Our Ohio Farming Heritage

Bolter Rill (a.k.a. Balthazar Rill) was the grandfather of Clara Rill. He was born 23 May 1836 and died 1 June 1913. He farmed in Ottowa County, Clay Township. In 1900, when he was farming, Ottowa County was first in the state in the growing of peaches and grapes for wine.

Clay Township, where Bolter and Catherine lived, had soil that was described as "...the base of the soil of this township is a hard clay, covered with black much very rich and productive. Wheat and corn were staple crops in that township and there were many apple orchards. It mentions that other fruits were raised, but since the township is located too far from the lake, it is more difficult to grow them. It is likely that Bolter and his family raised wheat, corn and other cereal crops. (Source: "U.S. County Land Ownership Atlases" on Ancestry.com)

Matilda and Gottfried Kinsel (Parents of Otto "Adam" Kinsel) also farmed in Ottowa County. In the 1880 census, Gottfried is listed as a "common laborer" and that leads me to believe he didn't own property. By 1900, he is listed as "Farmer" as well as a property owner in Benton Township.

In the US County Land Ownership Atlases cited above, Benton township is described as having "A large foreign element, especially of the German, are among the settlers. The influence of this element has been greatly felt in the work of developing the country, their strong constitutions and steady habits formed in the "Fatherland" fitting them specially for this kind of work."

Otto "Adam" Kinsel (17 Dec. 1857 to 22 Jun. 1896), Dora Treter Kinsel's husband, owned his own farm in Blue Creek Township, Paulding Co. Ohio:

It must have been a difficult place to farm. From what I've read, the land was "low, wet, swampy, timbered with oak, black ash, elm, and cottonwood". The early settlers had to drain the swamps in order to farm and that didn't happen really effectively until about 1880 when the county experienced a bit of a population boom. The drained swampland was very fertile and flat making it a good place for growing crops.

Julia Dorthea Treter Kinsel

This is the beginning of an occasional series where I attempt to flesh out the lives of our ancestors. This will likely lean heavily toward the Kinsel side of things (sorry Mom) since the Mongomery line has lots of stories and work done.

Julia "Dora" Treter Kinsel was born in Yurneschavo, Cries Schroda Province, Posen, Germany. Here parents were Daniel and Julia Baumert Treter. She had 3 brothers and one sister-, Ferdinand, Edward, Ameal (possibly Emil) and Anna.

In 1964, when Dora was just 14, her family left from Hamburg, Germany on the ship Thuringia. She and her family settled in Caroll, Ohio. Her father is listed in both the passenger list and in the 1889 census as being a "farmer". During the 1800's, many German immigrants came to Ohio to take part in the American dream. Most of their neighbors in the 1880 census are all from Germany or Prussia, so it perhaps wasn't as much of a "culture-shock" as we might think to move from her home in Germany to Ohio.

Dora met Otto "Adam" Emil Kinsel, another German Immigrant, and they were married 11 Mar, 1883. They had 6 children- 5 boys Emil Otto, Edward August, Henry Willie, Alfred August and Otto Godfriedt. Their oldest was their only girl- Matilda Dorthea.

[caption id="attachment_376" align="aligncenter" width="573" caption="Dora and her sons in 1946."][/caption]

Adam died when Matilda was just 13 years old. According to his obituary, he was "attempting to raise a bent" (i learned that a "bent" is an individual assembled section of timber that makes up the framework of a barn) with his wife and two brothers. One of the posts slipped and he fell and got caught between the plank and a sill. His head was "mangled" and had a number of ribs broken.

I can only imagine what it must have been like for Dora- not only did she lose her husband, but her children weren't old enough to really help out with the farm - their only means of income. The 1900 census shows that they had a hird laborer working for them on the farm. That must have been a big help.

Dora died 2 September, 1950 at the age of 89.