Shep's Place Family Tree

"In 1853, two young German army-dodgers landed in New York with a party of their fellow countrymen. Skilled weavers, both, they soon secured work in that Eastern metropolis. But neither of them knew more than a dozen English words, and each was desperately homesick. So they decided to go to Pomeroy, where they knew some of their friends to be located. Pocketing their meager cash reserves and shouldering their little foreign made trunks, they started on the Westward journey by stagecoach. They travelled as far as their money took them, then stopped to work as farm hands to earn money for another short stage ride; stopped again to work ‎(sleeping in barns)‎ then rode another short stretch, and so on. To their surprise and joy they made their enquiries regarding directions to Pomeroy understood, found everyone kind and ready to help with information and hand-outs until they reached Athens, Ohio. There the good farmer's wife who opened the door in response to their knock, the instant she caught sight of the two "furriners" turned and called loudly, "Hyuh Shep, Hyuh Shep!" But the two travellers were quicker than the large dog that came bounding around the corner of the house. Before he could reach them they were out of sight of dog and farm house and double trotting briskly southward. By sheer luck they struck the right road without making further enquiries and in due time trudged wearily into the outskirts of Pomeroy. There they had no difficulty finding their German friends. Later, both young men, whose names were Gottlieb Krautter and Jacob Lederer, became permanent residents of Mason City."

1900: Gottlieb and Mary are at home with two of their children: Barbary 26 and Peter, who is a day laborer. Gottlieb is a salt maker. Mary had eight children of whom five were living.

Both Gottlieb and Mary came to the U.S. in 1860 and had, therefore, resided in the US for forty years. Both had been naturalized.