Fritz Elling's Story

Fred Elling and Mary Rohrs Marriage License Application

Freedom Twp. 1875 Atlas showing Fred Elling's land
My great-grandfather, Heinrich Friedrich Elling, (called both Fritz and Fred), came to America with his parents in 1859. Albert's sister, Minnie, stated that her father often spoke of coming to America with his parents in a boat with sails. In the 1860 census, he was seven years old and living with his parents and three siblings in Napoleon Township, Henry County, Ohio.

The family was VERY difficult to find in the 1870 census because the enumerator phonetically spelled "Elling" as "Allenge." In this census, Fred was 17 and was at home with his parents and younger sister, Annie, 10, in Freedom Township.

Fritz's father died in 1871.

 In the 1880 census, Fritz was still in Freedom Township, living with his mother Mary and a Henry Elling, working as a farm laborer. I have not been able to identify Henry for sure. He may be a nephew of Fritz's. I have that mystery to solve. If you look at the 1875 atlas photo of Freedom Township above, you can see the location of Fred's 40 acre farm. I have shaded it slightly, so it may be more visible if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

In 1884, Fred applied for a license to wed Mary Rohrs on August 26 and on August 28th, they were married by Pastor Louis Dammann. It is neat to view Fred's signature on the application above. (Again, enlarge the photo.)

In the communion records for St. Paul Lutheran Church, Napoleon Township, 1885 - 1891, Fritz and Marie (Mary) Elling were named along with another Marie Elling. This had to be Fritz's mother as the couple did not have children old enough for communion at this time. On the same page, were their fellow church-goers - the Drewes, the Eggers, the Freytags and the Gerkens.

Little of the 1890 census survived a Washington D.C. fire way back when, so the next time we could look up the Fritz Elling family was in 1900. By then, they had moved to Richfield Township in Henry County, and they had seven children, our grandfather, Albert, being one of them. They reported that they have been married for 15 years and that seven children were born to the mother and seven children survived. Their immigration dates are given (hallelujah...maybe...more on that later) and Fritz reported that they owned their farm, which was mortgaged. For each child in school, it was reported if he or she could read, write and speak English. At this time, Albert was 12 and the census said that neither he nor Katie, 10, could speak English and Albert couldn't write either.

A big change occurred in 1910 when the family moved to Swan Creek Township in Fulton County. Now nine children have been born and nine have survived. Fritz was farming with the help of Harmon and Henry, while Albert worked as a house carpenter.

By 1920, Fred and Mary were still in Swan Creek Township with only Henry, who is 26, left at home to help on the farm. Fritz reported that he was 67 years old. On July 9, 1927, Fritz died after a long life of farming.

This story originally appeared on Elling Family News on March 7, 2009.