Lybarger Linkages Newsletter
Fall, 1999 . . . . . Vol. XV No.
2 . . . . . ISSN 0887-9354
Official Newsletter of the Lybarger Memorial Association
1999 LMA ANNUAL MEETING
The Lybarger Memorial Association held their annual trustees and membership meetings again this year in July at the Lybarger Lutheran Church in Madley, PA as they do every year. Most of what was covered may be found in other articles in this issue of the newsletter including the LMA financial report, the distinguished service award, and the project to print and sell the Lybarger poetry books in 2000. As for the newsletter, the editor, Lee Lybarger, asked if a new heading design would be preferred but it was unanimous that we stick with the present design. The condition of the church was discussed. It is anticipated that the repairs will be done in time for the annual meeting in 2000. Most important will be the replacement of the roof and the steps.
Congratulations were extended to John H. Lybarger, the LMA president and Genevieve Smalling, the treasurer, for their marriage last January. They are 4th cousins once removed. The person to receive the Distinguished Service Award in 2000 was selected. The number of families attending the annual meeting numbered 15 and they came from as far away as Texas, Arizona, and Florida, plus the usual states of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
LMA FINANCIAL REPORT
Your Lybarger Memorial Association is in the best shape it has ever been since it began. The opening balance for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1998 was $7,328 (rounded to nearest dollar), The details are as follows:
Income received for fiscal year 7/1998-6/1999
Dues received $1,420
Church fund donations 1,022
Family histories purchased 1,619
Research and miscell. 140
Interest earned 204
Total income : $4,405
Expenses for fiscal year 7/1998-6/1999:
Newsletters including postage $1,231
Porta potties, electricity 266
Shipping of family histories 123
Total expenses : $1,620
New balance July 1, 1999: $10,114
The new balance represents a net gain over the previous year of $2,785. This is largely due to the net profit earned for the LMA from the sale of the books, donations to the church fund, and dues which are holding up but which can always be improved. If you have never made a contribution you are welcome to do so (see form, pg. 7). The current fiscal year will see major expenses for the repair of the church and less money coming in for the family histories as they are almost all exhausted. Thus, our balance by the end of this fiscal year will be smaller but it is comforting to know that there are funds in the bank for the major repairs for the church as well as meet our ongoing expenses.
LYBARGER POETRY BOOK APPROVED BY LMA
At the annual meeting of the Lybarger Memorial Association it was agreed that the LMA underwrite the cost of printing 100 copies of the Selected Poems of Lybarger Relations as a project to usher in the new millennium. The cost of the book to current LMA members will be $7.00 or $9.00 for nonmembers. It will be available by March, 2000. Cheques should be made payable to the LMA and sent to the LMA, as per the order form on page 7.
The following poem is a sample of what will be in the book. It was composed by Maude Armenya Kring Marshall, born March, 1888 at Wilkensburg, Allegheny County, PA (death date not known). She was the first of four children of Emma Hester Lybarger and Joseph Ellsworth Kring. Maude married Robert Milroy Marshall in 1912 and they had two known children, Lorhete K. and Roberta L. Marshall. Judging from the poem that follows she was close to her Lybarger relations in the historic Pennsylvania settlement of Lybargers in Londonderry Township of Bedford County where the reunions in the 1920's were held.
The Lybargers
When the summer mom dawns bright and fair,
And balmy fragrance fills the air,
When the whistling quail in the ripening grain
Is heard o'er the valley, hill and plain,
Like pilgrims to the Holy Land
They come - the great Lybarger band.
From coast to coast they are scattered wide,
And some in foreign lands abide,
When July's sun shines clear and warm
Their shrine we know is Ludwick's farm.
Within sequestered sylvan shade
Where many a stiffing scene was laid.
Peaceful silence now holds sway
Through the long, long summer day.
All through the sunny sunlit hours
Flits droning bees among the flowers
Ludwick slumbers so profound
Within the churchyards hallowed ground.
O'er land and sea where'er they roam
His spirit calls his children home.
OUR LIKELY SWISS ORIGINS
Lee Lybarger, a co-author of The Lybarger Descendants has been searching for the roots of our German-speaking ancestors. New information has come to light pointing to the probable Swiss roots of the Lybargers. It happened this way: Lee found our German ancestor's church on the internet of his computer. When he wrote to the pastor a response came back suggesting that he write to the Evangelical Church of the Pfalz in Speyer - a regional office to which the church at Hornbach is connected. They said that the best source would be the Landesarchiv (national archives) in Speyer. The archives responded by sending copies of documents which indicate that our Lybarger ancestors originated in Switzerland and that the Hombach church belonged to the larger Brenshelbach parish in the 18th Century.
The church books were destroyed in a fire either prior to or as a result of World War 11. However, research was done earlier on the families of Hombach and surrounding areas. A Pastor Neubauer wrote in a West Pfalz newsletter about the Swiss emigrants who were recorded in the Hornbach church books, including an Anton Leyenberger who was in nearby Brenschelbach in 1672. The register of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hornbach 1707-1798 mentions a Benedikt Leyenberger who came from Mauschbach, a small village in the same vicinity, who is the father of our ancestor Nikolaus.
In 1995 the Zweibruken Association for Family Research published "Schweizer Einwanderer im Wesinch 1750-1850", or "Swiss Immigrants in Westrich" (a part of the Palatinate region which includes Hornbach). The Family Name Book of Switzerland includes an Anton (Anthoni) Loewenberger or Leyenberger who was from Bern, Switzerland and was a church elder in Brenschelbach in 1669. He married a Maria (family not known) who died in 1693. It is reported that this "Anthoni Leyenberger, Swiss, who twenty some odd years ago, came to this town (Brenschelbach) when it stood here barren and empty".
A Hans Leyenberger, son of Anton Leyenberger, is also listed. He married Anna Maria Menninger daughter of N. Benedict. Hans was supported by his father, even after marriage , as he was half crippled and unable to do farm work. In addition, there was an Ulrich Leyenberger, a small tenant farmer in the same region of Zweibrucken. No further information is provided about him.
We do not have "smoking gun" evidence that our immigrant's paternal grandfather was any of the above persons but we do know that persons with the surname of Leyenberger (German spelling) or Lowenberger (Swiss spelling) came from Switzerland, especially the Bern region, in the later 1600's. They were part of a much larger movement of German speaking people who migrated into the rich agricultural land of the Rhine River in Southern Palatinate (later included in the 1871 founding of Germany). The reasons for moving were largely economic. The Palatinate region suffered a significant loss of population owing to the horrific Thirty Years War between Protestants and Catholics. Following the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 the rich agricultural region of the lower Rhine River region attracted families from the nearby Switzerland. So it is that we read that Anthoni Leyeriberger was attracted to Hornbach "when it stood here barren and empty".
Enumeration in the church records for those belonging to the reformed church (Lutheran) included the name of Leyenberger a name less common than many other German surnames. These two factors lend added weight that our ancestor, Nicholas Leyenberger (or Leyberger) was related to persons with the same surname who migrated from the Bern region of Switzerland to Hornbach-Brenschelbach region in the Palatinate in the late 1600's. Also, Anton was a church elder. This may help to explain why his son Nicholas, his grandchildren, and great grandchildren in America were instrumental in helping to form Lutheran churches in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and 0hio
Needless to say, more research will be required, especially in Switzerland to ascertain the names of the Leyenbergers (or Lowenbergers), where in the Bern region they were located, and when they left there for the Rhine region of the Palatinate (Germany).
ANOTHER LYBARGER HISTORY DONATED
Another copy of The Lybarger Descendants been donated to a major library - this time to the genealogy department of the state library of Arizona at Phoenix. Thanks go to Marilyn R. LyBarger Berry for making this donation possible.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
This is to let you know how much I enjoy reading the "Lybarger Linkages". The publication is presented in a very professional way and the content is always interesting.
I have one minor correction in the Spring, 1999 issue where you discuss intermarriages of the German Lybargers with those of Anglo-Saxon origins. You have included the name Deal in the latter. However, the evidence is fairly strong that a great majority of Deals immigrating to American in the 1700s were German in origin and originally spelled their name Diehl. This was true for my line, which included Esau DeaL who married Lanah Lybarger. All my Deal ancestors married German wives. Again, thank you for all your time and effort in publishing "Lybarger Linkages".
Bruce E. Deal, Palo Alto, CA
1999 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
The 1999 Distinguished Service Award was made to Comfort Amelia Fletcher LyBarger. Her daughter-in-law, Marilyn LyBarger Berry, made a special trip from Phoenix, Ariz. to receive it on her behalf from John H. Lybarger, the LMA president.
John Lybarger presents award to Marilyn LyBarger Berry
Comfort Amelia Fletcher LyBarger was born November 20,1903, in El Paso, Texas, the daughter of William Everett Fletcher and Comfort Jane Terry. On December 18,1920, she married William Bryan LyBarger who was born October 7, 1897. William died March 3,1946. This marriage resulted in five sons: William Bryan born September 9. 1922; Charles Roy born August 6,1924; Jack Fletcher born September 28,1925; Eugene Lowell born December 18,1927; Robert Bruce born December 18, 1930; and Lawrence Lee born February 11, 1942.
Comfort was a Bookkeeper, Sewing Teacher, and Sales Manager; but the accomplishment for which she will be most remembered is securing a homesite and building a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness. In May of 1954, when she was a 50-year-old widow, she decided to move to Alaska, where the last remaining homesteads were available. She, her sons, Gene age 25 and Larry age 12, left their home at Douglas, Arizona, and drove the Alcan Highway to Alaska, choosing an area 23 miles south of Anchorage to stake out a homestead. After twice measuring out 160-acre claims and having them denied, she was told that homestead land was closed. Instead, she was offered a
"homesite," equaling a little over 2 acres. This was quite a comedown from 160 acres, but Amelia wanted some land of her own, no matter how small. It was too late in the year to attempt to build a log cabin, so the family chose a spot by a creek and erected a tent-house insulated with cardboard boxes.
The family then spent that winter in this 12'x 14' tent-house in the woods, one mile from the Seward Highway. There they lived through record- breaking temperatures, which went as low as 30 degrees below zero, and a record 30-foot snow fall. They also experienced a severe wind storm and a small earthquake. They had only a snowshoe path to the road and had to sled in all their supplies. Moose, and even a mother bear with her cubs, used their path through the snow, but never caused the LyBargers any trouble. Gene went to work in Anchorage and Larry to school at Gerdwood, 13 miles away, while Amelia worked at supplying the wood for the cook stove and heating the tent, carrying water and tending to the lanterns, besides the many other chores involved in keeping up a home and cooking the meals. The next year, Amelia and her boys built their log cabin nearby. Their address became Star RI, Box 8805, Indian, Alaska. Making this log house a comfortable home was no easy task. They had to make an access road to the cabin, off a rough road which came up the hill from the highway one mile and continued on to an old settlers cabin.
As the building season was so short, Amelia wasn't able to add the front door until the following season. It took her two years to build her strong, beautiful stone fireplace. From its modest beginning of one room with an adjoining kitchen, and an outhouse, the family was later able to add a hall with two bedrooms and a bath. Amelia's log cabin progressed slowly, with some major improvements each year. Another son, Bob, moved up to Alaska and helped whenever he could.
At first Amelia had to carry water up from a nearby creek and also carry out the used water. Then she was able to have water drain out, and finally got it piped in. Bob helped install electricity, which brought with it not only I*W but other conveniences, such as TV. All the family in the "lower 48" were relieved to hear that Amelia's little cabin stood firm when the massive 8.3 earthquake hit Anchorage on March 27,1964, and that all of the family living in the area were safe.
Amelia loved her home and, except for some visits to her family in "the lower 48", she lived most of the next 27 years in her comfortable log cabin in the woods. Her closeness to the wonders of the wilderness with its native creatures, and the beautiful view of the mountains and the bay, were always there for her to enjoy, even when other homes were built nearby.
Amelia also liked to write poetry and prose. Several of her poems and nonfiction articles appeared in the Anchorage Daily News. A small booklet titled "Writings of Amelia LyBarger' contains most of her writings. In August of 1980, with her good years behind she moved into Pioneers Nursing Home at Anchorage. She suffered from a stroke and seizures and slowly lost her ability to communicate or walk. But, her mind remained alert and she always kept a sense of humor, and forever remained a lovely, dignified lady
Amelia died in Pioneer at age 80. A service was held for her in Anchorage and another at Phoenix. An engraving of her log cabin with the mountains in the background appears on her gravestone. Her log cabin has been home to many LyBargers. A grandson lives there now. An extensive addition has been built on to the original structure, but the cabin remains today as a symbol of her faith, courage, hard work, endurance, and love. She was a remarkable woman. Amelia was a member of the Baptist Church and was buried at Phoenix, Ariz.
MISSOURI REUNION ATTRACTS OVER 100
The largest attended Lybarger reunion in the U.S. is the one held at DeWitt, MO. This year it brought together over 100 persons from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Arizona. They are largely direct descendants of Augustus W. Lybarger (born in Ohio abt. 1849, died Missouri, 1900) and Charlotte McClanahan (1858-1895). They had 4 daughters and three sons.
Tins August 15th reunion has been an annual one day event every year since the 1950's. The movers and shakers included Earl Ray Lybarger, Billy Kay and Wanda Lybarger, and Jesse Lybarger who sent in the newspaper clipping from the "The Brunswicker", Brunswick, MO, Sept. 9th.
The next reunion will be Sunday August 20, 2000 at the Community Center in DeWitt, Mo. All Lybarger relations are invited. There is no charge as there is plenty of good food. A free will offering is taken up to defray overhead expenses. For information call Nancy or Jesse Lybarger at 600-549-3347, or e-mail them at
lybarger@cvalley.net
NEBRASKA LYBARGER REUNION
The Lybarger reunion in Nebraska was held again this year as it is every odd numbered year. John H. Lybarger, president of the Lybarger Memorial Association, attended along with his wife, Genevieve who is the treasurer of the LMA. John sent this report:
Genevieve and I had a great time at the Lybarger reunion in Arcadia, NE on Sept. 26, 1999. We drove approximately 2,000 miles and returned home on the 29th. On Saturday evening we enjoyed dinner with Gerry and Bob Lybarger (organizers of the Neb. reunion) and their families. Genevieve and 1, on Sunday, attended worship services at the Arcadia United Methodist Church. It was a very rewarding and meaningful experience. Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. we gathered at the Arcadia Community Center for a fine pot luck meal and a time of fellowship. Picture-taking was a very popular activity.
The people at the reunion treated us very special and told us how much our presence was appreciated. Approximately 30 persons attended the meeting on Sunday, Personally, I was greatly impressed with the spirit of friendship that prevailed during our visit with the Lybargers at the Nebraska reunion.
MORE CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CHURCH FUND
The following are new contributors to the Lybarger Church Fund since the last issue of "Lybarger Linkages":
David D. Lybarger, Green Valley, AZ Sylvia Ann Carson, Oceanside, CA Leeta R. Lybarger, Augusta, GA Hazel M. Atteberry, Jadwin, MO Ray Jacob Lyberger, Alliance, OH Helen Davidson, Cozad, NE Helen Lybarger, Oregon, OH Richard W. Lybarger, Lake, MI Bill Lyberger, Falls Church, VA Nancy J. Springer, Wolcattaville, IN Maryls Loomer, Mitchell, SD Gary & Marjorie Lybarger, Hoagland, IN Paid & Norma Pennington, Lebanon, OR John T. and Barbara Lybarger, Indianapolis, IN
The board of trustees and the members of the Lybarger Memorial Association are grateful for the generous gifts of money that these relations have made to the costs of keeping the Lybarger Lutheran Church in good repair - and to dunk that many of these givers have never even seen the church! If any of you are want to make a contribution to the church fund you are more than welcome to do so.
HEART PATIENT MAKES THE NEWS
The May 8th issue of the "News Journal- of Mansfield, Oh told about MedCentral Health System's Open Heart Center in Mansfield and what it can mean to its patients. It included a photograph featuring two patients including Clara Lybarger Bosko. The newspaper account reports as follows:
"Not only was it more convenient to Bosko to get medical we in her hometown, it could have saved her life. "She may not have survived if she had been transported to Columbus or Cleveland," heart surgeon Fred Stockinger said.
Clara is the daughter of Oliver D. Lybarger and Maude Estella Laser. Clara was born on Mar. 26,1920 in Richland County, Oh and married Stanley Bosko in 1942 who died in 1984. She has 4 children, Dennis, Thomas, Glenn, and Lee. No doubt they are all grateful for the establishment of a heart specialty center in Mansfield.
GOLDEN WEDDING ANNWERSARY CELEBRATED
A news item from the "Wray Gazette" of Wray, Colo. was sent in reporting on the 50th wedding anniversary of Henry Clayton Neuswanger and Cornelia Marie Lybarger. Although married in Lakewood, OH on June 26, 1949 the anniversary celebration was held on August 6-8, 1999. It featured a community reception, a chuck wagon cowboy barbecue, a program put on by their children Kurt, Willa, and Debra, and a slide show spanning 90 years of family history. Lybarger relations attending came from California, Idaho, western Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
UNION CEREMONY CELEBRATED
Kathryn E. Lybarger, 32, and Nina Ackerberg, 33, celebrated a joyous and celebatory union ceremony on May 30, 1999 with 125 guests at Rodeo Beach, Mann County, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Participating in the ceremony were Kathryn's parents, Lee and Connie Lybarger of Delaware, OH, and Nina's parents, Lynne and Peter Ackerberg Minneapolis, MN. Lybarger relations attending came from Los Angeles, Chicago, and Toronto. Kathryn and Nina are artists and reside in San Francisco.
WILLIAM R. LYBERGER 1920-1999
William (Bill) R. Lyberger of Falls Church, VA died on May 17, 1999. He was a retired supervisory carpenter for the General Services Administration. He was an Army veteran of World War 11 and a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Born on Dec. 11, 1920 at Huntingdon, PA, he was the son of John Wesley Lyberger and Mary Ann Rowe. The doctor who delivered John made an error in spelling on his birth certificate, yet his brother's name was Lybarger.
Bill's father left the family when Bill was a small boy, and moved to Kentucky. He then married Hazel and fathered Shannon Brown. Bill was raised by his mother and his grandparents. He graduated from Johnstown High School in 1938 and worked in the coal mines and steel mills in that area of Pennsylvania. In 1941 he married Doris R. Gramling. Following the war be and his family moved to Washington, D.C. area where he was a city bus driver until he went to work for the federal government.
It was not until he was well into his sixties that Bill sought out the Lybarger family and heard of the family reunion at Madley, PA. He contacted LMA board member, Jack R. Lybarger a cousin, and asked to attend the annual family reunion. He came with his son, Tim, and his daughter, Ardith L. Blair, His son, Arden, died in the Vietnam conflict in 1970.
Bill was preceded in death by Doris R. Gramling, his first wife of 27 years, and Polly A. Snodgrass, his second wife also of 27 years. He is survived by his 2 children 6 stepchildren, 17 grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, and I great great granddaughter. For the past 2 years he gave the homily during the church service at the annual reunion in the Lybarger Lutheran Church. Bill's talks were always about faith in God and the meaning and importance of family. He always enjoyed the annual treks to the Madley reunion as he was so grateful to have reconnected with the extended Lybarger relations. He made a special contribution to the Lybarger Church Fund just before he died. (see pg. 4)
GRACE M. WARNER (LYBARGER) 1912-1999
Word has been received that Grace M. Warner (Lybarger) of Edgewood, 11 died on June 3, 1999. She was born to John Warner and Flora Orr in Toledo, IL on May 16,1912. On Oct. 23, 1939 she married Olen D. Lybarger in Henderson, KY. They had a family of 4 sons, Harley, Charles, Robert and George and 3 daughters, Louise, Phyllis, and Helen. At the time of Grace's death she had 29 grandchildren , 63 great grandchildren, and 13 great great grandchildren. Grace was a homemaker and a member of Iola Pentecostal Church.
HAROLD O. LYBARGER 1914-1999
We are sorry to have to report that Harold Oscar Lybarger of Ellis Grove, IL died at his home on January 21, 1999. He was born in Ellis Grove to Henry and Lillie Hill Lybarger on Nov. 25, 1914. He and his twin brother, Charles Oliver were the last in this family of 9 children all of whom preceded him in death. He remained single all Ins life. However, he is survived by 8 nieces and nephews. Harold was a collector of Native American artifacts and was a member of the First Baptist Church in Ellis Grove, IL.
OTHER DEATHS NOTED
Other deaths, reported by John L. Lybarger of Mansfield, Oh are based on his survey of the Social Security Death Index data which is available via a computer search. They are:
Beatrice Lybarger, June 4,1914 - Feb. 10, 1999 in Newark, OH.
Clarence Lybarger, June 19,1919 - Feb. 12 1999 Mt. Vernon, OH.
J Lybarger, Dec. 28, 1972 - Feb. 1999, location not known.
Lyle Lybarger, Sept. 18, 1918 - Mar. 22, 1999 at Tabor, IA.
Shirley Lybarger, April 27, 1935 - Jan. 19, 1999 at Bedford, PA.
If anyone has any more information about these persons it would be very much appreciated it could be sent to the LMA office at P.O. Box 611, Delaware, OH 43015.
PIONEER EDUCATOR IN COUNTY HISTORY
The Delaware Gazette has been running a series of articles on the history of Delaware County, OH. On Sept. 19, 1999 they featured the beginnings of the Delaware County Board of Education in July, 1914 when Paul M. Lybarger, the Ashley Village School Superintendent, was appointed county superintendent .
When he began his tenure the outlying villages in the county had one room schools that housed all 12 grades. Under Lybarger's leadership, school districts were enlarged and new buildings were constructed. Buses replaced horse-drawn wagons. Lybarger was succeeded in 1926 by H.T. Main who served from until 1937.
Paul was the fourth and last child of Sarah Arm Gilbert and George Henry Lybarger. Paul was born on April 21, 1876 and was raised in Gambier, Ohio in the county next to the one where he became an educational leader. He married Eva Jacobs in 1904 and they had one known child, Pauline Eva who was born in 1905. Paul retired to his home community of Gambier. He was an active member of the Methodist Church.
He also was a brother of Lela M. Lybarger who served as a missionary in China for a women's missionary society of the Methodist Church. She died and was buried in Tiensin, China in 1934. Her accomplishments were written up in the November, 1987 issue of "Lybarger Linkages".
MARGOT ELISE LYBARGER BORN
The Lybarger clan has gained a new member. She is Margot Elise Lybarger, born on May 17,1999 in Cleveland, OH to Kyle Fisher Lybarger and Jennifer Stuck. Margot joins her brother Colin who was born on June 25, 1996. The family has recently bought a home in Lakewood, OH, the community where Margot's and Colin's great grandparents, Donald F. and Majorie H. Lybarger, established their family in the 1920's.
PIONEERING ON THE OHIO FRONTIER
From time to time we have published excerpts from a variety of sources that depict the conditions in which our ancestors lived. We have tried to answer the question of what life was like in the so called "good ole days". We began in a 1987 issue of "Lybarger Linkages" with a series of two articles drawn from an "English Farmer's Impressions of America in 1819". This was followed in 1988 with an excerpt from the 1881 Knox County History on "Housing Conditions on the Ohio Frontier".
Next came a series on the rough passage to America and the conditions German immigrants had to endure upon arrival. This was based on an account by a Mr. Mittelberger who had made the passage and who was urging his countrymen not to make the risks to life and limb in such an endeavor. In 1991 we ran an article telling how the English speaking residents of the Philadelphia area feared being run over by the hoards of German-speaking immigrants. In 1991-1992 issues we did a series of articles on the role of Lybargers in forming Lutheran churches in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Our most recent article on the historical conditions our ancestors lived through appeared in 1995 when we told the story of the pioneering conditions of Henry Hains and Hanna Lybarger when they came to Coshocton County in 1811 from Bedford County, PA. Other Lybargers, also from Bedford Co., came to Knox County in about that same time or a little earlier, notably a George Lybarger.
The Ohio wilderness was opened for settlers following the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1781. Permanent settlement in the area of Knox County began in 1797. Ohio became a state in 1803 and Knox County was incorporated in 1808.
It is time that we revisited the subject of the historic times 'in which our ancestors lived by drawing again on the 1881 History of Knox County, Ohio compiled by N.N. Hill. This first installment is taken from Chap. XXII "Pioneer Times", p. 209-222. The only alterations made were to break up some of the very long paragraphs to make it more readable. So, on with the narrative.
"The pioneers of Knox were largely from New England, Virgin* Pennsylvania, and Maryland, who sought to better their condition by making permanent homes in the wilderness west of the Ohio river. They came largely on foot over the Alleghany mountains, many of them having a single horse and wagon, or a two-horse wagon, in which their worldly possessions were carried and in which the very old or very young, only, were allowed to ride. Many of them were poor and, like Jack in the story, "came to seek their fortunes."
"A few came with ox teams; some with horses, two, three or four of them; some in two-wheeled carts, while others packed all their worldly possessions on a couple of old 'critters.' Instances are related of a bag on top, or snugged down in among the bundles, made somewhat after the fashion or a double knapsack, and a couple of babies' poked their little bronzed faces out of the slits it, this novel conveyance, and rode along like little "possums."
"From fifteen to fifty-five days were required in making the toilsome journey to the far West by the first pioneers. Streams had to be forded frequently. It was not unusual for a team to give out on the way and cause a delay of a fortnight or a month to one of the families. The joy was very great when the team hove in sight and the family rejoined the party who had to find "die end of the road," or stopped until the men looked for a suitable location.
"When once settled and the cabin erected, it was not only a home and shelter for the pioneer and his family, but for every stranger who passed that way, 'without money and without price." The latch string was always out for these pioneers were great hearted people, and no man, be white, black or red, was turned away empty. Their cabins, often not more than fifteen or twenty feet square, made of rough beech logs, with the bark still adhering to them, were frequently occupied by a dozen or even a score of people for a night, and no complaints made for want of room-1 genuine hospitality, always finds room enough and never apologizes for lack of more.
"When breakfast time came there was no apology for the scarcity of knives, forks and spoons, for "fingers were made before any of these." The fare was homely, but generally abundant. What to eat, drink and wear were questions not perhaps, difficult of solution those days. The first was the easiest to solve. The deer, the bear, the wild turkey, the rabbit the squirrel, all started up and said, or seemed to say, "eat me." These had been prepared for the red men of the forest, and were equally abundant for the pioneer. The forest was full of game, the streams full of fish, and wild fruits were abundant To get bread required both patience and labor- the staff of life was one of the articles that must be earned "by We sweat of the brow;" it could not be gathered from the bushes, fished from the streams, or brought down with the rifle.
"Every backwoodsman once a year added to his clearing, at least, a "truck patch." This was the hope and stay of the family; the receptacle of com, beans, melons, potatoes, squashes pumpkins, turnips, etc., each variety more perfectly developed and delicious because it grew in virgin soil. The corn and beans planted in May brought roasting ears and succotash in August, Potatoes came with the corn, and the cellar, built in the side of a convenient hill, and filled with the contents of the truck patch, secured the family against want.
"When the corn grew too hard for roasting ears, and was yet too soft to grind in the null, it was reduced to meal by a grater, and whether stirred into mush or baked into johnnycake, it made, for people with keen appetites and good stomachs, excellent food. Place before one of those brawny backwoodsmen a square foot of johnnycake and a venison steak broiled on hickory coals, and no art of civilization could produce a more satisfactory meal."
The picture on the next page is taken from a painting that hangs in the Chicago Historical Society Museum. It depicts a pioneer family making maple syrup in early Spring and is fairly typical of what pioneer life was like in Knox County,
Ohio.
GERMAN TRANSLATORS NEEDED
Can you read and write German? Lee Lybarger, who has been doing the research into our Swiss roots (See pg. 1), requires someone to translate into and from the German language as none of the correspondence is done in English. Please let him know if you can and would be willing to help in German translation. His address is the LMA, P.O. Box 611, Delaware, OH 43015, or you can e-mail him at
lybarger@midohio.net
OUR ANCESTORS
If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row
Would you be proud of them or not
Or don't you really know?
Some strange discoveries are made
In climbing family trees
And some of them you know, do not
Particularly please.
If you could see your ancestors
All standing in a row,
There might be some of them perhaps
You wouldn't care to know.
But there's another question, which
Requires a different view.
If you could meet your ancestors,
Would they be proud of YOU?
Author Unknown
