Hello all! Here is an artical that I wrote that may be of interest to most of you! Let me know if there are any omisions or errors. Are your relatives listed? Steve THE EMIGRATION FROM LEHIGH CO. PA TO SENECA CO. OHIO By Stephen J. Hartzell The following story appeared in the Allentown, Pennsylvania, Free Press on September 3, 1879, and was reprinted in the Tiffin, Ohio, Evening Herald on September 6, 1879. It was written at a time when about 700 people came from Allentown to Tiffin with the Liberty Fire Company. The week was filled with tournaments, contests, parties, and all other things that would go along with a fireman's convention. Although the city of Tiffin was expecting only about 254 people, they somehow made accommodations for 700. The result was an event which proved to be a raving success. For our purposes, the most important thing about this article is that it deals specifically with the ongoing emigration from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, to Seneca County, Ohio. Of these emigrants, some eventually continued west while many remained in the young Ohio county. Still others went west only to return to Seneca County in future years, as was the case with our Hartzell ancestors. They went west in 1868 only to return in 1875 and live out the remainder of their years in Seneca County, Ohio, the place they had truly come to call home. �THE GERMAN PEOPLE Of the nearly 700 People who left Allentown on Sunday night with the Liberty fire company's excursion to Tiffin, Ohio, there were few who did not have some relative or acquaintance in the Ohio town which with its vicinity was long the destination of all Lehigh County people who went west. Tiffin is a prosperous and growing town in a progressive farming district, where agriculture is carried on with all the improved facilities for money making; the farmers are rich, and, we must admit it, there are some particulars in which they, as Pennsylvania Germans have advanced far ahead of those left behind them when they bid adieu to the Delaware, the Lehigh and the Schuylkill. It has frequently been remarked with truth that nothing can excel the value of the Pennsylvania German to the country to which he emigrates. Retaining all the inherited industry of his ancestors in a new country, he affords a rare combination of careful thrift regulating a liberal enterprise. He seems to have broken through the conservative hands that restrain him, and to have taken a spirit of progressiveness which send him easily to the front. He builds the schoolhouse, is forward in improvements of all kinds, and while spending money freely for public and private benefits, he pays as he goes in both a public and private capacity. It is as though a solid, long unused, but accumulating increasing fertility and richness through the passing years had felt the first tickle of tile hoe and had pushed into blossom a variety of energies which it is not supposed to possess. and this figure leads to an explanation of why the same men do not do at home what they accomplish with such signal ability and power in other localities. They are the same heads and hearts and hands, in one place as another. But in the past it has been true that all the splendid natural faculties of the Pennsylvania German at home have been held in obevance by the fact that he spoke a language without grammar or literature of any kind, which concealed from him the channels in which he might compete for the lead among men; and which did not inform him of the methods by which men achieve distinction and power and build up the highest material prosperity.� Allentown Free Press September 5, 1879 THE EMIGRANTS The following is a listing of the families that are known to have settled in Seneca County, Ohio, once residents of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, with the approximate year of emigration if known. Solomon and Catherine Robenalt - 1828 James and Mary (Brobst) Swander - 1830 Henry and Christina Neff - 1832 Thomas and Sarah (Blair) Swander - 1833 Joseph and Mary (Rary) Hilsinger - 1835 Henry Moore - 1836 John Moore - 1836 John & Catherine (Garman) Hensinger - 1837 Solomon and Anna (Rader) Bennehoff - 1840-43 Edward H. and Mary (Trexler) Swander - 1841 Samuel and Lydia (Shellhammer) Pontius - 1842 John and Elizabeth (Glick) Swander - 1842 Augusta and Hanna (Strauss, Benninghoff) Schiffert - 1845 Stephen and Lavina (Kaul) Strauss - 1845 Henry W. Konkle - 1845 James and Catherine (Meyer) Hartzell - 1847 Paul and Carolina Hartzell - 1847 John Henry (Henrich) - 1847 Joseph Henry (Henrich) - 1847 Lewis & Esther Shubert - 1847 Daniel Shubert - 1847 Solomon and Judith (Cook) Litzenberger - 1847 Reuben and Sarah (Schiffert) Hartzell - 1847-48 John Meyers - 1848 Isaac and Judah (Stienberger) Strauss - 1848-49 Henry Strauss - 1848 David and Mary (Derr) Strauss - 1848 James H. Hartzell - 1848 Harrison W. Hartzell - 1848 Jacob and Elmira (Litzenberger) Eisenhart - 1848 David B. and Lydia (Litzenberger) Burger - 1850 William and Clarissa Schmoyer - 1852 John and Barbara Hartzell - 1852 Tilghman and Hanna (Lineberger) Litzenberger - 1853 Lavina (Schiffert) Wiese - 1854 Daniel Hartsell - 1855 Solomon and Salome (Litzenberger) Glick - 1855 Jacob and Mary (Litzenberger) Samsel - 1856 Henry and Henrietta (Strauss) Fatzinger - 1859-61 Jonas Romig - 1865 William & Mary (Stopp) Wenner - 1867 Samuel & Mary A. Horne - 1869 Benjamin Horne - 1869 James F. and Polly Ann Focht - 1870 George Hartzell - 1877 Alvin Jacob and Susannah Hartzell - 1877 Edgar Hartzell - 1877 Walter H. Hartzell William H. Hartzell - 1877 Dr. B. F. Hittel - 1878 George Harrison and Mary (Hepp) Kichline - 1899 DATE UNKNOWN George & Elizabeth (Shoemaker) Kopp Elizabeth Kopp (dau.) Jacob, Elizabeth and Rebecca George Amilia Groman William Alford Swartz Wilson W. and Miranda I. Keller Daniel and Mary Ann Swander Nathan Glick John L. Gahris Peter and Elvina Gahris W. M. Shaffer Dr. William H. Focht Jonas and Anna (Strauss) Seiple Ella Manda (Seiple) Snyder Joseph and Christina (Brinkerhoff) Swander George Kaul William Kaul John H. and Ellen (Stein) Glick Enos and Rebecca (Roth) Laros John and Catherine (Swander) Glick Isaac and Christiana (Fisher) Hall Francis Trexler J. E. Lynn George Thalman George Wiess