The "Schirrheimers" of St. Stephen, Seneca County This is a short history of two families of Schirrheim, Alsace, France who were influenced by two revolutions, to move halfway around the world from their small village to found another small village in Seneca County. If you walk through the small, neat cemetery 1/4 mile west of the village and church of St. Stephen you will note the weathered tombstones which bear the recurring names of Dannemuller, Lehmann/Lamon/Laman, Lang, and Steinmetz. All come from the small village of Schirrheim, Alsace, France. You will also note the names Falter, Wurm, and Gerhardstein, all descendants of the original Schirrheimers. In fact, over thirty percent of the people buried in the cemetery are Schirrheimers or descended from them. It is well known that neighbors in the "old country" often both immigrated and settled together in America, or immigrated separately and settled near their old neighbors here. This is a narrative about something less known about our immigrant ancestors; why they emigrated and how they came to settle together. It is also about how the village they settled in got its name. The Villages of Schirrheim and Schirrhoffen Schirrheim (Schirrhein on today's French maps) is a small village about six miles west of the Rhine River and about 15 miles west of Baden-Baden, Baden, Germany. It was a part of what is now Germany for many years and the people in the village today still speak German as their language of preference.There is no industry in the village but parts of the area are heavily forested and logging and farming are the two major occupations, as they were when the Schirrheimers left for America. The third and lesser occupation is working at the large French Army garrison of D' Oberhoffen which borders Schirrheim on the west. That garrison plays a significant part in this history. It is impossible to talk about Schirrheim, without considering Schirrhoffen, an adjacent village. Adjacent villages in France and Germany are usually separated by about a mile. Schirrheim and Schirrhoffen, however, are adjacent in the literal sense of the word. They are separated only by a village limits sign. The two are like one large village and share the single Catholic church and all other support facilities such as the bank, the LOTTO store, and the the Gasthaüse. For the purposes of this narrative, inhabitants of both villages are referred to as "Schirrheimers." The Dannemuller Family Benoit Dannemuller was born about 1786 and married Magdalena Baechel on 7 January 1812 in Schirrheim. They had 11 children. Among them was a son, also named Benoit born in Schirrheim on 22 December 1813. The Dannemullers knew Mr. Sharias, the owner of the cotton mill in Schirrhein. Sharias had been an American Revolutionary War soldier. He fought with General LaFayette who took a French Army contingent to America to assist General George Washington during the American Revolution. Young Benoit and his father often went to Sharias' mill and Sharias frequently visited and had dinner with the Dannemullers. The conversation oftentimes was about America, a subject the old soldier never seemed to tire of discussing. All of the discussions of the America which emerged from its Revolution to become "the land of opportunity" led Benoit to convince his father to let him go there. He was only 16 years old but his father gave him the money to pay his ship passage and told him that, if he did not like it there, to write home and he would send him return fare. His uncle Philip Baechel accompanied him. On 10 October 1830, Benoit and his uncle boarded the Erie, in Le Havre, France and on 4 November 1830 they landed in New York. Benoit only had enough money to get as far west as Canton, Ohio. In fact, he was so short of money that he had to borrow a dollar from his uncle to see him through. They left New York City for Canton by way of Albany, Buffalo, and Cleveland. It was in Cleveland, while they were waiting for a canal boat to take them to Canton, that Benoit earned his first money in America. There was a small schooner at the docks of the grain warehouse which was waiting to be loaded. The stevedore boss called Benoit over to the grain bins. He gave him a shovel and conveyed that Benoit was expected to shovel it. He worked for an hour, and the stevedore boss gave him a piece of Spanish silver worth 18 3/4 cents. Benoit and his uncle arrived safely in Canton on 28 November 1830. They are the first known immigrants from Schirrheim in America. Benoit loved America and, shortly before receiving his final naturalization papers on 31 December 1838, he sent for his parents, brothers, and sisters to join him. When they arrived they settled on a farm north of Harrisonburg, Stark County, Ohio. The Steinmetz Family Martin Steinmetz was also motivated to come to America as a result of a revolution; the French Revolution. Martin was the son of Sebastien (known as Bastien) Steinmetz, and the grandson of General Sebastien Steinmetz, the commander of the French Army garrison of D' Oberhoffen at Schirrheim at the time of the outbreak of the French Revolution. The family lived in either Schirrheim or Schirrhoffen. As revolutionary mobs marched toward Schirrheim and Schirrhoffen, the inhabitants fled across the Rhine River into Germany and sought protection there. Sebastien got separated from his family but learned where they were located. He was crossing the Rhine River to rejoin them when Revolutionaries shot him. He died on 4 January 1794 in the village of Steinbach, Baden, Germany where his family had found refuge. Surprisingly, the surviving Steinmetzes returned to Schirrheim in about 1810, long after the excesses of the Revolution had been curbed and calm reigned under the Emperor, Napoleon. Martin Steinmetz was a young boy when his family fled to Germany and his grandfather was killed, and when the family returned he was about 21 years old and was a barrel stave-maker. He married Elisabeth Lang of Schirrheim and began raising a large family. He was unhappy though. The Revolution had disrupted his family's life but there was no more opportunity to improve his status under the French Republic than there had been under the monarchy. At the same time, his family friends, the Dannemullers were receiving letters from Benoit and his uncle extolling the virtues of life in America. It must have been clear to Martin that the common people in America were better off after their Revolution than the Steinmetz family was after the French Revolution. Martin decided to try his luck in America. He and his family immigrated to America before Benoit sent for his parents, during the 1835-1837 period; the exact year is uncertain. The ship landed at Charleston, South Carolina and the family made its way to Pennsylvania where they spent the winter. In the spring Martin and his family moved west and lived for a time on a farm in Stark County, Ohio. Most probably, they stayed with Benoit or his uncle. From Stark to Seneca County On 25 April 1837 Martin bought a farm in Bloom Township, Seneca County. He purchased his 78.8-acre farm from John Shanower of Stark County, Ohio for $200. The deed recorded at the land office at Bucyrus (which recorded for Seneca County at that time) states that Martin was "new of the [Seneca] County." From that point on, shinglemaking was far from his thoughts and he became a diligent and successful farmer. Two of Martin's children married Dannemullers in Stark County; Nicholas married Magdalena Dannemuller, and Barbara married Stephen Dannemuller. When Martin moved to Seneca County, so did some of the Dannemillers, and they settled nearby in Venice Township. They were followed by other Schirrheimers who knew or were related to both of these families; the Langs and Lehmanns, The Founding of St. Stephen Martin lost his wife in tragic, freak, accident on 3 January 1837. Martin and some other men were going hunting and were outside of his cabin when one of their guns accidentally discharged. The bullet went through a chink in the log wall of the cabin and struck Elisabeth who was inside, holding their baby, Helena. Elisabeth was killed but Helena was uninjured. Martin buried Elisabeth on one corner of his farm. By 1843 the little but growing community at the corners of Bloom and Venice Townships wanted their own Catholic church, and Martin donated the land for it and the cemetery. The area around Elisabeth's grave became the cemetery, making hers the first burial there. The men who built the church were Martin Steinmetz, Philip Falter, Matthew Delaney, Stephen Dick, Joseph Danker, and John Wurm. The church was originally named St. Maurice. Tradition has it that its name was changed to St. Stephen sometime before 1847, to honor Stephen Dick who had been the principal organizer of the effort to construct the church and obtain the services of a priest. As an interesting sidelight, Stephen Dick was from Mackenheim, Alsace, France, a few miles from Schirrheim, and was Martin's son-in-law, having married Martin's daughter Madelaine, in Stark County. Philip Falter's son Johann Baptiste would later marry Martin's daughter. Today, there are literally hundreds of descendants of the Steinmetz, Dannemuller, Lehmann, and Lang families still living in Seneca County, and a number of them are genealogy researchers.