), my third great-grandmother

Germany
Map By NuclearVacuum (File:Location European nation states.svg) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

Hancock County Ohio, USA
Map by By David Benbennick [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I don’t know enough about my third great-grandmother to write my normal profile on her. This post is to set out what I think I know so far, and indicate areas I need to explore later, more of a status report than a profile.

Shortly after I started with the family genealogy Mom gave me a hand-drawn Snyder family tree (her father’s side of the family) drawn out by someone prior to her – she wasn’t sure who – and some notes of her grandmother (Pearl Pauline Bailey Snyder) talking about her memories of her parents and grandparents and those of her husband, Phillip Snyder. I subsequently received another similar (not quite the same) copy of the hand-drawn tree from one of my Mom’s cousins. Those documents were my starting point in tracing back my Snyder lines. They have proved to be largely, but not entirely, accurate.  Two of the parts that turned out to be, I think, incorrect, are the names of my third great grandmothers on my two Snyder/Schneider lines.

Snyder Tree that Mom gave me (not entirely accurate)

My second great grandparents were John Snyder and Katharine (Kate) Snyder. My Great-grandmother’s notes say that the two Snyder families were not related. The family tree I was given indicates John’s parents were John and Hannah Snyder and Katharine’s parents were Philip and Anna Snyder.  My great-grandmother’s notes go on to say that “Phil’s mother’s name was Pinkstein. After she dropped the Stein they laughed about her having the name Pink. She may have been Jewish. Old Philip (her father) looked more Jewish than most Jews. This Philip was born in Dumstart, Germany. He was a school teacher in Findlay….” (It goes on from there but becomes quite confusing to me, so I’m not going there.)

As is obvious by the title of this piece, I believe great-grandma got her husband’s grandmother’s name wrong. I did start out my search for her using the name Hannah Pinkstein and Hannah Pink, but couldn’t find her, and using Hannah Schneider I couldn’t find a family with the correct children, let alone in some place that made sense.

I looked for any clues to her name when researching my second great-grandfather and his siblings, and I found that my second great-grandfather’s death certificate, in 1925, indicates that his mother’s last name was Pink, but didn’t give a first name. His sister Dena’s death certificate in 1928 indicated that her mother’s name was Margaret, no maiden name given. His brother Benjamin’s death certificate, in 1939, indicates that his mother’s name was Margaret Snyder. Then I found his sister Lizzie’s husband in a bio-sketch in The History of Wyandot County Ohio, published in 1884, it said “[George H Hines] was married on July 14, 1881, to Miss Lizzie Snider, daughter of John and Margaret (Pink) Snider, both born in Germany.”  While later, in Lizzie’s obituary, in 1937, it said she was, “the daughter of John and Malissa Penk Snyder…,” as the bio-sketch in the county history book was written while my third great-grandmother was alive, it is more likely to be accurate. Moreover, the information in the others’ death certificates corroborated the name Margaret Pink.

When I started looking for Margaret Snyder (Snider, Schneider, etc.)  instead of “Hannah” Snyder, I found the family, with the right kids, in the 1870 and 1880 censuses in Ohio, and I was able to find my second great-grandfather’s birth record, naming his mother as Margaretha Schneider. So I think that the passed down family clues were wrong in this instance and that Margaret/Margaretha Pink is the correct name. I’ve tried to look for Margaretha Pink in Germany, but, as I explained in my last two posts, I’m having problems with looking for genealogy information in Germany. I need to take a course in it, and in German, but I don’t have time right now. As I mentioned in my entry on Margaret’s husband John (here), I’ve been in conversation via Ancestry messaging with a man who told me that Margarethe was Johannes’ second wife and that his first wife, who had died, was Margarethe’s sister, and that both marriages occurred in Frankenhausen, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany. I’ve not been able to confirm or deny that yet (continuing to try). When I’ve searched for Margaretha in Germany, I found a lot of persons named Pink, so it’s not unreasonable to consider that Pink is her entire name, rather than Pinkstein. (There are Pinksteins as well, so I can’t rule it out)  I can’t find, yet, a Margaretha with a father named Phillip (?) or a husband named Johannes Schneider in Hesse in an appropriate time frame under either name.

The Hessen Archives has an online database listing those who emigrated from Hesse; it indicates that Johannes Schneider (Fethe-Peters) of Frankenhausen born in 1819, emigrated in 1863 with his wife Pink (citing “Source: sic. Mertz, Dr. Wendel: Heimatbuch Frankenhausen 1955, p. 29” – I’ve tried to find a copy of the book but no luck so far).  It confirms a marriage between Johannes Schneider and a woman surnamed Pink, but is problematic in that it shows them emigrating in 1863, 13 years after John indicated he did in the 1900 census (he said he arrived in 1850).  Their daughter Dena's obituary also stated that her parents came from Germany in 1850.

Margaretha and Johannes appear in the church records for the Second Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chambersburg PA in for the 1 February 1851 birth of a son, Jacob, who was baptized on 20 August 1851 – this is the first and last time I’ve found anything mentioning Jacob, and the 15 August 1854 birth of their son Johannes (later ‘John’), my second great-grandfather, who was baptized on 3 November 1854. Johannes’ and Margarethe’s daughter Dena was born on 28 July 1852, also in Pennsylvania (per her obituary) between those two, but is not recorded in the same church records.

Hancock County Ohio Townships (Delaware Township highlighted)
Map by US Census, Ruhrfisch [GFDL (httpwww.gnu.orgcopyleftfdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (httpcreativecommons.orglicensesby-sa3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Margaretha and Johannes had moved to Ohio by 1859: the 1870 census lists an eleven-year-old daughter, Margaret, born in Ohio (well, it says all the kids living at home were born in Ohio but I know that John and Dena were born in Pennsylvania). I haven’t been able to find the family in the 1860 census, anywhere. The 1870 census shows John (52) and Margaret (45) Snider living in Delaware Township in Hancock County, Ohio with their children: Dena (16); John (13); Margaret (11); Eliza (9); Ben (7); Charlie (5). It’s possible they moved there because they already had relatives or former neighbors there as there were a number of German immigrants from the Odenwald in the county (the Odenwald is a low mountain range in the German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg). A county land ownership map for 1879 showed John Snyder owned a farm in Wyandot County, across the street from that owned by their daughter Mary and her husband, Frederick Stumpp.

The 1880 census shows the family again living in Delaware Township in Hancock County (next door to Wyandot County). John was 63 and listed his trade as “Pump making”; Margaret was 55, and had ague, which was an old term for malaria, for the recurrent chills and fever.  It was prevalent near marshy swamplands where mosquitoes multiplied rapidly, and a large portion of northwest Ohio was very swampy until drained in the mid-to-late 19^th century.

Also living at home in 1880, according to the census, were Lizza (19), Benjamin (17), and Charley (15). The non-population schedule of the 1880 census shows that John Snyder, sr. also owned a 124-acre farm in Delaware Township in Hancock County, Ohio, (92 acres tilled and 32 acres woodland),  worth $4500 for the land, $800 for the tools, and $600 in livestock.

Detail of 1880 Federal Census showing Snider family in Delaware Township in Hancock County Ohio
(found at Ancestry.com)

The 1890 census burned in storage in Washington DC, so we have no record from that year. But John’s 1907 obituary mentions Margaretha’s death, “Mrs. Snyder died 17 years ago last May,” which means she died in May 1890. I’ve not yet found any other confirmation of that.

Margaret and John’s children:

Mary, born 25 July 1850 (actually, if John did have a prior wife, I can’t be sure that Mary is Margaret’s child at this point); married Frederick Stump (1836-1880) on 30 May 1869 in Hancock County Ohio; had four children with Frederick – Benjamin F Stump (1872-1953), Frederick Grant Stump (1874 – 1953), Edward Stump (1876-1958), and Daisy Stump (1878-1884); after Frederick died, she married Daniel E Kachele (1860-1946) on 17 March 1881 in Wyandot County Ohio; she and Daniel had six children – Emmanuel Jacob Kachele (1882-1944), Anna Kachele (!884- ?), Margret Kachele (1888-1930), Daniel Ellsworth Kachele (1891-1974), and Esther Kachley (1896-1977); Mary died on 21 Jul 1926, twenty years before her husband Daniel died. (Mary’s story is HERE.)

Jacob, born 1 February 1851 in Chambersburg, PA. I don’t know anything more about him.

Dena E., born 28 July 1852 in Pennsylvania; married Amos (Amil) Buess (1846-1919) on 20 October 1875 in Wyandot County Ohio; they had nine children – Laura E Bues (1876-1895), Mary Ellen Bues (1878-1941), Albert Benjiman Buess (1881-1923), John Frederick Buess (1885-1977), Charles Amos Buess (1887-1972), Anna M Buess (1889-1965), Earl Oliver Buess (1891-1964), Louis Franklin Buess (1893-1970) and Harley Bues (1896-1896); Dena died nine years after her husband, on 28 August 1928.

John, born 15 August 1854 in Chambersburg PA; married Katharine M. Snyder (1857-1931) on 21 October 1875; they had four children – Mary Margaret (Mollie) Snyder (1876-1949), Dela Snyder (1879-1894), Philip Aaron Snyder (1882-1967, his story HERE), George Snyder (1884-1898); he died 3 November 1925. (John’s story is HERE.)

Margaret, born about 1859, (and probably died before 1884).

Elizabeth “Lizzie”, born 20 April 1961 in Ohio, married George Hines (1853-1911) on 14 July 1881 in Hancock County Ohio; they had seven children – Erma Maggie Hines (1881-1952), Cleveland Hines (1884 - ?), Maxie /Mack Hines (1889 - ?), Hallie/Hattie Hines (1896 - ?), and Geneva Ila Hines (1900-1984), there were two other sons who predeceased their father whose names and birthdates I do not know; Lizzie lived twenty-six years after her husband killed himself in 1911, and died on 6 June 1937.

Benjamin J, born 20 April 1863 in Ohio; married Ella Haner in 1885 in Wyandot County, Ohio; they had five children – Blanch May Snyder (1887 - ?), Erma Snyder (1890-1951), Flossie Merth Snyder (1893 - ?), Earl LeRoy Snyder (1897 – 1971), and Mabel Snyder (1898 - ?); he died on 16 April 1939, nine years before his wife’s death.

Charley, born about 1865 (and probably died after 1884 but before his father, John Snyder, died in 1907).

They may have had other children. A biography of their daughter Lizzie’s husband, George H. Hines, in The History of Wyandot County (published in 1884) says of his wife’s family: “He was married on July 14, 1881, to Miss Lizzie Snider, daughter of John and Margaret (Pink) Snider, both born in Germany. In this family were nine children, six now living, viz.: Mary, Lena, John, Lizzie, Bergaman and Charley. The deceased are Bellvy, George, and Margaret.” (I think that Lena was a misspelling of Dena, and that Bergaman should be Benjamin.)

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I’m very interested in learning more about Margaretha’s life, especially anything before 1870, and anything as relates to her life in Germany. I’d also like to find out why she died in 1890. I’m curious as to whether it was related to the malaria she had in 1880. If anyone reading this knows anything more about my third great grandmother, please leave a comment below or email me at the address in my Contact Me page above (or both – leave me a comment saying you’re emailing me and to check my spam file just in case it doesn’t come directly through.)

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The History of Wyandot County Ohio: Containing a History of the County; its Townships, Towns, Churches, Schools Etc., published January 1, 1884 by Leggett, Conaway & company (found at Google Play e-books) pages 845 and 846 (or, as scanned, pages 788 and 789). Buchstabe S, Glederung, R 21 B Auswander-Nachweise, Hesisches Staatsarchi Darmstadt, Hessen Archives (https://arcinsys.hessen.de/arcinsys/detailAction.action?detailid=v4163003); Historic Hancock County – An Illustrated History  by Paulette Weiser (Historical Publishing Network, a division of Lammert Inc, San Antonio TX 2007), p. 25; Some Medical Terms Used in Old Records, http://www.mifamilyhistory.org/genhelp/diseases.aspx ; Old Disease Names Frequently found on Death Certificates, http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ar/county/greene/olddiseases1.htm; U.S. Federal Censuses for 1870, 1880, and 1900, and non-population schedule for 1880; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Collection Name: Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records (Ancestry.com); Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993 (Ancestry.com)

Johannes Schneider (abt 1819 in Germany - 1907 in Ohio USA), my third great-grandfather

Germany

I don’t know enough about my third great-grandfather to write my normal profile on him. This post is to set out what I think I know so far, and indicate areas I need to explore later.

My third great-grandfather, Johannes Schneider, was born in Germany, probably on November 9, 1819, despite the fact that his obituary stated that he was on November 9, 1813.   I think he was born on November 9, 1819, because (1) I have been unable to find any Johannes Schneider’s born November 9, 1813; (2) he indicated that he was a few years older with every census that I’ve been able to find and in the earliest census I was able to find him in, 1870, he stated that he was 51 (or born about 1819); and (3) on Ancestry.com, I found  a baptism record for Johannes Schneider in the  Niederbeerbach und Melchen church records in the city of Neider Beerbach in Hesse, Germany  which indicates that Johannes Schneider son of Valentin Schneider was born on November 9, 1819 and baptized on November 10, 1819.

But this theory contradicts the notes written by my great-grandmother on her husband’s grandparents that I was given by my mother (however, those family notes have not proven to be entirely accurate during the course of my research). The notes state that John Snyder was born close to “Stutgard” Germany, then settled in Forest (a village falling across the Hardin County and Wyandot County line, in Ohio) after coming from Pennsylvania, and that he had brown hair and a very high forehead. Stuttgart (today) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about 110 miles from Nieder Beerbach, Mühltal, Odenwald, Hesse, Germany.

I looked for a birth record for Johannes Schneider in Baden-Wurttemberg in the general time frame. There are a lot of Johannes Schneiders, but none born on 9 November. (I know to not necessarily rely on the date but I’ve nothing else to distinguish them by at the moment.)

I know nothing about Johannes’ early life; well, nothing about his first thirty or so years; and very little about his first fifty or so years.

In or about 1850, he moved with his wife Margaretha Pink** Schneider and infant daughter Mary, to the United States of America. I’ve had conversations via Ancestry messaging with a man who told me that Margarethe was Johannes’ second wife and that his first wife, who had died, was Margarethe’s sister, and that both marriages occurred in Frankenhausen, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany. I’ve not been able to confirm or deny that yet (continuing to try).  If true, he may have had more children than those I know about.

The Hessen Archives has an online database listing those who emigrated from Hesse; it indicates that Johannes Schneider (Fethe-Peters) of Frankenhausen born in 1819, emigrated in 1863 with his wife Pink (citing “Source: sic. Mertz, Dr. Wendel: Heimatbuch Frankenhausen 1955, p. 29” – I’ve tried to find a copy of the book but no luck so far).  It confirms their marriage and his wife’s last name, but is problematic in that it shows them emigrating in 1863,  13 years after Johannes he indicated he did in the 1900 census (he said he arrived in 1850 – though in the same Census his daughter Mary said she arrived in the U.S. in 1852).  His daughter Dena's obituary also stated that her parents came from Germany in 1850.

Johannes and his wife show up in the church records for the Second Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chambersburg PA in for the 1 February 1851 birth of a son, Jacob, who was baptized on 20 August 1851 – this is the first and last time I’ve found anything mentioning Jacob. Those church records also show the birth of their son Johannes (later ‘John’), my second great-grandfather, on 15 August 1854 and his baptism on 3 November 1854. 

Johannes’ and Margaretha’s daughter Dena was born between the two above in Pennsylvania on 28 July 1852, according to her obituary.  

By 1859, Johannes and Margaretha had moved to Ohio and their next four (or six) children were born there; the 1870 census lists an eleven year old daughter Margaret born in Ohio. I haven’t been able to find them in an 1860 census.  [Although some others’ trees for my third-great-grandfather cite to a Montgomery County Civil War draft registration in 1863, for John Snyder, I don’t think that’s my ancestor because later censuses show a John Snyder in a Veterans home in Montgomery County Ohio, at the same time I know my ancestor is in Hardin County Ohio. I think it’s logical that the 1863 John Snyder in the draft registration is the same one that is in the Veterans home in the same county later, and thus not mine as I haven’t found any other ancestors in Montgomery County, Ohio, on my Mom’s side of the family.] 

In 1870, the couple lived in Delaware Township, Hancock County Ohio, and had anglicized their names. John Snider, a farmer, was 52 and Margaret was 45; their children “Dema” ([sic] 16), John (13), Margret (11), Eliza (9), Ben (7), and Charlie (5) were also in the home. Mary had married Frederick Stumpp the year before (see her story HERE.).   It’s possible they moved there because they already had relatives or former neighbors there as there were a number of German immigrants from the Odenwald in the county (the Odenwald is a low mountain range in the German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg). A county land ownership map for 1879 showed John Snyder owned a farm in Wyandot County, across the street from that owned by their daughter Mary and her husband, Frederick Stumpp.  But the 1880 census shows the family was again living in Delaware Township in Hancock County (next door to Wyandot County). John was 63 and listed his trade as “Pump making”; Margaret was 55, and had ague. The children who remained at home were Lizza (19), Benjamin (17), and Charley (15). The non-population schedule of the 1880 census shows that John Snyder, sr. also owned a 124 acre farm  in Delaware Township in Hancock County, Ohio, (92 acres tilled and 32 acres woodland),  worth $4500 for the land, $800 for the tools, and $600 in livestock. He mostly grew corn and wheat, and had 15 pigs 45 chickens, and 25 other fowl. He also grew grapes and made 145 gallons of wine that year. He must’ve also had bees because he produced 390 pounds of honey. [I wonder if he made mead? (Honey wine.)]

1879 John Schneider farm (yellow) 

Their daughter Dena married Amos (Amil) Buess in 1875; they lived in Jackson Township in Wyandot County in 1880. John and Margaret’s son, John (my second-great-grandfather), had also gotten married in 1875, to Katharine M. Snyder (see John's story HERE); they also lived in Jackson Township, Wyandot County in 1880. 

Lizzie married George Hines in 1881. Benjamin married Ella Haner in 1885. 

The 1900 census shows John Snyder (84, born Nov 1815) living alone in Jackson Township, Hardin County, Ohio. He lists his occupation as "gardener". [Note: the Ancestry index transcription erroneously says age 54, while the document clearly says ‘84’.} It is worth noting that Jackson Township, Hardin County abuts Jackson Township, Wyandot County, and the town of Forest straddles the county line there since many of his children lived in Jackson Township, Wyandot County.

John Snyder died on 17 November 1907.  His obituary read:

DEATH OF JOHN SNYDER

John Snyder died at the home of his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Amos Bues, three and one half miles southwest of Kirby, in Jackson Township, Sunday afternoon, at 1:30 o’clock. Death was caused from paralysis, with which he had been ill for two weeks. 

Mr. Snyder was a little more than 94 years of age, having been born in Germany, November 9, 1813. Mrs. Snyder died 17 years ago last May. Five children survive him. They are: John Snyder, of Findlay; Ben, of Napoleon; Mary, wife of Daniel Kachley, of North of Wharton; Lizzie, wife of George Hines, of East of Forest, and Dena, wife of Amos Bues. 

The funeral occurred Monday afternoon, at 2 o’clock, from the Bues home and was conducted by Rev. DC Garrison, of Forest. Music was furnished by the Shiloh choir. The pallbearers were six grandsons, John, Albert and Earl Bues, Clevy and Maxie Hines and Ralph Snyder. Burial was made in the Jackson Center cemetery.

John and Margaret’s children:

Mary, born 25 July 1850 (actually, if there was a prior wife, I can’t be sure that Mary is Margaret’s child at this point); married Frederick Stump (1836-1880) on 30 May 1869 in Hancock County Ohio; had four children with Frederick – Benjamin F Stump (1872-1953), Frederick Grant Stump (1874 – 1953), Edward Stump (1876-1958), and Daisy Stump (1878-1884); after Frederick died, she married Daniel E Kachele (1860-1946) on 17 March 1881 in Wyandot County Ohio; she and Daniel had six children – Emmanuel Jacob Kachele (1882-1944), Anna Kachele (!884- ?), Margret Kachele (1888-1930), Daniel Ellsworth Kachele (1891-1974), and Esther Kachley (1896-1977); Mary died on 21 Jul 1926, twenty years before her husband Daniel died. (Mary’s story is HERE.)

Jacob, born 1 February 1851 in Chambersburg, PA. I don’t know anything more about him.

Dena E., born 28 July 1852 in Pennsylvania; married Amos (Amil) Buess (1846-1919) on 20 October 1875 in Wyandot County Ohio; they had nine children – Laura E Bues (1876-1895), Mary Ellen Bues (1878-1941), Albert Benjiman Buess (1881-1923), John Frederick Buess (1885-1977), Charles Amos Buess (1887-1972), Anna M Buess (1889-1965), Earl Oliver Buess (1891-1964), Louis Franklin Buess (1893-1970) and Harley Bues (1896-1896); Dena died nine years after her husband, on 28 August 1928.

John, born 15 August 1854 in Chambersburg PA; married Katharine M. Snyder (1857-1931) on 21 October 1875; they had four children – Mary Margaret (Mollie) Snyder (1876-1949), Dela Snyder (1879-1894), Philip Aaron Snyder (1882-1967, my great-grandfather, see Philip's story HERE), George Snyder (1884-1898); he died 3 November 1925. (John's story is HERE.)

Margaret, born about 1859, (and probably died before 1884).

Elizabeth “Lizzie”, born 20 April 1961 in Ohio, married George Hines (1853-1911) on 14 July 1881 in Hancock County Ohio; they had seven children – Erma Maggie Hines (1881-1952), Cleveland Hines (1884 - ?), Maxie /Mack Hines (1889 - ?), Hallie/Hattie Hines (1896 - ?), and Geneva Ila Hines (1900-1984), there were two other sons who predeceased their father whose names and birthdates I do not know; Lizzie lived twenty-six years after her husband killed himself in 1911, and died on 6 June 1937.

Benjamin J, born 20 April 1863 in Ohio; married Ella Haner in 1885 in Wyandot County, Ohio; they had five children – Blanch May Snyder (1887 - ?), Erma Snyder (1890-1951), Flossie Merth Snyder (1893 - ?), Earl LeRoy Snyder (1897 – 1971), and Mabel Snyder (1898 - ?); he died on 16 April 1939, nine years before his wife’s death.

Charley, born about 1865 (and probably died after 1884 but before his father died).

They may have had other children. A biography of their daughter Lizzie’s husband, George H. Hines, in The History of Wyandot County (published in 1884) says of his wife’s family: “He was married on July 14, 1881, to Miss Lizzie Snider, daughter of John and Margaret (Pink) Snider, both born in Germany. In this family were nine children, six now living, viz.: Mary, Lena, John, Lizzie, Bergaman and Charley. The deceased are Bellvy, George, and Margaret.” (I think that Lena was a misspelling of Dena, and that Bergaman should be Benjamin.)

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I’m very interested in learning more about Johannes’ life, especially anything before 1870, and anything as relates to his life in Germany. If anyone reading this knows anything more about my third great grandfather, please leave a comment below or email me at the address in my Contact Me page above (or both – leave me a comment saying you’re emailing me and to check my spam file just in case it doesn’t come directly through.)

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**there have been questions about Margaretha Pink’s name in the various family trees by people I know are family members, based on notes passed down in the family from my great-grandmother or on newspaper articles; I will discuss that in my post on Margarethe Pink. Other names used in other trees are Hannah Pink or Hannah Pinkstein or Malissa Penk (which necessarily lead to different people).

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Buchstabe S, Glederung, R 21 B Auswander-Nachweise, Hesisches Staatsarchi Darmstadt, Hessen Archives (https://arcinsys.hessen.de/arcinsys/detailAction.action?detailid=v4163003); Historic Hancock County – An Illustrated History  by Paulette Weiser (Historical Publishing Network, a division of Lammert Inc, San Antonio TX 2007), p. 25; Death of John Snyder, Upper Sandusky Daily Chief, November 19, 1907, p 4 col.1; Funeral Services Held Today For Mrs. Dena Buess, Upper Sandusky Daily Union, August 30, 1928, p. 1, column 4; The History of Wyandot County Ohio: Containing a History of the County; its Townships, Towns, Churches, Schools Etc., published January 1, 1884 by Leggett, Conaway & company (found at Google Play e-books) pages 845 and 846 (or, as scanned, pages 788 and 789; Hesse, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1661-1957 (Ancestry.com); U.S. Federal Censuses for 1870, 1880, and 1900, and non-population schedule for 1880; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Collection Name: Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records (Ancestry.com); Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993 (Ancestry.com); various death records for the kids (if you want details, ask)

Writer's Block

Image from Pixabay.com

I have not written anything recently because I don’t know what to write. I’ve been having real problems with my genealogy research this summer. I previously explained my problems with the research into Mariah Williams Bailey Huber in a post in April. Then I moved on to my mother’s Schneider roots. There are a lot of Snyder’s/Schneider’s in her family, as at the level of my second great-grandparents John Snyder/Schneider married Katherine Snyder/Schneider (as far as I can tell at this point, two different Schneider family lines joining). I have an old hand-drawn family tree of names & relationships, which has proven to be about 85% accurate, which goes to my third great-grandparents level in the Snyder families; it stops where I am stuck. It is at the point of my second great-grands and third great-grands that the Schneider’s emigrated from the Germanic states (pre-Germany) to the USA. I have been having a great deal of difficulty trying to find anything on their emigration and on their life before reaching the United States. It doesn’t help that Schneider is a fairly common name. I am finding records, but I can’t tell if they belong to my people.

It’s gotten to the point where I have determined that I either need to pay a German genealogist to look into this or take some courses in German genealogy and perhaps learn German. I priced hiring German genealogists and determined that that is not on the current budgetary horizon. (It’s not that I think that they are overpriced. Apparently, it is standard to buy a chunk of hours’ worth of work [20, 40, 120] for a set price, and while that price was initially a bit breathtaking, once I divided it by the number of hours I realized it’s really quite reasonable for the expertise needed and work involved. It’s just not something I can consider until possibly spring, or later.) And, I don’t have the time to take webinars or classes in German genealogy, and German, for at least three years.

However, I have found it psychologically difficult to move on without writing without writing a blog post on them. Apparently, my mind and gut have been convinced over the years of doing the research and writing this blog, that when I have completed what I’m able to do on a given ancestor at that point in time, I write a blog post before moving on to whichever line I choose to explore next. The blog posts I normally do on ancestors situate them in the historical context in which they lived and involve a decent amount of contextual research to do so (in my head I call them “ancestor profiles”). The problem is, I don’t know enough about the Schneider’s to do that – hence the writer’s block. But I have to do something so I can get my head to move on (I’m tired of nights of only 4 hours of sleep in which I find nothing helpful). So I have decided to write a few posts that I will deem “status reports,” writing about what I do know about the ancestor and/or family I’m stuck on, and, where there are differing indications that I’ve seen in other’s trees explain why I have not accepted those points (… yet). I’m hoping that those sort of posts will serve two purposes: (1) allow me to let go and move on to research another line, and, (2) perhaps attract the attention of a “cousin” I may not have met yet who has more information than I have, or different family stories that might point to more clues, who is willing to help me get further back on these lines. 

The Old Bailey Homestead -- Found it !

Juniata College Seal

Two weekends ago I returned to central Pennsylvania to go to my 35th college reunion (wow!) at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA. Huntingdon is in Huntingdon County which is adjacent to Centre County, where my 5th great-grandparents, Richard Bailey  (Abt. 1735 -- 811) and Mary Wilson (1740ish - abt 1808), settled in about 1790. I decided to take a drive over to Baileyville PA to see the area where my ancestors had lived.

I knew from "The History of Baileyville -- the town, the ironworks, and the railroad (1790-2013)", a book I'd obtained from the Baileyville Community Hall some months ago, that, at the time the book was written, Richard and Mary's home still existed. It had been updated and was still lived in. I decided to go find it. It's a good thing I brought friends with me as the address is down a private drive and I was too shy to trespass by driving down to knock on doors to ask about the house. But we encountered a nice couple out for a walk who confirmed the house was there and gave us permission to go down their drive.

This what Richard and Mary's house looks like now. I couldn't get a view of the front because there was a huge tree in the way, but the side view shows a pretty home off what had been Bailey Square. (As someone lives there I don't feel comfortable putting their address on the Internet without their explicit permission, so I'm not.)

Home of Richard and Mary (Wilson) Bailey, side view
Photo by me*
Click to make bigger

Home of Richard and Mary (Wilson) Bailey, front view
Photo by me*
Click to make bigger

The following are the views around the house, showing that Richard and Mary chose to settle in a beautiful, fertile valley to make their home.

Centre County, PA view from the Richard and Mary (Wilson) Bailey farm
Photo by me *
Click to make bigger

Centre County, PA view from the Richard and Mary (Wilson) Bailey farm
Photo by me *
Click to make bigger

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*If you would like to use any of my photographs featured on this page for non-commercial purposes, please credit and link back to this blog. If you wish to use any of the material on this page for other means, please seek my written permission.  Jo Allison Henn

"The History of Baileyville -- the town, the ironworks, and the railroad (1790-2013)