Mathias Swartzel - Life in Ohio
From Germany to Pennsylvania to Maryland back to Pennsylvania and finally Ohio. There’s lots already known about Mathias Swartzel but my goal was to solidify all those details with historical records to prove their accuracy. I previously found a stack of records for Mathias and his family from Pennsylvania and Maryland. This post is focusing on the final years of his life in Ohio.
Before I dive into the records and attempt to piece together the family history I wanted to call out an interesting history book from 1882, The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, ... etc. The publishing date of this book is about as close to the time Mathias lived in Ohio as we can get and has biographies of family descendants living in the area at the time. Who better to learn from about a family than the grandchildren of that family?
The history of Montgomery County
In the history of Jackson Township there is a story of Abraham and Henry Swartzel, along with Henry Boomershine who moved to the Jackson Township area in 1801. This section is an amazing read of the troubles Abraham went through in those early years.
In the history of Germantown, Mathias Jr. moved to the area in 1805 and passed away shortly thereafter. His brother from north of Germantown took his land and stayed there.
In a biographical sketch of J.M. Swartzel, it states his father, John C. Swartzel, was a native of Maryland. I have previously found records of Mathias outside of Hagerstown,MD where I believe the broader Swartzel family lived in the 1770’s. I have no official record of either Mathias Jr. or John’s birth but go off of their tombstones. John’s 1850 census show’s he was born in Pennsylvania and was 48 at the time, meaning he was born within a year of 13 August 1801. I am not certain how John would have ever been from Maryland, unless they were referring to his father or wife’s family.
In a biographical sketch of Abraham Swartzell III, it claims Mathias Sr moved to Ohio in 1803. Abraham Sr. moved to Warren in 1799 and Montgomery in 1801. He died in 1840. There’s an interesting note Abraham was drafted in the War of 1812 but hired a substitute. I definitely need to find those records! It also states Abraham Jr. died on 6 February 1839.
Looking through the records
The last available record of Mathias in Pennsylvania is a tax assessment from Bedford County on 23 March 1805. He and his son Henry are both listed. He had previously filed a land warrant for his property in Providence Township in 1803 but he never filed a patent. This same land was later claimed by two others in 1830 and 1833.
The first record of a Swartzel is a land patent for Mathias Swartsell of Pennsylvania approved on 21 May 1805 for Section 20, Township 2 Range 5 East. This section of land is 640 acres in Montgomery County and was sold for at least $1 an acre. The exact price is not recorded. More details about the Ohio land patents system can be found in The Official Ohio Lands Book.
Tracking the exact parcel of land can be important when you have multiple family members with the same name in the same area. In this case we know Mathias had a son named Mathias. The trick is for us to find out which one purchased the land.
We subsequently have land patents for:
Before moving too far forward, there is an important event that occurs around this time. In the probate and court records of Montgomery County there are multiple entries for Matthias Swartzel. On 28 Oct 1809 Henry Crist and Jacob Coleman are assigned administrators of the estate of Matthias Schwartzel.
In these documents we see that he had struck a bargain with his brother, Philip, to sell him land. This means that Mathias Swartzel Jr. was the deceased family member. The probate records also state that his widow’s name was Susannah.
In September of 1810, the court approved the administrators to finalize the sale of the lot to Philip. In both the court record and deed it shows the lot to be Section 20, Township 2 Range 5 East. This proves Matthias Jr. purchased the first land patent in 1805.
The tombstone for Mathias Jr show’s his death as 1806, but I’m unsure why the administrators of his estate weren’t appointed until October of 1809. I would flag his date of death as being suspicious without any additional evidence.
Moving forward
With Mathias Jr’s death sometime before 1809, this leaves Mathias Sr. to be the owner of the other two properties purchased, the second of which said he was from Warren County, Ohio. The records for Philip also point to Warren County, Ohio. A look through the land records in Warren only show that Philip and his wife, Eve, sold the SW ¼ of Section 22, Twp 3, Range 4 in 1812; however, this land wasn’t in Warren County, it was in Montgomery and it wasn’t patented until 1814. I hope someone had title insurance.
While we are looking at Philip and Land Patents, there is another interesting patent in 1818 in Warren County for the NW ¼ of Section 22, Twp 3, Range 4 that states Philip is from Hamilton County, OH. I did not search to see what happened with this land after Philip purchased it. I also have not performed a thorough search of Hamilton records so I am not sure if this Philip is the same as the brother of Mathias Jr.
The next big event
The next available records show the Mathias Swartzel died and Abraham Swartzel was assigned his administrator after his widow forfeited the right in 1820. His estate inventory records show belongings that you would expect a frontiers man living in a log cabin to have.
Many of the items are sold off to pay debts and in Feb of 1822, Margaret Swatzel asks the court to lift off her dower on the land belonging to her deceased husband, Mathias. The plot of land is described as the SW ¼ of Section 25, Twp 4, Range 4 East; the same land purchased by Mathias in 1811.
We can now also prove that Mathias had remarried as his first wife’s name was Catharina Barbara Laey. It’s unsure who Margaret is or when she married Mathias, but there are sources that state Margaret was the sister of Catharina and was the third wife of Mathias. The second being another sister, Elizabeth.
The last record of Catharine Barbara Laey is in 1774 near Hagerstown, Washington, MD. It’s claimed she died shortly after around 1776. I have not seen any records but I suspect they would be in Washington or Frederick County, Maryland.
I have no proof of Margaret’s last name. I also have no proof of any other wife of Mathias but these family stories generally end up to be mostly true. It is true that Catharina had sister’s named Elizabeth and Margaret, so it is entirely possible that Mathias married all of them.
The land Mathias purchased in 1811 was sold off by his heirs on 20 Oct 1828. Their names all appear in the deed as:
The fact that the land is sold and Margaret is not listed leaves me to believe she died shortly before this transaction. We also see Henry Boomershine listed, same name as previously mentioned in the 1882 history. His wife, Christeus, later clarified by other records to be Christina Boomershine, was a daughter of Mathias Sr. There are also records of a Catherine Swatzel marrying Michael Ingle and living in Miami County, Ohio. All of these heirs match her children. The only heirs I haven’t verified are Alexander and Sarah Dickey.
Further research
And that is the end of the story for Mathias Swartzel. I still do not have any information about his life prior to coming to America. Some sources state Bavaria, others Heidelberg, and another that says he came from Saxony. All this still needs to be sorted out.
There are birth and marriage records for most of his children that I have not yet found. And, of course, more information about his marriages that needs to be found.
I hope this information is useful to you in your family record hunts. If you have any additional information, corrections, theories, facts, anything at all on this topic I would love to hear from you. Please comment below.
Before I dive into the records and attempt to piece together the family history I wanted to call out an interesting history book from 1882, The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, cities, towns, ... etc. The publishing date of this book is about as close to the time Mathias lived in Ohio as we can get and has biographies of family descendants living in the area at the time. Who better to learn from about a family than the grandchildren of that family?
The history of Montgomery County
In the history of Jackson Township there is a story of Abraham and Henry Swartzel, along with Henry Boomershine who moved to the Jackson Township area in 1801. This section is an amazing read of the troubles Abraham went through in those early years.
In the history of Germantown, Mathias Jr. moved to the area in 1805 and passed away shortly thereafter. His brother from north of Germantown took his land and stayed there.
In a biographical sketch of J.M. Swartzel, it states his father, John C. Swartzel, was a native of Maryland. I have previously found records of Mathias outside of Hagerstown,MD where I believe the broader Swartzel family lived in the 1770’s. I have no official record of either Mathias Jr. or John’s birth but go off of their tombstones. John’s 1850 census show’s he was born in Pennsylvania and was 48 at the time, meaning he was born within a year of 13 August 1801. I am not certain how John would have ever been from Maryland, unless they were referring to his father or wife’s family.
In a biographical sketch of Abraham Swartzell III, it claims Mathias Sr moved to Ohio in 1803. Abraham Sr. moved to Warren in 1799 and Montgomery in 1801. He died in 1840. There’s an interesting note Abraham was drafted in the War of 1812 but hired a substitute. I definitely need to find those records! It also states Abraham Jr. died on 6 February 1839.
Looking through the records
The last available record of Mathias in Pennsylvania is a tax assessment from Bedford County on 23 March 1805. He and his son Henry are both listed. He had previously filed a land warrant for his property in Providence Township in 1803 but he never filed a patent. This same land was later claimed by two others in 1830 and 1833.
The first record of a Swartzel is a land patent for Mathias Swartsell of Pennsylvania approved on 21 May 1805 for Section 20, Township 2 Range 5 East. This section of land is 640 acres in Montgomery County and was sold for at least $1 an acre. The exact price is not recorded. More details about the Ohio land patents system can be found in The Official Ohio Lands Book.
Tracking the exact parcel of land can be important when you have multiple family members with the same name in the same area. In this case we know Mathias had a son named Mathias. The trick is for us to find out which one purchased the land.
We subsequently have land patents for:
- Abraham Swartsell of Montgomery County on 1 December 1809 for Section 28, Twp 4, Range 4 in Montgomery County
- Matthias Swartzell assignee of Philp Swartzell on 2 January 1810 for NE ¼, Section 13, Twp 9, Range 4 in Miami County
- Matthias Swartsell of Warren County on 1 September 1811 for the SW ¼ of Section 25, Twp 4, Range 4 East in Montgomery County
- Philip Swartsell of Warren County on 10 April 1812 for the SW ¼ of Section 12, Twp 9, Range 4
Before moving too far forward, there is an important event that occurs around this time. In the probate and court records of Montgomery County there are multiple entries for Matthias Swartzel. On 28 Oct 1809 Henry Crist and Jacob Coleman are assigned administrators of the estate of Matthias Schwartzel.
In these documents we see that he had struck a bargain with his brother, Philip, to sell him land. This means that Mathias Swartzel Jr. was the deceased family member. The probate records also state that his widow’s name was Susannah.
In September of 1810, the court approved the administrators to finalize the sale of the lot to Philip. In both the court record and deed it shows the lot to be Section 20, Township 2 Range 5 East. This proves Matthias Jr. purchased the first land patent in 1805.
The tombstone for Mathias Jr show’s his death as 1806, but I’m unsure why the administrators of his estate weren’t appointed until October of 1809. I would flag his date of death as being suspicious without any additional evidence.
Moving forward
With Mathias Jr’s death sometime before 1809, this leaves Mathias Sr. to be the owner of the other two properties purchased, the second of which said he was from Warren County, Ohio. The records for Philip also point to Warren County, Ohio. A look through the land records in Warren only show that Philip and his wife, Eve, sold the SW ¼ of Section 22, Twp 3, Range 4 in 1812; however, this land wasn’t in Warren County, it was in Montgomery and it wasn’t patented until 1814. I hope someone had title insurance.
While we are looking at Philip and Land Patents, there is another interesting patent in 1818 in Warren County for the NW ¼ of Section 22, Twp 3, Range 4 that states Philip is from Hamilton County, OH. I did not search to see what happened with this land after Philip purchased it. I also have not performed a thorough search of Hamilton records so I am not sure if this Philip is the same as the brother of Mathias Jr.
The next big event
The next available records show the Mathias Swartzel died and Abraham Swartzel was assigned his administrator after his widow forfeited the right in 1820. His estate inventory records show belongings that you would expect a frontiers man living in a log cabin to have.
Many of the items are sold off to pay debts and in Feb of 1822, Margaret Swatzel asks the court to lift off her dower on the land belonging to her deceased husband, Mathias. The plot of land is described as the SW ¼ of Section 25, Twp 4, Range 4 East; the same land purchased by Mathias in 1811.
We can now also prove that Mathias had remarried as his first wife’s name was Catharina Barbara Laey. It’s unsure who Margaret is or when she married Mathias, but there are sources that state Margaret was the sister of Catharina and was the third wife of Mathias. The second being another sister, Elizabeth.
The last record of Catharine Barbara Laey is in 1774 near Hagerstown, Washington, MD. It’s claimed she died shortly after around 1776. I have not seen any records but I suspect they would be in Washington or Frederick County, Maryland.
I have no proof of Margaret’s last name. I also have no proof of any other wife of Mathias but these family stories generally end up to be mostly true. It is true that Catharina had sister’s named Elizabeth and Margaret, so it is entirely possible that Mathias married all of them.
The land Mathias purchased in 1811 was sold off by his heirs on 20 Oct 1828. Their names all appear in the deed as:
- Abraham Swartsly and his wife Elizabeth Swartsly
- Henry Swartsly and his wife Polly Swartsly
- Philip Swartsly
- Henry Boomershine and his wife Christeus Boomershine
- George Snider and his wife Susannah Snider
- John Swartsly and his wife Elizabeth Swartsly
- Frederick Swartsly
- John Ingle and his wife Molly Ingle
- Philip Ingle and his wife Marget Ingle
- Michael Ingle and his wife Rachel Ingle
- Abraham Ingle and his wife Elizabeth Ingle
- Adam Ingle and his wife Susannah Ingle
- Mathias Ingle and his wife Catherine Ingle
- Henry Ingle and his wife Rachel Ingle
- John Ingle and his wife Molly Ingle
- Alexander Dickey and his wife Sarah Dickey
The fact that the land is sold and Margaret is not listed leaves me to believe she died shortly before this transaction. We also see Henry Boomershine listed, same name as previously mentioned in the 1882 history. His wife, Christeus, later clarified by other records to be Christina Boomershine, was a daughter of Mathias Sr. There are also records of a Catherine Swatzel marrying Michael Ingle and living in Miami County, Ohio. All of these heirs match her children. The only heirs I haven’t verified are Alexander and Sarah Dickey.
Further research
And that is the end of the story for Mathias Swartzel. I still do not have any information about his life prior to coming to America. Some sources state Bavaria, others Heidelberg, and another that says he came from Saxony. All this still needs to be sorted out.
There are birth and marriage records for most of his children that I have not yet found. And, of course, more information about his marriages that needs to be found.
I hope this information is useful to you in your family record hunts. If you have any additional information, corrections, theories, facts, anything at all on this topic I would love to hear from you. Please comment below.
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