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John is currently assumed to have been born in Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany in 1824 under the name Justus Betzikofer.
While research is still underway, this is all we know of John's early life at this current moment.
Even less is known on his wife Emily Zimmerman. She was born in the region of Bayern, Germany about 1828 and seems that her birth name was Apolonia even though she frequently went by Emily and Emma.
UPDATED 05/1/2020: On top of the previous update from 2017 that made use of Ancestry.com's transcribed Württemberg parish registers to identify Rauch birth, marriage and death records, I have added additional footnotes to the bottom of the page to address a few old Rauch family stories that keep appearing. I combed the parish registers for Rauch family members to identify occupations and relationships that hopefully answer some of these longstanding questions.
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 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.
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.
Born in Berea, Ohio, the son of a merchant tailor, George was the eldest of nine children. They were a fairly prominent family in the village as his father was very active in the community, eventually holding position of mayor during some of the town's most troubled times. George married in Lorain county at 25 and lived and worked in Cleveland as a machinist & laborer. He went through multiple periods of unemployment and eventually moved the family out to Medina where he became a farmer. After a few years in the area he became ill. The sickness never seemed to be diagnosed, but persisted for year before he finally succumbed at 58.
