The Children of the Immigrants - Next, Henry Elling

The first son and second child of Johann Friedrich Elling was Johann Heinrich Friedrich Elling, called Henry. In an earlier post, I noted that there were two Henry Ellings of near the same age in the New Hanover Church records.

In this German church record of his birth and baptism, it states:

Elling, Titlingen

Johann Heinrich Friedrich Elling, born 10 January, baptized 23 January. Father - Friedrich Elling of Tietlingen. Mother - Marie born Fuhrhop. Godparents - Johann von Hofe, Heinrich Helmann, Heinrich MacKenthau, Heinrich Fuhrhop.

It was my conclusion that Henry may have died around the age of 16, as noted in the New Hanover church records. Well, amazingly, I found the source to help support that notion. (If you dig long enough, it will come.) In the family history notes of the Mueller family - (Dora Elling,Henry's sister) - it stated:

"Dorothy had brothers Fred Jr of Napoleon and Henry who died in a train accident at age 17, and sisters Mary and Anna."

Now...what train? Where? Was he working or traveling? Lots of things to figure out still for proof certain.

1860 and Beyond

Census of 1860

 By July of 1860, the census taker was traveling around Napoleon Township in Henry County, Ohio, counting folks for the federal government. On July 9th, he visited the Elling family and recorded the following:

Fredk Elling, age 47, married, white, day laborer from Hanover, value of personal estate-$100.
Mary Elling, age 49, female, white, from Hanover
Mary Elling Jun, age 18, female, white, a domestic
Henry Elling, age 14, male
Dorathy Elling, age 11, female
Frederick Elling, age 7, male - all from Hanover.
All of their neighbors came from Hanover and all were farmers.

Just a month or so later, on August 2, 1860, the Kirchenbuch of New Hanover, notes the birth of Anna Maria Margareta Elling, daughter of Friedrich Elling and Maria Fuhrhop. Anna was baptized on November 2, 1860, with her sponsors listed as Anna Rohrs, Maria Badenhop, Margareta Stockman and Anna Precht.

The Kirchenbuch also has an entry under burials that, I think, could possibly belong to this family:
"Elling, Johann Heinrich Friederich - Born January 10, 1846 in Hanover - Died October 23, 1862 -Buried October 25. Age: 16 years, 9 months, 14 days."
This could be the child of Johann Friedrich, the son Henry. Somewhere I read that Heinrich was hit by a train, but right now I can't put my hand on that source. I scoured the local Napoleon papers for an account of that accident, but the papers of the time were really not printing much local news and I could not find anything. If I find that source here later, I will report it.

To confuse the issue further, under Confirmations in the Kirchenbuch, I find two Heinrich Ellings confirmed - one on April 15, 1860 and one on April 7, 1861. So, apparently, there was another Heinrich Elling in the congregation. So...that is a question that may or may not be answered.

On April 19, 1863, Dorotea Elling was confirmed by Pastor A. Friedrich Knape.

I looked at the Kirchenbuch of New Hanover early on in my research and now that I know more of the family, I need to go back for a second look. It's on the "to-do" list!

Beginning the Search for the Elling Immigrant

It was a good genealogy conference, but I'm always glad to be home. However, I am charged up to continue this blog and to keep searching for more information on our family. It really is a life-long hobby!

One thing a good genealogist learns early on is that just because someone says it or writes it down doesn't necessarily make it truth. Searching for family history is very much a detective's work...looking for truth and documentation for everything. 

Aunt Alma was given a paper found in a Bible of the Mueller family, I believe, which she passed on to me. The paper told the story of Dorothea Elling, gg grandfather Fritz's sister...so a gg aunt...and her parents. Here is one paragraph that I used to start to find who those immigrant ancestors really were:

"Dorothea was born in Stellichte, Kirchspiel Walsrode Kries Fallingbostel, Province of Hanover, Germany.  Another place it says she was born in Tiedel, Hannover, Germany.  She came to America with her parents in 1859.  Dorothea's mother was Reka Fuhrhop.  Her father was Frederich (or Friedrick) Von Elling.  He was Herr Von Tiedel (his title), sole owner of Tiedel, a village near Stealing, Germany.  He was also a burgermaster.  He let his secretary conduct all of his business and she cheated him out of everything and then he came to America with his family.  Fred Elling was born in 1813, came to America in 1859 and is buried in the Lutheran Church, Freedom Township."

Tietlingen and Stellichte are about ten miles apart, according to MapQuest

 Very few of the items in the above paragraph proved to be true.
 The villages of Stellichte and Tietlingen were part of kirchspiel (parish) Dueshorn. 
From this parish, my German researcher found records of the Elling family.

The father of Dorothea and my ggg grandfather was actually named Johann Friedrich and his wife was Anne Marie Engel Fuhrhop...we found the marriage record as well as birth records of the children to prove this.

The German naming system of the time for this area was that the first name was the "saint's name" and the second name was what the child was actually called, so Johann Friedrich, born 1817, was called Friedrich (or Fred in America) and his wife was Marie. Reka may have been a nickname; I don't know.

I now have baptismal records back to about the late 1600's as our Elling family was in Tietlingen for about one hundred years and never does the name Von Elling appear. Preceding a name with Von was a common "legend" perpetuated by families who came to America and perhaps wanted to give some status to their surname. Our Elling family immigrated as farmers and were so in Germany, as well.

I've written to Tietlingen to a man who has a good knowledge of the history of the village which consists of about thirty homes today. He knew of the Elling family, but was not aware of a title Herr Von Tiedel as owner of the village or of an Elling as mayor/ burgermeister. Probably there would not be a woman "secretary" in the mid-1800's in Germany, as well. So I feel that all of that part of the story is fiction because none of it can be confirmed. Later this paper states that Dorothea's grandfather came from a titled family where he was secretary to the King of Hanover and lived in a castle with a moat. My researcher knows of no local castles and again the legend of acting as a servant to the king is a common one and is probably fiction, too.

Later I will post some photos of Tietlingen, an area which looks much like the surroundings of Northwest Ohio, so I'm sure our ancestors felt right at home.

Many, many Germans from Henry County came from the Visselhovede area of Germany and our family was no exception. Quite a few settled in the New Hanover settlement of Freedom Township where their native language and customs from Germany could be continued in their new lives. More on that later!

For fun, you can view the areas of Stellichte and Tietlingen from the satellite view by following this link:

http://www.maplandia.com/germany/niedersachsen/luneburg/soltau-fallingbostel/tietlingen/

Change of Pastors, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Hanover Settlement

My Elling great-great grandfather, Friedrich Elling, was one of the original members of the church at the Hanover Settlement in Napoleon Township, Henry County, Ohio.

Recently, while rolling through the newspaper microfilm, I found this article telling some of the history of when Rev. Louis Dammann left as pastor.  It's a little bit of church history, mixed with the story of Dammann's life, as well.

Defiance Democrat, December 14, 1916 -

"LUTHERAN PASTOR SUBMITS RESIGNATION

At a meeting of the congregation of St. Paul's Lutheran church in the Hanover settlement, Wednesday morning, it was decided to accept the resignation of their longtime pastor, Rev. L. Dammann, and by a unanimous vote to extend a call to Rev. George Haas, pastor of Emanuel's Lutheran church in Napoleon.  Rev. Haas will no doubt accept the call, but will also remain with his Napoleon charge.

Rev. Dammann decided to tender his resignation to his congregation because of his advanced age.  He came to Napoleon from Monroe, Mich., some 35 years ago when called here by the Hanover church and upon his arrival founded the Emanuel's church and for many years acted as pastor for both churches.  About fifteen years ago, he resigned as pastor of Emanuel's to devote his entire attention to St. Paul's.  Rev.Wuebben filled the vacancy at that time.  During Rev. Dammann's pastorate, he has gained the love of his congregation who deeply regret the fact that he feels the necessity of retiring from active duty.

Rev. Dammann was born in a province of Hanover, Germany, started his studies prepartory to entering the ministry at Hermannsberg, Hanover, Germany.  Before he had completed his work and in his 30th year, came to America where he finished the study of theology and accepted a pastorate at Montray, Ohio.  During the next ten years, he served congregations at Liverpool and Amherst, Ohio, and at Monroe, Mich., and it was when he was at the last named city that he received the call form the Hanover church which he accepted and came to Napoleon, where he has since resided.   Napoleon Signal."

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Napoleon Township, Henry County, Ohio

 

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!