Mary Snyder Stumpp Kachele (approx 1850-1926), my third great aunt, mid- 19th C Hesse Immigrant to USA

Mary Snyder emigrated from Hesse with her parents in the early 1850s. (Germany wasn’t a country yet.) She would’ve been a baby or toddler for the trip. Mary is another female ancestor that I don’t have much on until she married because I’ve so far been unable to find when exactly the family emigrated, on what ship, and where exactly they initially lived in Pennsylvania (the birthplace of two of her siblings, Dena and John, per censuses). So I’ll leave the discussion of those points to later post when him able to tell the story of her parents, Johannes Schneider (John Snyder, 1819-1907) and Margarethe Barbara Pink Schneider (Snyder, about 1825-about 1890).

I know the family had moved to Ohio by at least 1859, as Mary's sister Margaret was born in Ohio in that year and all of her younger siblings (Lizzie, Benjamin, and Charles) were also born in Ohio. German settlers were among the earliest in Ohio, and by 1850, nearly one-half of Ohio’s immigrant population came from various parts of the German principalities (Germany as a united country did not exist yet), so the family would likely have felt comfortable in moving to a where so many shared their culture. In fact, in certain areas of Ohio, German was the main language spoken. However, in the 1850s, anti-German sentiment began to rise, promoted by a political party called the Know-Nothings, U.S. nativists who felt the German immigrants threatened their jobs and American values and democracy, which targeted those of German descent because of their different language, different customs, and sometimes different religious and political beliefs. Many people in the US with nativist leanings hoped to either limit immigration or to force foreigners to convert to US customs and beliefs. Anti-German attitudes even led to the Cincinnati riots of 1855, during which a nativist mob tried to invade a mainly German neighborhood in that city, in order to steal the ballot boxes allegedly to protect the current city election from their foreign influence. The Germans constructed a barricade across the street leading into the neighborhood and after three days of fighting were able to force the mob to retreat. The nativist attitudes slowly diminished as concerns about slavery and possible war with the southern states rose higher.

Mid-19th Century Political Cartoon reflecting the charges
of the Know Nothing Party against immigrants.
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Nativist Paper
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Mary’s family chose to move to a more rural area of Ohio and settled into farming an area of the state on the Hancock and Wyandot County lines (the county lines moved around a bit before settling down – for a neat animated map showing Ohio County boundary changes, see here). On May 30, 1869, Mary, certifying that she was over the age of 18, married Frederick Stump, who certified that he was over the age of 21. In actuality, Mary was about 18 years old and Frederick was 33. Frederick was also an immigrant to the United States; he was born in Württemberg, Germany, in about 1836. His family had been in the country longer than Mary’s. Frederick owned the farm directly across the street from Mary’s family farm.

Frederick’s farm was larger than Mary’s father’s farm. I don’t know whether Mary and Frederick married for love, or whether it was more of a business connection for her father. It only in the early 19^th century that the idea of affectionate marriages spread to rural Americans, so it is quite possible that being neighbors and seeing each other in the course of daily life, and church, and social events, the two had developed an affection for one another. Long engagements were common as it was not considered proper for a young couple to marry until the man had the ability to support his wife in a decent home. Since Frederick indicated that he was a citizen in the 1870 census, Mary became a US citizen when she married him if he was already a citizen at the time they married in 1869, or when he attained his citizenship if it was after the marriage, as in the mid-19^th century a woman’s ability become a naturalized citizen was completely dependent on her marital status and on whether her husband was a citizen.

Detail of 1879 Richland Wyandot  Ohio Land Ownership Map (Snyder, Stump, Kachly/Kachele)
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At least coming from living on a farm, Mary would have known what she was getting into before she married Frederick. Women on farms not only kept the home (before electricity and indoor plumbing) and cared for the children, but were expected to help their husband with nearly every aspect of farming as needed. Articles from the time showed that Mary’s wifely duties would have included making clothes for the family, doing laundry in a pot over the fire, ironing and mending, cleaning house, hauling water, cooking three meals a day, from scratch, keeping the family farm garden and seasonal preserving of fruits, vegetables and meat. Perhaps raising chickens, and definitely raising children during planting and harvest she might also have helped her husband in the fields. Mary and Frederick had four children, Benjamin (1872-1953, m. Ella M. Benjamin); Frederick Grant (1874-1953, m. Ella Caroline Zimmerman); Edward, (1876-1958, m. Ivy Hellen Wise); and, Daisy (1878-1884).

Frederick was surveyed for a non-population schedule of the census in 1880, in which he answered questions about his farm. He owned it. He had 130 acres tilled, 5 acres in permanent meadows or pastures, 30 acres of woodland and forest, and estimated the value of the farm, including land, fences and buildings to be $8000 ($178,322 in today’s money according to an interactive inflation calculator I found online: http://www.in2013dollars.com/1880-dollars-in-2016). He also estimated that he had $200 worth of farming implements machinery, and $400 worth of livestock. He paid his hired hands $450 over the course of 1879, and estimated that he produced $900 worth of stuff from the farm. As to their livestock such, they had on hand as of June 1, 1880: four milk cows and 17 “other”; and had sold three cows for meat; they had 400 pounds of butter produced; 113 sheep; 19 swine; 40 barnyard poultry which produced 300 eggs in 1879. They also had 15 acres of Indian corn valued at $400; 4 acres of oats valued at $125; 33 acres of wheat valued at $500; 20 acres planted in flax and 140 bushels of flaxseed.

1880 U.S. Census - Frederick and Mary (Snyder) Stump family
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The regular portion of the 1880 census shows that Frederick was 44 and Mary was 28. Benjamin is 8, Frederick is 5, Edward is 3, and Daisy is 1. Benjamin and Frederick, Jr, are at school during the day. For some unknown reason, Mary lists her birth and that of her parents as Baden, when in every other census where the question is asked, and in other documentation, she indicated that she was from Hesse. Frederick is indicated as having dropsy, an old-fashioned word for edema, which is a swelling of the body (usually hands, arms, feet, ankles, and legs) caused by excess fluid trapped in the body’s tissues which is quite painful. It is often associated with serious diseases such as congestive heart failure. Frederick died six months later on 21 December 1880; he was only 45.

Frederick died without a will. In a document filed December 30, 1880, the probate court of Wyandot County, appointed Mary as administratrix of the estate and required that Mary, as principal, and her father, John Schneider, and a neighbor, Simon Kachley, as sureties, were required to submit $1000 bond, to be forfeited if Mary did not have an inventory of the real estate of the deceased, and all monies, goods, chattels, rights and credits submitted to the court within three months, and did not have an accounting of the estate done within 18 months. She had the estate appraised by M O William Jenkins and D L Cole. [I found the handwritten of appraisal of the goods and chattels of the farm in the FamilySearch browsable probate records for Ohio, and will transcribe those for a blog post to be posted later in the month as it’s an interesting look into what is kept on a 19th-century farm]. The appraisal stated that the assets belonging to the estate of personal goods and chattels amounted to a value of $776.25. $776 in 1880 is equivalent to $17,297.32 in 2016.

Administrator's Bonds, Right side

Mary was left a young widow with four children under the age of eight, with a huge farm to run. It’s quite likely that her father and the neighbors helped her run the farm while it was in probate. Mary submitted the inventory and appraisal of the estate on February 11, 1881. On March 17, 1881, Mary married Daniel Kachele, who I think was Simon Kachley’s (one of the sureties) younger brother. Daniel Kachele was 21 years of age and Mary was 30. Under the law of the time, when they married, the property Mary had inherited from her first husband became Daniel’s and he was obligated under the law to support her and be responsible for her debts. I hope she knew him from neighborhood, and liked him, before marrying him to have someone to support her children and run the farm.

Mary and Daniel had six children: Emmanuel Jacob (1882-1944, m. Arizone Segriest); Anna (1884 -?); Margret (1886 - ?); Mary (1888- 1930, m. Lawrence Stout); Daniel Ellsworth (1891 - ?, he married but I’m uncertain of the wife’s name); and Esther (1896- 1977, m. Harry Pemberton, and later Pearl C. Oxley). While she was pregnant with Anna, in 1884, Mary’s youngest child from her first marriage, Daisy, died at age 5. Heartbreaking.

Later, in 1911, Mary’s youngest child with Daniel, their 14-year-old daughter, Esther, must’ve terrified and infuriated her parents, when she and her 13-year-old boyfriend, Harry Pemberton, hopped a train to Detroit without telling anyone, and then popped over to Windsor CA to get married! They had recently told their parents that they wanted to get married, and both sets of parents, of course, objected, because of the young ages. The stunt made at least seven papers across the state of Ohio the next day.

Children Elope To Marry in Canada
(Harry Pemberton, 13, and Esther Kachele, 14)
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Mary and Daniel lived the rest of their life together in Richland Township in Wyandot County, Ohio.  They were successful and wealthy farmers. Industrial innovation brought some more ease to farming and keeping house, but farming remained difficult work. At the age of 76, Mary suffered a stroke on April 16 and died almost 3 months later on July 9, 1926. Daniel was 66 when Mary died. He lived another 20 years and never remarried.

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If anyone knows through which port Mary and her parents immigrated to the USA - on either end, or where they lived in Pennsylvania, or where they were in 1860, I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a comment or use the email address in my Contac Me page above.

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U.S. Censuses for 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920; Ohio Births and Christening Index; Hancock County Marriage Record for Frederick Stump and Mary Snider; Wyandot County Marriage Record for Daniel Kachele and Mary Stump; Obituary of John Snyder, Upper Sandusky Daily Chief, November 19, 1907, p 4 col.1; Ohio Wills and Probate Records for Frederick Stump; Snyder, Mary (Kachele) , Obituary, The Courier-Crescent, Orrville, Ohio Friday, July 9, 1926; "Children Elope To Marry In Canada," The Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio, 20 Feb 1911, p. 5;  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_riots_of_1855; http://www.cincinnati-cityofimmigrants.com/german/; http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?action=2&jsid=f6ef0c62ec142c368bfc2a12c90b49ea&documentId=GALE%7CCX3436800018&zid=a1bdd01f59dacbddab4e6bea68b2a54e&userGroupName=gray02935; http://www.ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/TopicEssay_Immigration.pdf; http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/German_Ohioans; http://www.countriesquest.com/north_america/usa/people/family_life/19th-century_families.htm; https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/summer/women-and-naturalization-1.html;  http://www.connerprairie.org/education-research/indiana-history-1860-1900/lives-of-women; http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/family-life-courtship-and-marriage; http://www.ohiohistoryhost.org/ohiomemory/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/TopicEssay_DailyLife.pdf; http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/farmwife.htm; http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/First_Women%27s_Rights_Movement; http://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1279&context=fac_articles_chapters;