Ludwig Cemetery
Location: On CR 17 (Pleasant Ridge Road). S35, T3, R7.
This is a fascinating cemetery for my family history. Precious secrets lie buried here along with many of my relatives. As you can see from the picture above, here lie the remains of Abraham and Margaret Mueller Fickeisen, my great great grandfather and grandmother. In fact, even though I know who all of my 16 great great grandparents are, save the two in the Sullivan line, I feel closest to Abraham and Margaret. Perhaps it is because of the decades of my mother's story telling that I feel this kinship. But also, when I stood in Abraham's German village in front of the church that he probably attended, and sat beside the stream that he probably walked along to court Margaret, I just felt this certainty of a connection.
Founding of the church
A German Evangelical church was established on Pleasant Ridge in 1868 which went by the name St. Jacob's Evangelical Protestant Congregation, and later and more commonly, by the name Ludwig (German Evangelical) Church. We have a copy of the constitution online, approved on Jan. 1, 1882. Former ministers were Robert Barner in 1890, John P. Mueller from 1892-1897; and W. C. Kampmeier from 1898-?. Daniel Hirsch assisted the church until about 1890.
Barbara Matt provided this picture of the old building, dated 1969.
What relatives are buried here
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Jacob Noe was born in Niederbexbach, Saar, on September 17, 1832, the first child of Georg Jacob Noe and Magdalena Flikinger. According to the tombstone, he died April 29, 1909. I have written about the four Noe brothers, Jacob, Andreas, Heinrich and Karl and the location of their farms. Jacob was the older brother of my great great grandfather, Andreas. |
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Catharine Bu(e)rtel was the second wife of Adam Buertel. She was born Feb. 11, 1815 and died July 15, 1902. In a complicated turn of events, she was the mother of Elizabetha Buertel, who married Jacob Zimmer. Elizabetha and Jacob raised my mother's father, Frank Sullivan, from age 4 when his mother died of cancer. There was a family connection, however. Frank's natural mother, Carolina Buertel, was Elizabetha's half-sister by Adam Buertel's first wife, Juliana Klein. |
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Charles Bartell (Carl Buertel), died Sept. 4, 1903, and born about Feb. 25, 1859 to Adam and Catharine Buertel. I have yet to write about it, but one of Charles Bartell's daughters, Laura, married a Whittington, and I used to visit her as a young man in Marietta. She was a cousin of my grandfather, Frank Sullivan, who died when mom was four. |
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This is the tombstone of Jacob Zimmer (1848-1924) and his wife Elizabeth Buertel Zimmer (1849-1926). These were the folks known to my mom in her childhood as "Grossmuhter and Grossfahter Zimmer." They became the surrogate parents of my mother's father, Frank Sullivan around 1885, when his natural mother, Carolina Buertel (Elizaabeth's half sister) died of cancer. Also buried in Ludwig Cemetery is Jacob and Elizabeth's oldest son, Jacob. Their oldest son, "Jakie Zimmer," was killed at age 11 and a half when lightning spooked the team of oxen that he was driving while he and Frank were making molasses all night. Their other children were Clara, who married a Biehl, and John. There is also a Carolina Zimmer interred there who was born on Jan. 4, 1863 and died Nov. 22, 1882. It is not clear to me what the relationship is. |
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Anna Maria Philobena Fickeisen, my great grandmother's younger sister by two years, and Henry Biehl were married by Daniel Hirsch on September 21, 1882 at 2 pm. I was almost 20 years old when she died. | |
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The tombstones of my, really, most beloved ancestors, Abraham and Margaret Fickeisen are here. Their fifth child, Eva Fickeisen Noe, was possibly mom's most important parent figure, and was revered by her. I grew through childhood with my great grandmother, Eva, in our home, and it is largely her stories as retold by grand-daughter, Lorene Sullivan Andris (my mom), that inhabit these web pages. Abraham's tombstone has been vandalized since this photo was taken. Who would do such a thing? |
Quite a few Beckers are also buried here, but I am not quite sure what their relationship is to my family.
References
- German-American Communities, Churches, Cemeteries, Records and other Sources Washington County and Adjoining Townships in Noble and Monroe Counties, Ohio, information compled by Millie Covey Fry of Marietta, Oh, December 30, 2001; December 4-7, 2006, January 30, 2007. Information provided by Donna Betts, Kurt Ludwig, Catherine Sams, Ernest Thode, and Dean Zimmer.
- Matt, Barbara Gerhart, translations of the Berg Church Records of Daniel Hirsch.