The Earl Mayer Family

Earl (1900-) and Mary (1914-) Mayer live in Malinta. Earl was reared a mile and a half west of town and Mary, in Malinta. Earl is retired after having worked for the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton Railroad as car inspector for 47 years. He also worked in the Horticultural Department at Franz Nursery four years. Their two acre plot, consisting of a garden, an orchard and a lawn, provides plenty of exercise and pleasure with extra vegetables, fruits, and flowers to share with others. They both take a great interest in people. Earl readily recalls names of just about everyone he has ever met. Now he has time to renew acquaintances - at the post office, the store and the gas station. Often people, going by, stop to chat with him when he is out mowing or cultivating or trimming.

At times Earl and Mary reflect on the past and try to imagine how life was for their ancestors. Though Mary can go back to her father's mother's parents, this treatise shall start with their grandparents.

Earl Mayer, 1975

Earl's grandfather, Christian Mayer (1816-1908), probably came to Ohio directly from Germany. In Clyde, Ohio, he met and married Almeda Burroughs (1849-1915) who grew up there. They moved to a thirteen acre farm two miles west of Bensing's. (Today Bensing's would be at the corner of State Route 109 and County Road L.) Earl remembers them living in the wood siding summer kitchen. It seemed like most of the year, anyway, to a nine year old. The summer kitchen really was that: during the warm summer months they live in this building completely detached from the main house.

Both of Earl's maternal grandparents, Daniel (1844-1914) and Elizabeth Paxton (1839-1931) Grim were reared in Perry County, Ohio, and after marriage moved to a farm near Elery, Ohio. Daniel was a carpenter. With many new settlers moving in constantly he was kept busy. He built a house on Appian Avenue in Napoleon for his family which looks very much the same today.

Mary's paternal grandparents were Daniel (1827-1890) and Mary Elizabeth Dauber (1845-1914) Geist. The Geist family in Henry County originated with Daniel who in his late teens left his Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, home because he accepted his father's strict German discipline as being mean to him. The lure of the rich soil in the Black Swamp led him to Henry County, Ohio. Mary Elizabeth had come from Bavaria, Germany, when she was eight years old. A year or so earlier her father, Henry Dauber (1823-1897), left his wife Mary E.and children in Germany to find a place for them in America. He chose Seneca County, Ohio.

The Daniel Geist Family and Home - 1902. Back row: Amos, Asa, Rosa, David, Martin; front row: Martha, Laura Dietrich (granddaughter), Mary E. (wife of Daniel), Henry. Daniel was deceased.

A favorite family story of Mary's, told by her father, relates the coming of the remainder of the Dauber family: "When Grandma and her six children were in mid-ocean, a terrible storm arose. All on board expected the ship to go down. Grandma gathered her children about her and had them cling to her dress as she prayed and talked to them. She wanted them to all go down together. The storm abated and eventually they were united with Grandpa."

"They lived for a number of years in Seneca County, Ohio, from whence they removed . . . to live in the then wilds of Henry County and located near the farm on which she spent the most of her life." (Obituary of Mary Elizabeth Dauber Geist)

There Daniel and Mary met. They bought a farm directly across the creek (South Turkeyfoot) from Dauber's. The Geist farm was one and a half miles west of Bensing's.

The maternal grandparents of Mary were Samuel (1820-1898) and Eliza Ann Wirick (1839-1925) Overhuls. Samuel's family dates back to the time of the Revolutionary War, but the information at hand can trace his ancestry only to Shenandoah County, Virginia, in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley where he was born. Prior to the Civil War he adopted Ohio as his home and thus fought against his brothers in that conflict. Left a widower with seven children, he married Eliza Ann in Champaign County, Ohio, where their four children were born. They moved to Henry County and settled on a 121/2 acre plot on the Yellow Stone Trail next to Bensing's west line. Sammy Overhuls was best known for helping settlers for miles around to get apple trees started. His own orchard produced apples enough to share with neighbors and plenty left over for winter storage and drying.

After moving to Henry County in 1867, Samuel's membership was transferred by letter to Sharon M E Church of which he was an active worker. Eliza Ann was an ardent worker in the church herself. For many years, she taught the young people's class at Trinity Lutheran, Malinta.

Earl's parents were Ernest Peter Mayer (Pete) (1872-1930), the son of Christian and Almeda Burroughs Mayer, and Mary Elizabeth Grim (1874-1963), daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Paxton Grim. Pete and Mary's original farm of twenty acres was earned by Pete working for farmers at 75 cents a day.

Mayer's had an ice house. In the winter, with the help of a neighbor, they stored ice for use in summer. They used it in the icebox in the house for keeping perishable foods and in a large tank to cool their milk that they sold to the Napoleon Creamery. The milk was picked up "out at the corner" because the milk truck could not get through on their muddy road. In the early 1920's Pete had the road stoned to his place at his own expense which amounted to 800 dollars.

During Mary's latter thirty years she quilted more than 100 quilts. People from far and near sought her work. Her fine stitching could not be excelled.

Henry Geist (1871-1957), son of Daniel and Mary Elizabeth Dauber Geist, and Ede May Overhuls (18771967), daughter of Samuel and Eliza Ann Wirick Overhuls, grew up a half mile apart and were married in 1900. Mary is their third child of a family of five children.

Henry served as cashier of the Farmers and Merchants Bank from 1910 to 1933. Earl's two sisters, Esther and Hazel, worked a total of ten years as assistant cashier.

Ede gave organ lessons prior to her marriage. To get to the homes of her pupils, some of which lived beyond Grelton, she went by horse and buggy.

Henry and Ede lived in Malinta and were an active part of just about everything that went on in town. Henry served on the Board of Education for many years as member, president and clerk. He was 4H Club advisor and Chairman of the Red Cross. Ede sang in the Henry County Chorus, with a quartet at funerals and at other musical activities. Both held responsible positions in the Farmers' Institute, local and state McGuffy Society and Henry County Senior Citizens Club.

Earl and Mary recall events from their earlier days. Pete Mayer's were less than two miles from Malinta; they were in the Napoleon School District. Earl and his brother rode their bicycles the six and a half miles to school. Along the way they were joined by others. In bad weather they went by horse and buggy.

In 1918 Earl worked on a delivery truck of the Malinta Company Store. The truck ran once a week. He took groceries to farmers, and picked up their orders for the next week and their eggs that they sold to the store.

Highlights of Mary's childhood were the trips in the Model T Ford which the family got in 1914 when only a few people had cars. In her own words Mary reminisces: "We seldom left town without a neighbor child or more with us. Occasionally we took adults to other towns to visit their relatives. A flat tire or two was one of the expected events. The boys helped Papa take out the front seat cushion to get at the tools and patching kit. When we encountered a rain shower, it was usually over by the time the side curtains were snapped in place! Why do I remember these things? Perhaps it's because I was one of the younger ones who didn't have to help."

Earl and Mary take pride in their ancestry, but no more than in their descendants, namely, Donald Earl (1952-) and Susan Marie (1955-). Don is married to Cheryl Ritz of near Hamler and he works at Biotox Research Laboratories in Spencerville, Ohio, where he is research supervisor. Susan has completed two years at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.

Submitted by Mary E. Mayer

Addition to the Earl Mayer Family, Volume 3, Page 62

Don and Cheryl moved to Chardon, Ohio, in August, 1976. Don works as a biologist at the T.R. Evans Research Center of Diamond Shamrock Corporation. The newest generation of the Mayer family arrived with the birth of

Erin Louise on October 20, 1976.

Susan received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education from The Ohio State University, June 9, 1977. She is employed by the Henry County Board of Education.

Submitted by Mary E. Mayer