John Swartz and Elizabeth Ohlweiler of Pennsylvania and Clark County, Indiana and their descendants

This is the first in a series of linked articles that will outline the known descendants of John and Elizabeth through at least 3 generations. John’s parents and family and Elizabeth’s parents and family will be discussed in future articles.

But, first some “housekeeping.” John Swartz appears in the records of several Pennsylvania counties and Clark County Indiana as John Swarts, John Swartz and John Schwartz interchangeably. The spelling sometimes changes within a single document. For the sake of consistency (and because my line of John’s descendants standardized the spelling of their surname this way) I will refer to the family as Swartz unless transcribing a specific record. After 1814, John is sometimes referred to as John Swartz senior. But it is never a consistent designation. There were three related John Swartz living in Clark County, Indiana between 1814-1825 so it takes careful perusal to assign a specific record to the John Swartz who is married to Elizabeth Ohlweiler.

Which brings us to the spelling of the Ohlweiler name. I have seen at least 7 variations in Pennsylvania and Indiana records. The most common are Oldweiler and Ohlweiler but Ohlweyler and Olhweiler are not particularly rare, at least in Pennsylvania. For the sake of consistence, I will use the only spelling given in the Digital Dictionary of Surnames in Germany Ohlweiler, unless I am transcribing a document. It is totally possible that your family uses a different spelling. There was no single right spelling of a surname historically and different spellings were based on the accent and local pronunciation of the word. That’s ok, we are all still family.

I plan on posting linked footnoted “chapters” for all of John and Elizabeth (Ohlweiler) Swartz’s ten documented children and I’ll take a brief moment at the end of this article to discuss the possibility of an 11th child. However since I am a descendant of John, oldest son of John and Elizabeth, I plan on following his lines of descent a little farther than those of his many siblings.

And now to the interesting bits.

John and Elizabeth (Ohlweiler) Swartz

It must have been terrifying.  Leaving a well-established community where you were surrounded by a close knit network of family and friends and moving over 500 miles into a wilderness. Risking the lives of your wife and your 4 small children on the dream of land. Land you’d never seen. Trusting in the reports of others that it would become good productive farmland but knowing that right now it was covered with thick timber.  Fearing attacks by the native inhabitants and the wildlife – wolves, bear, wild hogs and wildcats. Moving from a county settled by Europeans for over a hundred years, with a population over 40,000¹, to a county settled less than 10 years, whose population wouldn’t top 5,000 for 10 more years.² Knowing there would be no villages, courts or churches.  It must have felt like a leap off a cliff.

After roughly 10 years of married life in prosperous and populous Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, John and Elizabeth (Ohlweiler) Swartz made that leap.  Sometime in late 1801 or early 1802 they loaded their 4 young children and their household goods onto a heavy wagon, possibly a Conestoga wagon³ and left for the wild frontier of the Kentucky/Indiana border. We don’t know if they drove livestock alongside their wagon.  We don’t know if they had many household goods.  We do know that they didn’t leave their family network completely behind – Elizabeth’s sister Anna and her husband Abraham Epler⁴ had moved to Clark County, Indiana a year or two ahead of them and had scouted out “good land.” One of John’s brothers, Christopher, probably moved with them, at least as far as Louisville, Kentucky.⁵ And perhaps there were others. There is a Michael Swartz, active in the same land and church records of early Clark County, who is perhaps an unrecorded brother or cousin of John’s. 

Traveling with kin would have provided a small measure of comfort and security as the wagons bounced and shuddered slowly south to reach the Wilderness Road, toiled up across the Cumberland Gap then turned back north to struggle over the rough stump lined roads across Kentucky.  At Louisville, they crossed the Ohio by flatboat. It is likely the journey took them 5-6 weeks, if their health and the weather were good and their wagons sustained no damage.

35 year old John was in the prime of his life. Like his brothers, who stayed in Pennsylvania, he was both a farmer and a miller, a trade much in demand in frontier settlements.  The Swartz family had no sons old enough to work the land alongside their father which meant they would have to hire help to clear timber, plant and harvest crops and build shelter.  But they had income. On Six-mile creek in Utica Township, John set up one of the first flour mills in the county, shortly after he purchased 260 acres from his brother-in-law Abraham Epler.⁶ Six-mile creek is not shown on modern maps, but it is likely Lentizer Creek which crosses the land John purchased on 15 January 1803.

One of the oldest mills in the township was put up sometime between 1802 and 1804 by John Schwartz, on Six-mile creek…In a few years a saw-mill was attached…which continued to run…until 1821, when it was discontinued on account of the scarcity of timber.  The flouring mill was run for twenty-five or thirty years.⁷

John and Elizabeth’s wilderness gamble had begun well. They would go on to develop a closely linked web of kin and community, reproducing at least some part of the extended network they had left behind. Most of their children and grandchildren would be prosperous pillars of this burgeoning community.  A couple would become wealthy and a fairly large number would undertake the same leap of faith made by John and Elizabeth, becoming pioneers in newly opening areas farther west.

As a farmer, land and business owner John was naturally concerned with the various political issues of the Indiana Territory. He apparently held anti-slavery views as well as concurring with the prevailing “small government” sentiments common in the southeastern hills of Indiana.⁸ In 1809 he signed several Congressional petitions including a petition asking for the replacement of the Governor due to the Governor’s sanctioning a law for the introduction of slavery into the Territory.  Although this provides evidence of John’s views on slavery, we must be careful not to assign modern values to this type of petition.  If John’s views on slavery were similar to those of his neighbors, then their objection was to the economics of slavery and concerns that slaves in a territory limited opportunities for white settlers.  These men did not object to slavery morally or “because all men should be free and equal.” They weren’t abolitionists in the classic religious/philosophical mode of the Quakers. John’s political views come forward as well in a 1809 petition requesting suffrage for all white males 21 years and older who were taxpayers and serving in the militia.⁹ Notably, John does not seem to have signed a 1810 petition asking for land grants of a quarter section to all “real” settlers who would take up land on the far side of the “Indian” border. However, in 1811 John signed a petition expressing unhappiness with the Governor’s interference in elections.¹⁰ None of these petitions appears to have stirred Congress to action. On 22 May 1809 in the Territorial Election, John voted for one delegate to Congress and one member of the General Assembly of the Indiana Territory.¹¹ He was the only Swartz voting in Jeffersonville Township but he is surrounded on the voters list by kin or soon to be kin. Recognizable names include Abraham Epler and several Prather, Spangler, Stewart, Fry and Jacobs men, many of whom were about to become in-laws as John’s children grew and married. Due to record loss, John appears on only one Federal census, that of 1820 in the township of Jeffersonville, Clark County. However John and relative Michael both appear in the 1807 Territorial Census as residents of Jeffersonville Township.¹²

At some point between 1803 and 1811 the family became Methodists.  Perhaps they converted while attending a “preaching” by a circuit rider at the home of one of their neighbors or perhaps they converted at a local camp meeting. Whatever the method of their conversion the family were active, devout Methodists, setting a pattern of family faith and church membership for generations. In 1811, John was named a trustee of the first Methodist Meeting House built in Clark County. John, Elizabeth and much of their extended family for several generations would be buried in the cemetery of the New Chapel Meeting House (now the New Chapel United Methodist Church) in the hamlet of Watson, just across the fields from the Swartz farm house. His fellow trustees included several members of their rapidly extending network – Michael Schwartz, his possible brother or cousin, Jeremiah Jacobs jr., and Basil Prather (both soon to be in-laws.)¹³ Religion played such a strong part in the family’s life that 3 of their 4 sons and at least 1 son-in-law became licensed Methodist preachers and their great great grandchildren were active Methodists 100 years later.

John’s last known service to his community came when he was appointed administrator of the estate of Martin Snider on 12 November 1823.¹⁴ 6 months later, John was returning to the family farm, accompanied by a visiting brother in law, when John’s horse “ran-away” and he struck a tree and died.¹⁵ John was first of his family buried in the cemetery of the New Chapel Meeting House where his stone is still visible, although only partly legible.¹⁶

Although he was no longer a young man, John had apparently not written a will before his accidental death. On 29 June 1824 in Clark County, letters of administration were granted to son Jacob Swartz and widow Elizabeth Swartz, with sons in-law Samuel Bottorff and Solomon Jacobs as bondsmen for the sum of $3,000.¹⁷ The sum of the bond indicates that the court expected the administrators to handle a substantial estate.¹⁸ John and Elizabeth had four children under the age of 21. Although no appointment record has been found, Elizabeth was granted guardianship as the “natural guardian” of her youngest children.¹⁹ In October, oldest son John entered a friendly lawsuit in the Clark County Civil Court, petitioning to have commissioners appointed to divide his father’s real estate.²⁰ Oddly, the lawsuit’s list of heirs mentions neither the widow nor Jacob, perhaps because they were the administrators of the estate. After nearly 10 months, on 14 June 1825, John Miller, Charles Boggs and Joseph H. Bartholomew, commissioners to partition the real estate of John Swartz deceased, came into court and recorded their partition decisions. There is a full page drawing of the partition plans copied carefully into the partition book. Unfortunately the image is to faint to reproduce. The accompanying text:

• • to Elizabeth Swartz her dower in said real estate of her late husband and to wit Elizabeth Swartz widow of the decedent sixty three acres and thirty two poles including the dwelling house…
  • to Jacob Swartz twenty four acres and fifteen rods of land designated by number one
  • to Solomon Jacobs and Elizabeth his wife formerly Elizabeth Swartz twenty four acres and fifteen rods of land designated on the plot by number two
  • to Leonard Swartz (a minor) twenty four acres and fifteen rods of land designated on the plot by number three
  • to Nancy Swartz (a minor) twenty four acres and fifteen rods of land designated on the plot by number four
  • to John Swartz twenty four acres and fifteen rods of land designated on the plot by number five
  • to George Swartz eighteen acres and one hundred and twenty two rods of land designated on the plot by number six
  • to John Fry and Sarah his wife formerly Sarah Swartz eighteen acres and one hundred and twenty two rods of land designated on the plot by number seven
  • to Mary Swartz (a minor) eighteen acres and one hundred and twenty two rods of land designated on the plot by number eight
  • to Samuel Bottorff and Ann his wife formerly Ann Swartz eighteen acres and one hundred and twenty two rods of land designated on the plot by number nine
  • to Sophia Swartz (a minor) eighteen acres and one hundred and twenty two rods of land designated on the plot by number ten.
  • In witness whereof we hereby certify the foregoing partition of land under our hands and seals the 12th day of January 1825.²¹

On 29 May 1826 John Prather and Peter Bottorff were appointed commissioners to settle with the administrators of the estate of John Swartz, deceased.²² One day later, on 30 May 1826, the administrators produced a final accounting and settlement stating that they had over $695 cash in hand after all debts had been paid.²³ No further reports on the estate have been found in the Clark County records so this may have been the final settlement but there were still minor heirs who had inherited real property and there should have been at least further accounting of the management of that property. Sophia, the youngest of the heirs, would not turn 21 until 1841.

Elizabeth faced a difficult future as an older widow with young children and a large farm in a mostly frontier community. However, she had that large network of grown children and in-laws. It appears that her son Jacob took over management of the household and farm. ²⁴ When Elizabeth died, more than 20 years after her husband, Jacob opened probate for his mother’s estate on 27 April 1846. Brother in-law, John Fry was his security in a bond of $500.²⁵ Between 1827 and 1837, Jacob had purchased his sibling’s rights to their mother’s dower lands (please see the chapter on Jacob for a discussion of these purchases) so there was no land to divide and given her residence in Jacob’s home there was undoubtedly little personal estate as well. Elizabeth was buried next to her husband in the New Chapel United Methodist Church Cemetery.²⁶

When John Swartz died in 1824, all of his children were living in Clark County, Indiana. By the time Elizabeth died in 1846, Nancy (Swartz) Spangler’s family had moved to Hancock County, Illinois. Several of the next generation would join them there over the next 5 years. And Leonard and his family would shortly leave Indiana to seek their fortune in Ohio. The majority of the family remained in or very near Clark County, intermarrying with the Jacobs, Prather, Adams, Stewart and Bottoroff families numerous times and creating a strongly linked clan whose descendants still reside in the towns and farming settlements of a county which is no longer wilderness.

John Swartz was born 1 November 1767 in Pennsylvania, the child of John Swartz and Elizabeth (?).²⁷ He died 22 June 1824²⁸ possibly in the area that became Port Fulton, Clark County, Indiana and was buried very close to home in the cemetery of the New Chapel Methodist Meeting House.²⁹ {FSID: LHK9-HRW}

Traditionally, John married Elizabeth Ohlweiler, daughter of Jacob Ohlweiler and Anna Barbara Leidich, on 17 June 1792 in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,³⁰ although no record has yet been found of the marriage. Elizabeth was born 20 January 1775 in Pennsylvania³¹ and died 9 April 1846 in Clark County, Indiana.³² {FSID: LHJ-FVJG}

No birth or baptismal record has been found for Elizabeth although records exist, in various Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Churches, for some of her siblings, including Catherine baptized 20 April 1771 and Philip baptized 23 Jan 1773.³³  Her father’s 1792 will lists her living siblings as Philip, Anna and two unnamed daughters.³⁴

John and Elizabeth had 10 documented children, in order of age: Elizabeth, Anna, John, Jacob, George, Sarah, Nancy, Mary Ann, Leonard, Sophia. (click on a linked name to go to an article on that descendancy. If there is no link I have not yet published that family.)

The sources I have found give information on 10 children born to John and Elizabeth between 1797 and 1820. However in 3 Swartz Men, Eberhart gives them an 11th child – Robert born 1822. This child has been copied into Ancestry Trees, FamilySearch Trees and various wiki sites. There is zero evidence confirming this child’s existence. Quite a bit of biology suggests that Sophia was the last child Elizabeth bore. When Sophia was born, Leonard, previously the youngest child of the family, was 7 years old. At Sophia’s birth Elizabeth was 45 years old. Pregnancy at this age is less common and is often a “surprise” especially when there is such a large age gap between the last two children. John and Elizabeth had their first 9 children at very regular, normal intervals for their society. It is more likely there could have been additional children born during the 7 year gap between Sophia and Leonard (although there is no evidence for additional children) than there would be an addition child born when Elizabeth was 47. There is no provision for another child in the settlement of John’s estate. None of the Swartz children named a child Robert, as was often done in their society, to honor a deceased sibling. I have not included Robert in this family – if he existed, whether in the gap between Leonard and Sophia or after Sophia, he died before his father died in 1824 and he left no mark in the family.