EARLY SETTLERS IN ALLEN COUNTY, OHIO
Mennonites were among the early settlers
of the area. Formed in April
1820 only 17 years after the new state
of Ohio was carved from the
Northwest Territory, Allen County was organized
the same time as
neighboring Putnam County to the north
and Van Wert to the west. In the
northwest section of Allen County, first
in Sugar Creek Township and later
Marion Township to the west, developed
a small but sturdy Mennonite
community.
In 1831, the same year in which Sugar Creek
Township was formed, John
Stemen of Fairfeild County, Ohio, came
prospecting through the dense
hardwood forests to look for suitable site
for a home. He lodged and ate
his meals with the Indians. He scouted
in the southern part of "The Great
Black Swamp" that covered 14 northwestern
Ohio counties including
Allen. Poor drainage and dense forests
characterized much of the area.
The felling of trees splashed mud and water
to great heights. Mosquitoes
swarmed. Malaria lurked constantly, awaiting
the unsuspecting colonist.
But the soil was unbelievably fertile and
easily cultivated after it was
drained. Here the government had set aside
"canal lands" and prospects
looked bright for the farmer willing to
work hard.
Stemen, son of Mennonite deacon, Peter
Stemen, (1771-1856),
purchased on August 8, 1831, about 54 acres
of land for $69.19, at a rate
if $1.25 per acre. He situated one mile
west and one-half mile south of the
present Salem Church. Being one of the
earliest settlers in the western part
of the county forced him to cut his own
path through the trees. He found
treachery and questionable means the white
man had by this time spirited
away the Indian claims to their hunting
grounds in Allen County. Hundreds
of Senecas left in 1831 as did most of
the Shawnees the following year.
One group, the Hog Creek tribe, did not
leave Allen County till 1833.
Then John and Nancy (Stukey) Stemen family
was joined in 1834 by
the family of his older brother Christian
and Margaret (Moyer) Stemen
and their five children. They purchased
a tract of land on the banks of the
Ottawa River for nearly $3.00 and acre.
In 1837 came 66 year old
Deacon Peter and Magdalena (Swick) Stemen
and paid $1,000 for a
quarter section (160 acres) in Marion Township,
three miles west and one
mile south of Salem Church. The following
spring Peter Stemen, Jr. and
his wife Mary (Blosser) joined them by
purchasing for $1,550 a quarter
section adjoining Salem Church.
In 1841 the pioneers were joined by the
deacon's 94 year old father
Christian Stehman (1747-1844) and the family
of Peter's brother,
Henry and Mary (Beery) Stemen. Henry(1775-1855),
an early pioneer
in Fairfield County, had been ordained
a Mennonite minister in 1809 and
bishop in 1820. Daughter Barbara and her
husband Samuel Sherrick
accompanied the bishop's family. Also at
the same time came Deacon
John Sherrick (1778-1857) with his wife
Mary, David and Eve
Campbell, John Burkholder and wife and
Joseph Lamen who was
single. Here was the leadership and nucleus
for a church.
All of them came from Fairfield county.
Earlier, beginning at the turn of the
century, the Beerys, Stemens, Sherricks,
Brennemans, and others had
settled in that central Ohio county. Many
of them originated in Rockingham
County, Virginia, but some came from Pennsylvania.
The 1841 exodus
from Fairfield was only the first of other
migrations that within several
decades seriously depleted Fairfield's
Mennonite population but greatly
strengthened Allen County's.
One of the family lines represented was
the George and Susan (Funk)
Beery family who moved to Fairfield in
1816 with their seven children.
Susan Funk was a sister to Joseph Funk,
noted musician of the Virginia
Mennonites in pre-Civil War days. The Beery's
oldest daughter Barbara
married Henry Brenneman (1791-1866), son
of Abraham (1744-1815)
and grandson of Melchior Brenneman, Jr.
(1718-1794), whose father
was the pioneer Melchior Brenneman (1665
- 1737) who arrived in
1717.
Bishop Henry Stemen already had long experienced
as a frontier
preacher and Mennonite "circuit Rider."
He traveled widely by horseback
in the Ohio wilderness holding communion
services, ordaining bishops,
ministers and deacons, and ministering
to scattered Mennonites in the
counties of Wyandot, Wood, Seneca, Williams,
Clark, Logan, Fairfield,
and Franklin. Apparently an eloquent speaker,
he seems to have been the
only Mennonite bishop in western Ohio for
a number of years.
First Church Organized
Soon after the arrival of the 1841 group,
a congregation was organized and
services were held in the homes of members.
"The bishop and the two
deacons also acted as trustees in the early
years. No early records exist,
but years later (1911) at a reunion they
named 20 charter members - the
above named 1841 group in addition to Peter
and Magdalena Stemen,
Peter and Barbara Diller, and Henry and
Elizabeth Funk. Deacon
Peter's two sons John and Christian apparently
did not join the
Mennonites. Some of Christian's children
were United Brethern, but son
David was a Mennonite. It is unclear whether
Peter, Jr. Joined the
Mennonite Church. Though not listed as
a charter member another source
says he was "a Mennonite in religious faith,
a republican in politics, and
held the office of township trustee for
a number of years." Two of his sons,
John and Christian, served in the Civil
War. His oldest son Andrew served
as deacon for Allen County Mennonites for
years.
If tradition is correct, they built their
first 12 x 14 log meeting house in
1843. Likely the church house was built
and the cemetery laid out on
private property until October 27, 1847,
when this plot, seven by six rods,
was sold by John Enslen for five dollars
to "Henry Stemen, Peter
Stemen, and John Sherrick, elders of the
Menonist Church." They built
across the road from the present Salem
Church. The little log church
became known as the Dutch Hollow Church.
Bishop Stemen's itinerant activities made
it necessary for him to ordain a
minister for the Dutch Hollow Church. This
he did in 1847. Nominated to
the lot by the congregation were John Burkholder,
Henry Funk, and
Peter Diller. The lot chose Burkholder
who served until his death in
1860. Though a fine old man, he was not
particularly sucessful as a
preacher and leader. Furthermore, his use
of chewing tobacco was not
considered a good example. Ordinations
for minister were not needed for
another generation because several more
moved into the community from
Fairfield and Franklin counties.
The first of these was Christian Culp (1815
- 1883) who was born in
Rockingham County, Virginia. Sometime after
his marriage to Elizabeth
Good they united with the Mennonites. In
1846 he was ordained in
Fairfield County. Though uneducated and
a blacksmith by trade he applied
himself diligently and surprised people
by becoming a fluent speaker. He
favored an intensely conservative program
of church life and discipline.
However, tradition says that if ever a
man was without an enemy it was
Preacher Culp. He moved to Allen County
in 1852.
The following March George Brenneman (1821
-1889) also decided to
leave the hills and poor farming land of
Fairfield County for the level
stretches of the Black Swamp. Settling
in Putnam County, about a mile
west of the later village of Rimer and
several miles northwest of Sugar
Creek Township (Allen County), he purchased
two heavily wooded tracts.
Before he could farm he needed to burn
large quanti-ties of walnut logs
and other hardwoods. A son of Henry Brenneman,
he was born in Rush
Creek Town-ship in Fairfield County and
married Anna Burkholder of
Knox County, Ohio and earlier of Rockingham
County, Virginia. He was
chosen be lot and ordained minister by
Henry Stemen in 1849 at Rush
Creek. Bishop Stemen may have invited both
Culp and Brenneman to
Allen County because he was looking for
a successor. Stemen was
already 78. Brenneman was scarcely settled
when he and Culp were
nominated to go through the lot for bishop.
George was selected and
ordained near his 33rd birthday in the
spring of 1854.
Brenneman proved to be an able minister
and bishop but he was
overshadowed by his oldest brother John
M. Brenneman who came
shortly thereafter. George Brenneman is
described as a strict
disciplinarian, an earnest Christian, a
man of deep conviction and
indomitable will, who may not always have
exercised the greatest of tact.
He and his wife loved company and had many
warm friends. Their fireside
often rang with hearty laughter. For reasons
no longer clear Bishop
Stemen was not at ease in committing the
future of the young congregation
to Bishop Brenneman, so it is thought that
he also induced John M.
Brenneman to move to Allen County in 1855.
Soon after John's arrival and purchase
of 176 acres of land one and a half
miles east of the little Dutch Hollow Church,
Stemen delivered his bishopric
to John M. Brenneman. On the occasion the
venerable old biship, nearly
blind and feeble with age, delivered a
powerful and eloquent sermon on
Revelation 12:1. Thus, with proper solemnity
and seriousness, John M.
was installed as official head of the congregation.
Only a few months later
on August 19, 1855, Bishop Henry Stemen
died from malaria fever. By
that time the little log church had an
impressive "bench" of ordained men.
Bishop Henry's older brother Peter survived
him less than a year, passing
away May 5, 1856. The following year the
other aged deacon John
Sherrick died (1857).
The 1855 influx of settlers brought another
ordained man, Deacon
Christian D. Beery, uncle of the Brenneman
brothers and supporter of
their views. At age 19 Beery had married
Elizabeth (Blosser), the 16
year old daughter of Isaac Blosser in Fairfield
County. In 1838 they
moved to Hocking County, Ohio, and 14 years
later to Franklin County
where he was ordained deacon. From thence
they came to the Elida, Ohio
(Allen County) area in 1855 where he served
for ten years. In 1865 he
sold his Putnam County property at a sacrifice
and moved to Branch
County, Michigan, where he later became
minister and bishop.
Migration into the community continued
in the 1840's, 1850's and later.
The Joseph Lehman family came from Columbiana
County, Ohio, in
1848. Son Christian married Susanna, daughter
of Christian and
Elizabeth Lehman who also came that year
from Richland County, Ohio.
After both aged deacons had passed away,
young Christian Lehman
(1828 - 1901) was ordained deacon in 1857.
The year 1855 marks the end of an era -
that of the remarkable frontier
minister Henry Stemen. He lived to see
a strong Mennonite community
established. Fourteen years experience
in Allen County had proven it a
more suitable location for the agriculturally
minded Mennonites than central
Ohio. Spiritual and numerical strength
flourished.
Every minister and deacon who emigrated
to Allen County brought family
and friends. As a matter of fact the little
log church was crowded during the
biweekly services. Two bishops and several
ministers and deacons
provided quite a bench full of capable
men.
By this time the dense forests had felt
the blow of an ax long enough that
the improved tracts of land were beginning
to yield. Some of the swampy
land had been drained. An occasional log
cabin dotted the land-scape. A
few more roads had been hewn out of the
woods. Although very primitive
and sometimes bol-stered by logs laid side
by side, at least it was possible
to pick one's way around the stumps and
through the mud of dust. Some of
the expected canals had not materialized
but the Miami and Erie Canal
passed eight miles west of the Dutch Hollow
Church on the line between
Allen and Van Wert counties and was open
from end to end by 1847.
Some of the families had located closer
to the canal in Marion Township: a
few had even gone to the other side into
Van Wert County. Some had also
spread southward beyond the village of
Elida.
Serious risks and hazards still threatened
though. Malaria was a major
concern in the Great Black Swamp. Doctors
were scarce and not quickly
obtained. Clearing forests was rugged physical
work. Lack of fences
allowed livestock to roam. On one occasion
George Brenneman tied a
bell on a cow before turning the herd loose.
For several weeks they failed
to return. Finally, in response to a newspaper
ad-vertisement, a letter
arrived from Bellefontaine, Ohio, nearly
halfway back to Fairfield County,
stating that they were in the vicinity.
Apparently, they had become
homesick for their old home at Fairfield!