Hanover Settlement and St. Paul Lutheran, Napoleon Twp.

I forgot to mention in the last post that Johann Friedrich Elling also applied for his naturalization papers in 1860.

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Napoleon Township

My thanks to Lucille Sunderman of Henry County who graciously agreed to let me post a response she sent me when I asked her about the location exactly of the Hanover Settlement. In our correspondence, we also discovered that her Arps ancestors came from Stellichte (like Anna Maria Engel Fuhrhop) and her Panning ancestors came from Dueshorn parish (like our Elling ancestors). She is trying to form a database of the native German villages for the people of the Hanover settlement. I think it will be no surprise that many of the people may have known each other in the "old country."

Here is her response:
"The original Church of New Hanover (also known as Zion) in 1851 purchased property and built a log cabin on Henry County Road Q-1, a mile and a half west of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Napoleon Township. This is a half mile east of the Adams Township, Defiance/Henry County Line. There still is a cemetery on the site that, I believe, is maintained by St. Paul, Napoleon Township.

The members of the New Hanover congregation lived around the nuclei of that church in both Defiance and Henry County. In the 1850's, when more emigrants were arriving from Germany, the two Bethlehem Lutheran churches in Adams Township were organized by residents of the Hanover Settlement."

The St. Paul history booklet stated: "In 1848 Henry Helberg and Dietrich Badenhop came from Germany, bringing with them the bodies of little Maria Helberg, aged 1 1/2 years, and Christian Dachenhaus, aged 17.  These settlers needed a burial ground so they immediately decided to arrange for a cemetery and to build a church next to it.  Among others, the well-known preacher, Rev. August Knape, served this little group.  It was a group from this congregation which founded St. Paul's Lutheran Church and when Rev. Damman was called, the congregation dissolved itself and merged with St Paul's in Napoleon Township."
 

In 1866, St. Paul, Napoleon Township built a church on the site near their present cemetery on the corner of Q-1 and 17.

In 1882, the original Church of New Hanover disbanded. Since that time, the people belonging to St. Paul congregation have been referred to as being from the "settlement."

Hope Lutheran Church, Hamler, was also started by families from the Hanover Settlement that had moved into the Hamler/ Holgate area in the 1860's.

In the same local history booklet entitled, "The Story of Old St. Paul's Church, The House of Worship for Old St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Napoleon Twp., Henry County, Ohio - 1867 - 1980," on page 14, the first membership list is published:

"The first Membership List found in the records consisted of heads of households and others who were voting members while the new church was being built:

Kaspar Oberhaus

Heinrich Helberg

Wilhelm Freytag

Frederick Ludeman

Christoph Helberg

Heinrich Rohrs

Friedrick Imbrock

Heinrich Othmer

Herman Arps

Herman Mahnke

Heinrich Wittenberg

Johann Wachtman

Charles Bokerman

Friedrich Kruse,

F. H. Freytag

Firedrich Plassman

Christian Buchele

H. J. Stockman

J. Fred Oberhaus

J. Heinrich Otte

Fred Wendt

Friedrich Elling

Heinrich Panning

Diedrich Jost

Heinrich Schorling

Benjamin Huber

Friedrich Schuette

Herman Norden

Heinrich Precht

Heinrich Deilen

Friedrich Helberg

Heinrich Dachenhaus

Wilhelm Othman

Heinrich Mahnke

Joseph Schumacher

Henry Wolkman

Herman Hahn

Wilhelm Orthman" 


In 2001 a group of descendants of German immigrants who chose to settle in Northwest Ohio in the mid-19th century, met to see if enough interest could be generated to organize a group in order to preserve their German heritage.
We now meet four times a year at the Lutheran Social Services building on State Route 66 near State Route 34. Non-members with an interest in their German heritage are always welcome."
Lucille Sunderman