Myron Fledderjohann (1933-2021), long time member and past president of the New Knoxville Historical Society, tirelessly devoted his time and talents to studying the history of our community and the surrounding area. He loved talking about our history and guiding tours through our historical museum complex. The following interview with Myron, written by Ellen Egbert, was published in the Sidney Daily News on February 22, 1999.
Early New Knoxville residents took care of their own needs.
Settlers didn’t rely on outsiders, local historian says.
NEW KNOXVILLE – Local historian Myron Fledderhohann has been studying the New Knoxville and Washington Township area for many years.
His diligent efforts have led him to uncover many interesting stories and family genealogies along the way. Beginning with the very first purchase of land in this area, Fledderjohann speaks about the way it was back in the 1830s as though he was actually there to witness the signing of the first deed.
“Washington Township was actually a parcel of land that was all by itself,” explains Fledderjohann. “It was more like a passer-by area than anything. There was human activity in the surrounding areas of Fort Loramie, Girtytown (which is now St. Marys) and Wapakoneta, but nothing in this area we know as New Knoxville until decades later.”
“There was a plank road and a canal that passed by Washington Township, but no roads that led to the settlement of this area. Even today we don’t have a national highway that comes too close to our community. We have smaller state routes, 219 and 29, that came through our area, but our growth has never depended on those”.
‘Got interested’
“I got interested in the history of New Knoxville and Washington Township when I used to work for a national cattle organization who I traveled for all aver this country, Europe and South America”.
“I became friends with a man in Lima, Peru. It was a very primitive area, much different than what we are used to here. The man I met had been very well educated in California and was very insightful concerning the different cultures. I asked him why the United States was so much more advanced than the Lima, Peru area. His answer really made me think. He told me that our government had dislocated the Native Americans from this area. When the New Knoxville area was settled there were no Native Americans to compete with. In Lima, if he or I wanted to purchase a farm or piece of land from someone, chances are, it would have been owned by someone in the family from the very first day it was established.”
This being the case, when the German immigrants came to settle here, they brought with them a passion to make a change from the country they had just left. They had an agenda, a need for religious freedom and a need to develop communities the way they wanted them. Because there were no Native Americans here when they arrived, there was no one in their way to keep them from building this area up exactly the way they wanted it built.
Washington Township was proclaimed and the first property sold in the early 1830s. The areas were settled according to their religion. In fact, the physical communities were actually developed around the church. “There was an invisible boundary line that existed around the church,” continues Fledderjohann.
“This ‘line’ has never been seen on paper or used in an official document, but everything that was later developed depended on the ‘line.’ It eventually became the boundary for
the telephone system, was adopted for the school district line and even establishes the zone for the rural mail delivery route. It all began with the church. Each community has retained its separate identity according to the religious preference that was established from the very beginning.”
For New Knoxville, the very beginning started in June of 1836. James Lytle surveyed and plotted the village into 102 lots. Included in those lots was one for the school and one for the church. The whole plan was roughly drafted on an unofficial piece of paper that remained the only documented plan for more than 20 years. 1836 is also the year when the first Germans came to this area to purchase land. It wasn’t until the 1850s that the town began to see buildings multiply and a population begin to grow.
Artesian wells
Being far away from any main transportation routes, one might wonder why the village attracted the attention of those who were about settle it. The answer lies in the ground. The area was blessed with many natural artesian wells and springs. The water pressure was so strong, it could reach the second floor of a house.
One thing that kept the village of New Knoxville isolated from the other communities was its unique education system,” says Fledderjohann. “New Knoxville had one-room school houses in the outlying areas that were all taught by local people. It was like the community came to its own rescue. If there was a need for something in the village, someone from within the village took care of it. That didn’t stop at just the educational needs. If a need was identified, the people of the town used their own resources to take care of it. Businesses began as businesses were needed. Even the first preacher was a hometown boy and he stayed at that church for 40 years. The most prominent doctor was here over 50 years and he came from right here too. The people here depended on each other, especially through the hard times”.
“In settling this area, our ancestors went through death and hardships that we can’t even begin to imagine. Between the years o 1836 and 1894 there were 590 burials in the area. Over half of those were children under the age of 6. The cholera epidemic of 1849 wiped out entire families within a matter of weeks. Some large families lost more than one child a day. When I went through all the death records of that time period, I just couldn’t imagine the sorrow and feeling of helplessness.”
Population stable
New Knoxville never had a newspaper, was never touched by a railroad and never experienced any growth from the oil boom. The population remains stable without much fluctuation. The people from here are satisfied and take care of one another. They really aren’t that much different than when it all began over 150 years ago. Many of the same names of people who purchased land and settled here from Germany are found in the phone book today. There is still no national highway, that invisible ‘line’ that radiates from the church still marks the boundary for school districts, mail routes and telephone lines. And the village remains Protestant, separated from the other communities when it comes to religious preferences.
Much of this unique village remains the same, and its rich history will keep local historians like Myron Fledderjohann studying and searching for more stories of how it all began. “It’s addictive”, he admits. “I think these words pretty much sum it up: Genealogy and historical research – begins as an interest, becomes a hobby, continues as an avocation, takes over as an obsession, and in its last stage is an incurable disease.”
NOTE: The plank road to which Myron referred was the road we now know as Auglaize County 25A. In the early days the surface of the road was made up of wood planks. A historic marker located on the north side of the road in Moulton memorializes the fact that it was a plank road. The plank road is also mentioned in the Andrew Kay interview with Herman H. Clausing, which can also be found on this website.