Tag Archives: Tuscarawas County

52 Ancestors: -#44 Jacob Manbeck and Eva Manbeck Out of PA.

Jacob Manbeck 1773-1853 and Eva Haslet (?) 1777- 1854

When I was researching my father’s German ancestors, I learned that many of them setttled in Pennsylvania before moving farther west.  This is true of the parents of Elizabeth Manbeck Bair, Ken’s 2nd Great Grandmother. I am fascinated (on the edge of obsessed) with the movements of people across the country, and this family did move.

Jacob was born just eight years after his parents arrived in North America in Pennsylvania, and Eva was also born during Revolutionary times in Pennsylvania, in what was to become the United States of America.

They were married in 1800 and had nine children by 1815 and two more by July 1921.They started in eastern Berks County, where Jacob was born, but their third child, Benjamin was born in Cumberland County, closer to central Pennsylvania.

Children of Jacob and Eva Manbeck

  • 1801: John Manbeck (named for Jacob’s oldest brother)
  • 1803: Peter Brown Manbeck
  • 1805: Benjamin Manbeck
  • 1806: Eva A. Manbeck (Gutshall) (named for her mother)
  • 1809 Susann Manbeck (Heidy)
  • *1812: Elizabeth Manbeck (Bair)
  • 1814: Michael Manbeck
  • 1815: Maragret Manbeck (Roser)
  • 1817: George Manbeck (named for the 2nd oldest brother of Jacob)
  • 1818: William Manbeck
  • 1821: David Manbeck

Perhaps thinking that their child bearing years were over in 1817, after their ninth child, George was born in March, they moved over the Ohio River from Pennsylvania,  to Harrison County, Ohio. ( The county east of Tuscarawas County, which is circled on this map of Ken’s relatives in Ohio). Jacob and Eva’s tenth child, William was born in 1818, and their eleventh and last child, David, was born in 1821 in the Manbeck’s  new home in Harrison County, Ohio.

Ohio Counties

Ohio Counties Labeled, from Wikimedia Commons

The middle daughter, Elizabeth, from whom Ken is descended, may have been the first to separate from the family.  About 1831 she marries Daniel Bair and settles in York Township, Tuscarawas County–not far away, but not clustered with the others in the family, either.

By 1837, their son Michael is living in Montgomery County, Indiana, hugging the Ohio River. By 1844, the youngest, David has moved to Harrison County, Indiana, where he marries Sophia.

I do not know whose idea it was to move to Ohio, or what motivated the move–perhaps Pennsylvania was getting to crowded and the near wilderness of the fairly new state of Ohio seemed to hold more promise.  At any rate, by 1850, besides the parents,  sons John, George, William, Benjamin, and daughters Eva, now married to Joseph Gutshall, Susan, married to Thomas Heidy, and Margaret–whose husbamd Eli Roser died that year– have settled in Harrison County Ohio, where they had moved as children.

George (33) and William (32) still live with their parents in Rumley Township, Harrison County in 1850.  William has married and his wife and 10-month-old son are also listed as part of the Jacob Manbeck household.

At some point before 1850, David and Sophia have moved from Indiana to Iowa, where their children are born. Benjamin, David’s older brother, also lives in Iowa by 1856. No doubt one of them went to the new state at the recommendation of his brother. David and Sophia live for a time with their daughter Mary Vida and her family in Iowa. When Sophia dies and Mary’s family moves to Oregon, David  goes with them. His cross country journey completes in 1911, when he dies in Oregon, his fourth state.

When Jacob and Eva die in 1853 and 1854, their son George marries late in life, but is still living in Harrison County in 1860,now listed as a Laborer rather than a farmer.  George seems to have trouble getting settled and he moves to Perry Township of Carroll County, Ohio  by 1880–just north of Harrison County where his parents died and he is back to farming. His move to Carroll County puts him close to his older brother Peter, who moved to that township and county before 1850 when the rest of the family was settling in Harrison County.

This map summarizes their moves.

Jacob Manbeck migration

Pattern of migration of Jacob Manbeck and family.

  • 1773-4: Jacob is born and grows up in Berks County, Pennsylvania
  • 1805: Jacob and Eva have moved to central Pennsylvania.
  • 1818: Jacob and Eva move their family to Harrison County, Ohio
  • 1837: Michael is in Harrison County, in southern Indiana, where he dies in 1858.
  • 1844: David is also in Harrison County,  Indiana
  • 1850: David has moved to Montgomery County in northern Indiana
  • 1856: David is living in Polk County Iowa, and his brother Benjamin has moved from Ohio to Iowa, where he dies in 1857
  • 1900: David is living in Warren County Iowa
  • 1910: David is living in Douglas County, Oregon, where he dies in 1911.

David made a step-by-step move completely across the country, one brother lived and died in Iowa and one in Indiana. The rest stayed in adjacent counties in Ohio. This family does not seem to have lived very far apart. But it is important to remember that their parents came from Germany, and they were raised in a close-knit German community in Pennsylvania. Ohio was certainly not very civilized by 1817, so even though they stayed in counties that hugged the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, that was an adventurous move.

And when daughters or sons married and moved to a different township–even a neighboring township–they were still getting around with horses and carriages, so a visit would take a day of travel. The sons who moved further west, may have had trouble even getting home for their parents funerals. Once they moved, they were pretty much isolated from family. It is interesting to see David moving to states where another brother lives (or persuading them to join him), and then going to Oregon because his daughter’s family moves there. Even he seems closely tied to at least some family.

Their adventures, however, were nothing compared to what their parents went through, and next we’ll take a look at the immigrants of the Manbeck family.

How Ken is Related

  • Kenneth Ross Badertscher is the son of
  • Agnes Bair Badertscher, who is the daughter of
  • Daniel Manbeck Bair, who is the son of
  • Elizabeth Manbeck Bair, who is the daughter of
  • Jacob and Eva Manbeck

Notes on Research

United States Federal Census ReportsOhio

1850 (Rumley, Harrison, Ohio) Eva and Jacob Manbeck, Margaret Manbeck Roser;

1850,1860, 1870 (Rumley, Harrison, Ohio) John Manbeck, Susan Manbeck Heidy, George Manbeck;

1850, 1860, 1870  (York Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio) Daniel Bair and Elizabeth Manbeck Bair;

1880 (Stow, Summit County, Ohio) Elizabeth Manbeck Bair.

1850, 1860, Eva Manbeck Gutshall,( Rumley, Harrison, Ohio)

1850, 1860, 1870,1880 (Perry, Carroll, Ohio) Peter Brown Manbeck, William Manbeck. (Also 1880- George Manbeck)

1850 (North, Harrison, Ohio) Benjamin Manbeck

Other States:

1850 Harrison County, Indiana, Michael Manbeck

1850, Franklin, Montgomery, Indiana, David Manbeck

1860, Allen, Polk,Iowa, David Manbeck

1900, Warren, Polk, Iowa, David Manbeck
West Roseburg, Douglas, Oregon,.

Indiana, Index to Select Marriages, 1780-1992, November 1837, Michael Manbeck, Ancestry.com

Indiana, Marriage Index, 1800-1941, March 1844, David Manbeck, Ancestry.com

Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925, Benjamin Manbeck, David Manbeck 1856, (Allen, Polk Iowa)

Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880, Census Year: 1870; Census Place: York, Tuscarawas, Ohio, Elizabeth Manbeck Bair.

Find a Grave, Jacob Manbeck,  Eva Manbeck. Benjamin Manbeck (Iowa),  Michael Manbeck (Indiana) David Manbeck, (Oregon)

U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970, Volume: 278, membership for William Manbeck Peeler, descendant of Jacob and Manbeck and Rudolph and Christina Manbeck.

52 Ancestors: #42 Adam Limbach Jr./Lembach Loved Women. Married Five.

Adam Limbach, Jr. , 1850-1925

Normally, I do not dig into an ancestor as remote as 2nd great uncle, but in my husband Ken Badertscher’s line, I cannot resist the life of Adam Limbach Jr.

The Limbach family is driving me to distraction. I’m playing “Who’s your Mama?”. I can’t figure out who the mother of the nine children is for sure. There’s a Dorothy, but I don’t know her last name for sure–variously listed as Shear, Schurr and Schaeffer or Shafer. Or are there  really two Dorothys? And who is Hannah (probably properly named Anna, and possibly Anna Dorothea.)

This matters because Adam Limbach Sr. is Kenneth Ross Badertscher’s  great-great grandfather. Naturally, I would like to know who his great-great grandmother is, and be able to keep going back into Germany, where she was born, to find out where that line came from.

But there’s more confusion. One of the daughters disappears in the 1860 census.

And besides Adam Sr. and Adam Jr.–never conveniently labeled as such in records–other Limbachs named sons Adam.

So when I was searching for the marriage record for Adam Sr., I kept finding marriage records for an Adam Limbach who was obviously too young to be Adam Sr.  But they couldn’t all be Adam Jr.’s marriages, could they?

YES THEY COULD.

It turns out that Adam Limbach, Jr. was indeed the marrying kind.  He was married five times by the time he was 64 (or 55 according to him– he changed his age frequently. Thanks a bunch, Adam.) I know that he was actually married five times because Adam obediently wrote the answer to the question about whether he had been married before: “Four times.”

Interestingly, he chose, or his children, who all had the same mother chose for him, to share a cemetery plot with the 2nd of his wives, Jessie.

Here’s the line-up of the very busy Adam Limbeck, Jr.

Catherine Hawk

Adam Limbach marriage #1

Marriage #1 Adam Limbach, Jr. – Catherine Hawk 1873

Adam was the sixth child in his family, and until he was 23, he lived at home and helped his father on the farm.  Then in 1873,  he married Catharine Hawk, who was 21. In the 1880 census, they are living in the same township as his parents, York Township in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. There is a five-year-old named Bertz Dotts, listed, oddly, as a servant, living with them. I don’t know anything else about Catherine.

Jessie Josephine Wiandt/Wyandt

Adam Limbach Jr. Marriage #2

Marriage #2 Adam Limbach Jr. and Jessie J. Wiandt 1884

Apparently, this was the real love match of Adam’s life. He and Jessie married in November 1884, when Jessie was 21 and he was 34. Their first daughter, Effie, was born two years after they were married. Ten years later they had a second daughter, Clara.  Adam continued to work as a farmer in York Township, but by 1900 they had moved to nearby Wayne Township, still in the same county. Adam and Jessie had eight more years together, but in December, 1908, probably in connection with the birth of their daughter Grace in 1908,  Jessie died.

By April 1910, the census reports that Adam had moved to Goshen Township in Tuscarawas County, and was still working as a farmer.  The motherless Clara, now 13 and Grace, two, are with him.  That would not seem odd except that there is a marriage license and affidavit of marriage for Adam dated March 3, 1910. On that 1910 census, he does say he is presently  married for the third time (which would be correct) and length of present marriage “0”.

Ellen Snyder Hess

Adam Limbach Jr Marriage #3

Marriage #3 Adam Limbach, Jr. and Ellen Hess 1910

On the marriage license application, Ellen Hess (44) says that she has been married once previously and and her name was Mrs. Henry Hess. Adam (59, but says 55) says he was married  two times before. Ellen does not specify whether she is a widow or divorced.

However, in the April 1910 census for Canal Dover, Tuscarawas, Ohio, a month after the wedding,  Ellen says she is married for the 2nd time, she also lists “0” for length of marriage. (Okay, that makes sense, since they just got married the previous month.) But they are not living together. Ah, but Ellen has a daughter named Edith Limbach (10) and another, Frances Limbach (5).  Another daughter, Susan (17) is married and living with Ellen along with Susan’s husband, so I don’t know who her father would be.

This situation is ripe for speculation.  Had Ellen been married to another Limbach, who was the father of the children? No, apparently not, since she says she was married once and is a widow of Mr. Hess.  Did Adam have an affair with her during that ten-year spell between his two children with Jessie?  Did he marry her now just to legitimize the children? But they couldn’t live together because the family didn’t know about all this hanky panky?  I admit I am wildly speculating here, but I hope you’ll forgive me. It is all too tempting. And an even more confusing situation follows.

Elizabeth Bear Goulden

Marriage #4 Adam Limbach Jr

Marriage #4 Adam Limbach Jr. and Elizabeth Bear Goulden 1914

Our first glimpse of Elizabeth comes in 1910, when she is living in New Philadelphia with her father, Henry Bear and her two children Ralph Golden(14) and Roy Golden (12). She says on the census that she is divorced.  In September, 1914, Elizabeth Goulden (neé Bear), 39 years old, marries Adam Lembach, Jr. (63, but says he is 60) She states on the divorce license application that she is divorced from Thomas Goulden.  Okay so far.

But it looks like Elizabeth may have left Adam and remarried Thomas Goulden, then divorced him again to marry a third man. Confusing?  Yes.  So while I still don’t know  “the rest of the story” about Elizabeth, Adam has moved on once more .

Elizabeth Bear Goulden Limbach Smith

Marriage: Elizabeth Bear Goulden Limbach Smith and Charles J. Smith 1924

Marinda Hydes (or maybe Hyder) Dixon

Adam Limbach Jr. Marriage #5

Marriage #5 Adam Limbach, Jr. and Marinda Hydes Dixon 1916

Just two years after his marriage to Elizabeth, Adam (65, but says he is 55) marries Marinda Hydes Dixon (41), widow of John Dixon.  On the license application he dutifully fills in the blank about previous marriages–four times, and Malinda is listed as widowed, former husband John Dixon.

By 1920, just four years after his marriage to Marinda, Adam is living with his married daughter Clara (now 23) and her husband Harry Remer, their one-year-old daughter and Jessie and Adam’s youngest child, Grace, who is now eleven. What happened to wife #4 Elizabeth and wife #5 Marinda? I don’t know. Haven’t found death records, and since Adam Jr. is rather a distant relation to my husband–2nd great uncle–I probably will not dig any deeper. But it was a fun exploration of a marryin’ kind of  guy.

Whatever his reasons for marrying each of these women, his 2nd wife, Jessie, won the prize. It is Jessie who is buried beside Adam.

Adam Limbach Jr.

Adam Limbach Jr. and his 2nd wife, Jessie at the Jerusalem Cemetery, New Philadelphia

 

How Ken is Related

  • Kenneth Ross Badertscher is the son of
  • Agnes Bair Badertscher, who is the daughter of
  • Caroline Limbach Bair, who is the sister of
  • Adam Limbach Jr.

52 Ancestors, #41 Caroline Limback Bair

Caroline Limback, 1855-1936

My husband Ken, as I have mentioned before, has always thought that he was 100% Swiss.  His paternal line–Badertscher-Amstutz-Tschantz, Baumgardner et al, all emigrated from Switzerland. However, he and his sister knew less about their maternal line–Bair-Limbach-Manbeck et al. In fact, although he knew that his family included Amstutz’s and Tschantz’s, he had never heard the names Limbach and Manbeck. As I mentioned when I wrote about the Bair family, research that started with Ken’s grandfather’s mother suddenly shook up the “Made in Switzerland” assumption. Aided and abetted by a New Philadelphia Ohio church celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Far from being “colorful”–the suggested theme for this week’s 52 Ancestors Challenge, Caroline Limback was the typical second generation immigrant farm wife.  She was a pretty woman in some pictures I have seen. The Limback family seems to have mostly stayed very close as adults. A descendant has many pictures of Caroline and other Limbacks ahd Bairs, but keeps them private. If I get permission, I will share them at a later date. For now, here is a picture of Adam and Caroline with some of Caroline’s sisters and brothers. (See the surreys in the background? They date the picture at about 1910.)

Caroline Limback and Adam Bair

Caroline Limback Bair and Daniel Bair in top right.

1st Row: Rachel [Murphy] & William Limbach; Anna Eliza [Kuhn] & David Limbach; Mary [Limbach] Schwartz (widow of Andrew); August Kuhn and Catherine [Limbach] Kuhn. 2nd Row: Elizabeth [Limbach] & William Beaber, Caroline [Limbach] & Daniel Bair. ( This photo was posted by several people on Ancestry.com, including one identified as hanabanana78 and captioning corrected by abair2.) Missing Limbach siblings are  George Limbach, Adam Limbach Jr., and Simon Limbach.

Caroline Limback, Ken’s great grandmother was born in Ohio. However when I looked at the census report from 1860, when she was five, I noticed that it said that both her parents were born in Germany. Of course, that could be a mistake, I thought, since sometimes census takers did not discriminate between German-Swiss and German.  As I went plowing through more and more records, it became clear–her parents both were born in Germany–Bavaria, according to at least one of the reports.

Caroline had two older sisters and four older brothers, and when she was one year old, a younger brother was born. Her family lived on a farm in York Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio in most of the records, although her birth was recorded in Jefferson Township, Tuscarawas County.

When she was twenty, Caroline married Daniel Manbeck Bair. Caroline gave birth every two or three years between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five when Ken’s grandfather Adam Daniel Bair was born. Her last child, Clara, must have come as somewhat of a surprise, since Caroline was forty-one when Clara was born in 1895–a year after her oldest daughter was married. For more details on their children, see what I wrote about Daniel here.

By 1915, when Clara married, Daniel and Caroline were living alone on the farm.In 1919 they suffered one of the saddest losses parents can know when their son Adam Daniel Bair died before he was 30 years old.

In  January 1920, Daniel was listed on the census as retired. He may have been ill by then, because he died in August that year.

As so many widows did at that time, Caroline moved in with one of her children.  She probably was a popular figure in the Dover, Ohio home of Clara and Charles Wiegand, particularly among their three small children.  She probably lived with her youngest daughter’s family for at least ten years, before she died in November 1936. Caroline was buried beside her husband Daniel in the New Philadelphia, Jerusalem Church cemetery.

New Jerusalem Church

New Jerusalem Church, New Phil with historic buildings. Photo by Jon Baker, New Philadelphia Times.

The Jerusalem Church, described as High German Reformed and Evangelical Lutheran was founded in 1815, so is celebrating a centennial this year. You can read details of the founding here. These congregations preached in German until the 1900s,  and in the early days provided education for families. It would certainly have been the center of social life for the family, and a refuge for Caroline’s parents, who were also buried there, before they were fluent in English.

I can even speculate that Caroline may have met her husband Daniel Manbeck Bair at the church, since dozens of Bairs are buried in the churchyard, and must have been members. This also gives us another clue as to the origins of the Bair family. Surely they were German rather than Swiss, since they were attending this German church.

This video from You Tube shows the present day church and the cemetery where so many of Ken’s ancestors, particularly Bairs, are buried.

How Ken is Related

 

  • Kenneth Ross Badertscher is the son of
  • Agnes Bair Badertscher, who is the daughter of
  • Adam Daniel Bair, who is the son of
  • Caroline Limbach Bair

Notes on Research

  • United States Census reports 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920,  (York Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio); 1930,  (Dover, Ohio)
  • Ohio, Deaths, 1908-1932, 1938-2007, Ancestry.com and Ohio Department of Health, Daniel Manbeck Bair.
  • Web: Ohio, Find A Grave Index, 1787-2012, Ancestry.com, Daniel Manbeck Bair, Caroline Limback Bair
  • Ohio, Births and Christenings Index, 1800-1962, Cora Estella Bair, Ancestry.com, William Elmer Bair, Clara C. Bair Weigand