In the early part of the nineteenth century, a great many of the German people living in the Hanover province of Germany, migrated to America and some settled in the Southwestern part of Mercer Co. Ohio. Read the books “A history of St. Henry Ohio”, and “Mercer County History 1978”, and “St John Church Maria Stein, Ohio, 1836 to 1986”. From eight miles East of Minster and seventeen miles west to Fort Recovery is an area which was settled by these Catholic folks.

About the year 1877, some of these farmers felt the need for more land to cultivate. Due to the invention of the reaper in 1831, and the many improvements made in equipment, and transportation and growing families, one family could do the work what two used to do. Plenty of land was available, but the initial task of clearing it was a problem too great without outside help and none was available.

One Sunday morning, while Henry Steinlage was discussing this problem and his coming trip to his homeland with Mr. Weingartner, before the nine o’clock Mass, Mr. Weingartner suggested he contact the Matthias Winkeljohan family to see if they had a son ready to go to America. Mr. Weingartner was a relative of the Winkeljohans, and was well acquainted with their situation, for he had some correspondence with them through his years since arriving here. This suggestion was very appealing to Henry, since it was an economical way of getting his needs fulfilled.

In the very late fall of 1879, Henry made the trip to his Homeland Steinfeld, about four kilometers from Voltlage. Then one Sunday afternoon he walked to Voltlage to see the Winkeljohans, and discuss with them his plan for taking with him one of their sons to America. Upon his arrival he found no one at home, for they had all gone to afternoon Church Services and to have a short visit with one of the neighbors.

When they reached home in the early evening, they found an almost-frozen stranger sitting on their front porch. Henry introduced himself as being from America. This immediately aroused their curiosity, and he was invited into the house out of the cold.

It was getting along in the afternoon, so the children had to do their chores while the women got things ready for supper. Henry had a lot to tell about his new home and the people who moved to America. He finally got around to the subject of his visit and made the proposition that if one of the boys would return with him, he would provide the money for his passage which the son could repay with two years work clearing his land. Mathias said he would give him an answer the following Sunday, if he would return then, to this he agreed and was invited to supper.

The following week at the Winkeljohans was spent in discussing the proposition: who would be selected to go and the future plans for the family. The oldest son Henry was working as an apprentice carpenter, which he did not want to interrupt, but Matt who was the second oldest and just fifteen, was free to go, and was ready, willing, and able. There were eight children younger than Matt and the long term plan included the migration of the entire family to America. On Sunday when Mr. Steinlage arrived, as agreed, he was so advised and made plans with young Matt for the return trip to America.

Young Matt and Henry Steinlage boarded the S. S. Ohio at Bremerhaven on the North Sea and arrived in America at Baltimore, Maryland shortly before Christmas. They lost no time getting a train to Cincinnati, Ohio and then up the Canal to Minster, from where they had to walk a distance of about fifteen miles. The railroad from Celina east was completed in 1879, the same year Matt arrived; I have no idea why they did not take the Lake Erie & Western train through Coldwater. At about that same time the old C H & D and the Cincinnati Northern railroads were also completed through Celina.

The first Christmas in his new country had to be a lonely one. But young Matt had a little time to meet a few people and to think of the plans they had made and what his responsibility was in regard to these plans. As a very young man he had many things to which he had to become accustomed to. Living in a strange home was bound to cause homesickness for which the only cure was time. The winters were much more harsh than we have now in many respects. Warm clothing was available if you could afford it, and Matt could afford little after borrowing passage money and working the next two years to repay it. Somehow at the end of the two years he managed to send his brother Henry a ticket to come to America, which he must have borrowed from Mr. Steinlage. This completed the first phase of the plan. They now were going to have both Matt and Henry working in America and the two managed to get the rest of the family over here before the Christmas of 1889. These plans were discussed before Matt left home and probably had to be changed by correspondence through the next eight years.

The first two years were spent cutting timber for the Steinlage’s and their In—laws the Borger’s. In these years Matt became an expert woodsman, which he demonstrated in the years 1921-23 while cutting timbers to build a barn on his own farm.

It was in these years that Matt made lifelong friends of the Borgers-Ferry, Urban and their Dad Henry. I’m sure Matt worked for the Borger’s for two years, which would bring us to the year 1881.

He wandered over to St. Anthony, also known as Padua, were he worked for the John Fortman family. He may also have worked for his brother Henry, since he was building some barns around there at that time and Matt was a pretty good carpenter. The year now is 1889, and it is ten years since H. Mathias arrived in this country. This is also the year of reunion for the entire family, for now they have realized the plans they made in 1879. Our Grandfather first made his home in Cincinnati, Ohio. H. Matthias and Henry must have dedicated the last ten years for this mass migration of the entire family.

We are now approaching the year 1890; Matt was twenty-six when he married Rosina Marie Dabbelt on November 19 in the St. Anthony Catholic Church. They lived on the Drake farm, which was in Indiana very close to St. Anthony. This is where Eleanora was born Sept 16,1891 and the start of a beautiful family. Henry was married June 27,1891. The first marriage in the family must have been a great celebration with many more to look forward to since they have eleven children in the family of which ten eventually married and had a family.

Rosina Marie Dabbelt was born of Gerhard Dabbelt and Catherine Wellman, on April 11, 1872 in St. Sebastion. She was of a set of twins the other being a boy named Gerhard after his father, she had two sisters Anna the oldest, and Catherine the second. Her father died about two months before she was born, Feb. 9, 1872.

Gerhard Dabbelt and Catherine Wellman were married on April 24, 1866. After Gerhard died Catherine married Bernard Voskuhl who had three boys, John, Fred & William and a daughter Mary. They lived in St. Anthony. How Matt and Rosina met is not too hard to guess. Rosina loved to dance and as Frances said she would dance her shoes off. Matt had a Concertina and would play the music at their parties and dances. Rosina’s sister Catherine married Bernard Schenking and Anne married Gerhard Mullenkamp. I remember these families, especially the Schenkings; it was large, six boys and five girls. We used to drive from St. Henry in a surrey, rented from Frank Hartings who owned a livery barn, to St. Anthony on a Sunday for a visit. These were gay old times for we were proud to meet our cousins and be on our best behavior.

Shortly after Matt and Rosina’s marriage they moved to a farm in Indiana called the Drake Farm. This being November, there wasn’t much to do except cut wood and feed the stock. Their first efforts at raising crops and gardening would not begin until the spring of 1891. They could kill animals for meat in the winter. They could can tomatoes, beans, fruit, corn, and beef, and preserve pork by smoking and burying it in a salt barrel with salt. From this story it seems the time to get married would be spring and have a large garden to be harvested and preserved by fall for the coming winter. Since they did not have a stocked pantry, they must have gotten food from her parents. These must have been difficult times due to shortages of everything, and it required a great deal of things to start farming: tools and horses to work the land, cows, chickens, hogs, vegetables for food, love and patience to survive. Rosina’s dowry consisted of a horse and a cow, some chickens plus some farm tools. Their second year was blessed with their first daughter, born Sept 16,1891, whom they named Eleanora.

It was on this farm Frances was born in 1893 on July the Seventh and Anna in 1895 on July the Twenty-second. Their neighbors were John and 0 Kathryn Huelsman who had children named Clarence, Julie, Marcella and John. Mrs. Huelsman died when John was born and Mr. Huelsman remarried the next year. The Heitkamps were also neighbors and some of their children were Henry, Edward and Lawrence who later became Mayor of St. Henry for many years.

It was from this farm that their first child “Nora” started school in a one room school house called “THE HOME SPECIAL SCHOOL” which was built on a small piece of Land across from where once stood the “Himmelgarten Convent” which housed the Sister of ”The Most Precious Blood” of America. School began in September 1897. Frances and Anna also started their education in this school in 1899 and 1901 respectively. While living here they had three children in school all girls. The children had to walk to school which was about two miles. All eight grades were taught by the same teacher, Elizabeth Weis.

On Feb. the eighth, 1898 Matt became the proud father of his first boy and I am sure he started to make plans for him but it wasn’t long until the stork started delivering girls again and the next three flights were more girls.

Their neighbors were Schmackers, Wessel, Speck, Wappelhorst, Our Mother was especially fond of the Wessels. Matt used to tell the story of Mr. Wessel and Mr. Schmackers walking to town one winter evening and visiting the Saloon. After they had a few drinks they decided to walk home across the fields and over the fences to shorten the journey. On the way they got into an argument which became very rough and Mr. Wessel somehow got Mr. Schmackers down in the snow and pinned his head between the two bottom rails of the fence. All the fences were made of split rails. When they found Mr. Schmackers he was almost frozen.

Nora made her first communion at the age of twelve on Apr. 10, 1904. Mother made this event an unforgettable occasion in each of our lives by having a big celebration and making sure everyone was home to help.

There were two extra large tasks you had to do which usually required the help of the neighbors, butchering and threshing.

The garden was a very large plot of ground near the house so it would be handy for the women folks. In addition to the housework the garden was their responsibility except for the garden work which required horse drawn tools like a plow or small cultivator.

The canning was started as soon as the garden could be harvested. The canning of tomatoes, corn, beans, peas, peaches, pairs, made the cellar look like a grocery store. The processing of over a thousand cans of stuff was not unusual. In addition to the aforementioned a great deal of jams and jelly was needed. Everybody had a grape arbor, which shelter the sidewalk from the house to the outhouse and produced grapes for most of the jam and jelly and a few jugs of grape juice.

Baking on Wednesdays and Saturday was no small job. Imagine if you can doing it without a mixer. In an evening mix by hand a large dish pan full of dough, cover it and put it in a warm place to rise during the night. In the winter you had to put it back of the stove and make sure the fire in the stove did not go out. The next morning after breakfast you knead the dough and make it into loaves 10 or 12, place it in pans and let it rise again before placing it in the oven to bake.

The size of the butchering job was determined by the size of your family. This is a very large task and your work would start about four in the morning and finish about ten o’clock at night In the morning you started a couple of fires under the iron kettles and heated the water to boiling.

After you killed the hogs you had to scald them in the boiling hot water so the hair could be removed with ease. After they were shot you cut the hog’s throat and caught the blood in a pan. This was the main ingredient for making Blood Pudding. You had to stir it until it was cold. As a young boy this was usually my job which you were glad to do because you then were a part of the crew. It was then seasoned, mixed with corn meal, rye flour and small pieces of fat, then put in sacks about three inches in diameter and cooked before hanging in the smoke—house to age and be eaten for breakfast or supper. Some—times they would use the stomach as a container and stuff it full of blood pudding and sew it shut. The fat was cut into small pieces to be put in a kettle to boil in its own grease until it was almost all liquid fat. The rendering of lard with a lard press was another job to be done while the fires were hot and the lard was boiling hot.

The making of sausage was done by someone with lots of experience. He would select the choice pieces of meat like the tenderloin and lean trimmings from other pieces. He would cut it into small enough pieces to be fed into the grinder and ground into sausage. After the grinding it needed to be seasoned with salt and pepper then mixed by hand. The women had cleaned the intestines, by scraping and washing them. What was left were called casings. The casings were now ready to be stuffed with sausage. It was stuffed into the casings with a sausage stuffier and nicely loop on a long stick to be hung in the smoke house.

When you were finished you had to quench the fires and wash everything with hot water and check the area for any fire hazards and anything that would attract animals. You were now ready to get a much needed night’s rest.

Butchering was usually done in the coldest weather possible to remove the animal heat so the meat would get stiff to facilitate cutting. It was also done in the early part of the week because you did not want it to extend into the weekend. There were still a few things to do like preserving the meat by packing it in salt or smoking it over a green hickory wood fire. Over the years you save all the salt barrels and as the family grew so did the need for more meat and barrels. Every farmer had his own smokehouse which was about four feet six inches wide by twelve feet long and twelve feet high. Hams, sides and some sausage were smoked while shoulders, some sides and ribs were buried in salt in the salt barrels. Some sides were sliced then fried and put in a crock and covered with the lard which was fried out of the sides. There was some lard left over and it was used to bury sausage in crocks this was generally done by Mother and the girls. I remember one year we killed nine hogs and we gave one to Bill Behrens who helped us. In return we helped him and he gave us a hog. We would butcher just before Thanksgiving and he would butcher in February.

Mother would always save some spare ribs for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She needed two slabs of ribs, which she filled with dressing and sewed them together. This was called dutch turkey.

If there were other neighbors in to help, you would do the same for them if they needed meat. Sometimes a neighbor would bring a hog over to butcher and help with the work but he did not get any help in return. There was a very equitable system for helping each other.

It is now fourteen years since marriage. There are four girls and one boy in the family. Nora, born in 1891, is now twelve years old, Frances is ten, Anna is eight, Harry is five, Marie three, and Kathryn one. An opportunity arose to bid on a farm at a sheriff’s sale. This was accepted and proved very successful. Matt bought what we refer to as the Knapke farm because those are the people he sold it to in1907. Nora was able to help in the fields to prepare the land for planting corn or sowing wheat.

When it was time to make hay he would get several of the neighbors to help and would give each of them a day’s work in return.

It would soon be time to pack up and move to their permanent home were they planned to settle down. This would be the third move in about fourteen years and they were becoming tired of moving for it was a very distasteful job. Now they owned their own land and this added a new sensation and made for greater pride and happiness in a different home.

On December 3,1903 Matt bought this farm at a sheriff’s sale it consisted of 120 acres of which he immediately sold 40 acres to Joseph Moeder.

This had to be a turning point in Matt’s life since he had always been a renter and now a landowner. He had been in this Country about twenty-six years and was already a landowner which probably would never have happened in Germany. This event and getting the whole family over here in this length of time must have made him proud and happy I know I am very proud of him.

Before moving to this farm Matt & the neighbors went there daily to remove a very large growth of berry plants to make room for some remodeling. They dug a one room cellar for storing canned fruits and vegetables, also a huge cast for wine. Over the cellar they built a summer kitchen and a closed in porch.

On May 28, 1905 Helen was born. Harry had just completed his first year at the Home School at the age of seven and probably was doing some of the chores which were usually done by boys a few years older. Since all the other children were girls he was given a chance to do most anything he was willing to try. Matt was willing to let us do whatever you asked to do and young boys were always curious to try new things for which they were rewarded a steady job.

While Matt was sick Grandpa & Grandma Winkeljohan came over and everyone had to pitch in and get the work done. Harry was not old enough to handle a team of horses so Nora became a field hand for she was now at an age where she could do most of the things to be done. She could even drive a three horse hitch to a riding sod plow. Frances could be of some help to her when it came to feeding stock. The children were kept busy, if nothing else they had to watch other children, after all there were seven from infant to age thirteen. Imagine if you can having three kids under foot and doing washing, ironing, baking, cooking, canning, sewing, darning, scrubbing, milking, cleaning etc. No wonder our Mother could always find something for everyone. She even found time to sing to us.

In the summer of 1907 Matt suffered a sunstroke. Dr. Schirack advised that he quit farming and do something on the inside, out of the sun. It was in these years that Matt became very sick with fever and received the Last Sacraments from Rev. Demonic Shuck and every one had given up hope. Father Domonic gave Matt a St. Benedict's Medal and Matt immediately started to recover, thanks be to God. On July 5th 1907 Matt sold the farm to Joe Knapke

Mrs. Rafferty and Sons Jimmy and Mike were our neighbors. She also had three grandchildren living with her, Hazel, Marie and Scott. In the summer the children would come to our house to play. One day while they were visiting Hazel got down in the cellar, someone forgot to close the trap door. While exploring this forbidden territory she discovered the glass which caught the drippings from the spigot of the wine cast, consumed the contents and disappeared. After some time had elapsed she was missed and could not be found. Everyone was looking for her, our mother almost panicked but Harry found her in the summer kitchen sleeping under a drop-leaf table with a large red, black and white tablecloth draped over it, hanging to the floor, which made a good place for the nap. On another day this little girl climbed up the wind pump and was walking on its platform. Harry climbed up and got her down. To add to this story I remember as a boy seeing Jimmy Rafferty’s wife driving past our house, with her horse and buggy, coming home from a hunting trip. She was quite a hunter and often went hunting with Anne Oakley. They would shoot quail on the fly with a rifle.

Every farmer would have a big orchard which contained apple, pear, peach, cherry and Quincy trees. From these trees we obtained fruit for canning and eating fresh. We always had pies. To make apple—butter we took a wagon load of apples to the apple press and got back a number of gallons of apple cider. There was a standard, so many bushels of apples for a gallon of cider. Some farmers required fifty or more gallons of apple juice for cider and for apple-butter, and vinegar. To make apple-butter you needed a 30 gallon cooper kettle which you hung over a fire then filled with cider and brought to a boil. After it had cooked down to about half you refilled the kettle with apple chips and let it cook until it was very mushy. Then you stirred in some seasoning to taste.

It is now time to make move number four. This move was far greater than any of its predecessors for it had to be the last, and plans were made to remodel the house for it was to small.

On July 20 1907 he bought lot #33 on Main St. from Hugo Anthony and lived there for 20 years when he sold it and moved to Celina on Nov.5, 1928.

This house was remodeled and then consisted of 1 bath, a kitchen, dining room, 2 room parlor, 2 bedrooms down stairs and 5 bedrooms upstairs. On each side of the house on the upstairs level was an attic which were built to accommodate large water storage tanks each holding about 1000 gallons. Each tank was equipped with an over flow which would allow more to flow out than came in. The water was gathered from the roof when it rained.

A house with seven bedrooms, what were they expecting? There was another child on the way and the score was six girls and one boy. Harry was nine and wanting a brother, so I am sure Mom had him pray at Mass every morning to be granted his wish and sure enough it was four times in time to come. That just about balanced things out at six girls and five boys. You know the old sayings, ladies first and keep the best to last.

Whatever cash was left he invested in a patent medicine store which he later sold to Sebastion Samberg.

With the house remodeled there was plenty of room for everyone. Mom got a new cook stove equipped with a gas burner, and a water power washer which lasted to about 1915. This seems like a great luxury; a home with a furnace, a bath with hot and cold running water, electric lights about 1917, and a model T Ford. We also had a telephone which mother did not like to use because if she did she had to talk English with which she was not comfortable, she would much rather speak German.

Matt’s next venture was in the glove manufacturing business which was incorporated with Dr. Schirack Pres., J. J. Moeller V. Pres., Frank Gels Treas., and H. M. Winkeljohan Secretary and Manager. See “A History of St. Henry Ohio 1971”page 103. This write up indicates it was organized in Spring of 1908 and lasted to around 1915.

The Main Street of St. Henry was so dusty you had to sprinkle it with a water wagon. It was Harry’s job to drive the team for Frank Hartings and to fill the wagon at the three fire hydrants, one in the center of town and one on each end of town.

I have two textbooks which Matt must have bought about this time. The first was Maxims Instructions for The Boiler Room, useful to Engineers, Firemen and Mechanics, relating to steam generators, pumps, appliances, steam heating, practical plumbing, etc. The second was, Engineers Examinations with Questions and Answers. It was from these books Matt was able to learn enough to acquire a Stationary Engineer’s License. He took the examination in Lima Ohio and was one of the few who passed on the first attempt. He had not told Mother until it was all over. He also studied Law.

For some reason Matt must have become dissatisfied, sold out and bought the tile yard, which had been rebuilt after the 1904 fire. See “St. Henry History 1971 page 96.”

The tile business was an interesting business. It was built on a square piece of land consisting of three to four acres. It had three buildings: an office, a kiln and the tile shed. The office building had a desk, stove & a bed for the man who fired the kiln when tile were being dried. The kiln was about thirty feet in diameter with the outside wall five feet high and a dome top about twelve feet high. In the center of the dome was a manhole to allow for inspection when the tile were being dried. There were six fire boxes built into the sides to be fired from the outside. The mud used was of a special composition. It was hauled to the mud pit in front of the machinery which made the tile. After adding water in the mud pit it was shoveled into the hopper were it was mixed with water and ground until it was like a slippery dough.

As the finished tile came out of the machinery you would set them on a truck, which was about eight feet long and forty inches wide, setting on a track which was laid into the kiln. When the truck was full you would push it down the track into the kiln, unload it by stacking them up to be dried. After the kiln was filled the entrance was sealed with brick and mud to prevent the heat from escaping. The fireboxes were started and kept burning day and night until the tile were dried. When they were dried they were hauled out of the kiln, sorted, and stacked in the yard.

After Matt sold out the glove business there was lots of extra help around the house. Joe Mackey Sr.’s wife died and Nora went to work for him. Frances went to work in the Knitting Mills in Ft. Wayne, Ind. No one liked their job so they all got jobs doing house work in Ft. Wayne. Nora worked for Mrs. Sam Foster whose husband was the President of The Lincoln National Bank. Frances went to work for a family named Strawbridge. Anna worked for Mrs. Karns. Nora met Al. Feldhake in Ft. Wayne and they started to correspond which ended in the marriage.

Marie told me one time that JoAnn Haas wanted her to go with Juli Moeder to Ft. Recovery. Harold Romer and Clarence Romer had dates with JoAnn Haas and some other young lady and did not have transportation. Juli had transportation but did not have a date so they asked Marie to go. When Marie told Ann of their plans to go to Ft. Recovery for a card party Ann said “I think I’ll take your boy friend”, and Marie said “I don’t want to go anyway”, and that is how the second match was made. Ever Sunday night Juli would come to our house in his horse and buggy which he tied to our hitching rack. Whenever someone saw that horse tied there they knew who was visiting Ann. He always had a sack of candy and would treat the boys to a piece or two. Nice guy. In the winter when there was snow he would drive his horse and sleigh. Oh, what fun they had in their one horse open sleigh.

Marie graduated from High School in May of 1917 a valedictorian. Matt had enrolled her in the Ft.Wayne business college as a graduation present also to keep her close to her sisters. In 1919 this little clique started to break up.

By the year 1916 Harry had completed normal school at Oxford University Miami, and taught one year in the Home School where Nora first started school. At first he walked to the school but after a few pay checks he bought a bicycle which he could not ride in the winter and then was back to walking. But not for long because it was about that time Dad bought his first Model T Ford from Uncle Hermen which he delivered from Toledo. He did not like teaching too well and the next year he set out for Detroit. Maybe Matt asked him to go to Detroit because Marie was there.

In 1918 we were in the first World War and Harry was in Officers Training school at St. Xavier College Cincinnati,Ohio, when the Armistice was signed.

Marie had moved from Fort Wayne to Dayton and was working for the Maxwell Motor Car Co. Maxwell moved to Windsor Canada and Marie went with her boss and stayed with Uncle John & Aunt Frances Metcko. In 1920 Matt had a job offer for Marie as bookkeeper for The Brandts Furn, Co. Marie came back to Mercer Co. where she remained for quite some time.

Marie once told me that when Leo was about 10 years old she and Mom were talking and Leo came in the house and Mom remarked “gee I’d like a cold bottle of root beer” then she and Marie continued talking and Leo took off. A little later Leo returned with the bottle of Root Beer and Mom asked were did you get that Leo’s answer was “I sold some eggs and bought the Root Beer, to which Mom said “Oh my goodness I was going to have those eggs for supper”. Matt was Mayor of St. Henry for twelve years for which he received a great deal of respect and fifty dollars a year. He also had to do other jobs as, bailing water out of gas wells. St. Henry had two wells one was located just south of the Frank Moeders who lived on the southeast corner of Columbus & Sycamore streets. This Village was incorporated in 1901 and Matt was its sixth Mayor. His first term was started in 1913 for two years and he was re-elected for four additional terms ending in 1922. He was again elected in 1925. Some of the improvement made during his administration were, the installation of the power plant and electric distribution system, the building of a jail which was mostly used to shelter Hobo’s for a night then send them on their way, the water system was rebuilt changing from wood pipes to iron, the road through town was improved from dirt to cement with curbing. I recall an incident in the summer of 1926 when Tony Boehmer was the town Marshal and he forbid anyone to cross his fence to retrieve baseballs which frequently landed in his potato patch. One Sunday afternoon while we were playing one of the near by towns, I think it was Wendelin, all the balls we owned had been hit fowl into the Marshal’s potato patch and the game came to a sudden halt. After much discussion Henry Wickelman, the local Watkin’s Products salesman, volunteered to retrieve the balls and was arrested by the Marshal. I was the catcher on the team and immediately reported to Dad (The Mayor) what had happened. Since Dad had lost a son who played ball on the High School team just a year ago he had a fellow feeling for these young men. He took off for the Mayor’s office and sure enough there was the Marshal with his prisoner and the people attending the game. Matt held his court in private, fined Henry Wickelman one dollar, which he suspended and released the prisoner. We returned to the ballgame while the Mayor and Marshal remained in conference. Some time later the Marshal came to the ballgame to watch the game and when the first ball was hit foul over his fence he immediately invited a youngster to go get it which the youngster was reluctant to do but after a little persuasion he did. They had a completely different attitude from then on. He went so far as to build a stile over his fence so we could cross his fence and not damage it.

The different types of transportation used in our lives included the oxen in Germany by Grandpa, the horse, buggy, bicycle, train, automoble, airplane and the rocket. Each of these types is a story in it self and can be found in any encyclopedia. I like to recall the time Andrew Bertke got stuck in the mud while on a date with Florence O’Keefe, the local high school english teacher. It just happened three of us boys were delivering papers in that neighborhood and Andy asked us to push him out. We did and he gave us three dollars. My what a haul, enough money to buy candy bars for a month.

Nora and Anna were making plans to get married, Frances went to Detroit where she worked for many of the rich people as a parlor-maid. At one time she worked for such families as Walter Chrysler, Dr. Sisler, Clarabelle Walsh, Andy of Amos & Andy, Mrs. Joe Kennedy, David Loew, some of these people lived in New York, Hollywood, Mass., Florida and Akron. I remember in 1929 she was home for a visit and I drove her back to Jackson Mich. where she worked for a family named Shaughnessy who had a new million dollar home. The family was not home when we arrived so Frances showed me some of the rooms as the big stainless steel kitchen, a vault as large as some bank vaults full of whiskey. Marie moved to Detroit and Harry was in Detroit. One week when Harry & Marie were returning to Detroit, by train, after a visit at home Marie told Harry that Dad said he heard of a job as a bookkeeper at The Mersman Bros Brandts Co. which she could get but she didn’t want it. So Harry said if you don’t I’ll try. So he got off the train when it stopped in Celina and spent the rest of his life working for The Mersman Bros. Brandts Co. I believe he was thinking that this is an opportunity to get back to St. Henry and be close to my girl friend, Edna Hartings, whom he married June 1, 1921.

Marie later got a job working for the Brandts Furn. Co. In 1927 Harry got me a job as bookkeeper at The Celina Specialty Co., a maker of dinning-room and bed-room furniture.

It was about 1920 & 21 when many of the old mud roads were graded and graveled. All the gravel had to be hauled with horses and wagons. Now the gravel road is almost a thing of the past. Every farmer would try to furnish a team, wagon and driver. The haul was sometimes as long as four miles. You would try to make one trip early in the morning and another late in the after noon to stay out of the midday sun. Each evening when the haul was short and you got home early you would grease your wagon and get it loaded for the next day. After we did this we would jack up the load to get the weight off the wheel for the night.

The invention of the radio was another event in our lives. The first program I ever heard was a Jack Dempsey heavy weight fight broadcast over KDKA Pittsburg. Bill Wourms, who owned a service garage across the street from were we lived, had a Atwater Kent Radio, and set it up in his garage, and invited us over to listen to the fight. What we heard was mostly static. We immediately knew who won, but we could not hear all the details.

In the spring of 1921 Dad traded the furniture store building, which he received from Henry Beckman {father of Mary A Beckman Winkeljohn} for the Tile Yard, to Herman Ungruhn for an 80 acre farm, next to and west of Wessels.

As usual the first order of business when Matt bought a new property was to get it into first class condition. That first winter we began to cut timber to be milled into the pieces to build the frame of a new barn. To complete this job Leo and I would cut trees on Saturday and after school and Matt would trim the branches off, so we could cut the tree into logs to be dragged on a pile for the saw mill when it moved in. Matt would mark on the end of each log how he wanted it sawed. I don’t know how he kept track of everything and what he needed. I never saw a book or a piece of note paper, nor a blue print. The barn was complete by the spring of 1924 for I remember Leo and I hauled the wheat and oats into the barn that summer for it to dry, then to be threshed from inside the barn. Everything worked according to Matt’s plan. It was a smooth operation.

It was the summer of 1924 we threshed from inside the barn. The idea of storing the grain in the barn after it had dried in the fields had its advantages. The job of loading and hauling the grain from field to the threshing machine, known as a separator, was eliminated. The hauling of the threshed grain to the granary was replace by feeding the grain directly into the granary. It was much more efficient. You used about ten less men which also means you feed ten less men and do not have to return that labor. The threshers were fed a meal like Thanksgiving only you fed them roast beef instead of turkey. You usually served lunch at nine in the morning or three in the afternoon.

About March the 13, 1925 the St. Henry High School played Basketball in the Mercer County Tournament at Rockford Ohio. Leo played center on that team and they played Rockford in the finals. The following week he was taken to the Otis Hospital for an appendix operation and died of Pneumonia on March 20, 1925. This was the saddest day of our lives. Our mother died on Mar.20, 1926, one year later. She grieved herself to death. From then on we were all afraid someone would die the following Mar 20. The farm was sold to Joe Homan, who lived just west of the farm, two weeks before Leo died.

This was Leo’s senior year and he had been selected to play the lead in the class play titled “In Walked Jimmy”. Leo was also the first baseman on the High School baseball team. Some of his class mates were John Mader, Carl Naseman, Werner Schmidt, Joe Schirack, Marie Knapke, Clarence Moorman and Maurice Romer.

Every Sunday morning we went to High Mass then in the afternoon we had to go to Vespers before the baseball game. I remember one game in particular, the Fats against the Leans. Harry was the catcher for the leans and Buck Schoenberger caught for the Fats, he was the local blacksmith.

The years 1926-27 Matt spent doing some farming, on shares, for Ben Romer. He also fired the boilers for the Canning Factory, Feltz Cane Mill, and Stukenborgs Cane Mill. On 3 Jan., 1927 Clarence went to work for the Celina Maid Furn Co. as bookkeeper. Helen married in Sept 1926 and she and Red lived in St. Henry with Matt until they moved to Celina on Nov 5, 1928. Eddie and Walter started school in Celina in Sept. and Clarence had to drive back and forth until they moved. On two occasions in the 1920’s Dad tried his luck at running for county office once against Clarence Vinning for County Treasurer and again for County Recorder against Sam Brown both attempts were defeated.

In 1926 Clarence played on the High School basketball and baseball teams but became sick with the flu in February so he could not play in the County Tournament. By the spring of 1926 he had recovered to play baseball on the town organized baseball team of 16 year olds, as a catcher. We had a very good team that summer and beat the EAGLES from Celina. Bernard Romer was our Ace pitcher and struck out their star heavy hitter, Zeb Sollers, three times.

Matt had bought a house at 404 West Fayette St. This house was big enough and did not need remodeling.

After the new Immaculate Conception High School was completed the parish was in need of a licensed fireman to fire the boilers in the school and Matt was qualified for the job. I believe Matt held this job until he went to Dayton.

In 1928 Marie, Kathryn, Clarence, Eddie , Walter, and Helen and Red lived with Matt. In 1932 Clarence was laid off and did not get back to his job at Mersmans until 1937. During that period he sold insurance, sold Ford cars, worked in a restaurant and almost anything to make a dollar. That was the length of the depression.

Eddie graduated in 1930, worked in a drug store for a while then found a job as bookkeeper for Cron Tire & Supply Co. He married Marie Freytag in 1939. Built a house in Celina and about four years later sold the house and bought a wholesale auto parts business in Findlay

Edward married Marie Freytag Aug 19,1939, lived in Celina a couple of years and then bought a wholesale Auto Parts Business in Findlay Ohio in 1943. He was joined in this business by his brother-in-law sometime later, and by Walter in 1945. At one time they had three stores in three different cities, but after Walter went to Miss. and Jim Tebbe wanted to sell, Eddie bought the entire business and created a branch store in Findlay {now a NAPA store run by son’s Ted and Tom}, and sold the stores in Marion and Bluffton. In 1940-42 Eddie worked with Marie at The Brandts Furn Co, for Roy Weber in the Lens Grinding Business and University in Dayton, Ohio

Eddie and Walter both enjoyed fine basketball careers at Immaculate Conception High School. Walter graduated in 1936, and entered University of Dayton in the fall. I think he was offered a half scholarship to play basketball. He was pretty good, runner—up for all-Ohio Center in his senior year. He went to work for Inland and was called to the Army, for he was a Reserve Officer in 1942. He married Marjory Yerger from Biloxi Miss. Feb 6, 1943. Upon his return from the Army about 1945 he went into business with Eddie. After a few years he and Marjory returned to Miss. where the climate was more to their liking.

Clarence married Ramona Schemmel on Oct 26, 1940 and moved to Dayton and lived at 404 Pleasant St. He went to work for The Army Air Corp , Air Material Command at Wright Field Oct 10, 1940 and registered for the draft on Oct 16, 1940. On Feb 2, 1941 he reported for a physical and was classified 4F. 

On Dec 31, 1965 he retired as Director of Data Services for the Aeronautical System Divisoin, of The Research and Development Command.

War was again on the horizon and wanting to do what he could towards the effort Matt came to Dayton and got a job as a night watchman. He stayed with Clarence and Ramona and took his meals with Helen & Red Everman.

At the age of Seventy-seven he would ride the street car to and from work every day, and every night he would walk his rounds, which included climbing three flights of stairs. This had to be a drain upon his health. He resigned his job in 1942 and returned to Celina. He rented and apartment on West Wayne street where he lived with Frances and Kathryn. He suffered from stomach cancer and tried to live on beersoup. He died on Oct. 3, 1942 twelve days short of his seventy-eighth birthday, never complaining, always busy and dedicated to God and Family.

I am proud of my Name and Heritage and hope this simple documentation will give cause for acknowledging the beauty of a simple life.

My, what he would have been glad to tell me if I had only known I would some day try to write his life story. THIS DOES NOT DO HIM JUSTICE.

He was buried in St. Henry, Ohio beside his wife Rosina.