The Henry Filling Family

Henry Filling was born in the Hanover, Germany area on February 19, 1839. As a young man of fourteen years, he and his family immigrated to Woodville, Ohio, under the sponsorship of a family by the name of Schuzenburg. He grew to manhood in the Woodville area working as a hired man to various farm families. Having fled the Prussian oppression of Germany, he knew the value of willful diligent labor in freedom. Hard work drew more than personal satisfaction; Henry also drew the attention of other hard working parents who had eligible daughters. One such family was the family of Maria Meierholtz, born here in America on May 24, 1844.

Maria and Henry were married at Solomon Lutheran Church in Woodville. Their first home was a huge wood frame farm house south of Woodville. Six children were born in the nineteenth century to Henry and Maria. They were: (John) Fred 12/3/ 67; (William) Louis 5/20/70; (Anna) Mary 2/12/72; (Sophie) Caroline otherwise affectionately known as Carrie 9/26/74; (Herman) Henry 12/8/76; and (August) William 4/3/82. Like their father and mother, the children were reared to work hard. Each of the children received their education in the Woodville Solomon Lutheran German School which served as training in the four R's of religion, reading, writing, and 'rithmetic. After Confirmation, which in that day concluded formal education, each of the young Filling family members were hired out to help others.

In the spring of 1890 after the Confirmation of Henry, the second youngest, the Filling family moved to the fifty-five acre farm of George Loomis, two miles south of Napoleon. The farm in Napoleon Township adjoined the present land on State Highway 108. The family located in art old log cabin on the farmstead. Later, the family moved to the white frame farm house.

Hard labor in the soil known as the "Black Swamp" was diligent toil from sun-up to sun-down included gradualclearing of the extremely wooded land along with cropping and care of the livestock. The younger children of the family continued their education at the Dunbar School on the Belknap farm after their move to Henry County. Here and in the usual activities of the community they became acquainted with the neighbors.

After the death of their mother in early 1903, and their father in late 1910, the family became even closer. The brothers shared in the farm work while the sisters shared the household duties. The family invested in land and other ventures. Soon the family was in ownership of a number of farms. One such purchase was a farm to the north with a number of large maple trees on the farmstead. One maple tree remains at this writing and serves as a landmark to the properties to this day.

[Photo, p. 190] Left to right, top: Mary, Fred, Mother Mary, Father Henry, Louis, Carrie; bottom: William and Henry.

[Photo A, p. 191] Filling Homestead

[Photo B, p. 191] Mary Filling making apple butter.

[Photo C, p. 191] Untitled

Remaining close to one another, the family sponsored many immigrants and were always ready to help the needy. The sisters helped care for the sick, infirmed, and dying in other families. The brothers helped others get started or merely get their work done. As none of the brothers and sisters married early in life (Carrie later married George Vajen), they laid plans for a family legacy. So well was the planned legacy laid that as each of the brothers and sisters grew older and died, they passed to their survivors the legacy of their labors intact. There were of course many indications of what was to come in the family's generous endowments to many causes. Largest among these charitable endowments went to their church, Emanuel Lutheran of Napoleon, Heller Memorial Hospital of Napoleon, and the Luther Home of Mercy of Wiliston, Ohio. The largest, however, is the Filling Memorial Home of Mercy located south of Napoleon. At the writing of this history the carefully planned legacy remains intact. Sprawling on the soil in which they labored, in the shadow of the remaining maple tree, is the center in which the focus of that legacy is at work on behalf of the needy. Dedicated as a means through which those, inspired by life, labor on in behalf of those in need. A living legacy to what God and man in harmony has and will accomplish to comfort and restore the broken to personhood and freedom.

Submitted by Theodore Doctor