The Furrhop Family

America, the land of milk and honey! Opportunity, freedom, and rich fertile soil awaited those who sought a new country.

And so it was in 1880. With $40 in his pocket, Henry Fuhrhop made the long journey with his wife Katharina and their year old son Henry from Harburg, Germany, to Ohio near the banks of the Maumee River in Henry County. No one knows how long the journey took or the pictures of America Henry and Katharina had formed in their minds.

But a booklet written by a nephew and given to Henry Fuhrhop during a trip back to Germany in 1922 illustrates their surprise and disillusionment when they reached the "promised land." The rich fertile soil lay under acres and acres of trees, and lurking behind those trees were Indians.

But Henry was young and knew how to handle an axe forcefully, the booklet states. And so with energy, eagerness, and fresh spirits, he set out to conquer the woods so that he could farm the land. The Indians soon retreated.

Henry's family grew with the birth of two more sons - Fred, in 1882, and Otto, in 1887. In 1892, a daughter, Ella, was born.

As Henry's family expanded, so also did his farm. After years of determination and hard labor, he acquired his first 80 acres near Elery, a small town located in central Henry County.

[Photo A, p. 199] Henry and Katharina Fuhrhop, taken between 1916 and 1922.

"My brothers always worked right along with Dad and never received any pay," Mrs. Ella Hoffman recently related. "Dad had exceptionally good stallions he used for stud services, and my brother, Henry, started working at Bensing's Tile Mill in Malinta, Ohio, when he was 15. The money Dad earned from the stallions and Henry earned from the tile mill was invested in more land. We all worked hard in those days."
But they also knew fun — particularly the boys; she added, "I remember when Fred and Henry got into trouble one day." She continued, "Fred talked Henry into putting on one of Grandma's dresses and bonnets and climbing the windmill. When the neighbors saw Henry at the top of the windmill, they thought Grandma had gone berserk and was trying to oil the clog wheel."
Recreation for Henry and Katharina was dancing. "There was always some kind of dance in the area to attend," Mrs. Hoffman said. "My mother loved music and could often be heard singing to the children."
Sunday mornings were devoted to church services. Mrs. Alma Fuhrhop (Henry Jr.'s wife) recalled recently that her husband told her how the family decided which church to attend.
"In those days, the only way to get to church was on a horse or by walking," Mrs. Fuhrhop said. The family had been rotating attendance among three different churches in the vicinity, she related. But one Sunday, when theboys were a little older, they used a horse and wagon for transportation. After coming to the first crossroad, Henry Sr. asked his sons to decide which church they would attend permanently. The church on which the boys decided today bears the name of Henry Fuhrhop on its cornerstone. Also to this day, the family of Henry Fuhrhop III are members of this same church.
Time passed and each of the children married. Fred married Helena Schultz in 1907 and reared one foster child, Byron Willford. After Helena's death in 1946, Fred married Mabel Seiling. Otto married Carolina Witte in 1912 and reared Byron's brother, Claude Willford. After Carolina's death, Otto married Marie Leifer Will-ford in 1933. Mrs. Willford was then a widow with one daughter, who is now
Elizabeth Willford Russell. Ella married George Hoffman in 1914 and bore one daughter in 1916, who is now Mildred Hoffman Foels. Henry Jr. married Alma Hastedt in 1916 and reared two children — now Martha Fuhrhop Heckler, born in 1917, and Henry III, born in 1919.
In 1922, Henry and Katharina started making plans for a trip back to Germany. It had been 42 years since they left their homeland. In preparation for the trip, Katharina ordered a tailor-made suit — a suit which never left America. Katharina Fuhrhop died of influenza on March 18, 1922. She was buried in her new suit.

[Photo B, p. 199] The Fuhrhop family taken in 1902 in front of their home near Elery. Seated are Henry and Katharina; standing, left to right: Otto, Fred, Henry, Jr., and Ella. The portion a the house left of the porch was the original home.

[Photo C, p. 199] Threshing equipment that Henry, Fred and Otto Fuhrhop used. Taken on Elery Road about 1912 or 1914.

Henry was persuaded by his children to make the trip to Germany in spite of his wife's death several months earlier. From May through September, 1922, he traveled through his homeland visiting friends and relatives and was able to return once again to Germany before his death.
In 1937 Henry became ill and died several weeks thereafter. With the help of his family, the $40 with which Henry began his life in America had multiplied into 320 acres which were divided equally among his children after his death.
Henry's sons proved to be just as industrious as their father. By pooling their resources, they invested in threshing equipment and were hired by area farmers during threshing season. Henry and Otto also became involved in the gasoline and oil distributing business. Henry shortly thereafter sold his interest to Otto, who then became a Fleetwing oil distributor for several years.
Mrs. Marie Fuhrhop recently recalled how her husband, Otto, chided Allis-Chalmers' representatives because the pickup seed brush on their combines did not work properly. The Allis-Chalmers' people challenged him to make a better one. So he did!
"There were many nights when Otto would wake up in the middle of the night with an idea in his head and go right out to the shed to work a few hours," Mrs. Fuhrhop related.
In 1941 Otto received a patent for his rotating pickup brush for combine harvesters. And it worked on any combine.
All three sons lived long and prosperous lives. Fred died at the age of 84 in 1966; Henry died the day before his 93rd birthday in 1972; and Otto died at the age of 87 in 1974. Mrs. Ella Hoffman, 83, still survives.
During this bicentennial year of our nation, it may be well for each of us to reflect on people like the Fuhrhop family. It is through their ingenuity, perseverance, and hard labor that we live today in convenience, comfort, and freedom.

Submitted By Patricial A. Bilow