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Leonard Tobias Schnell* was born 06 Aug 1860 in Liverpool, Medina, Ohio, USA (within the limits of Valley City) to parents Christopher Levin Schnell, 51 and Catherine Rauch, 32.
Sometime before 1870 the family relocated to the northwest corner of Marks & Boston Roads in the small village of Beebetown (officially known as Columbia Township, Lorain, Ohio). Beebetown would become the Schnell family home for the next 80 years.
UPDATED 04/28/2020: See Ancestry DNA updates below this story.
Born in Binghamton, New York to a disabled veteran of the war of 1812, Sarah was one of 6 children and at least 5 step-children. The family moved to Ohio when she was about 5 years old. They seemed to spend a lot of her childhood living in the care of friends and depending on the next payment from pension. Around the age of 6 her father died. Her mother raised her with the help of the older children and remarried when Sarah was about 14. They moved to Pennsylvania where Sarah married stagecoach driver Rufus Dodge and the couple returned to Ohio. They had 3 daughters and raised them in North Ridgeville, Ohio; always sticking close to Sarah's family. Sarah died in 1897 around the age of 67.
The origins of Rufus H. Dodge are muddied. He was born in 1825 in what is believed to be Harpersfield, Ashtabula, Ohio. Nothing else is known about him until he marries Sarah Bryant in 1844 in Pennsylvania. The couple lived in Parkerburg, Ohio and then moved to North Ridgeville following his wife's family. Rufus was a stagecoach driver and later a teamster, hauling goods instead of people. The couple had 3 daughters together but lost 2 of the to illness. After his wife died in 1897, Rufus moved in with his daughter's family in Cleveland and then followed as they relocated to Medina. Rufus died in Granger, Ohio, not far from the family home in Weymouth in 1907.
Born to a saddler and farmer father at Amerton farm, Lizzie, as she was known, was raised on the outskirts of Stowe-by-Chartley. She married Samuel Rogers in Stowe in 1887 and five years later at the age of 30, they immigrated to Columbia Township, Ohio where they would live out the rest of their lives. Lizzie gave birth to 9 children and they were always very poor, struggling to provide for their children. Lizzie died in Berea, Ohio at her daughter's home.
Born to a corn miller father at Newinn Mill, Samuel was raised in Trentham, Staffordshire, England. He married Elizabeth Collier in Stowe-by-Chartley in 1887 and five years later at the age of 35, they immigrated to Columbia Township, Ohio where they would raise their children and live out the rest of their lives. They had 9 children in total and spent the majority of their lives in extreme poverty, constantly struggling to provide for their children. Samuel died in Berea, Ohio at the community hospital in 1930.
Born in southern Germany to what was by all accounts a fairly prominent farming family (father was said to be town mayor), Catherine was raised in the town of Vöhringen until the age of 5. At that time, the family sailed to America aboard the ship Charlotte and landed in New York on 22 July 1833. They immigrated to Liverpool Township in Medina, Ohio where Catherine married Levi Schnell at 24. The couple lived in Beebetown on the edge of Liverpool their entire lives and raised 5 children. She died a widow at her daughter's home in Berea, Ohio at the age of 74.
Our Schnell immigrant ancestor was born in Germany. Our only account of Levi's early life comes from his immigration manifest that says he was from Hanover, Germany. His childhood and origins beyond that are a mystery. Even his actual birth name is up for debate as he has been written under many different variations of Christoph Levin Schnell. He originally married in Cuyahoga County, Ohio to Mary Richardson at the age of 30, less than a year after arriving in America. They lived in Liverpool Township, Ohio where he worked as a carpenter and farmer and had 4 children together before Mary died. Levi remarried Catherine Rauch at 46 and moved to Beebetown where they had 5 more children together. Levi died in Beebetown at the age of 74.
Born into poverty in North Olmsted, Ohio, George was the son of immigrant parents only two years removed from England. He learned the trade of a butcher after accepting a position at a butcher shop in Cleveland where he would work his entire life, starting at clerk and eventually becoming owner/operator. George raised two children in Cleveland with his wife Edna.
The daughter of a stage coach driver, Frankie was born along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border in the village of Petersburg. By the age of 8 her family relocated to North Ridgeville, in Lorain County where she spent the rest of her childhood. Here she met her husband and at 20 years old they married and moved to Cleveland. Together, they would have 7 children and eventually move out to rural Medina to take up farming; Here her husband died following a long illness at 59. Frankie would live a full life with her children and grandchildren and passed away in Medina at 81.
