In an 1880 letter, brother, Charles, urged Joe to leave Ohio and join him in Nebraska.
Josephus Ditman
FAMILIES D-H: DITMAN ~ Josephus Ditman (1850-1934)
Josephus Ditman was be the first Ditman to live in Milford Township, according to all known records.
Consequently, Mr. Ditman is recognized as the Darrtown Pioneer of his family.
This page was created in late October, 2021, after James Ditman of Silver Spring, Maryland, contacted the Darrtown webmaster and offered to contribute information about his great-grandfather, Josephus Ditman, who lived in Milford Township, about one mile north of Darrtown, during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Webmaster Note: Links, like the two shown at the right, appear throughout this website. Clicking such links will reveal more information.
Mr. Kim Johnson, of Isle, Minnesota, helped research Ditman records at Ancestry.com.
James Ditman praised the valuable work done by Mary Eva (Polster) Ditman, who was Josephus Ditman's second wife. Mary Eva preserved the numeous artifacts related to the Ditman-Polster family history. James (the great-grandson of Josephus) wrote, "All that I ask is for you to credit Mary Eva for all this stuff. She lived in your town (Darrtown) and loved the people so much there. She did not want to leave for (because) Josephus loved it there, too. She was the glue that held that generation of Ditmans together. If not for her ability to look into the future and push herself to keep the record of this past era alive forever, you would have none of it. I just consider myself a temporary caretaker of her stuff."
Hover over the green icon for more info.
Josephus Ditman, born November 7, 1850, was the ninth oldest child of 16 children born to the union of Heinrich Von Bermuthshain Ditman and Catherine Lousia (Schultheis) Ditman of Carroll county, Maryland.
Josephus Ditman and his birth family
Later, he moved to Butler County, Ohio.
Joe declined his brother's suggestion to move to Nebraska and remained in Ohio, working as a farmhand on George Kramer's farm, in Milford Twp. (Butler Co.) about one mile north of Darrtown.
A few months after the wedding, Barbara's parents conveyed 164.92 acres of farm land to the newlyweds,
For the next 13 years, that farm in Section 20 of Milford Township was home to Joe and Barbara.
Sadly, Barbara (Kramer) Ditman died, on June 13, 1899.
In the fall of 1874, Joe moved (with the Geo. Kramer family) from Indiana to Ohio.
On April 13, 1886, Joe wed George Kramer's daughter, Barbara Ann Kramer.
Joe boarded with the Kramer family.
Charlie's letter to Joe
Charlie Ditman wrote, in his June 8, 1880 letter to his brother, Joe, that things were going well for him in Nebaska and ... "I shant want anything but a woman. I shall have to come down & get little Maggie Guard." Presumably, Charlie was referring to Margaret Gard of Milford Township, Butler County, Ohio - whose family lived near Joe and the Kramer household. We do not know if Charlie was serious; however, we do know that, sadly, 17 year-old Maggie Gard had passed away on April 16, 1880. This is an example of how long it took for news to travel in the 1800s. In June, Charlie was thinking about Maggie in the present tense and she had been deceased for two months.
Barbara (Kramer) Ditman was buried in Richmond, Indiana.
Six years after declining the move to Nebraska, Joe literally "married the farmer's daughter."
In an October 31, 2021 email message, James Ditman reported the following about the demise of brothers, Charles and James Ditman: "...younger brother James E. Ditman died suddenly, on Oct 14, 1885, age 29. And poor Charlie, he was murdered by Dr. C. Judkins, his mining claim partner, in a post office at Cripple Creek Colorado on or about Mar 9 1893, age 35.
Barbara Ditman died of rheumatism, according to Rev. Lease of the Darrtown Methodist Church (his Oct. 23, 1900 letter appears in the Excerpts Section - see link below).
EXTRA INFO RE BROTHERS IN NEBRASKA
Migration
In 1873, according to family records, Josephus Ditman traveled to Wayne County, Indiana, to join his brother, John. Some association with George Kramer, Jr. occurred and when the Kramer family moved to Milford Township, Butler County, Ohio in the fall of 1874, Josephus went along. More info appears at the 1880 census link below.
Josephus wrote a letter to Mary Eva - hoping that she might respond.
And, she did! And ... in a favorable manner!
Thus, began a five-month correspondence that ended in matrimony!
OHIO
Josephus was scheduled to leave Maryland and return to Ohio on Thursday, August 23.
And, so, on Wednesday, August 22, Josephus took a chance...
In August of 1900, Josephus Ditman returned to his boyhood home in Westminster, Maryland.
Josehus, 50 years old at the time and a widower of two years, had recently purchased a farm near Darrtown, Ohio. The trip east gave Josephus the opportunity to visit his kinfolk and many friends. One evening during his visit, while attending a social event with his brother and sister-in-law, Lewis and Martha Ditman, Josephus was introduced to Mary Eva Polster, aged 34, a school teacher of 12 years for the Carroll County Public School System.
In August of 1900, Josephus Ditman traveled from Ohio to Maryland to visit family and friends.
Josephus and Mary Eva eached saved the letters that they exchanged. Mary Eva is credited with preserving them.
Deciphering the handwritten letters and transcribing them into typed form must have been an arduous task. Click the link below to see an example of the letters in their original form.
Josephus Ditman
Mary Eva Polster
The photographs above are believed to be the ones that Josephus and Mary Eva mailed to each other.
The Ditman-Polster letters tell the story of how Josephus Ditman and Mary Eva Polster stayed in touch, via handwritten letters delivered by the U.S. Postal System.
Josephus and Mary Eva were married February 5, 1901.
OHIO
The letters exchanged between Josephus and Mary Eva, have been preserved.
Known as the "Ditman-Polster Letters," the collection is available through a series of links below.
These pages were designed by webmaster Fred Lindley, Centerville, Ohio and his sidekick, Mike Jordan of Cape Coral, Florida.
In December of 1873, at the age of 23, Josephus Ditman left his native state of Maryland and migrated west to Wayne County, Indiana.
From the time he moved west in 1873, until he died in 1934, Josephus Ditman's life was intertwined with the George Kramer family. That relationship was described by Joe's second wife, Eva (Polster) Ditman, when she wrote a brief bio of Joe's life.
Josephus Ditman and his Kramer family connection
Also, see hand-drawn family tree from a 1983 Ditman family gathering.
Click the link below, to see Joe and Eva's letters in their entirety.
Click the link below to see excerpts from the Ditman - Polster letters.
In 1988, Joseph McGill Ditman, grandson of Josephus Ditman, reproduced the Ditman-Polster letters in typed form.
The excerpts highlight the Ditman's involvement with Darrtown people, events, and organizations.
James Ditman spent many hours reviewing and organizing a huge amount of records that Mary Eva (Polster) Ditman preserved. James then contributed multiple electronic files to this website. In his desire to preserve the physical records that relate to the Darrtown community, James arranged to deliver selected files to the Darrtown webmaster, Fred Lindley. Thus, Tim Smith of Cosgrove's Cartage, Inc., a friend of James Ditman, transported said files, from Maryland, to Fred, in Ohio, in late November, 2021. Shortly thereafter, Fred delivered the Ditman artifacts to the Smith Library in Oxford, Ohio, where they are available for public viewing.
Visit the Smith Library website.
This is an example of how the extra info link works. Click the X at the right to close the link.
