The Betzing Family

From Wollrode, Germany,
to
Meigs County, Ohio

-- - - John and Elizabeth Betzing

John Betzing, my great-grandfather, was born on 3 November 1836 in the small village of Wollrode, Hessen, Germany. Wollrode is a few miles south of the city of Kassel. His parents were Johann Jost Betzing, born on 2 February 1815 in Wollrode, and Catharina Elizabeth Assmann, born on 1 September 1816, also in Wollrode.

At the age of twenty-eight, John Betzing sailed from the Port of Bremen, Germany, on the Bremen Bark Gutenberg, arriving at the Port of Baltimore, Maryland, on 7 November 1864. Traveling with him were his widowed mother, Catharina Elizabeth, age forty-eight, and his two sisters, Anna Catharina, age sixteen, and Anna Martha, age fourteen. John's father had died ten years earlier at the age of forty-nine. It appears the Betzing family traveled directly from the Port of Baltimore to Minersville, Meigs County, Ohio.

John's brother, Conrad Betzing, also arrived in Meigs County in 1864. He was not listed on the passenger arrival list with the rest of his family, therefore it is assumed he arrived on a different ship. Conrad was born on 3 January 1845 in Wollrode.

On the Passenger Arrival List of the good ship Gutenberg, John Betzing's occupation was listed as that of a weaver. In the nineteenth century, Wollrode was well known for its linen production. On the 1870 census in Minersville, his occupation is listed as a salt lifter.

On 30 March 1865, four months after arriving in America, John Betzing married Elizabeth Well, daughter of Phillip Well and Elizabeth Winkle. In 1877 John bought 109 acres in Orange Township from his brothers-in-law, Henry and Jacob Well. In April of 1883 he purchased an adjoining 36 acres from his father-in-law, Phillip Well.

John Betzing and Elizabeth had nine children: George Conrad, Peter, John, Henry, Lubert, Eve, William, Ernest, and Charles. Around 1915, John, Henry, William, and Ernest moved to Iowa, then to Nicollet County, Minnesota. John and Elizabeth lived out their lives on their farm in Orange Township. Elizabeth died on 13 March 1921 at the age of seventy-seven, and John died at the age of eighty-five on 31 December 1921.

John's sister, Anna Catharina, married Peter Grueser, a coal miner, on 1 August 1865 in Pomeroy, Ohio.They had twelve children: Wendell, Elizabeth, Beana, Henry, Anna, John, Mina, Ernest, Albert, Alma, Mary, and George. At the young age of fifty-seven, Anna Catharina died on 7 November 1905 in Minersville. The cause of death is listed as "Brights Disease", which is a kind of kidney disease. Peter died in Minersville on 22 April 1918 at age seventy.

John's other sister, Anna Martha, was married on 31 January 1869 to Frederick Bartels, a coal miner. They had eight children: Henry, Peter, John, Elizabeth, Frederick, William, Anna, and Conrad. Frederick Bartels died in Minersville on 6 October 1906 at age sixty. Anna Martha died in Minersville on 13 June 1912 at the age of sixty-two.

John's brother, Conrad Betzing, married Magdalina Trushel in Meigs Countyon 31 August 1865. They had ten known children: Anna, John, Fredrick, Joseph, E. Catharina, Rosanna, Peter, Conrad, Edward, and Wendel. Conrad died in Minersville on 4 October 1906 at the age of sixty-one.

Until her death on 1 June 1889 at the age of seventy-three, John's mother, who was listed as an invalid in the 1870 census, lived with Anna Catharina and Peter Grueser.

So today, as you can imagine, we must have many cousins living in Ohio, Minnesota, and probably all over the United States.

Written by: David W. Schmit
24 November 1998

Last Modified: 06 August 2001