In this excerpt from "Biographical Record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio" by James Mitchell Bowland, Salome Gerber, the youngest sister of Fourth Great Grandmother Anna Gerber Mundwiler, recalls life in Switzerland and the journey to America.
Some spellings modernized.
Salome Gerber was born in Switzerland, March 12, 1797, and became a member of
the Lutheran Church. Her parents were Christian Gerber, of Saxon descent, born
in 1750, and Elizabeth (Medori) Gerber, born in 1753. Her mother's maiden name
was Biddle. Their children were: Anna, John, Christian, Jacob, Matthew, Mary,
Elizabeth, Salome.
When Salome was but a child her father moved with his family from his farm
into a large stone house in the village of Basel, where in the basement he
carried on cabinet-making. After he had learned the trade of a carpenter he
traveled and worked at his trade away from home, as was the custom, before he
was allowed to set up in business for himself. His wife, Elizabeth, was a
seamstress, at which occupation she wrought constantly as soon as her daughter
Anna had learned to manage the housework.
Salome attended school in the village of Basel, regularly, and learned to read
and write, sew and knit. She also learned to sing, which was a source of great
pleasure to herself and friends in later life. She never studied arithmetic,
as it was deemed unnecessary for girls. Her brothers attended school
irregularly, and in addition to school studies were set to learn various
handicrafts, chiefly weaving, in a large manufacturing establishment. Her
brother John lived with his uncle until he arrived at manhood. The children
were all brought up to habits of industry and thrift.
During their residence in Basel, Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops passed through
their village to secure conscripts, and the male citizens secreted themselves
to avoid being pressed into the army. Mrs. Gerber entertained some of the
soldiers in her house, and was kindly treated by them. They stacked their arms
behind her door, ate the meals prepared by her and departed in peace.
Some men who had hid themselves under piles of hay were thrust through with
bayonets. Salome’s brothers, in order to avoid farther danger of being forced
into the military service, prevailed upon their parents to emigrate to
America.
Some Swiss emigration agents, who had just returned from America and given
them a glowing account of the fine climate, fertile soil and cheap land to be
found here, and easily induced them to sell their possessions in Basel and
engage passage to America. Accordingly, in the month of May, 1804, the Gerber
family took passage in a boat, and sailed down the Rhine river toward
Amsterdam.
Salome had just passed her seventh birthday, and was delighted to view the
grand scenery and the ruins of old castles and fortresses along those classic
banks. She often spoke in later years of the famous
“Mouse Tower," of Bishop Hatto, where an avaricious man was said to have been devoured by an army of rats
in retribution for his having caused the destruction of a multitude of hungry
people who at his apparently kind invitation had crowded into his well-filled
grain store-house.
On reaching Amsterdam the Gerber family and others who accompanied them
learned to their sorrow that there was no ship in readiness to take them, and
that they were at the mercy of unscrupulous agents who charged them exorbitant
prices for extra services. While waiting many days at the dock, weary of the
long delay, emigrants composed and sang in derision a sarcastic song, in
German, about the kindness of the agents and the “glorious. land of liberty in
North America.” This was sung so often on their six-weeks’ passage on the
Atlantic ocean that it became indelibly impressed on Salome's memory, and she
often sung it in later years to her grandchildren.
Owing to the long voyage, and the resulting extra charges of the agents, many
emigrants were unable to pay their passage money in full, and were obliged to
bind themselves to a term of service, to someone who could furnish money, or
be cast into prison.
After the Gerber family had landed in Philadelphia they lived for a time in
the suburbs of that city, and then settled in Lancaster county, Penn., where
the father and three sons found work as carpenters. They were known as
"Zimmerman,” the German name for carpenter. Here Anna Gerber married
Jacob Mundwiler
and then moved to Knox county, Ohio.
John Gerber came to America in 1805, and settled in York county, Penn.,
Christian Gerber, Jr. and Jacob Gerber also settled in that locality. Mary,
the second daughter of Jacob Gerber, married Daniel March, after whom the
second son of Salome was afterward named. Elizabeth Gerber died in
Switzerland.
Christian Gerber, Sr., died in 1815. His elder children having gone from home,
Salome stayed with her widowed mother three years, until her death in 1818,
after which she lived with a brother about two years.
She was married October 18, 1819, to Andrew S. P. Wolfe, in York county,
Penn., and they soon after located in Adams county, Penn., where he worked as
a carpenter and later as a farmer. In 1831, they took up their abode in Knox
county, Ohio, where he followed farming. In 1844 they moved to Richland
county. Ohio, where they farmed about nine years, after which they moved to
Sandusky county, Ohio.
They were members of the Methodist Protestant Church in Knox county, but on
coming into Richland they united with the Church of the United Brethren in
Christ, of which they remained faithful members during life.
In politics Mr. Wolfe was first an Old-line Whig, then a Republican; all his
sons are Republicans. The children of Andrew and Salome Wolfe were: Mary, who
married John Jones, and died March 26, 1860; Jacob, a carpenter, who married
in Richland county, Ohio, and then located in Bear county, Mich.; Elizabeth,
who married Judge Barnett, and lives in Iowa; Caroline, who married William
Galbraith, and lives in Seneca county, Ohio; Daniel M., sketch of whom
follows; Sarah, who married Laird Ritchie, and lives in Iowa; Rosa A., who
married Fred Gibson, lived in Adams county, Iowa, and died there October 24,
1882; Jeremiah, who lives with his family in San Jose, Cal.
Andrew Wolfe died at the home of his son, Daniel, in Ballville township,
Sandusky Co., Ohio, April 21, 1873. aged seventy- seven.
Mrs. Salome Wolfe died at the same place, November 3, 1884, aged eighty-seven
years, and both were buried in Mt. Lebanon U. B. Cemetery.
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