My g-g grandparents who came to America on a sailing ship in the 1850’s from Germany. They built the large barn at Blackhawk crossroads, south of Clarksville. Mom and I found their still inhabited walnut log cabin-inside a stucco house on west side of road, ¼ mile south of Blackhawk intersection. Sara Romohr Hahn, my g-grandmother, was born in this log cabin. She didn’t get to attend much school, but she could do math with her kids. She married Mark Hahn. They lived just south of Blanchester on the west side of the road south of the location of the former Blanchester Fairgrounds, where I later played softball. Mark farmed, taught school, and was a founding Director of the Blanchester Bank. He died at a young age, and Ma’s only income was from the bank stock, which my mother eventually inherited. Ma kept house for Ada, our Auntie, her school teacher daughter, until Auntie became a mail order bride living in Texas; then moved to North Spring Street in Wilmington where she kept a cow and chickens and garden. She died at age 82, I think, after getting hot from chopping up a cherry tree. She chided Mom for taking too many naps, but Mom lived to 105.
When Mom and I drove by their south of Blanchester house, she always pointed out the two large trees in the front yard; one for her sister, Sara, and one for her. Oh, starting with Ma’s name, there has been a Sara or Wilhelmina in each succeeding generation as follows: Sara Romohr Hahn, Wilhelmina Hahn Underwood (my grandmother), Sara Underwood Braddock, Wilhelmina Braddock Branson, Sara Branson Homstad.
Two of Ma’s brothers are buried west of Blanchester. Even after she couldn’t walk over to the graves, I drove Mom near the site, and she shared, “After the first joined the Union Army, the second tied his team of horses to a tree and followed his brother. They were prisoners together in Atlanta. One asked the other, ‘Is that the same moon we used to see at home?’”
Howard
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