My immigrant great great grandfather, Johann Philip FALTER, was born about 2 Feb 1782 in Nack, Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany and was christened 2 Feb 1782 in Erbes-Büdesheim, Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. His godfather was an adolescent, Philip MARTIN of Kriegsfeld. His grandmother, on his mother's LOBERT side, was a MARTIN, so his godfather was undoubtedly from that family, probably his mother's brother, or an uncle. He died 29 Apr 1849 in St. Stephen, Seneca, Ohio and was buried about 1 May 1849 in St. Stephen Cemetery, St. Stephen, Ohio. Although baptized Johann Philip, Philip was a typical late 18th - Early 19th century German and was known to all by his middle name, just like his father before him. Throughout his life, to include all of the baptisms, marriage witness records, land and wills records, he was recorded simply as Philip. Philip's biography in the 1886 Warner Beers History of Seneca County, Ohio is based on information provided by his son, John B., over 30 years after Philip's death. That biography states that Philip was born in Darmstadt, a city in Germany in what was then the Grossherzogthum (Grand Duchy) of Hessen-Darmstadt. That is an error, possibly due to John B. telling the author of the history that he came from Darmstadt, meaning the Grand Duchy, while the author assumed that he meant the city. In fact, Philip was born in Nack in Hessen- Darmstadt (today's Rheinhessen-Pfalz) and was baptized at St. Bartholomeus Catholic Church in the village of Erbes-Büdesheim. Philip's Apprenticeship As a Shoemaker Philip apprenticed as a shoemaker and, apparently, served his apprenticeship in a village some distance from Nack and Erbes- Büdesheim since there is no record of him as an apprentice in Nack. That is not surprising since apprentices were generally required to leave their home villages and apprentice far enough away that they would not return home when they became homesick. Frequently, however, a farmer or a tradesman had more sons than could be used on working the family farm. These sons were then apprenticed in the hope that that they would learn a better-paying and more prestigious trade. Philip later worked in his trade, as a shoemaker. Philip Falter's First Marriage Philip married after his apprenticeship. Unfortunately, since that marriage record and the birth records of the children of this first marriage have not been found in Erbes-Büdesheim or surrounding towns, it is probable that he married a woman from a more distant village, probably where he served his shoemaking apprenticeship. All that is known for certain of Philip's first marriage is that he had four children by his first, but unknown, wife. When Philip and his second wife and the four children he had by her immigrated to America, they were accompanied by the four children of his first marriage. They all settled in Venice Township, Seneca County, Ohio. The children of Philip and his unknown first wife were specifically identified in his will, made in 1849, and in various Seneca County vital, St. Mary Catholic Church (Tiffin) and Seneca County and St. Stephen parish records. They are: 28 i. Angeline FALTER was born between 1808 and 1813 in Germany. Angeline's birthyear is confused because it could have happened on so many possible years based on surviving records. * She was recorded as 40 at the time of the 1850 census when she was living with her stepmother, Christina (KOERNER) Falter. * She was recorded as 67 years old at the time of the 1880 census. * She was recorded at her death as 73 years of age that was as reported in the Tiffin Weekly Tribune of 9 June 1881. The earliest record of Angeline in the United States is an entry in the St. Mary's Catholic parish records at Tiffin. St. Mary is the first Catholic Church established in Seneca County, and the priest used to make the rounds of the outlying areas to attend to baptisms, weddings, and funerals. On an unspecified date in 1838, the St. Mary parish records state that Angeline was a godmother to Angela GONNE, daughter of Martin and Catherine (SOLL) GONNE. That event occurred in Melmore, according to the record. There was no church at Melmore but the town of Melmore was, at that time, the closest organized and named community to the Falters the village and church at St. Stephen was not built until 1843). The next record of her is that of her marriage to Frederick W. GOSSEL, born about1808, on 6 February 1840 in New Washington, Crawford County.3 In fact, she probably married at home in Venice Township, but it was recorded in Crawford County because her husband was from Bucyrus Township, Crawford County. We can be confident that they were not married at St. Bernard's Church in New Washington, since it had not yet been constructed. After their marriage, they lived in Crawford County and, in mid-1840, Frederick and Angeline were enumerated there by the census. The census listed Frederick William as "William F." GOSSEL. Angeline is mentioned in her father's will which was made in 1849, and she was enumerated under her maiden name in the 1850 census, living with her stepmother Maria Christina KOERNER. It appears possible that she and Frederick divorced,4 since, on 19 March 1842, a Frederick GOSSEL took as his wife, Margaret E. STRATHMAN who he married in Hamilton County, Ohio. Angeline was alive at that time. She and Frederick had no known children. By 1880 Frederick Gossel had died and in her enumeration in the 1880 census, she is listed as "Angelina Falter, widow, age 67, born Germany." Angeline FALTER is buried at St. Stephen's Cemetery beneath a headstone that is inscribed with only her maiden name, lending more credence to the possibility that she and Frederick divorced. That is reinforced by the fact that the Tiffin Weekly Tribune and the census recorded her by her maiden name. Angeline's given name on some records is written as Angela and Angelina. Her father's will refers to her as Angeline. + 29 ii. Elisabeth FALTER was born about 1818 in Germany and died Nov 1848. 30 iii. Barbary FALTER was born before late 1822; married ____ FRUS. Barbary's husband was possibly William FRUS who was enumerated in the 1820 census, but it was more likely to have been John FRUS who obtained a land patent in 1825 for 80 acres of land in Townsend Township, Sandusky County, Ohio. This is about four miles north of Bellevue, and about 25 miles north of Philip's farm in Venice Township. The fact that Barbary's husband was one of these two men can be inferred with a reasonable degree of confidence since they were the only males of that surname who are known to have lived in the state of Ohio prior to the 1900 census. The 1900 Seneca County Census enumerated a Florence FRUS, 48 year old housekeeper living in house # 52 in Jackson Township. She was living with Michael and Martha SPIRES and their family. It is unknown how, or even if, she is related to the earlier cited Frus males. Given our present state of knowledge, we cannot yet rule out that the possibility that the name Frus is an error and that she actually married a man named Fruth. Fruth was a more common name in that part of Ohio. Nonetheless, no possible marriage partner named Fruth have been found for Barbary in available census, land, probate, other civil records or parish records. This meager information regarding Barbary's husband is provided in hopes that it will point a future researcher in an appropriate direction for additional research. 31 iv. Maria Anna FALTER was born in Germany. Maria was known in America as Mary Ann. According to her father's will she was married to ____ WEAVER. In researching the early Weaver (and WEBER) families of this section of Ohio, it appears that her unnamed husband may have been a brother of John D. WEAVER who was born in France (most probably in Alsace) on 1 October 1803. That John D. WEAVER married Magdolina BALL in Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania and later came to Crawford County, Ohio.7 His descendants included the STUDERs of Crawford County, Ohio who later married into the Falter Family. The Seneca County Ball family had also earlier lived in Pittsburgh, and the other Magdolina BALL who was related to the Falters was also from Pittsburgh. The connection is tenuous and circumstantial, but credible.8 Additionally, there was (another ?) John Weaver who was an original land purchaser land in Big Spring Township on 9 October 1833. He is another possibility for future research. Philip Falter's Second Marriage It was in Erbes-Büdesheim that Philip married a second time. His second wife was Maria Christina KÖRNER, also spelled KERNER and KOERNER in records. She was known as "Christina." Christina was baptized on 1 April 1796 at Erbes-Büdesheim. Her godmother was Maria Christina JACOBS (an aunt?) who was unmarried at the time of Christina's baptism. Christina was the daughter of Jacob Peter KÖRNER of Erbes-Büdesheim and his wife, Maria Eva JACOBS.10 Christina's father, Jacob Peter, was a carpenter and he and Maria Eva married in Erbes-Büdesheim on 14 November in 1791.11 Maria Eva was the daughter of Jacob JACOBS (deceased at the time of her marriage) and Anna Elisabetha HERBIG. See Chapter Seven, Körner/Koerner Ancestors. Christina died at St. Stephen on 7 April 1862 and is buried at St. Stephen, along with Philip. Shortly after the birth of their youngest child, Margaret, in Erbes-Büdesheim on 5 November 1831, Philip and Christina emigrated with their children to the United States. The reasons they emigrated from Germany have not been passed down in the family, but those reasons were probably not much different than the ones that motivated most other emigrants from the area. The possibility of owning their own farm, the hope of living on and tilling land which was not worked-out, and escaping the ever constant wars were the most common reasons cited by most German immigrants. In Philip's case, the Revolution of 1830 spilled out of France and into western Germany. That may have been the last straw. It was for many other thousands of poor German farmers. The Emigration of the Falters to America Philip and Christina and their family departed Germany in late November or early December 1831. The first step of the trip was to get to a port. Most families in that part of Germany prior to the mid 1840s departed from Le Havre, France. In the early 1830s a great deal of cotton was shipped from America to Le Havre, France and from there it was transported in wagons to Germany and points east. The empty cotton ships then took German and other immigrants to the US on the return trip. It is probable that Philip and his family emigrated through Le Havre. It was not until later that Amsterdam and the ports in Germany became convenient departure points for Germans immigrating to America. If Philip and his family took the ship from Le Havre, as did most German immigrants of the period and area, he probably walked the roads. The younger children, and probably Christina, rode on empty cotton wagons returning to the port. This trip could be arranged for a small fee and generally took between 12 and 20 days. The voyage was relatively inexpensive, even by the standards of the time; about the equivalent of $18 to $25 per passenger. The problem was that the economies of the Germanic states were largely based on barter or trading, and it was difficult for a shoemaker to save even that modest amount of money. Philip did save it, however, and he and his family spent 42 days on a sailing ship to America. They landed at the Port of New York, probably in January 1832 where 15,000 other German immigrants had landed in 1831. Once they arrived in New York harbor during that period, families took the immigrant road called the "Hudson River Trail." It ran north from New York City to Albany, and paralleled the Hudson River. It was intersected by a similar trail, the "Mohawk Trail," which ran west from Albany to Buffalo. Paralleling the Mohawk Trail was the Erie Canal, which had been completed in 1825. Together, the two trails covered a distance of about 400 miles. This was the route that was used by virtually all immigrants who landed at New York and who were going to the new lands in northern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois which the government was opening for settlement. It is not known for certain whether Philip and his family walked, rode in wagons or took the river and canal. Since the waterways were most likely frozen at that time of year, they probably rode wagons that were available from the organizers of "immigrant trains" which guided new arrivals along the way to their destination. They stopped in Buffalo, New York and passed the remainder of the winter there. In the spring of 1832, they set out for their new home in Ohio. There were several famous boats (the Superior, William Penn, and others) which sailed from Buffalo to ports on Lake Erie. The Falters made their trip on one of those boats, by way of Lake Erie, to the lakeside village of Huron in Huron County, Ohio. From Huron they traveled overland the final 40 or so miles to Venice Township in Seneca County, Ohio in a wagon according to Philip's son, Johann Baptiste. The Land That Philip and Christina Settled in America Ohio become a state in 1803 after being carved out of the Northwest Territories that were created by the Ordinance of 13 July 1787. The first settlements in the area were in southern Ohio and the north remained wild, mostly unsettled, and the property of the government. There were a few squatters who just settled on and started farming land that the government still owned. A later law, passed by Congress on 24 April 1820, opened certain government-owned lands to settlement and ownership by private settlers. Seneca County was formed by splitting-off a part of Huron County in 1820. While Tiffin was founded in 1821, other land areas within Seneca County were not partitioned for settler claims until 1 June, 1829. Venice Township was one of those areas, and it was split-off from Bloom Township. We do not know exactly what Philip, Christina, and the children did upon arrival in Seneca County before Philip got his own farm. It is probable that he rented from an earlier owner, "squatted" on unassigned government land, or worked as a hired hand on someone else's farm. Homesteading in Seneca County The Federal Act of April 24, 1820 set the minimum price for sale of public land at $1.25 an acre and the minimum amount of land that could be purchased at 80 acres. If all the land was not sold at public auction, it became available at $1.25 acre on a first come, first serve basis and the 80 acre minimum was dropped. On 22 February 1834, Philip FALTER entered a claim for 80 acres of government land which is recorded and described in the Ohio Original Land Entries as land in "Township One [Venice], E 1/2 SW 1/4, Sec 29." This land was about 1/2 mile north of the present village of Carrothers. During the time Philip owned the land, Carrothers did not exist but his son, John B., played an important part in its subsequent founding as is narrated in the family history. Philip's claim was filed at the Bucyrus Land Office which operated during the period of 1832-1892. The Tiffin Land Office had closed by the time Philip filed for his land. It had operated only from 1828 through 1832. Philip paid $1.25 per acre for his new farm. Philip made a clearing in the woods, built a log cabin and settled his family. This was a very difficult job in this part of Ohio. The trees were all hardwood; oak, maple, elm, and chestnut, with a smaller number of walnut trees. Philip and his family lived in the log cabin for about 16 years until about the spring of 1849, when Philip died. He was building a larger and much more comfortable house that was joined to the cabin and which was to replace the log cabin at the time he wrote his will in February of 1849. The house he was building was a traditional "square" house of sawed board siding. When he built his house, it is doubtful that he thought that it would be in existence over 150 years later. But it was, thanks to those same hard woods that were so difficult to cut and shape. They also were slow to rot and to be infested by destructive insects. Unfortunately, it appears that he died before the new house was completed, but his sons completed it for him. As the years went on, a newer and even larger farmhouse was built by Philip's descendants somewhere about 1900, and the old house was turned into a barn, and later it was partially converted into an automobile garage. Philip's old house was finally torn down in 1994 as the new owners, the Miller family, renovated the Falter farm and the 1900 era farmhouse on Falter Road. But, as you can see, it was not torn down before Dorothy (FALTER) STERLING and her brother, Father John FALTER, took photographs of this family historical relic. The Falters were typical immigrant pioneers and the cabin's furnishings were handmade. Philip built a primitive corner cabinet of walnut and chestnut. Years later, after his widow and sons became a little more prosperous and were living in the new house rather than the log cabin, they purchased (or bartered) for a cabinet made by a professional cabinetmaker. The old, crude corner cabinet made by Philip was put in the log cabin that was then used as a small barn. It was recovered from the log cabin in about 1965 (the farm had passed through the Wurm and into the Gerdeman families by then; both were direct line Philip Falter descendants). The old cabinet was being used as a storage cabinet, and was in very poor condition. It was discovered and restored by Philip's great-grandson Victor FALTER, and his wife Edna (SCHEULER) FALTER. That corner cabinet was subsequently purchased from Edna in 1988 by her nephew Major General Vincent FALTER and his wife Marta and it is a treasured family heirloom.