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From: James Nobles <>
Subject: [INKOSCIU-L] Mothers
Date: Sat, 09 May 1998 23:10:44 -0400

>From the 1911 Goshert Family Reunion Booklet
This details the move from Pa. thru Ohio and finally to Kosciusko Co.
This comes from the memories of my Great Great Grandmother Jemima
Goshert Linn who was 70 years old in 1911.

Father Goshert was born in Pennsylvania, Apr. 6, 1808. He grew to
manhood there and was married to Miss Deckly Knepper, a Pennsylvania
girl who was born Jan. 1, 1811.
Their Pennsylvania home consisted of a lot of 5 or 10 acres upon which
were located a hewed log house with one living room and an upstairs, and
a small log barn, with the roof made of small bundles of straw similar
to little sheaves of wheat. In this home five children were born.
Father had a beautiful voice, and during the winter months added to his
income by teaching singing, while in the summer he followed the trade of
plastering.
In the fall of 1840 father sold our home in Pennsylvania and we moved to
Ohio, traveling in a wagon as far as Wheeling, West Virginia. There we
stayed all night at a tavern. The following morning we walked to the
wharf and boarded a steamboat on the Ohio river. After traveling for
three days we landed at Portsmouth, Ohio. There we stopped until the
next afternoon. While there George got lost and when found was standing
on the bank of the river with some other boys hollering "Hurrah for
Tipppecanoe and Tyler too," (this being campaign year.)
That afternoon we went down to the canal and got on the canal boat, a
boat drawn by horses. We were on this boat two or three days.
Riding on the boat was tiresome so we got off at Chillicothe and father
hired a man with a rig to take us to Lockburn, Ohio, the home of
father's sister. This being a two days drive we spent the night a
Circleville, Ohio, and the next day arrived at our destination.
We located in that neighborhood, remaining there two winters and one
summer. In the spring of 42 we moved to Pickaway Co., Ohio, where father
still followed his trade.
Afew years later, father walked to Indiana, a distance of about 250
miles, making the journey in about six days, averaging 40 miles a day
except one day when he walked 10 miles before breakfast making 50 miles
for that day. He bought of the government, his farm of 80 acres, with no
improvements, out of the dense forest. He then walked back to Ohio.
In the fall of 49 they with their family of eight children, three having
been born in Ohio, loaded their goods on two wagons and in company with
Peter Bolenbaugh and family, and another family started for their new
home in the woods of Indiana.
This trip was made in 8 1/2 or 9 days, and was a regular camping
expedition; sleeping in the wagons and cooking on the ground. They
passed places where the people said they had had the cholera and some
had died. Arriving in Kosciusko Co., Indiana, they stopped at the home
of Uncle John Goshert and in a short time located for the winter, in an
old school house, which had no floor and had been used for a sheep
shelter. This was on the farm now owned by Mr. Atkinson.
Father worked on his farm, then a dense forest, and built a log house
with two rooms and an upstairs. As soon as the house was finished the
family moved in.
Mother, though a small woman, was blessed with good health and willing
hands; and, with her family of 10 children, (two more sons having come
the brighten the Indiana home,) she toiled on, father being away most of
the time plastering.
Father and mother lived to see each of those ten children married and
comfortably settled in life.
Nothing gave children and grand-children more pleasure than to go home
to grandmother's and spend the day, and get a good dinner which they
were always sure to get, for mother was an excellent cook.

Note:
Deckly Knepper Goshert was probably not more than 5 feet tall. I believe
her daughter Jemima was 4'9" tall.
I am in awe of this woman, perpetually pregnant, riding herd on 10
children ranging in age from 1 to 15, keeping them fed, clean, and
healthy under what must have been very trying circumstances. Any yet, I
think this must have been pretty much normal for the time.
Jackie Nobles

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• [INKOSCIU-L] Mothers by James Nobles <>