Jul 23

Tombstone Tuesday-Jacob Jr & Elizabeth Linn

Jacob & Elizabeth Linn, UCC Cemetery, Liberty Township, Mercer County, Ohio.

This is the tombstone of Jacob Linn Jr and Elizabeth Garman, located in row 5 of St. Paul UCC Cemetery, Liberty Township Mercer County, Ohio. The marker is inscribed:

Jacob
1865-1927
Elizabeth
1872-1943
LINN

Jacob Linn Jr was born June 1865 in Bavaria, the son of Jacob Linn Sr and Katharina Mueller. Jacob Jr, age 7, arrived in America with his parents and two brothers, Philip, 4, Henry, 9 months, on 28 May 1872, sailing on the ship Hanover. [1] The family settled in Liberty Township, Mercer County, Ohio, where Jacob Jr and his five brothers grew up. Jacob Jr’s mother was the sister of my great-grandfather Jacob Mueller/Miller.

Jacob Linn Jr married Elizabeth G. (aka Lizzie) Garman on 2 April 1891 in Mercer County, Ohio, married by Rev. Karl Moeller. [2] Elizabeth was born in December 1871. [3]

Elizabeth’s name was written as Germann on her marriage record but Find A Grave.com and other records indicate that her name was most likely Garman. The 1900 census indicates she was born December 1871 in Germany and immigrated in 1888. There was a Jacob German, born in Germany in 1876, and his aunt, Hermelia (Mrs. Peter) Alt, and both lived in Liberty Township in the early 1900s. I do not know if Elizabeth was related to these two individuals or not.

By 1900, Jacob Linn Jr, 34, and his wife Elizabeth, 28, had four children, Peter [sic] (per the 1900 census; was actually Otto), 6; Louise, 4; Caroline, 2; and Peter, 2 mo. This enumeration indicates that Jacob Jr and Lizzie had been married 9 years and that 4 of their 6 children were living. Both parents were born in Germany and their children were born in Ohio. Jacob Jr immigrated in 1872 and Lizzie in 1888. Jacob was a farmer. [3]

By 1910, Jacob and Elizabeth had five children. The Jacob Linn Jr family in 1910: Jacob, 44; Elizabeth, 37; Otto, 16; Lucy, 14; Caroline, 12; Peter, 10; Philip, 3 mo. The couple had been married 19 years and 5 of their 10 children were living, according to his enumeration. If this information was correct, they lost three more children between 1900-1910. [4]

Elizabeth Linn was admitted to the Toledo State Hospital for a year and a half in January 1905 and again in September 1913. [5] 

The 1916 Mercer County Directory shows the following: Jacob Linn Jr, wife Elizabeth, 5 children, farmer, owned 120 acres, 8 horses, and 18 cows, lived at Route 1 Celina, Liberty 48, Indiana telephone. [6]

Jacob Linn, 54, and his children in 1920: Jacob, 54, daughters Louisa, 25, and Caroline, 22, and sons Peter, 19, and Philip, 9. [7] Elizabeth Linn, married, born in Germany, was again a patient at Toledo State Hospital, as shown in the 1920 and 1930 censuses. [8] [9]  

Jacob Linn died in 1927.

By 1940 Elizabeth was back in Mercer County, living with her son Otto Linn and his family: Otto, 46; Norah G, 44; Ethel L, 21; Herman R, 15; Gene G, 13; Alice J, 11; Janet, 9; Paul K, 6; Robert G, 2; Philip Linn, 30, brother; and Elizabeth Linn, 80, mother.

Elizabeth Linn died 25 April 1943 in Mercer County.

Jacob Linn Jr and Elizabeth (Germann/Garman) had the following children:
Infant son (1891-1891)
Otto Linn (1893-1960), married Norah Gladys Stover
Infant son (1894-1894)
Catharine Louisa Linn (1895-1974), married Theodore Arndts
Caroline Linn (1897-1983), not married
Peter Linn (1900-1976), married Iola Ione Kanorr 
Philip Linn (1910-1994), never married

[1] Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, NY, 1820-1897, Records of the U.S. Customs Service, RG: 36, National Archives, Washington DC, NAID: M237, Ship Hanover, 28 May 1872; Ancestry.com.

[2] Ohio U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993, Mercer, Vol. 1887-1904, p.260, Jacob Linn & Lizzie Germann, 2 Apr 1891; Ancestry.com.

[3] 1900 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Liberty, ED 85, p.8, dwelling 149, family 154, Jacob J Sinn [sic]; Ancestry.com.

[4] 1910 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Liberty, ED 119, p.16a, dwelling 349, family 310, Jacob Linn; Ancestry.com.

[5] The Celina Democrat, Celina, Ohio, 19 Sep 1913; NewspaperArchive.com.

[6] The Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Mercer County, 1916, Wilmer Atkinson Co, Philadelphia: 1915, p.108.

[7] 1920 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Liberty, ED 140, p4B. dwelling, 83, family 86, Jacob Linn; Ancestry.com.

[8] 1920 U.S. Census, Ohio, Lucas, Toledo Ward 13, ED 139, p.17A, line 35, Elizabeth Linn; Ancestry.com.

[9] 1930 U.S. Census, Ohio, Lucas, Toledo, Ed 116, p.23A, line 20, Elizabeth Linn; Ancestry.com.

[10] 1940 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Black Creek, ED 54-1, p.7A, household 146, Otto Linn; Ancestry.com.

[11] Ohio Death Index, 1908-1932, Mercer, p.980, Elizabeth G Linn, 25 Apr 1943; FamilySearch.org.

Jul 19

North to Alaska

Warning: Non-genealogy blog post.

Even though genealogy research is my favorite pastime, I do not spend all of my time at the computer researching family history. Occasionally we travel.

This past May we took back-to-back cruises in Alaska. We flew to Vancouver, boarded the Grand Princess, sailed to Whittier, sailed back to Vancouver, and flew home. Sixteen days total. These were actually 2 separate 7-day cruises that we combined into one. We got to visit the three ports twice (Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway), and we got to visit Glacier Bay twice. It was a fantastic cruise that exceeded our expectations. We saw all we had hoped to see and more.

Our goal was to see whales and beautiful scenery, and we certainly did. We saw humpback whales, a black bear, moose, mountain goats, deer, otter, mink, sea lions, starfish, king crabs, lots of bald eagles and other waterfowl, several glaciers, glacier calving, and the northern lights. And, the  White Pass steam engine passed right by us on the tracks, a rare sight.  

I took a couple thousand photos, using my phone camera and my Sony point and shoot. My goal was to enjoy the moment and not stress and fuss over getting the perfect shot. Plus, I did not want to lug around a lot of camera gear. My phone and small camera worked pretty well.

Here are a few of the photos I took, showing the beauty of Alaska.

Portage Glacier area

Our ship, the Grand Princess

 

Creek Street, Skagway

Moose grazing along the highway near Anchorage

Glacier

Joe holding a King Crab

Totem Bite State Historical Park

Harvard Glacier

The next photo is the perfect photo-a humpback whale diving with Mendenhall Glacier in the background.

Whale with Mendenhall Glacier

You can see the whale and the whale spout in the next photo. We would hear the spout before we saw the whale.

Humbpack whale with whale spout

Seeing glacier calving was exciting. We would hear the “white thunder” before a large chunk of ice broke off and fell into the water.

Harvard Glacier calving

Chugach National Forest

Haines

Haines

The beautiful drive along Turnagain Arm.

Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

Turnagain Arm

Totem in Juneau

Whale sculpture in Juneau

Glacier Bay area

Northern Lights & moon

Ketchikan

At Whittier, a train had just come through the 2.5 mile Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, the only way to get to Whittier by land.

Whittier

Eagle

We hiked about a mile to Nugget Falls. You can just barely see Mendenhall Glacier in the background on the left.

Nugget Falls with Mendenhall Glacier in background, Juneau

Mendenhall Glacier is more visible in the photo below. Nugget Falls looks small, on the right.

Mendenhall Glacier with Nugget Falls on the right, Juneau

A belated 50th Anniversary photo.

Ship photo

What wonderful memories from our Alaskan cruise.

 

Jul 12

Finding a Spouse Close to Home

I have been working on a big project all year long and I finished it just this week. The project, an updated Schumm family genealogy and history book, is now at the printer and is probably being printed as I write this. I hope.

My great-great-great-grandfather, John George Schumm, immigrated with five of his children in 1833 and today there are thousands of his descendants in the U.S. Not all of them are mentioned in the book, but the book is still quite substantial, about 570 pages. That’s a big book!

As hubby Joe was proofreading some of the material, he noticed something about my branch of the family, the children of John George Schumm’s son George “Ludwig” (1817-1855).

Ludwig Schumm and his wife Maria Barbara Pflueger had nine children and seven of them lived to adulthood. Of those seven, four married Schinnerers, two married Breuningers, and one married a Germann. These four families all lived near Schumm.  

This is a perfect example showing that couples in the mid-late 1800s usually did not venture far from home to find a marriage partner. They usually found a mate within about three miles of their home. Plus, all but one of these families attended the same church, a very good place to meet a spouse.

Below are Ludwig and Maria Barbara (Pflueger) Schumm’s children and their marriage partners.

Elizabeth Schumm (1841-1917) married Frederick Schinnerer (1824-1905) in 1862.

Elizabeth (Schumm) Schinnerer (1841-1917)

Friedrich Schinnerer (1824-1905)

Henry Schumm, aka River Henry, (1844-1922) married Rosina Schinnerer (1854-1890) in 1872. Rosina was the daughter of the above Frederick Schinnerer, from his first marriage. I guess Elizabeth was Rosina’s step-mother and sister-in-law at the same time.

Schumm, Henry “River Henry” (1844-1922)

Rosina (Schinnerer) Schumm (1854-1890)

Mary Schumm (1842-1870) married Martin J. Schinnerer (1934-1930) in 1860. Martin J. and Frederick Schinnerer were brothers. Mary (Schumm) Schinnerer died in 1870 and:

Rosina Schumm (1848-1909) married widower Martin J. Schinnerer (1834-1930) in 1871. Rosina and the late Mary (Schumm) Schinnerer, Martin’s first wife, were sisters.

Breaking the family tradition of marrying a Schinnerer, Hannah Schumm (1853 -1926) married Carl “Charles” F. Germann (1849-1932) in 1872. Carl was from Harrison Township and attended St. Thomas Church there. Hannah was quite the rebel! 

Hannah (Schumm) Germann (1853-1926)

Charles Germann (1849-1932)

Then a new family settled in the area. The Louis Breuninger family, from Wisconsin. A family with 4 young daughters. After several Schumm-Schinnerer marriages, the two youngest Schumm brothers decided to get brides from a different family. Two of the Schumm brothers married two of the Breuninger sisters.

John Christian Schumm (1849-1926) married Wilhelmina “Minnie” Breuninger (1860-1899) in 1880.

John C. Schumm (1849-1926)

Minnie (Breuninger) Schumm (1860-1899)

Louis J. Schumm (1851-1938) married Sarah Breuninger (1861-1921) in 1883.

Louis J Schumm (1851-1938)

Sarah (Breuninger) Schumm (1861-1921)

Minnie and Sarah Breuninger were sisters.

I wonder if the Schumm-Breuninger couples knew they were second cousins? We call that Pedigree Collapse now.

It happened. Probably more than we think. Here is how that happened in the case:  

Maria Barbara Pflueger (1822-1908), Ludwig Schumm’s wife, and Maria A. Seckel (1827-1910), Louis Breuninger’s wife, were first cousins.  

Maria Barbara (Pflueger) Schumm’s mother, Anna Barbara (Seckel) Pflueger (1791-1846), was the sister of Maria A. (Seckel) Breuninger’s father, Georg Andreas Seckel (1798-1830).

Anna Barbara Seckel married Christian Pflueger (1781-1877) and they lived near Schumm. That could be the reason the Louis and Maria (Seckel) Breuninger moved from Wisconsin to Willshire Township. To be near Maria’s cousins, the Pfluegers.

How do I fit in? Louis J. Schumm and Sarah Breuninger were my great-grandparents. Their son Cornelius was my grandfather.

And as a side note, of the thousands of given names in our Schumm family, there is only one Cornelius Schumm.

Jul 04

Happy Independence Day!

Happy July 4th! America’s Independence Day. Today we celebrate the birthday of our great nation, the day the Continental Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence, declaring that the thirteen colonies were no longer part of Great Britain, but independent sovereign states that were part of a new nation.

Today, as we proudly fly our country’s flag, watch parades and fireworks, and have cookouts, it is also a time think about the principles of freedom and liberty upon which our country was founded and strive to preserve the type of government our forefathers envisioned, as set forth in the historic documents they created.

Independence Day

 

Jul 02

Tombstone Tuesday-Jacob & Katharine (Mueller) Linn

Jacob & Katharina (Mueller) Linn, St. Paul UCC Cemetery, Liberty Township,  Mercer County, Ohio. (2024 photo by Karen)

This is the tombstone of Jacob and Katharina (Mueller) Linn, located in row 1 of St. Paul UCC Cemetery, Liberty Township, Mercer County, Ohio. The marker is inscribed:

MUTTER
KATHARINA
1839-1913

VATER
YAKOB
1838-1919

LINN

Mother Katharina 1839-1913, Father Jacob 1838-1919, LINN.

Jacob Linn was born in Bavaria on 5 August 1838, the son of Philipp Daniel (1812-1886) and Gerturde (Fuchs) (1818-1871) Linn.

Katharina Mueller was born in Alschbach, Bavaria, on 14 November 1839, the daughter of Johann (1816-1870) and Marie (Kessler) (1811-1886) Mueller. Katharina Mueller was the older sister of my paternal great-grandfather Jacob Mueller/Miller. Their younger sister Margaret Mueller (1847-1924) married Philip Linn (1841-1920), who was the brother of Jacob Linn. Brothers married sisters.

Mueller was the German spelling of the surname, but it was Americanized as Miller.

Jacob Linn and Katharina Mueller married in Germany about 1866 and their first three children, Jacob, Philip, and Henry, were born in Germany.

Jacob & Katharina (Mueller) Linn, St. Paul UCC Cemetery, Mercer County, Ohio. (2024 photo by Karen)

A few Miller and Kessler family members had already immigrated to America and settled in Mercer County, Ohio, by the early 1870s. Katharina and Margaret’s brother Jacob Miller, my great-grandfather, immigrated to America in June 1871 and settled in Black Creek Township, Mercer County, Ohio. Some Kesslers had also settled in Mercer County a few years before that. The Kesslers were close family members of Jacob, Katharina, and Margaret Miller’s mother Marie, who was born a Kessler.

The Jacob and Philip Linn families, with mother-in-law Marie (Kessler) Mueller, all came to America at the same time time, sailing from Bremen, Germany, on the ship Hanover, and arriving in New York on 28 May 1872. Sailing to America were Jacob Linn, 34, wife Katherina (Mueller), 32, their sons Jacob, 7, Philip, 4, Henry, 9 mo.; Jacob’s brother Philip Linn, 31, his wife Margaret (Mueller) Linn, 24, and their infant son Philip, 9 mo.; and Marie (Kessler) Mueller, 64, Katharina and Margaret’s widowed mother. [1]

By 1880 Jacob and Katharina Linn were living in Liberty Township, Mercer County, with two more sons added to their family. Their household in 1880: Jacob Linn, 41, farmer; Katharina, 40; Jacob, 15; Philip, 12; Henry, 9; Christian, 6; and John, 6 months. [2]

Jacob Linn owned 60 acres of land in Sec. 9, Liberty Twp. and 40 acres in Sec. 16. His land was on Oregon Road, between St. Rt. 49 and Wabash Road, on the north and south side of Oregon Road, across from each other. The 60-acre parcel, on the north side of Oregon Road, extended to Wabash Road.

The Jacob Linn family in 1900, where his wife Katharina was enumerated as Amelia: Jacob, 62; Amelia [sic], 61; John, 20; and Fredrick, 15. This enumeration indicates that Jacob and Katharina had been married for 28 years, that 6 of their 8 children were living, and that they immigrated in 1872. [3]

Six of Jacob and Katharina’s eight sons lived to adulthood and they had all left home by 1910. Jacob and Katharina, both 72, lived by themselves in 1910 and Jacob’s occupation was farming. Jacob was listed as Jr. in the 1910 enumeration, although he was actually Jacob Linn, Sr. [4] 

Katharina (Mueller) Linn died 17 May 1913 in Mercer County. Her obituary:

Mrs. Jacob Linn, aged 74 years, a pioneer resident of the west end of the county, died last Saturday afternoon at her home in Liberty township, as the result of a stroke of paralysis which she sustained last Thursday night.

Deceased was born in Germany, but came to this country when a young girl, and settled in this county about forty years ago. She is survived by her husband and six sons-Phillip, janitor at the court house in this city; Jacob, Christ, Henry, John and Fred, all residents of the west end of the county. Funeral services were held last Monday afternoon at the German Reform church, in Liberty township. [5]

 Widower Jacob Linn died 3 February 1919 in Mercer County. His obituary:

PIONEER DIES   
Jacob Linn, senior, died at his home in Liberty township, Monday morning at 2 o’clock. The end was not unexpected as his illness had been of so serious a nature as to preclude all hope. Mr. Linn was known and held in high esteem as one of the pioneer residents of Liberty township. He was born August 5, 1838, in Bavaria, and came to America in June 1872. He died at the age of 80 years. [6]

Jacob and Katharina (Mueller) Linn had the following children:
Jacob Linn Jr (1865-1927), married Elizabeth Garman
Philip Linn (1868-1935)
Henry Linn (1871-1934), married Margaret “Maggie” Deitsch
Christ Linn (1874-1953), married Anna K. Gehm
Wilhelm Linn (1877-1878)
John Linn (1880-1945), married Marie W. Klenz
Peter Linn (1883-1883)
Fredrick Linn (1886-1944), married Anna Brehm

[1] Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, NY, 1820-1897, Records of the U.S. Customs Service, RG: 36, National Archives, Washington DC, NAID: M237, Ship Hanover, 28 May 1872; Ancestry.com.

[2] 1880 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Liberty, ED 188, p.477B, dwelling 114, family 121, Jacob Linn; Ancestry.com.

[3] 1900 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Liberty, ED 85, p.8, dwelling 154, family 159, Jacob Sinn [sic]; Ancestry.com.  

[4] 1910 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Liberty, ED 119, p.11A, dwelling 201, family 206, Jacob Linn Jr; Ancestry.com.

[5] Mrs. Jacob Linn obituary, Celina Democrat, Celina, Ohio, 23 May 1913; NewspaperArchive.com.

[6] Jacob Linn obituary, The Lima Times-Democrat, Lima, Ohio, 4 Feb 1919, p.5; Ancestry.com.