The Vorwerk Family

In the year 1859, Georg H. D. F. Vorwerk, born in 1815 and his wife Elizabeth, nee Gerke, born in 1823 lived in Nindorf near Vissolovde in the Province Hannover, Germany.

They had two daughters, Maria, age 11 and Anna, age 6. Two children, a boy and a girl had already died in infancy. Discouraged in Germany, they resolved to come to America. They boarded a sailing vessel and were at sea eleven weeks before arriving at New York with only enough food aboard for another week.

We do not know why or how they came to this area. They settled on a 40 acre farm in Adams Township, Defiance County, just 3/4 mile west of Bethlehem Lutheran Church near Okolona.

In the early days of the Civil War, June 27, 1861, a young son was born. On his baptism certificate they named him Georg F. H. Vorwerk but they called him Henrich in German or Henry in English. He learned to read and write in the church "German School" and attended public school only three weeks. During the War the Vorwerks cleared land and burned tree trunks for the ashes which they leached to get the potash for making gun powder.

The two daughters, Maria and Anna, who crossed the Atlantic with their parents, were married to Henry Gerken and August Lindhorst. Maria's children were Anna (Miller), Mary (Schroeder), Doretta (Panning) and sons Herman, Henry, John and Kasper Gerken. Anna became the mother of Mary (Hurdelbrink), Louise (Schweinhagen), Emma (Benbow) and sons George and Henry Lindhorst.

It was in 1883 that Doretta Vorwerk, age 17, in Neuenkirchen, Germany, with a girlfriend Lena, decided to go to America because of family problems with her new stepmother. Doretta's father advised them to go to his Uncle Georg Vorwerk who lived near Okolona, Ohio. So the two young girls took passage on one of the first steam ships to sail the Atlantic. The crossing took about three weeks and the trip to Napoleon was by train. They were met at the Wabash depot by Dick Bruns who helped them to find Doretta's Great Uncle Georg. The word "Uncle" is used frequently in Germany in reference to older relatives so we do not know about their exact relationship.

On May 21, 1885 Doretta Vorwerk married Henry Vorwerk, son of her Great Uncle Georg, in Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The bridal party and guests walked from the Vorwerk homestead to the church for the wedding performed by Pastor Strauss.

A son, Georg, was born to them in 1886 and died at the age of eleven months. Son Alvin came along on Nov. 2, 1887. Ella, Henry, Anna, Ida, Herman, Ernest, and Luetta joined the family in that order.

1890 was a red letter date. They bought a 100 acre farm on the Ridge in Adams Township and moved from their Okolona homestead. Using their savings and Doretta's inheritance from Germany they paid for the farm, but after the deed was delivered they were forced to pay a mortgage which they didn't know about. Raising this money was a very difficult problem and took years of hard work by the whole family.

Grandfather Georg died in 1891 having been sickly for a long time but Grandmother Elizabeth was strong and vigorous. She helped by earning money as a midwife. We don't know how many children she helped into this world. Father Henry Vorwerk also kept bees; sometimes he had a hundred hives. He sold extracted honey for $1.00 per gallon. He often said that without the bees, they could not have survived the financial problems.

Alvin and Henry became "threshers" and did much custom work for their neighbors. Herman and Ernest entered the oil business and formed the Home Oil Company in 1929. The girls all married farmers and considered Napoleon their home town.

In 1920 Henry and Doretta retired from the farm and moved to a house at 717 Welsted Street in Napoleon which they had purchased from attorney James Donovan. He continued to keep bees at the farm for about five years while son Herman rented the farm until it was sold to Henry Wiemken in 1925. The couple lived together in Napoleon after retirement from the farm for 34 years until he died in 1954. They had been married nearly 70 years. As I held his hand, moments before he died he said, quoting St. Paul, "Christus is my living, dying is my gain." Mother Vorwerk died in 1956. I shall never forget the thrill of sitting on her knees as a little boy and hearing her tell the wonderful stories of Christ our Savior. 

George, Henry and Elizabeth Vorwerk, 1875

Henry and Doretta Vorwerk, married May 21, 1885

Alvin, now age 87, lives in Liberty Township. He has three children - Donelda, Donald and Laurena by his first wife, Matilda nee Badenhop. After she died, he married a widow, Mrs. Carolyn Lange, nee Badenhop. His hobby is keeping the yards and road sides well trimmed with his power riding mower. Donald is married to Elenora nee Behrman and Laurena is the wife of Eldor Sonnenberg.

Ella married John Wieding and lived two miles north of Ridgeville Corners until they moved to Napoleon in 1920. They lived on Welsted Street and John worked as clerk in the Tanner Grocery Store for many years. Later they bought a 15 acre farm near Five Corners east of Napoleon on Route U.S. 6 where they raised melons and made apple butter. Their daughter Mary became the wife of Frank Smith and she is the mother of a family of nine. Ella died in 1969 after suffering for five years with Hodgkins Disease. John died in 1973 at 87 years of age.

Henry married Helen Aschemeier and lived in Adams Township about a mile east of the Ridge Bethlehem Church. His daughter Laura married Karl Oberhaus and son Dorance married a widow, Mrs. Kathy Ransau neebHowell. Henry died in Heller Memorial Hospital in 1938 of a ruptured appendix.

Anna married Herbert Behnfeldt, a World War I veteran and lived on a farm in Tiffin Township, Defiance County. Her daughter Lorna is married to William Goldenetz of Defiance and her son Norman lives on the Behnfeldt home farm with his wife Anna nee Gerken. Herbert died in 1963 and Anna has the Vorwerk home at 717 Welsted Street in Napoleon for her home.

Ida married Otto Cordes of Napoleon Township and became the mother of Raymond, Robert, Ronald, and Phyllis. She and Otto retired from farming and bought a home in Ridgeville Corners where Otto died in 1961. Raymond married Paula Imbrock. Robert took Lucia Gerken for his wife. He was killed in a truck accident and Lucia remarried to Walter Delventhal. Ronald married Judith Hockman and Phyllis lives with her husband Vernon Hesterman in Ridgeville Corners.

Herman married Thelma Bostelman of Cleveland. Her father had worked as a farm hand for the Vorwerks when he first came from Germany. They have four children - Ruth, wife of James Mathews in California, Clayton married Charlotte Eicher living in Findlay, Clarence married Jenny Romero in Chile, South America. They live in Tempe, Arizona. Alice married Kenneth Gerken and lives in Columbus, Ohio. See the story of the Home Oil Company which Herman helped to build. Presently he and Thelma live in a beautiful home on Hilltop Lane in Napoleon, Ohio. Clayton helps his father operate two car wash racks.

Ernest married Helen Baden and they live at 517 High Street in Napoleon. They have three daughters, Leah, Mrs. Paul Dammeier, Kathleen, Mrs. Gus Conrad both of Napoleon and Betsy, Mrs. Warren Kahrs of Route 5, Wauseon, Ohio. Ernest is still president and principal owner of the Home Oil Company and of Service Station Supply Co. They have a cottage at Clear Lake, Indiana, where they relax on many weekends.

Luetta became the wife of Edward Nagel and they farmed the Nagel home farm near the Four County Vocational School until Edward died in 1963. Their son James married Barbara Damman. They have two fine boys. Luetta lives on Erie Street in Napoleon and has worked for fifteen years as a nurse's aid in the Heller Memorial Hospital.

Submitted by Ernest G. Vorwerk