John K. Fudge

Other Events:

• Occupation: farmer, tanner, Justice of the Peace, County Commisioner, served in the Ohio House of Representatives & Senate, Associate Judge in Greene Co., Trustee for Methodist Episcopal Church.

Notes:

.....MORGAN FUDGE, editor and proprietor of the Bellbrook Moon. This gentleman was born five miles east of Xenia, Greene County, December 5, 1845, and his early life was devoid of special incident, his attention being given to his studies until 1863. He then enlisted in Company A, Seventy-fourth Ohio Infantry, and served until the close of the war with all the enthusiasm and loyalty possible to a son of the Buckeye State. His regiment was attached to the Army of the Cumberland, under the leadership of Gen. W. T. SHERMAN, and he took part in the Battles at Buzzard’s Roost, Tunnel Hill, and Resaea, and all the heavy engagements from Chattanooga until the capture of Atlanta. He then made one of the sixty thousand gallant men who marched from Atlanta to the sea, and returning toward the North was present at the surrender of Gen. Joe JOHNSTON, in North Carolina, and took part in the Grand Review at Washington. He was mustered out of the service at Louisville, Ky., and received his final discharge at Camp Dennison, Ohio.
.....When his services were no longer needed in behalf of the Union, young FUDGE entered a commercial school at Owensboro, Ky., but subsequently became a student in Purdy’s Commercial College, Indianapolis, Ind., and was graduated from that institution. He received an appointment as clerk in the Insane Asylum in the Hoosier capital, and remained a year, after which he traveled until 1870. He then located in Bellbrook, this county, where he worked at the printing business for several years. Finally removing to Dayton, he remained two years, and then returning to Bellbrook, bought the Bellbrook Moon, a newspaper published by the Magnetic-Springs Company. The purchase was made July 18, 1885, and since that day Mr. FUDGE was continued to edit the sheet which is independent in politics, newsy and spicy, and altogether creditable in appearance and contents.
.....In 1871, not long after he had located in Bellbrook, Mr. FUDGE was united in marriage with Miss Anna, daughter of Samuel and Catherine (HOPKINS) WILLOUGHBY, with whom he lived happily until August 3, 1881. On that day Mrs. FUDGE and her son Johnnie were returning home from Dayton, after dark, when, during a thunder storm, their horse became frightened at a load of straw, and ran away. Mrs. FUDGE was thrown out of the buggy, and her neck was broken. The suddenness of her death added to the sorrow felt by her many friends, to whom her sterling qualities had endeared her. Her funeral was the largest ever witnesses in Bellbrook. She was the mother of two children, Herbert and John. Her father was a native of New Brunswick, and during the Civil War spent nineteen months in Libby Prison; her mother was a daughter of Samuel H. HOPKINS.
.....Mr. FUDGE remained a widower until October, 30, 1889, when he married Mrs. Lavenia G. ORDWAY, nee GOOD, widow of Charles ORDWAY. By her first marriage she had two children: Franklin, born October 24, 1873; and Carrie, June 3, 1876. She was born at Zanesville, Ohio, July 15, 1852, being a daughter of George B. and Ann (TODD) GOOD. Her father is a native of Woodstock, W. Va., and is of German descent, being a great-grandson of Capt. Mathew MARKUM, of Germany, who lived to be one hundred and three years old. The mother of Mrs. FUDGE was born in Worchester, W. V., and is a daughter of Benjamin TODD, of Zanesville, who served in the War of 1812, and who is of French descent. She is a second cousin to the late Mrs. Abraham LINCOLN. In 1854 Mr. and Mrs. GOOD with a family of seven children, joined the Shakers at Union village, Warren County, remaining there until 1864, when they removed to Xenia.
.....Mr. FUDGE belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, and is a Republican in politics. He possesses more than ordinary intelligence, is a terse and vigorous writer, and an honorable man, whose influence is felt throughout the community, and who is held in good repute by his fellow-men.
.....The father of him of whom we write, was the Honorable Judge FUDGE, who birthplace was in Botetourt County, Va., April 13, 1796, and who died of a paralytic stroke September 5, 1868, at the age of seventy-three years, five months and twelve days. Many years ago he located five miles east of Xenia, purchasing a large estate on Caesar’s Creek, where he carried on the farm and a tannery. He was a very prominent man in this section, being a Justice of the Peace for many years, a County Commissioner for a lengthy period, and having been appointed Associate Judge by Gov. Bebb, in 1852, the year that Ramsbottom was hung for murder. He acted as administrator of about three hundred estates, and was an officer in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He served several years in the Legislative halls of the State, both in the Lower House and the Senate. From “Pencilings from the Senate” in 1852, we take the following: “John FUDGE represents the counties of Fayette, Clinton, and Greene in the Senate of Ohio. He is a Whig, and physically the largest man in the Senate, weighing two hundred and fifty pounds. He is a hale man, looking young, and not yet gray, although fifty-five years old. He has filled a seat in the Legislature several times, and as a Senator is something of a model.”
.....John FUDGE was married three times. His first wife was Catherine SELLERS, of Warren County, who bore him six children, five yet surviving. The eldest son, Joseph, was run over by a wagon, and killed in June, 1888. The subject of this sketch is the only child of the second marriage, his mother having been Temperance SPAHR, who died two years after her marriage. The infant was then taken by an aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth SUTTON, but upon the third marriage of his father, was again taken home. His stepmother bore the maiden name of Susan BARNETT, and her wedding day was February 25, 1846; she still survives. [Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Greene and Clark Counties, Ohio, Chapman Bros., Chicago, Copyright 1890, pg 735, 736]

John married Catherine Sellers on 3 May 1821 in Warren County, Ohio, United States. Catherine (daughter of John Sellers and Henrietta Smith) was born on 22 Feb 1802 in Warren County, Ohio, United States; died on 7 Nov 1839 in Greene County, Ohio, United States; was buried in Nov 1839 in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

They moved to Botetourt County, Virginia and bought a farm in 1792 and later moved to Ohio. They were the parents of 12 children. [Reference: Mary Marie Koontz Arrington, "Cradled by the Masanutten: The Zellers-Sellers Family", (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1986), pg. 29.]

Christian married Elizabeth Nicholas on 10 Aug 1790 in Virginia, United States. Elizabeth (daughter of John Jacob Nicolaus and Anna Barbara Zeller) was born on 9 Feb 1768 in Augusta County, Virginia, British Colonial America; died on 28 Sep 1828 in Springboro, Warren County, Ohio, United States; was buried in Sep 1828 in Clear Creek Township, Warren County, Ohio, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Name: John Jacob Nicholas

Notes:

John Jacob was evidently a person of some means and educated. It is thought he opened the records of the Peaked Mountain Church. He was very active in community affairs as shown by the numerous court records where he witnessed legal proceedings. He was also frequently named appraiser to estate settlements. The church records show he and his family were regular in attendance at Peaked Mountain Church. [Reference: Mary Marie Koontz Arrington, "Cradled by the Masanutten: The Zellers-Sellers Family", (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1986), pg. 29]

John married Anna Barbara Zeller on 7 Dec 1752 in Augusta County, Virginia, British Colonial America. Anna (daughter of Hans Heinrich Zeller and Anna Maria Fechter) was born on 27 Feb 1732 in Weinheim, Germany; died about 1800 in Rockingham County, Virginia, United States. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events:

• Name: Heinrich Seller
• Name: Henry Sellers

Notes:

NOTE: Rockingham County was established in 1778 from Augusta County. The county is named for the Marquis of Rockingham, British statesman

A Frankish tribe settled at the end of the Weschnitz Valley and its chieftain Wino gave Weinheim its name. The village Weinheim is first mentioned in the Chronicles in 755. It became a fief of the mighty Abbey of Lorsch and its Peterskirche was protected by the Castle Windeck. Power changed hands and in 1232 the Abbey's holdings were transferred to the Archbishop of Mainz. Count Palatine founded a new town one mile south of the old in the year 1250. The old and the new were joined in 1456 after many conflicts. Only 1/2 of the population survived the Thirty Years' War but it was spared when France devastated almost every town in the Palatinate between 1689-1693. When Napoleon rearranged Europe in the 18th century it became part of the Grand Duchy of Baden.

The Thirty Years' War, lasting from 1618 to 1648, involved most of the countries of western Europe, and was fought mainly in Germany. At first the struggle was primarily based on the religious antagonism engendered among Germans by the events of the Protestant Reformation. Religious tensions were seriously aggravated in Germany during the reign (1576-1612) of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Protestant churches in many parts of Germany were destroyed, restrictions were placed on the rights of Protestants to worship freely, and the emperor's officials made the Treaty of Augsburg the basis for a general resurgence of Roman Catholic power. The religious hatreds that flared into the Thirty Years' War had smoldered for more than half a century before 1618. The war, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. Uncertainty, fear, disruption, and brutality marked everyday life and remained a memory in German consciousness for centuries.

Heinrich Zeller (aka Henry Sellers) was born in or very near Weinheim, Germany in the Duchy of Baden in the Holy Roman Empire and here he married Anna Maria (last name unknown). Around the year 1700 the number of barges moving down the Rhine river began to increase in number. They were loaded with families bound for Rotterdam where they hoped to find passage to a new world called America.

Heinrich Zeller, at the age of thirty four, boarded a barge with his young wife and small children in the early summer of 1738. Friends and relatives had been leaving the area of Weinheim for some years. The preparation for leaving had gone on all winter. Most of it had consisted of what they could take with them, which was very little. They probably packed what clothing and food they could in an old trunk or wooden chest. They perhaps had a few utensils and some seeds and bulbs. Seeds and bulbs were two items the women tried to bring. A bulb was a tie back home.

He was probably very excited when the day finally came to catch the barge. The barge was damp and well worn from previous trips up and down the Rhine. Word had been coming to the area about "Penn's Land" and if he was going to go he must go soon since he was now 34 and in the eighteenth century life was short.

He was better prepared in some ways for his trip than some of his fellow immigrants in that he had some education. He firmly inscribed his name HEINRICH ZELLER on the ship's register when he landed in Philadelphia. He probably carried some coin. He was evidently Lutheran or Reform since we find his family with these faiths in America.

All winter the river had been ice bound but now the warm winds of spring had washed the winter snow away and the Rhine River was running high. As the barge drifted down the river the passengers took one last look at their homeland as the old Windeck Castle on the hill faded from sight. Thought to be on the barge with him were his daughter Anna Barbara, age 5; Johannes, age 3; and his wife, Anna Maria who was probably some years younger than he. Anna Maria may have been expecting since it is thought a son, Peter, was born circa 1738 or 1739. At Rotterdam he secured passage on the ship Queen Elizabeth, Alexander Hope, Commander. They stopped at Deal, England to refuel and take on their last provisions for the trip. The air was filled with excitement. Little did they know what lay ahead for them on the high seas before they saw land again. The crowded conditions, sickness, and the stench on the small sailing vessels were yet to be realized along with the fearful waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Food and water was often scarce at sea and disease was often rampant. There were many burials of crew and passengers made in the stormy waters leaving broken families and orphaned children when the ship finally landed in America. They were fleeing into the unknown but it was less frightening than the conditions under which they were living. They were seeking freedom from interference with their religious and family life. They landed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania September 16, 1738. They were probably very glad to be on firm ground again, even though they knew nothing about their new country or what lay ahead.

Sometime after arriving in Pennsylvania Heinrich learned of land in the Valley of Virginia through friends and promoters. Several friends and neighbors moved to Virginia, some also from Germany. It is not known the exact route he followed to Virginia and there has been much speculation. He had to cross Maryland and there were only three crossings of the Potomac that were widely used by those coming from the north in the early days. Coming as early as Heinrich did, it is likely they traveled by pack horses since the trails were not cleared well enough to get over them with wagons. In any case we find him in 1750 at the foot of the Peaked Mountain, west of Elkton. Augusta County, Virginia land books show he acquired his first land in 1750.

The Heinrich Zeller family was active in the Peaked Mountain Church. The old church record refers to it as the "Pinquit Moundyn" in "Agosti" County, toward the South "Chanithor" River. The area was in Augusta County, Virginia on the Shenandoah River that became Rockingham County, Virginia in 1778. The name was from the southern peak of the Massanutten Mountain and around which the Zellers family settled. The first church was near a Mr. Hermann's mill. The second church was dedicated October 23, 1768. The building was used by both the Lutheran and Reform congregations. On October 31, 1769, forty five persons signed an agreement that it was to be a Union Church. It was near Stony Creek. A third church was dedicated on May 27, 1804 and the building was still shared jointly between the Lutheran and the Reform.

The Zeller/Sellers name is German, or perhaps German-Swiss. The Zellers spelling continued well into the early part of the 19th century. The records of early America were kept in English. The English did not know German and the Germans did not know English and therein arose the dilemma concerning the spelling of names of the German immigrants. The English had to make the entries so they spelled phonetically as it sounded for official records. Names became Anglicized as time went on so that it is difficult today to sometimes identify the origin. Some of the old deeds and other business transactions that are written in English were signed in German. There has been found many spellings of the name Zeller/Sellers. Some of the spellings found were Sehler, Selers, Celers, Celer, Sellar, Cellars, Zöller, Zöllner, Seller, and Söller.

The origin of the name seems to be open to question by authorities. One version is that it was derived from "of the cellar". There was a position of some note within the feudal hierarchy known as the office of the Cellarer. The person holding this position served as a steward. The steward managed and supervised accounts, servants, and other domestic concerns. One holding the position of Cellarer certainly had considerable responsibility in relation to the well being of the lord and his vassals. There were certainly stewards of the vast cellars under the castles of medieval Europe where the food supplies were stored and the great wine cellars existed. It is possible, that the name came from "of the cellar".
Source:
[1] Mary Marie Koontz Arrington, "Cradled by the Masanutten: The Zellers-Sellers Family", Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1986
[2] Frank M. Sellers, "Sellers - A Preliminary Study of the Descendants of Heinrich Sellers", Denver, Colorado: Lion Press, 1984
[3] "Thirty Years’ War." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001. © 1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation.

The Sellers (Cellers, Zellers) family in Warren County was among the earliest pioneers, having taken up landed holdings in January 1799, by purchase. The first hundred years of the Zellers family, (as it was then spelled) has been lost in the maze of time. It is a matter of family traditions that three brothers came from Germany about two hundred and fifty years ago. One of them settled in Pennsylvania, one in Maryland and one in Virginia. [Source: Lee L. Dodds, "Pioneers of Warren County and Their Descendants, (reprinted with permission of the Middletown Journal, Middletown, OH (Originally printed in 1941) Warren County Genealogical Society, Lebanon, OH 1998) The Sellers Family, published 16 March 1941]

Hans married Anna Maria Fechter on 23 Feb 1730 in Germany. Anna (daughter of Nicolaus Fechter and Judith Kehm) was born in 1701 in Möttgers, Hessen, Germany; died about 1776 in Augusta County, Virginia, British Colonial America. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]