FAMILIES I-L: KRAMER ~ George Kramer

George Kramer and Barbara Ann Kramer

Kramer farm along side Darrtown Pike

Kramer homestead

Families A-C       Families D-H       Families I-L       Families M-P       Families Q-U       Families V-Z

Families A-C       Families D-H       Families I-L       Families M-P       Families Q-U       Families V-Z

Unfortunately, I do not know the source of Helen Kramer's letter. In early January 2022, I discovered it among some files I had put aside some time ago. I assume that I received Helen's letter from a member of the Kramer family. Neither do I have a date for the letter; however, it likely predates 1974, for that is the year in which Helen Kramer died.

An image of the Kramer branch of the Darrtown Family Tree at Ancestry.com appears below Helen's letter.

The image shows the lineage of the Kramer family from the two pioneers, George and Barbara Kramer to Helen Kramer to Marcia Wynn.

The following letter, from Helen Kramer to her grand-daughter, Marcia Kay Wynn, is offered below, as background to the Kramer family of Milford Township, Butler County, Ohio. (Note that Helen spelled the family name as "Kraemer.")

In addition to Kramer family history, Helen Kramer's letter provides information about several other Darrtown and/or Milford township families such as Herron, Hueston, Marshall, Nichol, Scott, Steele, Taylor, Wallace, Wells, and Williamson.

"Dear Marcia:

  Since you are the oldest grandchild, I am going to write these letters to you, hoping that someday some of you may be interested in the things your grandmother knows and did, when she was growing up, even as you are now.

  I can't help knowing that I am almost the last link between all of your ancestors who helped to settle the beautiful Ohio Valley, and your younger generation, who  will, I hope, live in it and enjoy its beauty and fruitfulness.

There has never been anything so fascinating as learning about these courageous people who first came and settled along the streams and fertile valleys. Long ago they came before there were roads or railroads or even towns or villages. They built their homes and meeting homes and God blessed them, and they raised families, and laid the foundations of our present fruitful lives.

You children are as composite a mixture as any young American could possibly be. The KRAEMERS were German. They came to America in 1773 to bring the art of glass blowing to the new country, who sorely needed the wares they came to make. They were deeply religious, as all old records testify; but they were artists too, and many pieces of their exquisite handiwork still exist.

The SCOTTS were of Scottish ancestry. They left their home in Scotland to escape the persecution of their Protestant beliefs, and migrated first to IRELAND and then on to the new and free land of America. So did the NICHOLS, MARSHALLS and HUESTONS, the TAYLORS, the HERRONS, and the WALLACES. So much of romance and adventure, of love and freedom to worship and live as they chose, drove all of them to seem homes here in this Ohio Valley.

The KRAEMERS were Lutherans, as were many of the devout German families who came to the new world. My grandfathers were among the number of German families who founded the Lutheran church at DARRTOWN. They were not as strict in their manner of worship as many of the old line German Lutheran churches. The congregation at Darrtown was known as Evangelical Lutheran.

The MARSHALLS, NICHOLS, SCOTTS, and HERRONS belonged to the old Scotch Presbyterian and United Presbyterian churches. They were called Scotch Irish, because ther migrated first from Scotland to Ireland, and carried both Scotch and Irish blood in their veins. The NICHOLS, especially Lord JOHN NICHOL were considered real Irish Aristocracy. He had owned large land holdings, mostly textile mills and considerable land known as NICHOL HILLS in Scotland. When he left Scotland and migrated to Ireland, where he located near Belfast, he purchased land and established another home, which he again called NICHOL HILLS. The family crest was a white dove on a blue shield. I remember quite well hearing my mother tell of grandfather NICHOL contributing money to a fund by which another Nichol relative was to go to Ireland and bring back a share in the estates supposed to be there, but he never did receive anything. Uncle GEORGE, mama's brother always talked of making a trip to Ireland just to see what he could learn of any remaining relatives who might still be there, but he never did go.

  My own grandmother Nichol's maiden name was JANE MARSHALL. Records reveal that the original GILBERT MARSHALL'S name was really MARSHALL GILBERT, and had been changed for political reasons. He was the 9th Earl of Pembroke and the coat of arms was a red lion on a green shield. Grandma NICHOL was the grand-niece of Chief Justice JOHN MARSHALL, the first chief justice of the United States. I have often heard it said that she (Jane Marshall) was a stubborn and determined as John Marshall himself. She was sister to TAYLOR MARSHALL, one of the founders of the BETA fraternity at Miami of Ohio University.

Grandma Nichol (JANE MARSHALL) was fifty years old when my mother (KATHERINE AMANDA NICHOL) was born. There were twelve children in the family of whom my mother was the youngest. I always enjoyed hearing my mother tell of her home life in Hanover township on the farm where grandfather had brought grandmother as a bride in 1827.

Grandmother's father was GILBERT MARSHALL and her mother was MARY HUESTON. JANE MARSHALL's grandfather, WILLIAM HUESTON, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, as was his father-in-law, ROBERT TAYLOR.

JANE MARSHALL's grandmother, ELIZABETH TAYLOR, and her father, ROBERT TAYLOR, were members of Dr. King's congregation Presbyterian church in MERCERSBURG, Pensylvania, as were the MARSHALLS.

ROBERT TAYLOR was an ardent patriot, and was a Major in the Revolutionary War. He had a fort (Fort Taylor) named for him in Ohio County, West Virginia (above Wheeling). I have notes which say that JOHN MARSHALL's grandfather was born in Wales, settled in Westmoreland County,  Virginia, in 1730.

JOHN MARSHALL was the oldest of fifteen children and was born in Germantown, Virginia, September 24, 1725.

THOMAS MARSHALL was a colonel in the Revolutionary War and John was first a Lieutenant and later a Captain. I do not know where these notes came from or what relation JOHN MARSHALL was to grandpa Nichol's father (THOMAS NICHOL 1803). It doesn't say, but I presume he was GILBERT'S father and grandpa Nichol's grandfather. I do not have definite records of names and dates and have not been able to verify these notes.

After the war for freedom was over, Major ROBERT TAYLOR and his wife MARY ..., his son-in-law WILLIAM HUESTON and family joined a company of pioneers who were migrating to the little known country west of the Ohio River. The Scotts, Herrons and Wallaces were also in the company that floated down the Ohio River and settled on lands near Fort Hamilton. William Hueston was killed and scalped by the Indians shortly after they had started on the journey. The widow, ELIZABETH TAYLOR later married again and had six more children.

At almost the same time, the WILLIAMSONS, JOHN and MAGARET, arrived at Cincinnati. John Williamson's mother's maiden name was SMITH and she was a daughter of SIMEON SMITH, an English sailor who deserted to the colonies and fought all through the Revolutionary War. The name Simeon has shown up in every generation of the Williamsons, until now."

KRAMER FAMILY LINEAGE and FARM RECOGNITION