Person:Daniel Lower (1)

DANIEL LOWER / Lauer was probably born in the Palatinate, or perhaps in another Rhine River country, such as Baden. Some records give his nationality as "Bavaria", which ruled a part of the Palatinate, beginning in 1837.

Apparently he and his family traveled overland to La Havre, France in 1837, to embark on the ship "Hilah" to America. That route was generally used by upper Rhine River emigrants to America at that time.

In 1842 Daniel and his family bought a farm in Jefferson Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio (we have copies of the land documents). He sold the farm to Peter Becker in 1848. His signature on land records shows his surname as LOWER, with an umlaut over the "o". [see imgage below]

Daniel and his family, plus most of those who later migrated to Wabash County, Indiana, were probably members of the "Zion's Congregation" near what is now Stone Creek. Zion's was orginally a Lutheran congregation, formed in 1840. The incoming tide of the German Reformed faith began to use the building on alternate Sundays. The records of the German Reformed half of the congregation do not begin until 1849, which was after the Urbana bound pioneers had mostly left. The Lutherans in the joint congregation did not go on to Wabash County, and did not inter-marry with the German Reformed in the early days. In 1877 the church was relocacted to Philipsburg (renamed Stone Creek in 1903), and sometime after 1877 the joint congregation split.

In circa 1848 a "group" of "pioneers" from Tuscarawas County, Ohio migrated to Wabash County, Indiana. The original group probably numbered no more than about 30 individuals. Apparently Daniel was the leader, as he was the eldest in the group, and almost all in the group were related to him. They "followed" the Wabash and Erie Canal to Wabash County, and settled in an unbroken forest, around an area of the future village of Urbana. These people, of mostly Palatine origin, were farmers and quickly cleared the forest, for their fields. They were mostly of the German Reformed faith, having been members of Zion's Congregation in Ohio, as mentioned above.

Daniel was one of the founders of St. Peter's Church at Urbana (circa 1851). He is buried at the Urbana Cemetery, just south of the village. Thanks to James Haupert, who marked the location of the stone, this researcher was able to see it briefly. It had fallen over, and was covered with sod (as it is again in 2012). Removal of the sod exposed the stone, which may have been covered for over 40 years. The use of chalk (yes, I know that is a "no, no") brought out the inscription for this photograph, shown below:

--White Creek 18:12, 23 July 2012 (EDT)

Note topographical map image below. This is a part of Jefferson Township. Just northwest of Stone Creek, the Zion's Cemetery is marked on the map. Just north of the cemetery was Daniel's Lot 33, of 100 acres.

--White Creek 03:48, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

DANIEL LOWER'S tombstone

Daniel Lower's 1842 Signature

STONE CREEK, OHIO

1. ↑ The History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio: containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, churches, schools, etc.; general and local statistics; military record; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; history of the Northwest Territory; history of Ohio; miscellaneous matters, etc. etc. (Chicago [Illinois]: Warner, Beers & Co., 1884).

   Pages 558-559
   "The objective Western point to which a greater share of Jefferson's pioneers emigrated than to any other locality was Wabash County, Ind. Daniel Lower, a German, who had settled on Lot 33 in the northeastern part of Jefferson, was the first to make that his destination, about 1850, and many of his neighbors and acquaintances rapidly followed him."

2. ↑ CastleGargen.org.

   Family arrived in the USA on 10 May 1837, at New York City, on the ship "Hilah" from La Havre, France. Surname spelled: LAUER in the passenger list.

3. ↑ Helm, Thomas B. History of Wabash County, Indiana: containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, military records portraits of early settlers and prominent men, personal reminiscences, etc. (Chicago: J. Morris, 1884).
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Haupert, James. St. Peter's Cemetery Records.
5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 Immigration Index.

   Dorothy Lower (related by marriage only), formerly the head of the Genealogy Department of the Allen County Public Library (co-owner of WeRelate) was a correspondent of this compiler, and found the immigration data. At the time, we believed that we had mutual LOWER ancestors in Tuscarawas County. It was not the case! It turns out that she was a "Hirstein" Lower.

6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Woodward, Ronald L. Lagro Township Cemeteries, Wabash County, Indiana. (Wabash, Indiana: unknown)
   2002.
7. ↑ URBANA CEMETERY 1963