Time Travel in Oregon, Ohio Week

Our featured pillar of the Oregon, Ohio community this week is the DEBOLT FAMILY.

Some of you might be familiar with the surname: DeBolt.

Last week we talked about Momeneetown.

Originally, the same area of Momeneetown was called “DeBolt’s Corners,” after early settler Michael DeBolt. The land that was donated by Enos Momenee to St. Ignatius Church was where the old DeBolt schoolhouse once stood.

Michael DeBolt was born on 6 Nov 1799 in Masontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. He married Catherine Shough (1802-1884) on 2 Feb 1821 in Fayette Co., PA. Immediately after their marriage, they moved to Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio, residing there until 1835. I believe acquired Ohio Homestead land of 80 total acres in 1829 prompting his family of six to make the move to Ohio.

Michael , Catherine and family then located to Turkey Foot Rock, three miles above Maumee. From there they moved to Springfield, Lucas County, Ohio in 1838 and resided there until 1852, when they located at what was known as DeBolt’s Corners’, where they would reside until both of their deaths.

Michael and Catherine would go on to have a total of seventeen (17) children from 1822 - 1844, who all grew up in DeBolt Corners, Oregon, Ohio.

Michael DeBolt passed away on the 14 Feb 1884, at the ripe age of 84 years 3 months and 8 days old. He died at his residence near DeBolt’s Corners. Michael filled many offices of trust in the Oregon, Ohio community, and had been an advisor and counselor of many. Rev. P. S. Slevin held his service at his residence. Michael had been a pioneer of the Maumee Valley east of the river, identified with its early development and progress. He was a kind-hearted, generous man who was beloved by his neighbors and the community.

Catherine passed away shortly after, within the same year, on 20 Sept 1884. Her funeral services were conducted at their home by Rev. P. S. Slevin. Her funeral was largely attended by friends and relatives, about 250 people being present. About eighteen members of the G. A. R., of East Toledo, were in attendance out of respect to one of her sons, who was a member of that post (Amos - see below). Forty-one teams formed in procession and followed her remains to the grave, where she was interred by the side of her husband. She was the mother of seventeen children, thirteen who were still living in 1884.

One of those children was Amos M. DeBolt, born on 20 Dec 1839. Amos enlisted in the Civil War in 1863 and was discharged in 1866.

Amos built a home in Oregon, Ohio using frame work of 4x4’s with four foot wide cotton wood boards used as siding below the windows. [Pictured Below]

Amos left the area sometimes before his death in 1921 and relocated to Huron, Michigan. He passes away in 1921, at the age of 81 years old and is buried in Sebewaing, Huron County, Michigan.

Early DeBolt Family

Hans Michael DieBolt Jr. was born in Alsace-Lorraine region, probably in 1722. When he was 17, he came to the United States on the ship, Robert and Alice, from Rotterdam, Holland, landing at Philadelphia on 3 Sept 1739.

The ship was captained by Commander Walter Goodman.

When Hans landed, he immediately took his Oath of Allegiance. He is presumed to have settled in Lancaster, PA.

Hans was believed to be a gunsmith. He had three sons [read below] that headed west sometimes around the 1750s.

The DeBolt story in Fayette County, PA began with the arrival of three (3) brothers, Michael Jr. , George, and Henry. They arrived in western Pennsylvania in the 1750s. The story of their arrival in America and their early years goes a little something like this:

George DeBolt and his younger brother, Nicholas were captured by the Pottawatomies in PA. Nicholas was in this sixth year and never returned home. He became chief of the tribe and died in 1828. George was in his eighth year when he was captured and was sold to the Senecas and held captive nine years. After his release, he became a soldier under George Washington. He was in the battle in which Braddock was defeated and was subsequently in the employ of the government as a scout.

Michael Jr. and his children, Micheal III (1744-1784), George (1746-1829), and Mary (1748-1842) settled in what was later to be called Fayette County. The only record of Michael’s brothers George and Henry was a 1772 tax list for Fayette County.

Michael Jr. , however, took out a warrant for a patent to land on 1 Apr 1773 that went like this:

“1st April 1773, The Hon. Richard Penn, Esquire, (who was the youngest son of William Penn), Lieutenant Governor of the late Province of Pennsylvania, by virtue of certain powers, granted to Michael DeBolt to be surveyed, one hundred acres of land on Catt’s Run, on the east side of the Monongahela River subject to the purchase money, and so forth.”

The land was mostly on the south side of Catt’s Run, however a small part lay across the creek. This land was considered part of German Township. It was still German Township in the early 1800s. The land was NOT surveyed until 20 Jan 1787. Most of the land warranted in the 1770s were not surveyed nor their patents granted until the period 1785-1787.

In the case of the DeBolts the reasons for this were mostly personal, but the main reason was that the Revolutionary War was being fought and it was not known WHO would govern the land. The earlier warrants and patents were granted by colonies of England. After 1783 they were being granted by States under the Articles of the Confederation and later under the U.S. Constitution.

The Catt’s Run property when surveyed in 1785 was for 153 acres and the land patent was granted to George DeBolt on 25 Oct 1787. This George DeBolt was the SON of Michael, Jr.

By late 1784, or early 1785, Michael Jr. was already dead. He willed the Catt’s Run property to his son and it was George DeBolt who had the land surveyed and acquired the patent calling the land “White Oak Flat.”

Interestingly, on the same date of 25 Oct 1787, the same George DeBolt acquired patents to at least two other properties, one also called “White Oak Flat” in Greene County, and one in Fayette County called “Much Water’ on Jacob’s Creek, not far from the Catt’s Run Property.

The death of Michael Jr. in late 1784 closed the chapter on the first generation of the Debolts in Western PA. His brothers who had come west with him were also gone by this time.

Excerpts from: DEBOLTS IN AMERICA: THE DEBOLTS OF FAYETTE AND GREENE

COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA by C. Gerald DeBolt in collaboration with Esther DeBolt Ryczek

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