Albert Elling's Baptismal Certificate

Thanks so much to the beautiful aunt (You know who you are!) who shared this  with me - the baptismal certificate of my grandfather, Albert Elling.  

The first Bible verse above the handwriting reads:

"For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid which is Jesus Christ." Corinthians 3:11.

Translation of the handwriting:

Albert Louis Johann born on 28 January 1888 in Henry County, Ohio

Son of Fritz Elling and Maria born Rohrs

On 28 February, 1888 at the house of the parents.

Printed banner - In the name of the Triune God (could not read right side)

Witnessing the Christening were

L. Bockelman, H. Miller

C. Bostelman, H. Meyer

Johann Harms

L. Damman, Pastor  (Louis) 

I'm sure the photos are very significant, although very hard to see in this copy, even with a magnifying glass.  The top has the ship sailing toward the light around the church.  On the left is Jesus with the lambs, a chick with her hens, and an angel pouring the living water over a child.

On the right side is Christ on the cross with lilies suggesting his Resurrection, a duck with its ducklings and finally the tree in the Garden of Evil with the snake and the skull.  Some passages are just too blurry to read, but I'm sure they all have a connection to baptism.

What a treasure! 

Mary Rohrs Elling

Mary Rohrs Elling and her immigration record

My great-grandmother, Mary (Marie, Maria) Rohrs Elling, the daughter of Wilhelm Rohrs and Catherine Kirchoff, was born on December 9, 1862, in Germany. I do not know the village of her birth at this point. According to her daughter, Minnie, her mother talked about life in Germany and her departure from Bremen to America alone when she was thirteen. Mary spoke of dancing on the boat as the steamer crossed the ocean. Mary was an only child, according to Minnie, and her first job in America was as a housekeeper for the Demaline family.

Finding Mary's immigration record was complicated by the fact that Mary, or whoever talked to the census enumerator, reported several different dates on the census records. In the 1900 census, Mary's immigration date was given as 1868 which didn't fit Minnie's story of her mother coming to America at age 13. In 1868, Mary would have been 6 years old. In 1920, the immigration question was asked again and Mary or someone in the family reported 1875 as the immigration date. That seemed much more likely!

I found the only immigration record for a Mary Rohrs that fits all the criteria and that was in September of 1876. She was 13 (her birthday was in Dec.) and she departed from the port of Bremen, Germany, on the ship, the Rhein, arriving in New York City on September 23, 1876, having traveled in steerage to the U.S. Steerage was the cheapest passenger accommodations, usually at the bottom of the ship and near the rudder. She probably traveled with someone or a family, but it is really not possible to tell who from the ship's list. Her name on the ship's list above is #4, indicated by the arrow.

I could find no Demaline family in Henry County by the 1880 census, but I did find a seventeen year old Mary Rohrs working as a servant for the Charles and Mary Cochran family who lived on Superior Street in Toledo. Dr. Cochran was a retired physician. It is likely that she worked as a domestic until her marriage.

Mary was 21 years old when she married the 31 year old Fritz Elling. They lived many years in Freedom Township, Henry County, and were members of the St. Paul Lutheran Church, Napoleon Township, during this time. Later they moved to a farm near Deshler and Westhope and finally to a farm about four miles north of Liberty Center and then east for a short distance into Fulton County. After Fritz's death, Mary sold the farm and lived around with her children.

Mary Rohrs Elling died on March 8, 1947, the immediate cause of death being pulmonary edema due to mitral stenosis. She was apparently living at the home of Henry Elling at the time of her death as that is the place of death and he reported for the death certificate.

Her obituary appeared in a March 1947 edition of the Northwest Signal:

" MRS. MARY ELLING DIES

Mrs. Mary Elling, age 84, passed away at Holgate at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 8th, following a heart ailment. Her body was removed to the A. F. Wesche and Son Funeral Home.

She leaves five sons, four daughters, 50 grandchildren and 47 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services, conducted by Rev. John Melchert, were held on Tuesday, March 11th, 1:30 p.m., at the Henry Elling residence in Holgate and 2:00 p.m. at St. John's Lutheran Church in Holgate. Interment was made in St. Luke's cemetery in Clinton township."

This post originally appeared on a previous blog, Elling Family News, on March 8, 2009.

Great-Grandfather, Fritz (Friedrich/Fred) Elling's Farm, 1880

An often overlooked resource for information on rural America are the agricultural censuses which enumerate all the crops, livestock, and production of each farm.  In 1880, the agricultural census of Freedom Township, Henry County, Ohio, gave us a picture of my great-parents' (Fred and Mary Rohrs Elling) farm as it was on June 5, 1880, although some of the questions refer back to 1879, as well.

(Not all of the children in the photograph were born by 1880 and the house shown is the one Fritz and Mary had later in Fulton County, but Fritz and Mary are front and center in the photo.)

Fred's land was in Section 29 of Freedom Township on the north side.  In the 1875 atlas, his neighbors were Lewis Bockleman, Christ Binger, H. Van Deyton and Mary and James Raddy.

In 1880, Fred owned 30 acres of land, tilled, and 10 acres of woodland in Freedom Township, with a value of $1600.  He valued his farm implements at $100 and his livestock at $300.  He had hired some farm help in 1879 for 26 weeks and paid total wages of $36.
For 1879, he figured the estimated value of all his farm production (sold or consumed) was $300.

The report on his livestock was based on what he had on June 1, 1879:
2 horses
4 milch cows and 3 other cattle
1 calf dropped and 1 sold living
3 sheep
2 sold living, 1 slaughtered and 1 died of disease
21 swine
30 poultry
Production from these animals included 400 pounds of butter made on the farm, 3 wool fleeces of 18 pounds, and 125 eggs.

The final tally on his crops for 1879 included:
16 acres of Indian corn with production of 400 bushels
2 acres of oats with production of 100 bushels
12 acres of wheat with production of 200 bushels
1/8 acre of sorghum for 9 gallons of molasses
1/4 acre of potatoes for 40 bushels and
2 acres of apples

I think the evidence shows that Fred and Mary were subsistence farmers, feeding their family from the farm, like so many others of the time period.  I would imagine a large garden was part of this scenario, too.  Hardworking, children of immigrants, scraping by and celebrating their freedom in Freedom Township!