Life in small town America often revolved around church and school. This was true in Fort Jennings. In the beginning the pioneers built a log cabin which served as a church for both Lutherans and Catholics on Sunday. During the week it was the school house for all the kids. Two congregations prospered for many years, until St. John’s Lutheran merged with Continental and some parishioners went to Delphos. There have been other faiths represented in the township in the past. There is a Baptist congregation in Rushmore now.
Schools changed from several one room schoolhouses into the magnificent Jennings Local Schools Campus, which was built on Musketeer Drive. (The history of the churches and schools are given in other chapters of this history.)

Most of the early settlers were farmers so they started with building little cabins and clearing the land.  The trees had to be cut down first, and then they farmed around the stumps. The hoe was their basic implement and corn was their chief crop.

Boehmer had been a teacher in the old country. Since there was no employment to be found in this area, he returned to Cincinnati, then to Stallowtown (Minster). In 1837 he married Mary Wellmann, daughter of J. H. Wellmann. In 1838 the new couple returned to Fort Jennings, where “H. J.” built a supply store on the west side of the river, on high ground. There he traded with the Indians and the settlers. Boehmer also built a saw mill and a grist mill along the Auglaize River, near where the Memorial Hall now stands.  Later he taught school in Fort Jennings.