The Story of Johannes & Maria Anna Köchly
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THE STORY OF JOHANNES & MARIA ANNA KÖCHLY George Cooper With the help of Mary Beth Koechley Cooper & Holly Cooper Whisman May 2016 UNRAVELING A BALL OF TWINE Where should we begin to tell the story? The beginning that starts with Johannes & Maria Anna living in Lutzelbourg, France, or the one that starts all the way back in the 1600s with Jögly Köchy living in Sarmenstorf, Switzerland? What makes the most sense? One of our distant French cousins, Louis Kuchly, faced the same question when he started telling our family’s story in his book Nos Aïeux Venus d’Ailleurs (1980), a fascinating account of the family history from a French perspective. His storytelling analogy was that of pulling a thread from a ball of twine. It seems to be so full of tangles, it’s hard to know where to start. Researching and telling our family history is also a bit like mining for precious gems that are so covered with debris that it’s difficult getting at the important details. Regardless, the gems are there for the taking. All we need is patience and perseverance. It seems appropriate with our Koechley Family Reunion (KFR as the younger generation loves to call it) approaching that we should pick up the story from a damp, rainy June evening in 1982 at Ruggles Beach on the rocky shores of Lake Erie. It was one of the very early KFRs attended by the children of Henry & Elizabeth Koechley. We happened to drop by to find them gathered in the sitting room at the Ruggles Hotel enjoying a quiet evening of reminiscing. Then Uncle Bob Koechley began to tell us about his grandfather, Johannes Koechle. He pulled out a long list of relatives going back to the early 1800s, typed on a carbon-copied sheet of onionskin paper. That started the ball unraveling! By the way, the title of Louis Kuchly’s book roughly translated reads Our Forefathers Came from Somewhere Else. As odd as the title sounds, our ancestors did come from somewhere else—first from Switzerland, then France. We trust that we won’t leave out anything important. Welcome to the story of our family. ELIZABETH’S LETTER Perhaps the best place to start is with a letter written by Elizabeth Schott Koechley, Henry’s (or Doc’s) wife. Elizabeth was writing to Doc’s niece, Loretta Koechley Jacobs, daughter of John C. Koechley. Part of her four-page letter is transcribed below. The rest will follow. September 24, 1955 Dear Loretta, We are sorry that we do not have the book that you want. [1] We have never seen it. Uncle Louie’s house was so cluttered no one had time to go through the maze of old newspapers, boxes, etc., so the house was sold with everything in it. "1 In Peru, Ohio there is a little country church, schoolhouse, and graveyard with many old tombstones. Your great grandfather's tombstone is there. I will tell you as much as I can of the family history. Your grandfather, John Koechle, was the first child born in Peru. He married Margaret Rubeck who came from Metz, Germany when three years old. [2] They were married in New Washington where the first child, John, was born and died at the age of three months. Uncle Jake was also born in New Washington. Your father, John Christian Koechley, was born at Saint Stephen, Ohio and all the other children were born in Bellevue. Sincerely, Elizabeth A. Koechley PS The following is from Dad (Henry), [St. Alphonsus Church] [Photo by George Cooper] John Koechle [Johannes], born 1793 was killed when a chain holding a load of logs broke and caused the logs to fall on him. The date of his marriage to Maria Anna Roahr or Rohr is unknown. They probably came from Lutzelberg (Lutzelberg) between the cities of Zabern and Sarrburg in the area of north France. It is said that they also lived in Metz, France. [2] They had two daughters when they came to the United States in about the year 1825. Uncle Louie used to say that grandfather (Dad's grandfather) used to go around on horseback in the wintertime with his tools and leather and make shoes. In the summertime they cleared land. [1] The book she mentioned was one put together by Louis Koechley, the original family historian. It was probably lost at the time of his death in 1947. [2] This would appear to be a discrepancy, but, in fact, Metz was sometimes under French control and at other times was part of Germany, depending on the political climate. As you can see, there’s a lot to tell and many loose ends that need to be connected. Thankfully, over the years we’ve been able to unwind a great deal from this ball of twine. MOVING WESTWARD To say that life was difficult across Europe in the early 1700s is an understatement. The ThirtyYears War ended in the mid-1600s, leaving the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine devastated. To restore stability, Duke Leopold offered land reform and a form of tax abatement to anyone willing to repopulate the region. One of those willing to immigrate from Switzerland was Johannes’ great grandfather, Hans Jacob Kochly. He and several others from the area around Sarmenstorf accepted the offer and moved their families. Hans settled in the small French village of Lutzelbourg. "2 Sadly, life there was no better in the early 1700s than in Sarmenstorf. A series of wars ripped across Europe, including the Seven Years War (known in North America as the French & Indian War), the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars, just to name a few. Nearly every European superpower plowed through the area around Lutzelbourg, devoured crops and livestock, conscripted young men, and destroyed nearly everything. It must have been very difficult to raise a family! No doubt, this was the reason they decided to move to America. How they decided on Ohio isn't clear, but there are a couple possible answers. One possible explanation is this: our French ancestors may have learned about Ohio from the many veterans who returned home from the Ohio Valley following the French & Indian War. They would have known about the rich valleys and lush hardwood forests of Ohio. Former Huron County historian, Henry Timman, suggested that many of the early settlers who came to the Norwalk area were from Alsace and Lorain. They were encouraged to do so by friends and family who had already moved to Cincinnati. The following are some of the details we’ve come across in our search for information: • Four families who settled is the small community of Peru south of Norwalk, Ohio, boarded the ship Henry IV at LeHarve, France in early September 1828. They landed in New York at Birth 427 on October 2. On board were more than 560 passengers including Joseph Kochly, Peter Bauer, Anton Philipps, Clement Baumgartner, and Joseph Carabin. All were from Lutzelbourg (National Archives, 1828). • Joseph and Johannes were first cousins. It’s not clear why Joseph and his family didn’t continue with the rest of their party to Ohio, or why Johannes wasn’t with them. We do know from the records that Joseph and his family first settled in Constableville, NY, located just a short distance from the Erie Canal. • Around 1860, Joseph and Genevieve moved with their children to Naperville, IL. There, Joseph established a general store in partnership with B. J. Slick, a dentist. Their son, Jacob, married Elizabeth Hauck in Constableville, NY on 7 January 1847 before moving to Naperville. Then, at the start of the Civil War, Jacob and another brother enlisted in the Army. Jacob is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. We'll share more of his story later. (See page 35 for more information). • As mentioned above, Johannes and Maria Anna were not with this initial group that settled at Peru. According to Father Jurgens in his book A History of the Diocese of Cleveland, the Kochly and Hoeffel families arrived around 1829 (Jurgens, 1980). • According to Henry Timmon, those early settler travelled by boat up the Hudson River to Albany to make their way across New York through the Erie Canal. It would have been a long trip and progress would have been exceedingly slow. No doubt they had hoped to make it to Cincinnati before snowfall. We’re not sure when they reached Buffalo, but it would have been in mid to late October 1828 (Verbal account from Henry Timmon, 1983). • To get to Buffalo they would have taken an overcrowded, 70-foot canal boat along with 70 to 100 other passengers. Traveling at a speed of 3 miles an hour, the 360- mile trip would have taken nearly a week, but still this would have been better than traveling by wagon (Koeppel, 2009). "3 • At Buffalo they would have been standing on the dock facing Lake Erie, getting ready to start another leg of their long journey. This time they were headed to Portland, Ohio, now known as Sandusky. At that time of year, the average daily temperature is generally in the 50s and gale force winds are not uncommon. The weather would have certainly made the trip to Portland exciting! The following is a first- hand account from a woman who made that voyage in 1827. Her story is very descriptive, to [Photo: The Erie Canal at Buffalo say the least. drawn by Henry Howe, c. 1845]. …We left Buffalo on a sail vessel. The boat did not make much progress blown about by head winds…Finally when our boat with others was anchored at Erie [Pennsylvania] Harbor, there came a wind which increased to a gale and our boat, losing her cable, ran afoul of the ‘Decatur,’ and you can judge the consequence.