Aurand-Bensing

The pioneer Aurand and Bensing families of Malinta, Ohio were joined when Catharine Ann "Katie" Bensing married William Riley "Buzz" Aurand in June 1879. They farmed the Turkey Foot Bend Farm south of Malinta for many years.

W. R. Aurand was born January 21, 1854 in Hancock County, Ohio. He was about 20 years old when he came to Henry County with his father, Samuel, to settle the Aurand farm south of Malinta. He had a sister Harriet E. Hoy who settled in the state of Kansas. His other sister, Amanda, married Joseph L. Rentz. The Rentz' farm joined that of the Aurand family. Descendants of both of these families still own these farms settled so long ago.

Samuel Aurand's parents, John and Catharine, had been born in Pennsylvania, migrating to Pickaway County where Samuel was born and then to Hancock County about 1833. Samuel married Mary M. Benner (1830-1892) of Fairfield County.

Katie Bensing was born July 5, 1854 in Beaver County, Pa. Her father, John Bensing (1836-1898) had come from Wallroth in Hesse-Cassel in 1852. He was the son of Henry and Elizabeth Bensing. John settled in western Pennsylvania where he met Anna Barbara Ifft (1834-1911) the daughter of Peter and Anna Guenther Ifft of Zelianople in Butler County, Pa. After John and Anna were married he became the owner of a ferry which crossed the Ohio River at what is now Monaca, Pa. In the year 1863 they traded the ferry for 240 acres in Monroe Township. This was land that they had never seen.

The family came to Ohio twice. The hardships that they found in the black swamp — the insects, the mud, and the difficult job of land clearing so discouraged them that they returned to Pennsylvania. John Bensing and John Ifft, Anna's brother who had travelled with them, worked for a time in the oil fields before making a second attempt to establish a farm in Ohio.

As they cleared the land, the brothers-in-law established a sawmill and the Bensing Lumber business. John Ifft, however, was injured by some of the equipment and was forced to return again to Pennsylvania.

Besides Katie there were two other children born before the family came to Ohio: Jacob (1855-1910) and Anna (Mrs. John Hicks, born 1863). Those born in Ohio were: Elizabeth Malinta (Mrs. Bill .Sickmiller, born 1865); Henry Peter, born 1869; Charles, born 1871; and Ella (Mrs. Martin Brobst, born 1874).

In September of 1880 John Bensing platted part of his land and laid out a village which he named for the first of his children to be born there, Malinta.

Besides the sawn-fill, the Bensings also established the Bensing Tile Mill. The oldest son, Jacob, was the inventor of a tile cutting machine and other equipment. Henry Peter was the business man who operated the businesses.

Both the Aurand and Bensing families were active. in the community life. John Bensing donated the land for the Trinity Lutheran Church which was built in 1887. Samuel Aurand was Treasurer of Monroe Township and W.R. Aurand and Charles Bensing served on the school board. Members of both families have served on the town council. Katie Aurand was for many years the teacher of the young ladies class at the Trinity Lutheran Church, and was called "Aunt Kate" by everyone. She belonged to the Daughters of Rebecca and the Pythian Sisters.

Buzz Aurand belonged to the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He was a Methodist but attended the Lutheran Church activities with his wife. An outdoorsman, as well as a vigorous farmer, he loved to hunt and fish. When he returned from deer hunting trips in Maine he would have the deer cooked at the K of P Hall and it would be the occasion for all of Malinta to eat venison together. At the age of seventy he walked the fourteen miles to his son's home in Weston in three hours and twenty-two minutes, reportedly carrying a fifty pound bag of sugar.

W.R. and Katie Aurand had three children:

Grover Cleveland Aurand was graduated from the Eclectic Medical College in Cincinnati in 1910 and practiced medicine in Clyde, Weston, and Bowling Green, Ohio. He married Mary Slessman of Clyde in 1912. When he was sixteen he participated in a bicycle race from Toledo to Columbus with Barney Oldfield, later a famous racing driver. Grover Aurand was born in 1884 and died in 1964.

Orpha Edna (Mrs. Richard L. Cody) was born in 1879 and lived in or near Malinta all of her life. Like her parents she enjoyed activities with the young people of the community. She married Dick Cody in 1895. Her children Clayton Aurand Cody, Blair Winfield Cody, and Richard Riley Cody and their families have all continued the family traditions in the church and town. Orpha died in Malinta in 1941.

Beatrice Wiseman (Mrs. Walter B. Sloan) became a part of the Aurand family after her own parents died in 1895 when she was two years old. She became a teacher in Malinta for eight years. She taught first in the rural school, Brush College and later in the Malinta school. She married Walter B. Sloan, M.D. of Grelton, Ohio in 1919 and now resides in Toledo.

Material Prepared By: Catharine Sloan Eberly