Go West, Young Man!!

I’ve got so many things to write about in this blog, I’m having trouble knowing where to start. Someone once said, “Start at the beginning ….” but it’s not that easy to figure out just exactly where that beginning is. So I’ll start at what I think is the beginning for the Haldeman family in Ohio.

From what I can gather, my great-great-grandfather, Jacob Haldeman (Sr.), was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania in late 1783 to Christian Haldeman and Barbara Shelhorn.  Jacob seems to have had seven brothers and sisters (Catherine, Martha, Christian [Jr.], John, Elizabeth, H. Harter, and Barbara. All  eight seem to have ended up either in Ohio, mostly in the Richland or Morrow county areas, or passing through on their way further west.

I’m not sure what the impetus was to leave Pennsylvania and move into an extremely young state, but move they did. Jacob at least seems to have been in Ohio and in the Fredericktown, Knox county area, between 1807 and 1810. In “A History of Knox County, Ohio, from 1779 to 1862 Inclusive” written by Anthony Banning Norton and published in 1862, there is quite a lengthy part on Wayne Township in Knox County. It starts:

 “ONE of the first townships was named for the distinguished, brave General Wayne, more generally known by the sobriquet "Mad Anthony" ….

“Fredericktown, the principal mart of business for the farmers of the north western portion of Knox was laid out in 1807, by John Kerr [who had] his choice of 50 out of 4,000 acres … if he would settle upon and build a mill there. Accordingly, in the fall of 1807, he constructed a dam, raised a little log house …[and] on this 50 acres the town was laid out … W. Y. Farquhar was the surveyor, and the name of Frederick in honor of the old home, in Maryland, was given to this town in the wilderness. [Farquhar] erected and occupied the first cabin in Fredericktown ....

“The next family to pitch their habitation within the plat was that of Mrs. Ayres, and her sons, David and Abner …. John Milligan and Jeduthan Dodd, from Ten Mile, Pa., came shortly after, with their connections, John and Jacob Cook and Jacob Haldeman.”

Jacob, however, wasn't the only one on the move. In the "History of Knox County, Ohio, Its Past and Present"  compiled by N. N. Hill, Jr., Albert Adams Graham & Co.; Publishers, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, 1881, it states on pg. 542:

“June 4, 1810 John Young, jr., William Evans, Jacob Young, John Haldeman, William Mitchell, Andrew Kilpatrick, John Young, sr., James Lewis, Aaron Young, Matthew Young, Adam Hand, Calvin C. Lawrence, Ephraim Lyon, and Charles Cooper petitioned for a road from Douglass' mill to the Young settlement. William Gass, Henry Haines, and Joseph Walker were appointed viewers, and John H. Millikin surveyor. The view was returned July 9, 1810, and approved September 1810.”

And on pg. 565:

“The fourth of July, 1817, was duly commemorated at Anson Brown’s in Fredericktown. Daniel Beers was chosen moderator, and Anson Brown, clerk. The committee of arrangements consisted of Christian Haldeman, Job Allen, Munson Pond, Joseph Talmage, Jacob Young, and Henry Markley.”

All right, through historical books (which aren't known, I know, for their absolute verisimilitude), Jacob, John, and Christian have all been tentatively established in the Knox county area of Ohio, sometime between 1807 and 1810. If this is correct, Jacob would have been about 24, his brother John would have been around 20, and if the Christian named was his father, he would have been about 54 in 1817; if it was his brother, he would have been about 33. I don't think they all stayed in this area. Perhaps Jacob wanted land to establish his own farm/homestead and didn't feel the Fredericktown area was what he wanted.

In the “History of Morrow County and Ohio” by William Henry Perrin and J.H. Battle, O. L. Basking & Co., Historical Publishers, 1880, pg. 507 it states:

“[Jacob] Haldeman settled in this neighborhood [Troy Township, first mostly in Richland and then in Morrow county] about 1826-27. He died many years ago, and lies buried in the little cemetery at Emanuel Church. His son, Henry, lives on the old homestead.”

And that, finally, puts Jacob in Ohio in the area where I believe he made his family’s home. More about this area, Emanuel Church, and Jacob in my next post.