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From: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <>
Subject: Some Roth family history from Tuscarawas
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1999 20:00:39 -0500

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FORWARDED MESSAGE - Orig: 2-Jan-99 18:20
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VICTOR ROTH

DATE: 01/02/99

If this is suitable information, Pleas use it.
My wife and I have been working on a journal for about 3 years.

Please let me know what you think!

Regards,

Victor Roth


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A brief history

The name "Roth" is of German origin,possibly from rote-(red),or
from roodt(farmer).
The translation of rote or roodt to Roth is a matter of conjecture.
Patriarch,Christian Roth SR of German descent,came with his family to Ohio
in the
year 1821 from Northhampton Co., PA. He was accompanied by his first wife,
Elizabeth Musselman and seven children,George,Christian
jr.,John,Sarah,Anna,
Polly and Elizabeth.

Of the seven children listed we have information concerning only two - Anna
&
Christian jr. Anna married Dr. Enoch G. Wolf. Born in Oldtown Valley, Ohio
on April
11, 1827, he was the youngest son of William & Catharine Wolf who
emigrated from
Washington County, PA to Tuscarawas County, Oh. This union was blessed
with four
children; Joseph F.,Mary, John and Finley.(at the time of this writing,
aprox. March 15, 1852, John & Finley were deceased.)
Dr. Wolf owned 200 acres of fine land, and practiced medicine in this
vicinity for
twenty-five years. He laid out Wolf's Station in April, 1874; He took
an active part
in the Marietta Railroad; donated right of way and gave $200.00; built
the station at his own expense; got up the post office free of charge;
served as Postmaster for the last eight years. He was a Mason, and himself
and wife were members of the Methodist !
Protestant Church. Dr. Wolf was instrumental in building the
Methodist Episcopal Church here, and built the Methodist Protestant Church
of this place all at his own expense, in 1882, costing about $2,500.00 .

Christian Roth JR became head of the present Roth families after the death
of his
eldest brother, George. Christian JR was born in Northhampton County,
PA, September
12, 1813. He was eight years old when his family traveled by covered wagon
to Ohio
from an unknown location near Nazareth, Northhampton County, PA. His
father,
grandfather and great-grandfather were farmers, the latter of whom was
scalped by
the Indians, and the grandfather was a Commodore in the navy, a native of
Pennsylvania. The family settled in Trenton, OH (now Tuscarawas) in 1821.
His education was derived from the subscription schools held in
log schoolhouses,
and he was reared to farming. His family farmed for several years on
rented land
near Trenton.

In 1827 or 1828, his father purchased a piece of woodland 3 & 1/2 miles
west of
Trenton (now the village of Tuscarawas) that at the time of this writing
was owned
by Mr. Ben Metzger. He and his sons built log buildings a few hundred
yards East of
the present buildings and began to clear the land for farming. The family
was poor,
the father and oldest son, George, were not strong. Those two and the
mother,
Elizabeth, did most of the farm work and the second son, Christian, who
was then
15 but large and strong for his age, went to work for a contractor, who was

building a section of the Ohio canal. The wages were 50 cents per day
and board,
the work hard, hours long and the board extremely plain. He worked steadily
at this
job for two years.

The hard work of founding a home in the new country brought the mother to
an early
grave. Her strength and determination had been the main factor in clearing
the land
and paying for the new home. An incident Christian JR often related to
the family
helps to show the nature of his mother. " On the morning they were leaving
the old
home in PA the relatives and friends came in to help pack and to say good
bye,
someone said to mother " now we will see you cry once". She said nothing
but when
the wagon was loaded and they were ready to start, she could not be found,
a mile
or so along the route she was waiting for the wagon. She had slipped away
and
avoided the farewells rather than breakdown and have it said that she "had
cried" ". At her death she left a family of seven children.

Christian the second son was the originator of the brand of the family
forming the larger part of this history. John, Sarah, Anna, Polly and
Elizabeth were the others. Christian Sr. Roth was again married to a Mrs
Burroway, there were no children to this un!
ion. Christian Sr.died about Nov. 1849.

Christian JR grew to manhood strong of build and of character. A man of
high
morals, he was a respected citizen in his community. He purchased the
home farm
which grew to 184 acres of well-cultivated land. He farmed and raised
stock for
many years and lived there until his death of dropsy at age 76 .

NOTE:
The author or authors of the above compiled
information are unknown as well as some sources.
The story of Elizabeth (Musselman) Roth
was preserved for us by Fletcher Eugene Roth,
a grandchild of Christian JR. Some of the other
information can be found in a book titled "History
of Tuscarawas County" published by Warren Beers
Co. 1884 and reproduced by Unigraphic, Inc. 1973
Reference page numbers: 673, 916, 674, 677, 979

Written in 1998
Victor W. Roth, Dover, Ohio
e-mail:

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• Some Roth family history from Tuscarawas by Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <>