History of Rose Township

I discovered a document online that gives a lot of information about the Rose Township, Carroll County area around Morges, Ohio. I hope you find it as interesting as I did. Unfortunately, it doesn't really mention the Halter family, but it does give a view of the environment that they found themselves in when they came here from Alsace. I have included a link to this document in the "Related Information" section at the top right of this blog page.

Some Picture Updates, More To Come

On Thursday, August 26, Sue and I visited the cemetery at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Morges, Ohio. My mother and father were living on a farm near Morges when I was born in 1946. The farm was owned by my grandfather, Florentz A. Halter, and his wife, Barbara McCarty Halter. The picture below shows that farm in 2010.



















The stone message board shown above was donated to St. Mary's by my father, George J. Halter and his sister, Mary Esther (Halter) Shalosky, in memory of their parents. My father, who was a brick layer and stone mason, designed and built the structure. It was completed in 1976.



















The pictures below show some of the headstones that are in good enough condition to read. There are many older stones that have simply had the inscriptions completely worn away by weathering.

This shows the graves of my great-grandfather and great-grandmother. They are Florentz's father and mother. I believe that great-grandpa's father (Joseph) came to Ohio in the early 1830's around the age of 5 with his father (also Joseph), his mother, his grandfather (Ludwig or Louis) and grandmother. Joseph and his family stayed in Ohio, but Ludwig/Louis, his wife and some other family members went west and settled in Scott Co. Missouri. Ludwig/Louis and his wife are buried there.

My grandparents and my father are not buried in this cemetary, so I am not including pictures of their grave markers in this post.

Below is a picture of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Morges, Ohio. It was first built in 1834, and has been rebuilt and remodeled since that time.






















The stone below shows the names of Michael Halter (1831-1901) and his wife, Magdalen (1841-1929). I have no information about how these Halters fit into our family tree, but they obviously have a connection to Morges.






















































On the opposite side of this same marker are the names of the Conrads, Jacob and Mary. A possible explanation is that Mary Conrad was the daughter of Michael and Magdalen Halter, but I have no documentation for that.





































This last marker was in the oldest section of the cemetary and, as you can see, was difficult to read. Sue and I both thought that the name appears to be John Halter, but that is questionable. In the bottom picture, the date of death might be in June of 1873, but again, that is a guess.

More Data

Here is the text of an email that I received recently from Francine Conn Halter who lives in Missouri.

Bill, I received your email saying that you believe we are related. For lots of years I've been hunting for a Halter from Stark Co., OH who would communicate with me about our Halters -- some of whom came from Alsace to Stark Co., OH. I had heard that some of our Halters stayed in Stark Co., while others moved westward to Scott Co., MO and elsewhere.

I feel sure our Halters are related -- it's just a matter of how.

My Halter file has the Joseph Halter who married Elizabeth Duerr as son of Joseph Halter & wife Alphia who married abt 1828.

I have no Joseph listed as a son for Joseph Halter & Marie Anna Lang.

Do you have any primary sources (Bible? Church records? etc) to prove that Joseph who married Duerr is the son of Joseph who married Marie Anna Lang?

Our direct Halter line is this:

1 Louis/Ludwig Halter 1740-1800 m. Marguerite Eck 1740-1800
2 Louis Halter 1765 – m. Madeline Royer 1769 -
3 Mathias Halter 1807 – 1873 m. Theresa Mary Marz 1812 - 1865
4 Louis Halter 1843 – 1883 m. Mary Elizabeth Lindeman 1849 - 1934
5 Michael Henry Halter 1872 – 1970 m1st Mary Ethel Carlisle (mother of children) 1880 – 1937
6 Norbert Louis Halter 1923 – m. Margaret Elizabeth Boyd 1924 - 1982
7 Philip Michael Halter 1948 – m. Linda Francine Conn 1949 –

Talk to you soon.

Francine Conn Halter
Charleston, Mississippi Co., MO
(next door to Scott Co., MO)
email - LFHALTER@AOL.COM

St. Nicholas Church

Here is a picture of St. Nicholas Church, in Schirrhein. It serves Shirrhein and the nearby village of Schirrhoffen. This is the "new" church. The original one was destroyed in 1945 during the liberation of France. The area is predominately Catholic, but had a strong Jewish population until about 1900.

When some of the Halters moved from Ohio to Scott County, Missouri in the 1840's, they built a church there that was modeled after the one that they had left behind in Alsace.

German Prayer Book

This prayer book belonged to one of the early Halters, but at present I don't know which one. I am going to visit my Aunt (Mary) Esther tomorrow. I will take it along and see if she can tell me anything about it. You can click on the collage to make it bigger. UPDATE: Esther did not know whose book it was.

Outline of Halters Through The Years

HALTER Family History
The first with the surname HALTER in Schirrhein, Alsace, France area "were one of two brothers. Abraham and Jacob HALTER. They left the village of Tafer in the Canton of Fribourg southwest of the Canton of Bern, Switzerland for land in Alsace that had been stripped of its population during the Thirty Years War. They immigrated to Schirrhein, Alsace between 1650 and 1660. In 1689 Abraham HALTER died in Schirrhein. Among his descendants, was Edouard HALTER of Schirrhein, Alsace's most famous poet, historian, and literary critic. A lesser known but nonetheless interesting descendant was Romain HALTER, the first mayor of Schirrhein, who served through the chaotic period of 1789-1792, during the French Revolution. Descendants of Abraham and Jacob are now scattered throughout the area and are found predominately in towns and villages around Schirrhein, particularly Schirrhoffen, Bischwiller, and Hagenau."
Courtesy of: Vincent Falter

My Own Halter Line

I know that this is far from a substitute for a family tree, but I needed to get something down in print so that I could then work from there to clean it up. I have only included couples that had or have Halter as their surname. That is not to mean that others are not important, but I needed to simplify this beginning list and that was one way to do it. To the best of my knowledge, the information is correct, but there are items that must be filled in, even in the more modern listings. A listing of children for each of these couples will come soon.

The most complete listing of husband-wife pairs is:

In Schirrhoffen

Louis Halter, b: about 1740 married Marguarite Eck, b: about 1740

Ludwig Halter, b: March 1765 married Magdalena Royer, b: 1769

Joseph Halter, b: January 24, 1797 married Marie Anna Lang, b: April 1, 1799

In Ohio

Joseph Halter, b: June 12, 1828 married Elizabeth Duerr

Joseph Herman Halter, b: April 19, 1858 married Magdalene Casper

Florentz Andrew Halter, b: July 25, 1893 married Barbara McCarty, b: November 20, 1896

George Joseph Halter, b: April 25, 1923 married Pauline Elinor Ebner, b: April 29, 1923

William Andrew Halter, b: June 18, 1946 married Susan Louise Moomy, b: March 26, 1948

Michael William Halter, b: August 27, 1973 married Kimberly Nicole Neuharth, b: September 11, 1980

So Ludwig and Magdalena, Joseph and Marie Anna and their young son Joseph made the trip from Schirrhoffen to Stark County, Sandy Township, Ohio. My great grandfather, Joseph Herman Halter is the gentleman wearing the dark suit in the group picture. His wife, Magdalene, is on the far right. The complete list of people in the picture, from left to right (standing) are:

Joseph, Florentz Halter, Barbara Halter, (with the hat in the back, George McCarty, Barbara's father), Barbara's sisters, Bertha, Martha and Emma (I'm taking an educated guess on those) and then Magdalene.

Sitting ( left to right): Florentz and Barbara's daughters Mary Esther, and Elizabeth (Betty). Betty died, I believe before age 3. And then is Agnes, another of Barbara's sisters. There were seven sisters in her family, no brothers. There will be more on the McCarty sisters in a later post.

The other picture shows my grandparents, Florentz and Barbara, again, with Mary Esther and my dad, George (age 5) seeming to be uncooperative about having his picture taken

These pictures were taken in the summer of 1928 at Shoenbrunn, which was evidently a traditional Halter family gathering place in the summer. My parents took my brother and I there when we were kids. Ok, Mike and Kris, when should we schedule a visit to Schoenbrunn. Below is a little background on the subject.

Schoenbrunn

The Moravian church founded Schoenbrunn ("beautiful spring") in 1772 as a mission to the Delaware Indians. The settlement grew to include sixty dwellings and more than 300 inhabitants who drew up Ohio's first civil code and built its first Christian church and schoolhouse.

Problems associated with the American Revolution prompted Schoenbrunn's closing in 1777. Schoenbrunn's story features a rare meeting of Indian and European cultures and a fascinating perspective on the American Revolution.

Today the reconstructed village includes seventeen log buildings, gardens, the original mission cemetery, and a museum and visitor center. The site also includes natural areas and picnic facilities.

You Have To Start Somewhere

Yesterday, 8/30/09, I created this blog as a way of sharing, organizing and hopefully expanding my knowledge of my Halter ancestors. Much of the information I have comes from the research of others. Discussions of the more recent history of Ohio Halters will have more of my own recollections.

The map below shows the area around the neighboring villages of Schirrhein and Schirrhoffen. This is the starting point for Ludwig Halter when he immigrated to Ohio around 1832, with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandson. Depending on the fortunes of war, these villages were at times German and at other times French. My relatives arrived in Ohio as Germans. Today, the villages are part of France.



Future posts will include more specific information about the early Halters. I also have a number of photographs from the 1920's to today that will be part of these posts.

If you have any information that you think might be relevant to my family history, please share it with me.