Tag Archives: Holmes County

Sunday’s Obituary – Sevilla Sheneman

Sheneman, Sevilla - 1917-05-17

Mrs. Sevilla Sheneman

Died at her home near Berlin Sunday, her age being 61 years, 10 months and 25 days. She was a daughter of Nicholas and Barbara Schwartz, and had spent her entire life in Holmes county. She was the wife of Michael Sheneman. She had been a member of the Berlin M. E. church for many years. The funeral occurred Tuesday, from her late home, services being conducted by Rev. Rowler of the Millersburg M. E. church. Interment in the Berlin cemetery.

“Mrs. Sevilla Sheneman,” Holmes County Farmer (Ohio), 17 May 1917, p. 1.

Sheneman, Sevilla - 1917-05-24Obituary of Mrs. Sevilla Sheneman

We made brief mention ast week of the death of Mrs. Sevilla Sheneman, which occurred at her home near Berlin on Saturday evening, May 12 after an illness of two months. Deceased was born June 17, 1855, on the home farm south of Berlin, where she spent her childhood days. When quite young she united with the Berlin M. E. church and remained a faithful member until death called her. In 1883 she was married to Jacob Engel who preceded her in eath. To this union four children were born – Edith, Etta and Frank at home, and Mrs. Wm. Kaser of Charm. She is also survived by her husband, Michael Sheneman to whom she was married in 1898. Five brothers, one sister and many nieces and nephews are also left to mourn her departure. She was a loving, indulgent mother always thinking of others before herself. Our home is very lonely now but our consolation is that we will meet again. The funeral was held Tuesday, May 15, and internment was made in Berlin cemetery.

Those from a distance who attended the funeral were: S. N. Schwartz, Cleveland; Charles Schwartz, Painesville; Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Schwartz and Mrs. Wm. Fulton and family, Sugarcreek; Fred Schwartz, Mr. and Mrs. Ebersole, Mrs. Sevilla Malone and Wm. Schwartz, Dundee; Mrs. A. D. Maxwell, Cuyahoga Falls; Mr. and Mrs. P. E. Steele, Meadville, Pa.; Chester Beachy, Kent; John Schwartz and Mrs. Corwin Decker, Canton’ Mrs. Albert Deuber, Winesburg; Mrs. Charles Kunkler, Wadsworth; T. G. Syler, Baltic; Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lowe and Mr. and Mrs. John Lowe, Bedford.

We wish to express our thanks to the friends and neighbors who gave us assistance during the sickness and death of our dear mother, Sevilla Sheneman also for the beautiful flowers and music at the funeral.

HUSBAND AND CHILDREN

“Obituary of Mrs. Sevilla Sheneman,” Holmes County Farmer (Ohio), 24 May 1917, p. 1.

Elizabeth (Schwartz) Yegerlehner and her sister Sevilla Sheneman(Photograph courtesy of Eric Graham)

Elizabeth (Schwartz) Yegerlehner and her sister Sevilla Sheneman(Photograph courtesy of Eric Graham)

[Special Thanks goes out this week (and last) to the Wayne County Public Library in Wooster, Ohio and their Genealogy and Local History Department for providing the obituaries of Sevilla and her brother Jacob.]

Sunday’s Obituary – John Schwartz

Schwartz, John - Obituary, 1904Death of John Schwartz

The subject of this notice was born at Canton Berne, Switzerland, May 11, 1838, and came with his parents to America, arriving here May 15, 1852. He was baptized May 24, 1838, and united with the Reformed church at Trail, March 27, 1853. He was united in marriage to Mary Rohrer, in 1862, who preceeded him in death July 29, 1903. To this union, ten children – five sons and five daughters – were born, all of whom are living. Besides his family, 8 brothers, 4 sisters, 28 grandchildren and a host of friends are left to mourn his death. His age was 65 years, 9 months and 21 days. He was a kind and loving father, a good neighbor and always ready to help in time of need. We desire to thank the friends and neighbors for their kindly assistance during the death and burial of our father.

THE CHILDREN

“Death of John Schwartz,” Holmes County Farmer (Ohio), 10 March 1904, p. 1.

[This week’s thank you goes out to the Wayne County Public Library and their Genealogy and Local History Department for retrieving John’s obituary for me.] 

_______________________________________

John Schwartz was the first born child of Niklaus Schwartz and his first wife Elisabeth (Kunz) Schwartz. According to the town of Biglen birth abstracts, John was born on March 4th, not the 11th. He married Mary Pauline Rohrer on 14 August 1862 in Holmes county, Ohio. John appears to be the only son who chose neither medicine or the law as a profession, but remained a farmer.

John and Mary had 10 children: Savilla, William, Elizabeth, John, Catherine, Christian, Lydia, Charles, Elsie and Joseph.

John and Mary are buried at the Trail Swiss Church Cemetery in Winesburg, Ohio.

If you are the owner of this photograph, please contact me so I may provide proper attribution.

If you are the owner of this photograph, please contact me so I may provide proper attribution.

 

 

A New Story

For the last 10 days, I have shared the story of Roberta Van Sickle’s tragic death. The process of searching for and then finding contemporary newspaper clippings is exciting. I found that I really like telling stories this way, giving little bits at a time, like an old newspaper, radio or television serial. Yesterday, I reached the end of this part of Roberta’s story. Any good historian or genealogist will tell you that the story is never over. There are always new documents and discoveries to be found. So today, I am picking up a new thread to weave. This one takes place over several decades as the pieces of one man’s life were woven into place. Like Roberta’s story, I will let the documents, clippings and book excerpts tell the tale in chronological order.

My new story tells the tale of William B. Schwartz, also known as W. B. Schwartz. He was the son of Niklaus Schwartz and his second wife, Anna Barbara Kunz, emigrants from Switzerland. William was one of the younger children in the family so he had the privilege of being born an American. William’s older sister, Elizabeth, became the wife of Christian Yegerlehner. I hesitate to call them half siblings as Niklaus’ two wives were sisters. So even though William and Elizabeth had different mothers, they had the same grandparents. Until 1880, William lived in Holmes County, Ohio where he was born. By 1883, he was living in Clay County, Indiana near his sister Elizabeth and her family. He was a school teacher, teaching his nephews at the local school in Harrison township. This is where my story begins.

Schwartz - 1880 census detail

1880 Census detail from Holmes County, Ohio – Household of Nicholas Schwartz

The first newspaper clipping to mention William was posted several weeks ago in the post School Grades.

©2014 copyright owned and written by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found at: https://genealogylady.net/2014/01/08/a-new-story/

Tombstone Tuesday – Niklaus & Barbara (Kunz) Schwartz

Schwartz, Nicholas & Barbara - gravestone

Photograph by Madeline Troyer

Nicholas (Niklaus or Nickolus) was the father of Elizabeth (Schwartz) Yegerlehner. The Schwartz family emigrated from Switzerland in 1852. Upon arriving in America, they traveled to Berlin, Holmes County, Ohio, and there Niklaus and several of his children stayed. Niklaus had a very large family. He had fifteen children between his two wives. Some of the children moved around Ohio, while two traveled further west into Indiana. Elizabeth moved to Clay County, Indiana after she married Christian Yegerlehner. Her younger brother William B. Schwartz also settled in Clay County.

Niklaus married Elizabeth Kunz who bore him six children: John, Jacob, Christian, Elizabeth, Anna Barbara and Niklaus (d.y.). After Elizabeth died in 1846, Niklaus married his wife’s younger sister Anna Barbara. Their children were Nicholas F., Gottfried, Samuel, Charles, Sevilla, Henry, William, Sophia, and Henrietta.

Niklaus and Barbara are buried at Berlin Cemetery in Berlin, Holmes County, Ohio.

©2013 copyright owned and written by Deborah Sweeney
Post originally found at: https://genealogylady.net/2013/11/18/tombstone-tues…-kunz-schwartz/

Surname Saturday – Yegerlehner

Yegerlehner is a rather rare surname.  You can generally bet that anyone in the United States with the surname Yegerlehner is related to me. Yegerlehner is Swiss in origin, and in fact, is correctly spelled Jegerlehner. When my ancestor David Jegerlehner arrived in America in 1851 with his wife and 3 children, they changed the spelling to reflect how the name should be pronounced.  In the Germanic languages, the letter J is pronounced as an English Y. The second letter e in the name is also pronounced ā (long a).  So the Je (in Jegerlehner) is pronounced Yay.

My grandmother always told me that the name Jegerlehner meant “hunter of the hills”.  I always thought this was rather romantic considering there are some rather impressive hills in Switzerland that I would like to see some day. Jeger, the first part of the surname, is the German word for hunter.  So that part of the translation seems to be correct.  I haven’t really been able to come up with a satisfactory translation for lehner though.  Lehner appears to be “a status name for a feudal tenant or vassal, from an agent derivative of Middle High German lēhen ‘to hold land as a feudal tenant’.  (http://genealogy.familyeducation.com/surname-origin/lehner)

David Jegerlehner had two sons, Christian and Johannes (John). After first settling in a Swiss populated area of Berlin Township, Holmes County, Ohio for a few years, the family decided to move further west. Christian and his father moved to Owen County, Indiana for a few years and then permanently settled in neighboring Clay County.  The other son John moved his family to northeastern Indiana around Ft. Wayne. The descendants of Christian traditionally spelled their name Yegerlehner.  John’s descendants wrote the name Yagerlehner. Over the next few generations members of the family continued to alter the spelling of the name, mainly in an effort to aid pronunciation. I have seen variants as: Yager-Lehner, Yagerline, Yegerline, Yegerlener.  John Henry Yegerlehner, the son of Christian and grandson of David, continued to spell the name Yegerlehner.   John Henry is the only son of Christian’s that continued a male line into the 21st century. So that is why if you find someone with the name Yegerlehner today, they are most likely related to me.

If you would like to learn more about the surname Jegerlehner, one of my distant Swiss cousins maintains this website: http://www.jegerlehner.ch/world/


Letter translation:

Mon Eve 1800

1026 Magnolia Ave

Dear Mother-

We are now in our new home and I think we are very lucky to get such a nice place for 5.00. We have twin beds and plenty of drawer space but the bath is upstairs. Ou

Our working hours have been changed from 4:00 to 4:30 but we still have to be there at 8:30 three mornings per week and 7:30 the other three.

I think in a week or so you should come down and stay a week. We can get rooms at the Chamberland Hotel for $2.50 per day but of course we would have to ride the street car unless you could bring the car but we can see about that in a few days.

We had our first air raid warning today – just practice. Everyone had to stand by for 30 min. The station Unit X had to be prepared – all windows closed lights & water shut off. It was day time. The

(page 2) warning is a weird sort of a noise – sounds like a big Jackass but at least every one can hear it. There hasn’t been any night block out since I’ve been here. I don’t know how much of this stuff I’m supposed to write or not write but I did anyway.

The two letters I got Sat. were the only ones I have received so far but the others will be forwarded when they get here. I don’t believe I’d ever get a letter thru the naval station. From the

Hope the collections are still coming in as we will need them. I’m not sure yet how the finances are coming out. The income tax probably will be the hardest to meet but next year it won’t be so much.

Well, I’ll try to do better tomorrow-

Love Daddy

©2012, copyrighted & written by Deborah Sweeney