Sigg Family

Jacob and Verena Dunkel Sigg came to America in 1846 from Switzerland. With their son, Jacob, they settled on a farm near Eckley, Ohio. Conrad Sigg was born in 1847 there. Jacob died of typhoid fever in 1848. Later Verena Dunkel Sigg married Rudolpb Kutzli, also from Switzerland. Verena and Rudolph had eight children, John, Rudolph, Jr., Barney, George, Adolph, Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia Kutzli.

When Jacob Sigg, Jr. and Conrad Sigg were about 18 to 20 years old, their stepfather bought each of the boys an eighty acre farm as their share of their father's farm. The farms were covered with timber and were in Ridgeville Township, five miles southeast of Archbold, Ohio. Conrad built a shack to live in and started to cut down some timber to get land on which to raise crops. An attempt was made to clear about five acres each winter. The finest logs went to the Archbold sawmill. The rest were rolled together and burned. At a log rolling and burning, the neighbors came to help and have a party. Jacob Sigg soon sold his farm and purchased one near Wauseon, Ohio. The country was quite newly settled and the state road was laid log beside log as mud made it impossible to drive through in the rainy season.

Conrad Sigg married his wife December 27, 1869 and she was from Wayne County, Ohio. Her cousin, Fred Lorentz, lived near Burlington, Ohio.

Conrad had to build a house after his marriage. It was framed of solid logs with an adze and the barn was also hewn out with an adze. The stones for the cellar and foundations were brought from stone quarries near Whitehouse, Ohio, by sleds in the winter. Corn and wheat had to be taken to Maumee by sled or horseback to be ground for flour. There were few roads in the area at this time.

The Chicago fire, in 1871, traveled eastward through Indiana and Ohio. The country, mostly woods, burned quickly. The fire would travel under the moss and leaves, and upon finding dry trees, would start a new fire. Conrad Sigg had to send for help. His wife, with the new baby, William, who had been born on April 4, 1871, had to go by wagon through the woods to get help. Hot coals rained down on the horses' backs and she had trouble controlling both the horses and baby enough to drive.

About five acres of trees were cut each year, and the nice logs were split for rail fences. Most of the fields were still enclosed by rail fences in the 1890's. The Sigg family had the first windmill in the neighborhood in 1892, and in the 1890's, had the first wire fence. The fence was put up along the land where there were always big snowdrifts in the winter. The fence was called the "Kitzleman Fence" and was woven as it was put upon wires that were strung up first.

About 1894, new brick schoolhouses were built throughout the township and were two miles apart. The first gravel roads were also built about then. Conrad Sigg hauled gravel for his sixty rod land from the Ben Zimmerman gravel pit that was located one mile east and one mile south of the Sigg farm. He used a special wagon bed to haul the gravel.

Conrad burned out a forty acre lot of new ground across from his home. Later his son, William, bought the forty acres and built a home on it. Conrad also bought timber. It was hard to keep the fire from also burning the rail fences.

The Sigg orchard on the farm had all kinds of apple, cherry and peach trees. Every other fence corner had one big pear tree near the house. Other pear and plum trees were in the house yard. An outdoor oven was in the wood house and the mother baked loaves of bread in it. She would let the children fix the fire and in return gave them a heel of warm bread with homemade butter spread on it. There was a large garden and vineyard and three long flower beds through the garden and pinks and annual flowers around every bed in the garden, something we no longer see. The garden was hard clay and Mr. Sigg would get some loads of sand at the Zimmerman pit to mix with the garden, and then there was good soil in the garden. The ground on the farm was heavy so it had to be tiled. Mr. Sigg is reported to have said that he put in over seven miles of tile in the farm, all put in by hand, spade, and tiling tools.

Mr. Sigg and some friends among the neighbors acquired a steam engine and threshing machine to thresh the grain. The Siggs also had the first grain binder then. Mr. Sigg taught the girls to carry bundles, a job they did not like, and to set up a good shock of wheat, a skill used later when they had their own farms.

One day, daughter, Eleanor, followed a turkey hen to find her nest. She brought home a nice, small, maple tree and was allowed to plant it in the back yard. It was still there, as high as the woods, just a short time ago, when Eleanor went past the farm.

All the children, William, Clara, Hannah, and Eleanor, were born on the farm. Mrs. Sigg died there in 1906, as well as the children's grandmother who also died on the farm. Three of Eleanor's children, Paul, Julia, and Isabel, also were born on the farm. In later years the farm was sold to John Rohrs, then later to Adolph Nagel. Later it was part by Mr. Yoder, and part by Glen Hoosier, and some of the farm was sub-divided and houses built on it.

The school houses are gone, and have been for many years, and the old school mates are scattered and gone, and the home of the Siggs is just a memory now. When Eleanor was eight years old, her parents took in a nine weeks baby girl named Lena Mahler. Her mother had asked that the Siggs take her before she died. Lena was with the Sigg family for nearly four years, and then her father married again and wanted her back. It was hard on both Mrs. Sigg and Lena to be parted and the children felt sad as she was like a sister and playmate to them. When in her teens, Lena married Elmer Lohse and raised seven children. She is in a home near Bryan, Ohio now.

Jacob Sigg and Verena Dunkel Sigg had two sons, Jacob, Jr. and Conrad Sigg.

Jacob, Jr. married Pauline Krauss and their family were Rosa Dunbar, Emma Warner, Phoebe Kutzli, Ida Miley, Ella married John Trondel, Fred Sigg, John Sigg and wife, Emma, Elmer and wife, Mary Vajen.

Conrad Sigg married Julia Walters and had one son, William Henry, and three daughters. William Henry married Lydia Burkholder. Hannah married Charles Clark, Clara married Carl Buehrer, and Eleanor married William Steinbrecher. See also the Kutzli family history in this book.

Compiled by: Eleanor Steinbrecher
Submitted by Milton Sigg