BAESEL FAMILY HISTORY

      The Baesel family came to the Berea area when Jacob and his wife, with their young son William Henry, came to Middleburg Township (now Berea) in 1845 and settled on Townline Road (now Sprague Road), at the extreme southwest corner of Middleburg Township. Jacob Baesel fled to the United States about 1840 from Germany to avoid conscription. At that time Germany was not one nation as it is now, but a loosely bound confederation of kingdoms, duchies , electorates, free cities and principalities. Most of it had been parts of the Holy Roman Empire which had been destroyed by Napoleon Bonaparte. Jacob had also been involved in the unification and reform movements with Carl Schirts. Carl had also come to America at about the same time to avoid arrest and imprisonment for his activities. Carl also became the best known of all the German immigrants. He enlisted in the Union Army at the beginning of the Civil War and rose to the rank of Major General.

      Jacob stopped in New York, but where is unknown, to wait for his future wife, Barbara Brenner. They were married in New York and their oldest child William Henry was born there. Barbara came over alone in a sailing ship.

      There is no knowledge of where they lived or what Jacob did for a living while they remained in New York. They evidently did not remain to long for the only child born in New York was William Henry. Upon their arrival in Ohio they purchased land on Townline Road on the extreme Southwest corner of Middleburg Township and erected a log cabin where the remainder of their children were born. They finally had built on the property a frame house. By that time the trees and stumps had been cleared from the land and it was a good farm. The Jacob Baesels worked the farm until they retired. When that was it is not exactly known. An old map of Berea, made in 1870, Jacob Baesel owned a lot on Prospect Road. He must have erected a house that is where he retired and both he and his wife were living there at the time of their decease. It remained in the Baesel family until the early 1920's, when it was sold. It remains standing to this day in good condition. Majorie Baesel Bush checked the information about the old home but was unable to determine exactly when it was erected, to determine whether or not it was eligible to be placed on the Berea list of century homes of the Berea Historical Society. It is located a 4XX Prospect Road, Berea, Ohio.

    The four children born to the Jacob and Barbara marriage were -

William Henry

John

Elizabeth

George

William and George were married to sisters Emmaline and Elizabeth Mohr, who also lived on Townline Road at the corner of Fair Road. John Baesel married Effie Howard from Columbia Station and Elizabeth married Louis Wicks from Cleveland, Ohio.

      The William Henry Baesels left Middleburg and moved to Deshler, Ohio. They were farmers at Deshler, but did not like the area and after a number of years and returned to this area when Jacob and Barbara Baesel retired to the house Jacob had built on Prospect Road. William Henry purchased the home farm from his parents and lived there until he also retired about 1920 and lived in a rented home at 58?? N. Rocky River Drive, Berea, Ohio, where he was living at his decease.

    There were ten children born to William Henry and Emmaline Baesel, and all of them lived to adulthood, their names are:

Henry       married - Hattie Fish

Ida           married - Stanley Fish

John         married - Florence Bredt

Rose         unmarried

Clara         married - Ralph Hillman Osborne

Helen       married - Frank Cole

Albert       married - Lydia Cole

Leo           ?

Frank       married - Josephine Miller

Lucy         married - Granville Robinson

    George Baesel and Elizabeth Mohr were married in 1884 by the minister of the German Methodist Church. The framed marriage license until Elizabeth died in 1941 on December 6th, the day before Pearl Harbor. They started married life in a small house at the Southwest corner of Prospect Road and French Street in Berea, Ohio. The house stood until about 25 years ago when it was torn down and replaced by a new one.

      Before their marriage George had purchased 18 acres of land also on Prospect Road just South of Townline Road in Strongsville Township. While still living at Prospect and French, George and Elizabeth erected a small house on the Strongsville land. The house was added on to several times as the famly grew into a large one. The home is still standing and has been completely modernized by Carlyle (now 71 years old living in Strongsville ???) and Marjorie Bush (nee Baesel). The home was recently sold by the Bush's when he was transferred to Florence, Alabama.

      The Baesel's later purchased more land on Fair Road, in the rear of the Prospect Road property. There was an apple orchard on it for a long time. The land was sold not long ago by Arthur Baesel and the property was alloted, and all of the apple trees were completely bulldozed out. Several streets were laid out, the area is now filled with houses and is known as Creekwood Allotment.

      Caroline and Elizabeth Mohr were the daughters of Conrad and Barbara Mohr (nee Kapel). The Conrad Mohrs came to the United States and Ohio in 1871 from Germany. The family was all packed and ready to sail from Germany in 1870, but the Franco-Prussian War broke out. The sailing had to be canncelled but the family finally got away late in 1871 when the war was about over. Two of their six children were born in the United States, John and Conrad, but the other four came across the ocean with their parents.

      Conrad had the promise of a job in Berea was the reason they located here. He was a stone mason and cutter and went to work for German Wallace College, now Baldwin-Wallace College, working on construction of the college chapel. The chapel is still standing now, in good shape and is used about every day by the College students.

      The Conrad Mohr Family moved into a house at the Northeast corner of Fair and Townline Roads Berea, Ohio, which they later purchased. There the other children were born, Charles, Henry, John and Conrad. The Mohrs were prosperinng when disaster struck. Conrad suddenly was stricken with pneumonia and died, June 30, 1880, age 47 years. He had a tooth extracted and an artery was ruptured and the bleeding could not be stopped, as a result he lost a lot of blood and contracted pneumonia and in his weakened condidion he died, he was one of the first persons buried in Woodvale Cemetery. Since then most of the Baesels and Mohrs have been buried there.

      Barbara kept the home at Fair and Sprague Roads and raised all of the children without help. The house stood on a huge lot and every year she put in a large garden. She raised nearly all the vegetables for the family. She also had a small orchard of apples, pears, plums and cherries. She raised chickens which produced eggs and provided chicken for the table.

      I can remember her telling how good William Southam was to her, his farm lay just across Fair Road. Southam raised potatoes and always gleaned the potatoes missed by the potato pickers. That was before the reaper was invented, and the grain was cradled by hand, considerable was missed. She would go over the harvested fields and pick the heads of grain and take them home to feed her chickens.

      She kept on living in her home, even after the children were raised and married and had families of their own, almost to her deaath in 1917. She was the only grandparent I ever knew. It wasn't far from the rear of our Prospect Road land over to her home and we would walk over and see her many times when working in the garden or hoeing corn. She seemed to have apples most of the summer (sweet boughs, ramdos or sheepnoses). Several years before she died she came to live with us. In the winter of 1917 she went over to visit her son Conrad (Uncle Coon) who lived on the South side of Berea, on Elm Street, now South Rocky River Drive and was to stay several days. She became ill while there and died, I believe from pneumonia. She is buried in Woodvale Cemetery as are all my other grandparents. She had six children all of whom, exept Charles, are also buried in Woodvale.

    There were four children born to George and Elizabeth, their names are:

Charles         married - unknown (4 children)

Henry           married - Laura Crum (4 chhildren)

John             unmarried

Conrad         married - Emma Behnke (4 children)

      They are now all deceased, that is all of my aunts and uncles. Most of their children are now also deceased although a number of them still reside in the area.