My dad and I about 1987
This Father's Day I thought it might be fun to brush off the family history information and write about my paternal line as far back as I know it. I will post pictures of the men that I have picture of.
Here is my dad's senior picture. (1949)
My father is still living.
Fred Rohrer
1903 - 1985
My father's father was born in New Waverly Indiana. He retired as a clerk with the Chicago, Burlington & Quebec Railroad. He was also a manger of the Woolworth store in Downers Grove Illinois for 25 years. He was a member of Order of Eastern Star Lodge 242, Royal Arch Lodge 230 and Masonic Lodge 824. all of Downers Grove. He died in Knox, Indiana where the family often summered at Bass Lake.
Oscar Rohrer
(in the overalls)
1878-1938
My father's grandfather owned a farm on the Cass County/Miami County line road. His wife died giving birth to my father's father and my great grandfather remarried the woman I knew as my great grandmother. She raised my father after his parents were divorced. So the farm is a place of many memories for my father.
Frederick Rohrer
1843 - 1931
Frederick Rohrer was my father's great grandfather. His obituary follows:
From The Peru Republican, Friday, March 20, 1931
FRED ROHRER DEAD
Prominent Retired Farmer Passed Away Tuesday Night
Frederick Rohrer died at his home, five miles west of Peru on the county line, Tuesday night at 8 o'clock, following a few days' illness from erysipelas. Mr. Rohrer, a farmer, had resided in Miami county for many years and was 90 years old. He was born in Holmes county, Ohio., March 5, 1841, the son of the late David and Sarah Rohrer. Mr. Rohrer was a member of the Erie U. B. church. Surviving besides the widow, Mrs. Pauline Rohrer, are three sons, Clarence Rohrer of Wabash IN ; Oscar Rohrer, of Peru R.R. 6; and Edward Rohrer of near Amboy; a daughter, Mrs. Ada Tillet, of Peru; a step-son Robert Stair, Peru, R.R. 7; two sisters, Mrs. Mary Mischler, of Elkhart and Mrs. Ella Solmon; 10 grandchildren, and 1 great grand child. The body was removed to the William Drake funeral home, where funeral services were conducted Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock, with Thomas Shively officiating. Interment was made in Reyburn cemetery.
David Rohrer
1813 - 1876
David Rohrer is buried at Fairfield Cemetery
Fairfield Township
Dekalb County IN
County Roads 12 & 13
I don't have a photo of my father's great great grandfather. He is buried in Dekalb County Indiana. A family member wrote the following story about him in 1942 for a presentation of a family reunion:
The following are excerpts taken from "The Story of the David Rohrer family" by Walter Delso Smith - 1942
". . . From some branch of this stock David Rohrer was born in December, 1813, about four miles from Baltimore, Maryland. It appears that by the time he reached manhood he had emigrated to Holmes county Ohio, - a considerable westward journey at that time. Migrations westward were a pioneer tendency of the period. A Wible family from Penn. had arrived in Holmes county and among its children was healthy rose-cheeked Sarah. Yes, she had come with her parents, Fredrick and Elizabeth, from Somerset county, Penn. where she had been born on September 16, 1816.
David became acquainted with this Pennsylvania lass and due to personal temperament, environment, the love disease and custom they were married in 1823 when he was twenty and she seventeen. They were not wealthy in material things, - in fact they were quite poor,- but ike all young married couples were rich in aspirations and their ideals of success in life. They began house-keeping in Holmes county where in their modest home on March 28, 1835 their first-born arrived, a little girl whom they named Elizabeth - no doubt after her maternal grandmother. This little girl on growing to maturity became very dear to me for she was my mother.
As time went on, David and Sarah became restless feeling the lure of the west with its pioneer possibilities. So, they decided to move to Indiana. In the meantime their home brood was increasing for in those pioneer days the stork needed several assistants to aid him in getting his work done on scheduled time. In some instances even yet that particular tendency persists. Having travelled almost directly west, in their covered wagon drawn by yoke of oxen they finally arrived in the Hoosier state and tried new homes in Elkart, Miami, and DeKalb counties. After Elizabeth, the children came in the following order: Lena, 1837; Margaret, 1838; Frederick, 1841; Mary, 1846; Amanda, 1848; Jacob, 1852; John, 1854; Eliza, 1857; and Ellen 1861. Total, 10. Lena died in infancy, John when five years of age, Eliza when quite young and Jacob when eighteen years old. The remainder grew to maturity and raised families.
The grandchildren called their grand-father either 'grand-pa' or'grand-pap', but grandmother was always 'granny' to each of them. In our family we called father 'pap' and naturally, therefore, grandfather 'grand-pap'. . . .
Although I was only about six years old when Grand-pa Rohrer's funeral was held, I still have recollections of it. The casket at that time was a plain wooden coffin and the hearse or funeral car an uncovered country spring wagon. A white cloth covered the coffin as it was transferred from the house to the grave-yard. He was only sixty-three and should have lived much longer. Often in the months following I found my mother sobbing the bitter grief that burdened her heart with bereavement."
Jacob Isaac Rohrer
1780 - 1850
My father's great great great grandfather was Jacob Isaac Rohrer. We do not yet know who his parents were. Although believed to be born in Maryland and known to be married in that state, he migrated with his family to Berlin, Ohio and eventually acquired a farm of 500 acres. He died in Holmes County Ohio. at the age of 70.
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