First, in the Probate Office, the County Record of Deaths revealed the following:
Roettinger, Henry N., Male, died 23 Dec 1905. He was single, age 32Y 8M 6D. He was born in Tamgreis, and died in St. Marys. He was a laborer, white and died of a contusion. His residence at the time of death was in Washington Twp, Auglaize Co, OH. Vital Statistics: Class 5, Sub-Class 1, No. 5.
As you can see, his last name was mangled, as was the place of his birth. I believe that what the recorder meant to write for his place of birth was Tann Kreis. Kreis being the German word for circle or in geographical terms, "district" and is often used in describing an area surrounding a particular location. According to his baptismal record, found in the church records of the Lutheran Church in Tann, He was born in House #52 in Tann on 17 April 1873 at 2 in the afternoon. He was baptized in the home on 4 May 1873. He is described as a child born out of wedlock, and named in the baptismal document as Nikolaus Scheuch. His parents are described as Anna Martha Scheuch, daughter of the Bürgermeister, Nikolaus Scheuch; and George Rödiger, son of the farmer, Tobias Rödiger. A month and a half after his birth, his parents were married in the Lutheran Church in Rohrbach on 1 June 1873. (Rohrbach is just .7 miles SE of Tann, both being situated on Rohrbacher Straße, which runs along the Rohrbach Brook).
After locating the newspaper accounts of Henry Roediger's death, I found the cause of death listed in the county records rather strange, if not totally inaccurate. I found three newspaper articles describing his death. The first two are from the Auglaize County Republican and the third from the Auglaize County Democrat. All were issued on December 28, 1905.
First, the clippings from the Republican:
As you can see, these newspaper reports chronicle the accident, and attribute Henry's death to a broken neck which was the result of his horse and buggy being struck by a passenger train engine. He was a hired hand on John Arnett's farm, and as is known from the 1900 census which was cited in the Blog Post "George Roediger, pt 2--In America", he had also been living with the Arnett family.The article from the Auglaize County Democrat provides mostly the same story but is more gruesome in detailing the accident. Just warning you! The Democrat also misspells Henry's surname and provides information about his family which seems suspect to me:
There are Roettgers in the area, but it is unfortunate that the reporter was unable to distinguish between the two families. And so the line about his parents living in southern Indiana is also suspicious. Maybe I am wrong, but as far as I know, George and Augusta never lived in Indiana, even for a short while. I do know that in 1900 (Census) George was renting land in Washington Twp, Auglaize County; at the time of his marriage to Augusta (1902) he was living in St. Marys, his son George Harry was born in 1903 in Washington Twp (county birth records), Auglaize Co; his daughter, Hulda Alice was born in June, 1905 in Hopewell Twp, Mercer Co (county birth records); and in 1910 (census) he owned land in Section 30 of Hopewell Twp, Mercer Co. adjacent to William Weir. It is possible that George went to southern Indiana and was there at the time of his son, Henry's death in 1905, but if so, he had been there less than 6 months before Henry was killed and stayed no longer than 5 years afterwards according to the records I have. Some of you who have researched this more thoroughly may have deed records or other documents which would narrow this down even further. If there is any info that substantiates or refutes the Democrat's claim I am all ears.
Thus it was, by the close of 1905, George Roediger was bereft of all of his first family, save one (Anna Margaretha Agnesa), and had begun a new family with Anna Augusta Grosse-Schmidt. Together they had two children, George Harry born 24 Aug 1903, and Hulda Alice born 5 June 1905.
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