August 3 Gnadenhutten, Tuscarawas County, Ohio - Meeting nice "Stockers"

We are camped at Tappan Lake which is a very large campground (475 sites) created in 1936 around a lake formed when they put in the Tappan Dam. It is a very nice facility and would have been a good value at their "posted price" of $24 a night. When I checked us in I happened to notice a small sign in their small registration shack that said 100% disabled veterans get a 50% discount...WOW $12 a night...think we will stay here a number of days (6 to be exact).

After the hustle-bustle of Oshkosh, this is so quiet and relaxed. We are really enjoying it. We traveled on the motorcycle this morning about 20 miles to the Museum and old pioneer library in Gnadenhutten. Gnadenhutten means "huts of grace". It was settled in 1772 by a Moravain Mohican Elder who brought a large group of Christian Mohican Indians from Pennsylvania.

Lots of interesting history here...much of it before our Stocker ancestors arrived so we tried to take in the history but yet focus on the arrival of the Stocker brothers here in 1815 and related subsequent events.

Spent quite awhile studying the plat map for the county with property holders as of 1870. The Stockers had quite a footprint here, much of which their decendants still own...including extensive holdings by the current "Stocker Concrete" and "Stocker Sand and Gravel". We have set a goal of trying to locate birthplaces for both Gary's grandfather and great grandfather.

We walked most of the cemetery trying to decipher names on ancient, deteriotating headstones. Now I understand why many genealogy buffs put shave cream on the face of the stones to fill in the grooves and make the encriptions readable.

Met a very nice lady, Marilyn Stocker, who is the director of the Gnadenhutten library. She was helpful with some books I had not seen before. She referred me over to the Tuscarawas Geneology Library which is in Dennison...about 15 miles from here. We will go there tomorrow and then also contact one of our distant relatives who lives here and will help show us around as well.

Wish us luck in our quest, it would be so neat to pull up in front of one of these old farmhouses and be able to say...That's where they were born and lived before they moved out to Oregon. Love to put together the stories to go with the dates and names.

No cell phone reception here...not even in Gnadenhutten, the big town of 1300 people. So don't bother to try calling. I will check e-mail (when available at libraries, etc.) and pocketmail in particular every day or so. Just have to find one of those illusive old fashioned telephones to do it on.

We tried to find a cafe for lunch today and were informed the only thing even remotely close was a deli counter at the one gas station/convenience store. This whole area has about 4 or 5 small towns all spaced about 7 to 10 miles apart, guess they just share "services" and facilities. We should just about have them figured out about the time we need to move on.

Linda