The Disappearance of John H. Semer

He's considered the patriarch of the Semer family in Ohio, the father of ten children. He was fourth generation American from a proud Pennsylvania-German family. He was a pioneer, one of the first settlers in the Western Ohio county of Van Wert, and a leader in the settlement of Jackson Township. He was my great great great grandfather. But sometime before 1860, he disappears from the face of the Earth, appearing on no records from that point forward. So what happened to John H. Semer?

Once I started researching this mystery deeper, it occurred to me that the story should really be about his wife, Keziah Catharine Semer.

The story of John H. Semer begins in rural Berks County, Pennsylvania, in the town of Alleghenyville, south of the city of Reading. The family surname is Ziemer, and the family is very prominent in the German-American community, its roots dating back to 1738. John H. Ziemer is born in 1820. At the age of five, his father dies, and his mother Lydia (Hertz) remarries to a man from Reading by the name of John Shearer. The Shearers move to Reading in 1832, but John H. remains in Alleghenyville, perhaps living with an uncle there and working as an apprentice in the operation of the family business, Ziemer's Tavern. His one living sibling, Salome Sarah Ziemer, moves to Reading along with her mother and step-father.

Salome Sarah (Ziemer) Myers (1823-1899), seated, with her daughters. She was John H. Semer's sister and lived in Reading, Pennsylvania from age 9.

John H. Ziemer marries Keziah Matz, also of German-American descent, and three sons are born, William in 1843, Henry in 1845, and John in 1847. The three boys are baptized in the Alleghenyville Union Church in 1847. Daughters Catherine and Emma are born in 1848 and 1851. The family is enumerated on the 1850 Federal Census, with John's occupation being "Innkeeper." The family leaves Pennsylvania in 1851 to begin a new life in Ohio, and from this point forward, the spelling of the name is Semer, but also Seamer, Semore, Seymore, or even Seymour on a few records.

Ziemer's Tavern in Alleghenyville, Pennsylvania is now a private residence.

The Semer family settles temporarily in Fairfield County southeast of Columbus. Semer purchases 80 acres of land in the northeast corner of Van Wert County, and the family moves there in 1852. Semer's good friend from back in Pennsylvania, Israel Adam, also moves there about the same time. He is married to Keziah's sister, Catharine Matz. The Semers and Adams are among the earliest pioneer families in this part of Ohio.

Catharine Matz Adams, sister of Keziah Semer

Stories passed through generations of the Adam family (later changed to Adams), paint a picture of John H. Semer as a bit of a heavy drinker, not so surprising given his childhood in the inn and tavern business. In one such story, Semer and Adam are walking eight miles to Delphos to purchase an iron kettle. While in town, they have a lunch break, and Semer has a bit too much to drink. On the way home, he loses his balance on a log crossing over a stream, falling in and getting pinned beneath the water by the weight of the kettle. Israel Adam is able to rescue him, a sobering experience, indeed. The two men arrive safely home before nightfall after a long day.

A large swath of Northwestern Ohio was the last part of the state to be settled, since much of it was marshy swampland, the Black Swamp, left behind by thousands of years of receding glaciers. The land must be cleared and drained before anything can be cultivated, a very difficult task for these early settlers.

In 1855, Jackson Township is formed from pieces of neighboring townships. John H. Semer is elected Treasurer. John and Keziah have five more children, Edward in 1852, Lydia and Polly (twins) in 1853, Charles Allen in 1857, and Cassie in 1859. The 1860 Federal Census enumerates Keziah and her ten children, but John H. Semer is not listed. So what happened to him?

There are clues. In a 1906 publication, History of Van Wert County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, one of the sons, John Semer, is featured and provides the author with family history. "One of the few white settlers of that wild region, John H. Semer at once became a leader among his fellows, and used his influence for the advancement of the new settlement.... He was treasurer of the township for a time, but his career of usefulness was cut short by death in 1862."

In those days, much the same as we see in more modern times, people often embellished or misrepresented things for the purpose of maintaining the good graces of the family name. This appears to be the case with the information provided to the book's author by the younger John Semer regarding his father.

We don't know whether or not John H. Semer truly did or didn't die in 1862 at the age of about 42 years. But the recent discovery of court documents in Van Wert County shed a bit more light on this part of the Semer history.

Fast forward to the 3rd day of January, 1866...

Keziah Semer, now known as Catharine, along with her attorneys, appears before the Court of Common Pleas in Van Wert to petition for divorce against John H. Semer. The grounds? Abandonment. John H. Semer has been absent from the marriage for more than three years, probably the minimum for abandonment charge at the time. The charge goes on to state that "... for the last nine years she has supplied said children with her own labor and industry."

The petition asks the Court to decree to Catharine, as alimony, ownership of the 80-acre farm owned by John H. Semer, "...that at the time of abandonment of her said husband said land was unimproved but that by the labor of herself and her children she has made lasting and valuable improvements therein."

Since the location of Mr. Semer was not known, a notice is placed in the local newspaper, the Van Wert Weekly Bulletin, for the next six weeks. He fails to respond to the notice, and on March 26, 1866, the marriage is dissolved, with Catharine awarded ownership of the real estate and full custody of the children.

John Semer seems to have vanished sometime about 1858. The youngest of his offspring, Cassie, was born in June of 1859, and he's not on the 1860 Census. I wondered... could he have been the victim of something sinister?

But more documents provide more clues. It is now the 14th day of May in the year 1859, and John H. Semer, now the "late Treasurer of Jackson Township," is named as a defendant, along with Israel P.Adams and William F. Westerfield, in a suit involving embezzlement of the Township's funds.

The suit lays out the merits of the Township's case. John H. Semer is elected Treasurer on April 5, 1858. This position requires him to handle receipts coming into the Township and to make payment of the expenses of the Township and schools. His term expires on April 4, 1859. During his term, receipts total $852.56.2 and payments total $465.02.4. The remaining balance of $387.59.8 cannot be accounted for and has not been reimbursed to the Township at the expiration of Semer's term. That's at least $10,000 in today's dollars. The suit further proclaims that, "John H. Semer has left the state of his residency so that no demand can be made for said sum of money..." In the absence of Semer, the Township sues the oldest son, William Semer. William Semer, my great great grandfather, is subsequently named the primary debtor in the case, with Westerfield and Adams being named his sureties.

So there it is. John H. Semer, entrusted for one year with the funds set aside to pay the Township's bills and establish its schools, appears to have taken the leftover monies and fled Ohio, leaving his wife and ten kids behind. Did he go back to Pennsylvania? Did he join the migration westward? Did he change his name (again)?

After sharing this story, I received from a fellow researcher a handwritten document. It is titled Ancestrial History and was penned by or on behalf of Suzanna Semer Winner, a granddaughter of John H. Semer, and the daughter of William and Emeline Semer. Sometime prior to her death in 1950, Suzanna recorded the following:

"Grandfather Semer went back to Penn. on horseback to collect debts from property there, and is known to have started back to Ohio, but was never seen nor heard from again."

Catharine Semer and her children established a successful farm and homestead. William Semer, after presumably satisfying his father's debt, would later own an 80-acre farm one mile to the north of the original homestead, and his brother John had 40 acres to the south of the homestead, both raising families there. The Semer daughters all married and also raised families. Charles Allen Semer raised his family in Defiance, Ohio, where he operated a sawmill, and then Alvordton near the Michigan-Ohio line. The other two sons, Henry and Edward, did not marry; they remained at home and operated their mother's farm. Catharine Semer died in 1900; she is buried in the West Side Cemetery in Delphos, Ohio alongside much of her family.

William Semer, oldest of the Semer children and my great great grandfather

Several generations later, descendants of the Semer children remain prominent in Northwestern Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and across the United States.

Check out my previous blog for more information about the Ziemer Family of Alleghenyville, Pennsylvania.


Sources: History of Van Wert County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Thaddeus S. Gilliland, 1906, Van Wert, Ohio

"The Old Iron Kettle," Lawrence W. Adam, History of Van Wert County, Ohio, Van Wert County Historical Society, 1981

"Thanks" to Eric Crawford, a descendant of Emma Semer Hetrick, for providing the county court documents.