Christian and Minnie married on 18 Feb 1832 when he was 23, she 20 and their first child, Wilhelmine, was 13 months old. Before they married, the couple lived near each other in tiny Waldgrehweiler, Germany, separated by a small mill stream. They went on to have two more daughters and two sons, for a total of five children: 

Wilhelmine (26 Dec 1830 - 18 Jul 1901)

Caroline (05 Jun 1833 - ?) 

Catharine (Katie) (27 July 1835 - 2 Feb 1895)

Christian (03 Sep 1837 - 6 Oct 1838) 

Johannes (22 July 1839 - 12 Feb 1906) 

Why did Johannes take on a risky trip to America? Since he was a stowaway we don't have documented knowledge but we can make some educated conclusions based on the conditions of the times and oral history.

Immigration to North America rose dramatically after 1815 when there was relative peace in North America and travel across the Atlantic Ocean became safer. Rocked by political, economic and religious persecution, the lure of a freer, more stable life convinced millions of Germans to emigrate to America in the 19th century. Nearly one million Germans left their homeland in the 1850's alone.

According to Roland Paul, director of the Research Center for the History and Folklife Studies of the Palatinate in Kaiserslautern, Germany, many of the citizens left under a general agreement (with the government) to emigrate but needed to pay a high “auswandern” (emigration) tax of at least 10% of their family’s net worth. Young men were also being conscripted for military service and many left in order to avoid the Prussian military. While this could not specifically identify why our ancestor Johannes Rheinheimer left, it gives adequate incentive for him to do so and was confirmed by oral tradition.

1860, Germany to America

Family legend says 21-year-old Johannes stole a ride on a freight ship in Le Havre, France, since he did not have enough money to secure passage to America any other way. He reportedly was caught (or appeared) after three days at sea and worked during the remainder of the journey to pay for his passage. Family lore also says he disembarked in New York City and walked to Holmes County, Ohio, to join his two, and possibly three sisters, who had previously come to America. He would have likely spoken only German and had no money. Unanswered questions abound - did he go through Castle Clinton (immigration processing before Ellis Island)? How long did it take him to walk to Ohio? When did he start going by John instead of Johannes?

1947 Note to Floyd regarding John's sister Katie

Two of John’s older sisters had emigrated before him in the 1850's and both had married in Ohio before his arrival. In 1853, his older sister by 8.5 years, 22-year-old Wilhemine, married 33-year-old Peter Grogo in Tuscarawas, OH on 25 Oct 1853. A year later, his 21-year-old sister, Katie, married Henry Euler, (often spelled Eiler) on 4 Dec 1856. A third sister, Caroline, was also possibly in Ohio prior to John’s arrival. John's brother, Christian, born in Germany in 1837, but died at 13 months in Oct 1838, ten months before John was born.

1863

By now John had moved to LaGrange County, Indiana, with other families to homestead. He met Anna (Annie) Miller, daughter of Lydia Hostetler and Christian Miller. John and Anna married on 8 Aug 1863 in the Amish Mennonite Church when he was age 24 and she 17.  Anna’s family originated from St. Marie-aux-Mines, a former mining and textile center located about 30 km southwest of Strasbourg, in Alsace, France. John was likely not a Mennonite before marrying Anna since he was baptized into the Reformed church.

John & Anna's 1863 marriage registration

On this marriage registration, John's last name is spelled Rhinehymer - just one of the many variations for this surname. 

     Reinheimer
     Rhineheimer
     Rhinehymer
     Rhunheimer
     Rinehammer
     Rineheimer
     Rinehimer
     Rynhomer
John bought an 80 acre farm and he and Anna began rearing a family of four boys and four girls:

Polly (b 25 Dec 1864, died at age 16 on 18 April 1880 from consumption, known later as TB)

1870 US census

Christian (1866-1930)

Mary (1867-1915)

Carrie (1869-1945)

Jacob (1870-1951)

John (died before 1879?)

Elizabeth “Lizzie” (1875-1903, age 27 of consumption)

Minnie (1881-1898, age 17 of consumption)

John and Anna lived in a small rural village called Pashan about three miles southwest of current Shipshewana, IN, with other Amish Mennonite families. Like many immigrant groups, it was very common to create small communities of like-minded persons and families who spoke the same language and practiced familiar customs.

According to Amish and Mennonite historian and genealogist Rachel Weaver Kreider (1909-2015), Pashan “rose and waned in the last half of the nineteenth century. At one time it held seven houses, a store, a blacksmith shop, post office, sawmill, and a doctor’s office, as well as a school.” Kreider's mother, Laura Johns Weaver, lived in Pashan for many years, as did Kreider.

Given that Pashan was a very small village, most people were intimately knowledgeable about the daily life of its residents. Some of the historical data below in quotations is from Laura Johns Weaver as relayed through her daughter, Rachel Weaver Kreider, to Anita Rheinheimer Yoder (John Rheinheimer’s great-great granddaughter).

According to an article written by Kreider, Pashan’s post office opened on 18 Sept 1872 and closed 19 years later on 9 Oct 1891. In 1877 at least 72 heads of families were listed under this address. Tradition had indicated that Pashan was on record as early as 1840 but lots for the village were not sold until 1852. 

1879-1886

John's first wife Annie Rheinheimer's tombstone in Townline Cemetery

In 1879 at age 40, John Rheinheimer sold the 80 acre farm and for reasons unknown, spent two weeks traveling to Oregon without his family. His wife Anna, was 33 years old and his seven children ranged in age 4-15. Our great-grandfather Jacob was just 9 years old. John was in Oregon for six months, from August, 1879 to April 1880. Did the death of his oldest child, 16-year-old Polly, who died on 18 April 1880 from tuberculosis, bring him back to Pashan? 

After he returned to Newbury Township, he bought a 138 acre farm, moving to Jake Hostetler’s place west of Pashan. Their last child, Minnie, was born in 1881. His wife Anna died five years later in Sept 1886 from bronchitis at age 40. John would eventually die in Pashan 20 years later in1906 from a heart condition.

Fred, Ira, Ed Rheinheimer ~1896

1891 (birth of grandfather Edward Rheinheimer)

Five years after his wife's death in 1886, John's 21-year-old son Jacob (Jake), married 23-year-old Rachel Sunthimer on 25 Jan 1891. She was the daughter of Frederick (Fritz) and Rachel (Royal) Miller Sunthimer. They had three sons in quick succession:

Uriah Edward (b 20 Aug 1891)
John Frederick (b 14 Dec 1892) and
Ira J (b 11 Nov 1894)

According to Pashan resident and neighbor Laura Johns, “Jake was very much in love with his wife Rachel.” They lived their first year of married life at Rachel’s parents’ house, followed by a year south on Amos Yoder’s place and a year on Al Frey’s place, which is where Rachel died in 1894, according to notes written by Floyd L. Rheinheimer.

RHEINHEIMER, Henry - On the 27th of September 1893, in Newbury Twp., Lagrange Co., Ind., Henry, infant son of John and Magdalena (deceased) Rheinheimer. Services by D.D. and J.D. Miller. (Buried in Townline Cemetery, his tombstone is inscribed as Infant Rheinheimer.)

What kind of man was John?

In 1971 at age 80, John’s grandson, Ed Rheinheimer, talked to his daughter Florence about his grandfather. "Grandpa (John) was a man 5’ 10” tall, weighed 180 lbs and was straight in stature. He liked his drinks but he never got drunk that I know of. He liked apple cider. He died when he was 66 years old. He was a hard worker and very accommodating. I was sort of scared him when I was little. I was 15 years old when he died. He and I were strangers. If I asked him, he’d give me an answer, but he never took me in confidence. My dad (Jake) and he were pretty intimate.

“Grandpa (John) didn’t want to tell anything. I don’t know why. Clayton (John’s grandson) said he got a letter one time and he wouldn’t let anybody read it but just sat down and cried. We never got in contact with his sisters in Ohio. I don’t know why. My folks went to see them once."

(According to a 1948 handwritten postcard to Floyd Rheinheimer from 67-year-old Henry Eiler, grandson of Katie Rheinheimer, one of John’s sisters in Ohio, Jake Rheinheimer visited them when Henry was six years old, around 1887. Jake would have been 17 years old, if true.)

The 1900 census shows John's oldest living daughter, Mary, living with him, as was the custom. Her obituary stated, "as a young woman she kept the house for her father in his widowhood and cared for him until his death in 1906."