This post was contributed to the Crawford County Chapter of OGS by Kristina Stearley as part of the Florence Siefert Scrapbook in 2010.
The scrapbook is compiled from undated, unidentified newspaper clippings involving events in the lives of Crawford County citizens living in or having connections to New Washington, Tiro, Shelby, Sulphur Springs, Chatfield, Bucyrus, Ashland, Mansfield, and other areas. Only minimal spelling or punctuation corrections were made. Unreadable areas are shown by underlines, dots &/or question marks. This collection has been scanned, “optical character recognized” (OCR’d), proofed, then coded for HTML by volunteers of the Crawford County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society. Since the copies are not of the best quality errors may have been made. Please contact us if you find corrections needing to be made or can verify any missing dates which could be added.
JOHN MICHELFELDER, Sr. – Dead
The subject of this sketch was born at Abstadt, district Heilbronn, Kingdom of Wuertunberg, Germany, on Oct. 5, 1818. Having learned the trade of a shoemaker and after sojourning in his native Kingdom and in Switzerland, having acquired the mastership, he carried on his business in the town of his birth with apparent success. In his 29th year, seized by the mighty movement of emigration, he came to America in 1846, chosing Sandusky City as his residence. The desire to be with his kinsfolk and countrymen, however, soon induced him to leave this place in exchange for our town. Mr. Michelfelder came when New Washington was in its first bloom. The deceased lived here as an industrious and esteemed citizens for a period of 45 years. About 10 years ago he withdrew from active business, leaving his trade to his two older sons. Yet, rest he never cared to know, until God suddenly called him away on Monday night, the 14th inst. He reached the age of 72 yrs. 11 mo. 9 da. The departed was joined in holy wedlock with Miss Fredericke Utz, which union was blessed with five children, three sons and two daughters, all of whom together with their sorrowing mother survive him. He also leaves to mourn six grandchildren, two cousins and some other relatives, besides many sincere friends.