When we left H. J. Boehmer in last week’s column, he was preparing to begin their “trip into the land”. We begin this week with his letter written to the folks back home in Germany, after they arrived in Fort Jennings, and decided to make that their home in the New World.
On the way, they stop at Stallotown (now called Minster), where Boehmer gives his impressions of the area. From there they went into Indiana and Michigan and back through Ohio.
Boehmer begins:
Ft. Jennings, August - 1834
Dear Parents, Brothers & Sisters, … Long already, dear parents, you have waited with impatience for a letter from me; but it is not my fault that I have not written to you sooner, for up to this time, Fred V.D. Embse had not found a location, and of my stay in Cincinnati you have learned in various letters sent to Germany by acquaintances. As at last the new location has been chosen, I hasten beloved parents to inform you and have the pleasure to tell you that I am well and hearty and I hope the same for you.
I came with Fred V.D. Embse, B.H. Viester and his daughter, O. Deters, Dina Wilberd and J.H. Wellmann from Langfoerden, who all greet you heartly, to our new home, namely Ft. Jennings, Putnam County, State of Ohio, where we arrived on the 22nd of July this year, and have been for the past 14 days.
Since the summer has advanced so far that nothing but turnips, cabbage and a few small things can be planted any more, Fred had no particular work for me so I decided to go to an English farmer who lives 10 minutes from Ft. Jennings, where I can earn half dollar a week, and will stay until you arrive this fall. If you cannot arrange to come this fall any more, let me know soon as possible so I will know what to do, and I will probably return to Cincinnati, where I can earn one and a half dollars a week.
Five of us bought the 92 acres where the Fort stood, Fred V.D. Embse, Wellman From Langfoerden, Viester, Vocke and I, for 360 dollars.
(Then he writes another letter after their arrival at Ft. Jennings but the first part of this letter is missing. Boehmer begins this letter in writing about Stallotown (now Minster).
The land in the town and surroundings is the poorest of any I have seen in the State of Ohio. It consists mostly of a whitish clay which seems to be fertile as the clay ground in Germany, but with the peculiarity that in wet, rainy weather, it absorbs no moisture to promote the growth of vegetation in times of drouth, and no doubt the reason why the roads in the town for the most part of the year are so wet and muddy that you sink in up to your knees wading through the mud, caused by the flat level lay of the land and the lack of an outlet for drainage.
Good well water is not to be had yet, and as there are no small streams there, this shortage will be a serious handicap to the establishment of a water-driven mill.
Windmills are not practical on account of the high timber, and steam power mills are too costly to operate. Perhaps Stallo did not see all these drawbacks when he located his colony, for those who knew him say he was worried about the location he had selected for his colony before he died. But he had to yield to the vehement demands of his companions whose objections to walking further through the woods to look for a location he was unable to overcome.
About two miles from the town and farther, the land is better, and one finds a number of excellent locations. Round about these places for five or six miles however, the land is already bought away from the Germans and 200 families settled in this neighborhood. (Minster has come a long way since those days in 1834.)
The town itself (Stallotown) is as yet but little built up. The log houses are so far apart you can hardly see one from the other. The church, 60 feet long and 40 feet wide, built of logs laid one on top of the other, is so far completed that services can be held therein, but as yet they have no pastor although they had raised a subscription of $400.00 for his support, have not been able to get one yet.
If Stallo had remained alive, perhaps conditions would have been better than they are now, for there is no one to take the lead, and for lack of good management things are going along in a bad way.
Six miles north of Stallotown is New Bremen, which has some advantages over Stallotown and also some of the disadvantages, yet Stallotown is better settled. After we had seen both of these towns, laid out by our countrymen, and their surroundings, we found them to be in full accord with what the General Land Commissioner in Cincinnati had told us before we started on our trip. He said he was very sorry to see the Germans, who had come so far to better their conditions, so unwise or unfortunate in the selection of their location for they could have had much better land for the same price.
So we started further on our journey, went to St. Marys, followed the St. Marys River to Ft. Wayne, passed through a portion of Indiana territory, struck out from there in a northerly direction toward Michigan territory, (followed the Maumee River to Ft. Defiance and Perrysburg) and arrived at Detroit during the Easter Week.
The first day after our arrival we called on Bishop Reese to whom we had a number of recommendations concerning the locating of a Germany Colony in Michigan, and by whom we had hoped to meet Professor Horstman. But the professor had already bought himself a location before he saw or spoke to the Bishop, and could give us no further information than show us the location on a map and the best way to get there. (Professor Father Horstman settled at Glandorf, Putnam County.)
He (the Bishop) regretted the selection made by the Professor as much as he had regretted the selection made by Stallo. For the establishment of a colony there had previously been some conversation, and he had spoken to the pastor at Sommerset, but up to the present time no location had been selected, and for some time he had not received any information from the pastor about it. If we would and could wait, he would write and find out. If this was inconvenient for us, he would sell us some of the 3,000 acres presented to him by the Indians about 20 miles west of Lake Erie, and intersected by three branches of the Riesenriver for three to four dollars an acre. Cheaper he could not do it as the land was the property of the church and he must look after the best interest of the church and school and when the neighborhood became more settled, he would not be able to sell the land at that cheap price; that the interest of the church for which he must serve would suffer too much.
We acknowledged the kindness of the Bishop, but on account of the last remark, we believed we could make no use of the offer.
We stayed four days in Detroit, during which time I often visited the Bishop. On the fifth day, with the Bishop’s blessing and best wishes, we started our journey again, went up to Lake Huron to Mount C where the cold lake winds did not seem inviting to us. From there we returned to Monroe, where we had arranged to meet Bishop Reese, but the bishop was unable to be there, so had written to the pastor there, with whom we looked at a number of places in the town and along Lake Erie.
From there we started west to St. Joseph but on account of unfavorable weather and bad roads at this time of year, we had to abandon this trip. So we decided to hunt up Professor Horstman in his new location, went back to Ft. Defiance, followed the opposite side of the Auglaize River and after having covered 2 1/2 miles turned east along the so called “Blancharts” (Blanchard) River, and after have gone 16 miles more came to the home of a Mr. Kale, who had bought 610 acres near this river and is happy and well satisfied.
We stayed overnight with him. The next morning we went to the Professor about six miles from Kale. (Possible Kahle). About eight days before the Professor had erected himself a small log house, and as exiled and lonely as it seems, we found him wide awake, satisfied and happy. Greatly we wished to settle down with him. His nearest neighbor as we were there lived six miles away, a Pennsylvania German who had a number of families from his neighborhood living near him. While the land seemed to be good and the location had advantages over others we had seen, the lay of the land and plan for the establishment of his colony was such that we could not decide to buy there. His location is far from any traveled route and the new canal, so that it will take many years before any trade and business can be carried on. He seems to have overlooked this, or one is led to believe as he sits there all alone in the wood far from any other human being, that he became tired of the travel and hunting and selected for the first best place he came across or some interested land owner talked him into it. He did not want to sell any of his, especially in the neighborhood where the town and church are to be built, but intended to let this out, one fourth of the proceeds to go to the support of the church and school, with a written agreement that no one could sublet his interest out at one-third of the proceeds, in this way the best interests of church and school were to be protected.
This plan did not appeal to us, nice as it was in many ways, it imposed a hardship on those newcomers who had come a long distance to better their condition, in that they were to establish a perpetual foundation in the first years, when it would be a heavy burden to them. So we took our walking sticks in hand again, went back to the Auglaize and followed this river to its source, after finding a number of stretches of land well suited for settlement purpose, we went by way of Wapakoneta back to Cincinnati to consult with our companions and get their opinion.
Note: Boehmer and his friends really looked the land over and put many things into consideration before choosing a location. However, wouldn’t H.J. be surprised if he could see Minster and Glandorf now, and see the pride that exists in these communities now, as in other communities. In the final segment, they first go to Kentucky and after over two months of searching Boehmer and young Wellmann head back up north where they find “the Fort” and make their decision.