Jan 02

Tombstone Tuesday-Herbert D. & Paulena K. (Allmandinger) Merkle

Herbert & Paulena (Allmandinger) Merkle, Evangelical Protestant Cemetery, Van Wert County, Ohio. (2023 photo by Karen)

This is the tombstone of Herbert D. and Paulena K. (Allmandinger) Merkle, located in Evangelical Protestant Cemetery, Convoy, Van Wert County, Ohio. The marker is inscribed:

MERKLE
Paulena K.
1898-1988

Herbert D.
1900-1985

It is interesting to note that Herbert and Paulena both had a Mercer County, Ohio, connection.

Herbert Deabolt Merkle was born in Pleasant Township, Van Wert County, on 1 February 1900, the son of Christian (1864-1947) and Henriette (Kable) (1871-1946) Merkle. Herbert’s father Christian Merkle was born in Germany and his mother Henriette Kable was born and raised in Liberty Township, Mercer County. Herbert’s mother was the daughter of Ferdinand (1827-1912) and Catharine (Bollenbacher) (1832-1922) Kable.

Herbert Merkle, age 2 months, was enumerated in the 1900 census, living with his parents and siblings Louis, 7, and Freda, 4, in Pleasant Township, Van Wert County. [1]

By 1910 Herbert had another sister, Clara, who was born in 1902. His father Christian was a farmer and dairyman in Pleasant Township. [2]

Herbert Merkle married Paulena Allmandinger at her family’s home in Van Wert County on 26 January 1928, married by Rev. R.O. Bienert, minister at Zion Lutheran, Schumm. Their marriage is recorded at Zion Schumm and indicates that Herbert was a member of the Evangelical Reformed Church near Ohio City and that Paulena was a member of Zion Schumm. Witnesses to their marriage were Karl Allmandinger and Lula Scaer.

Paulena Katharine Allmandinger was born 11 August 1898 in Blackcreek Township, Mercer County, the second child of Frederick (1869-1953) and Anna Katharine (Kallenberger) (1875-1944) Allmandinger. Paulena’s mother, Anna Katharine (Kallenberger), was born and raised in Mercer County. The Friedrich Allmandinger family lived in Blackcreek Township and attended Zion Lutheran Church at Chatt for the first few years of their marriage. Paulena Allmandinger was baptized at Zion Chatt on 28 August 1898 and her parents were her baptismal sponsors. Several of Paulena’s siblings were also baptized at Zion Chatt.   

In 1911 the Frederick Allmandinger family moved to Liberty Township, Van Wert County, and joined Zion Lutheran Church at Schumm.

The Frederick Allmandinger family, in 1920, living in Van Wert County: Fred, 56; Anna, 46; George, 24; Paulena, 21; Rudolf, 16; Carl, 14; Elizabeth, 12; and Matilda, 9. [3]

In 1930, two years after their marriage, Herbert and Paulena lived on Decatur Road in Pleasant Township, Van Wert County. Herbert farmed and they had no children. [4]

Sometime between 1935 and 1940 Herbert and Paulena moved to Liberty Township, Mercer County, and was enumerated there in the 1940 census. Herbert’s occupation was farming. [5] Herbert’s WWII Draft Registration card, dated 16 February 1942, indicates that his address was RR1, Celina, and they had a Wabash telephone.

By 1950 Herbert and Paulena had moved back to Pleasant Township, Van Wert County, and Paulena’s brother George Allmandinger, age 54, resided with them. Herbert farmed but George was unable to work due to a long-term disability. [6] George Allmandinger died at the Herbert Merkle home on 31 May 1961 and is buried in Zion Schumm’s cemetery.

Herbert Merkle, age 85, died 14 December 1985 at Community Care Center, Decatur, Indiana, as a result of heart and other problems. He was a farmer and owner/operator of a grain farm in Pleasant Township. He was buried on 17 December. [7]

Herbert D. Merkle
Van Wert-Herbert D. Merkle, 85, of here, died at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Community Care Center, Decatur, Ind.

He was born March 22, 1900, in Van Wert county, the son of Christian and Henrietta Kable Merkle. On Jan. 25, 1928, he married Pauline Aldmandinger [sic], who survives.

Mr. Merkel was a retired farmer and a member of St. Paul United Church of Christ.

Survivors include several nieces and nephews.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Cowan and Son Funeral Home, Rev. Ron D. Fruth officiating. Burial will be in Evangelical-Protestant Cemetery, near Van Wert.

Friends may call after 3 p.m. today at the funeral home. Memorial contributions may be made to the church. [8]

Paulena (Allmandinger) Merkle, age 89, died 13 June 1988 at Community Care Center, Decatur, Indiana, as a result of septicemia from blood clots in her lower legs. She was buried on 16 June. [9]

Herbert and Paulena had no children.

[1] 1900 U.S. Census, Ohio, Van Wert, Pleasant, ED 86, p.10, dwelling 189, family 193, Christ Markle [sic]; Ancestry.com.

[2] 1910 U.S. Census, Van Wert, Pleasant, ED 96, p.9A, dwelling & family 180, Christ Merkle; Ancestry.com.

[3] 1920 U.S. Census, Liberty, Van Wert, Ohio, ED 127, p.2A, dwelling 5, family 6, Fred Allmandurgh [sic]; Ancestry.com.

[4] 1930 U.S. Census, Ohio, Van Wert, Pleasant, ED 12, p.7A, dwelling & family 168, Herbert D. Merkle; Ancestry.com.

[5] 1940 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Liberty, ED 54-22, p.9A, household 171, Herbert D. Merkle; Ancestry.com.

[6] 1950 U.S. Census, Ohio, Van Wert, Pleasant, ED 81-25, sheet 776, Herbert Merkle; Ancestry.com.

[7] Indiana Archives and Records Administration, Indianapolis, IN. Death Certificates, 1985, roll 15, Herbert Merkle, 14 Dec 1858; Ancestry.com.

[8] Herbert D. Merkle obituary, The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, 16 Dec 1985, p.A4; Newspapers.com.

[9] Indiana Archives and Records Administration, Indianapolis, IN. Death Certificates, 1988, roll 54, Paulena Merkle, 13 Jun 1988; Ancestry.com.

Dec 29

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Karen’s Chatt! Wishing all a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2024.

Dec 26

The Day After Christmas

Today is the day after Christmas. The anticipation and preparations are over. Cookies and other Christmas treats, lovingly made days before, have mostly been consumed by now. The church Christmas program and candle-light service are past. We completed our Advent calendar puzzle. Presents have been opened and are now in use or put away. Or returned. Most family gatherings are over, although some may still occur between Christmas and New Year. Pretty much all that is left is the tear-down and clean-up.

December 26 is also the Second Day of Christmas of the Christmas festival season, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Traditionally, the Christmas Season ends on the evening of January 5, the Twelfth Night. January 6 is Epiphany, the celebration of the Magi’s visit to Baby Jesus.

I have read that it could be bad luck to leave Christmas decorations up beyond January 5. No problem here. That gives us more time to enjoy them.

Christmas 2024 is now a memory in our minds and in our photographs.

Here are some photos of past family Christmas gatherings. My dad is absent in most of the photos because he was the photographer.

My first Christmas with Grandpa & Grandma Miller and my Miller cousins.

Miller Christmas 1952.

Later that day I fell and cut my head and wasn’t so happy to sit on Santa’s lap, aka Uncle Kenny.

Karen on Scary Santa’s lap. (Santa, aka Uncle Kenny)

The Miller Christmas, about a year later, 1953:

Christmas at the Carl & Gertrude Miller home, c1953.

At Grandma Schumm’s, with cousins, late 1950s:

Cousins Susie, Sharon, Karen, Diane, Ron

Christmas dinner at Grandma & Grandpa Schumm’s, in the early 1960s:

Christmas at Cornelius Schumm home (c1963)

Aunt Amy had Christmas dinner in the early 1970s:

Christmas at Aunt Amy’s, c1970

Christmas at Aunt Amy’s, c1970

The Carl Miller family Christmas tree in 1951:

Carl Miller family Christmas tree (1951)

Dec 22

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Karen’s Chatt! Christmas blessing to you and yours.

The Nativity, on wood.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

c1911 Christmas postcard to Wilbert Germann

Dec 19

Tombstone Tuesday-Grange Symbol

We were going through a cemetery a couple weeks ago and Joe noticed this unusual symbol on a tombstone. I knew this inscription was out there on some tombstone somewhere, but I had never come across one before. The P of H on the inscription gave it away. I recognized it immediately and I was certainly excited.

Grange symbol; “The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry.” Evangelical Protestant Cemetery, Convoy, OH (2023 photo by Karen)

The P of H stands for Patrons of Husbandry, more commonly known as the Grange. Their official name is The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, or Order of Patrons of Husbandry, but I will refer to them here as simply the Grange.

The Grange is the oldest American agricultural advocacy group, a social/fraternal organization that encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture.

The Grange was founded in 1867 by Oliver Hudson Kelley, a Minnesota farmer and activist. He believed that farmers needed a national organization to represent them like the unions industrial workers had.

Regular Grange membership is open to anyone age 14 or older. The Grange Youth consists of members 13½ to 35 and the Junior Grange is open to children aged 5–14. In 2005, the Grange had a membership of 160,000 in 36 states.

The Grange is a grassroots organization and policies originate at the local level. The Grange is a hierarchical organization ranging from local communities to the National Grange organization. The local Grange level is the Subordinate Grange and usually all the subordinates in a county are grouped together to form a Pomona Grange. The next level is the State Grange. The thirty-five State Granges and Potomac Grange #1 in Washington, D.C. form the National Grange.

Granges hold regular meetings and discuss community issues. In addition, they offer a wide range of locally-oriented programs and activities for all ages and sponsor social events and community service projects.

Legislatively, the Grange represents the views of rural residents and the agricultural community. They have an impressive record of successful lobbying over the years: rural school improvements; laws to lower rates charged by railroads; the establishment of the Extension Service, postal Rural Free Delivery, and the Farm Credit System; making the U.S. Department of Agriculture part of the President’s Cabinet (1889); legislation promoting ethanol as a motor fuel (1906); the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906); the Federal Farm Loan Act (1916); organizing mutual insurance companies that focus on serving farm and rural markets (1920-1950); organizing rural electric, telephone, and water service cooperatives, public utility districts, volunteer fire departments, and state police programs.

In 1871 Chicago entrepreneur Montgomery Ward began his mail order business as a contractor to the National Grange and sold exclusively to Grange members.

The Grange borrowed some of its rituals and symbols from the Free Masons, including oaths, secret meetings, and special passwords necessary to keep railroad spies out of their meetings. I often wondered why we had to use a secret code word to get in if we were late for a meeting. After all, we were in a small community and we all knew each other. I learned from this research that it was because of railroad spies, although I don’t think railroad spies were a big problem in Chatt in the 1960s, but that was their ritual and tradition. However, railroad spies were evidently a big problem at one time.

My family belonged to the Chatt Grange in the 1960s. We attended meetings at the Grange Hall, aka Parish Hall, about a mile east of Chatt on Tama Road, a building that was razed a few years ago. In 1969 I was a member of the Mercer County Grange Youth Drill Team when we won the Ohio State Grange Drill Competition, defeating seven other Ohio counties. Our local Grange also hosted the annual Strawberry Festival and decorated a booth at the Mercer County Fair.

Mercer County Grange Drill Team, State Champions, 1969. [1]

The word “grange” comes from a Latin word for grain, related to a “granary,” or generically a farm. The motto of the Grange is In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas, i.e. “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”

Source: National Grange, of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry.