Holmes County, Ohio to 1985, page 9

14 AULTMAN

William Aultman was 20 years old when he left the Province of Alsace-Lorraine
to come to the land of freedom - America.  This was in 1765.  William was one 
of tens of thousands who left Europe at this time to escape the persecution 
of Protestants.  He was a German of Calvinistic persuasion.

The sailing vessel which brought William Aultman across the ocean landed on 
the coast of Virginia, and one year later, in 1765, he married Barbara Stahl.
A large covered wagon was readied soon after the marriage and William and 
Barbara, along with other folks in wagons, started a long treacherous trip 
westward.

Several routes came together at Cumberland, Maryland.  Two routes that met here
would be traveled by people coming west from a settlement in Maryland and the 
Penn folks from Philadelphia.  A number of Holmes Countians have ancestors 
who traveled these routes.

From Cumberland, William and Barbara crossed over the Allegheny Mountains - 
and kept going until they reached western Pennsylvania.  Here they found 
a Reformed Settlement in Westmoreland Countv - near Greensburg, Pennsylvania.  
William Aultman is recorded as a charter member in a church there.  This church
has the distinction of being among the first churches west of the Alleghenies 
to have a building.

One of William and Barbara's sons was John, born in 1771.  From John and his wife,
Elisabeth, we come closer to Holmes County.  They lived a number of years in 
Westmoreland County and then came over to Tuscarawas County in Ohio and settled 
near Strasburg.  John constructed and operated a grist mill in the valley south 
of Winfield and near the road leading from Shanesville to Dover - now State Route 39.

One of John and Elisabeth's sons was Isaac, who was born in 1801.  Isaac married
Nancy Wallick, a Scottish lady, in 1821.  In 1830 Isaac and Nancy brought our
first Aultmans into Holmes County.  They chose "The Glens" in Doughty Valley 
as the best place for their business.  This place was renamed "Aultman's Hollow"
and now is called "Troyer's Hollow".  Here is where Isaac and Nancy built a dam
and then a grist mill and a saw mill.  In 1840 they built a wool mill.  Next went up
a blacksmith shop and a store.  Aultman sons and sons-in-law operated these businesses.
All of this came from the small investment of $175 paid to Henry Miller for his 
40-acre tract, and for $62 more Isaac bought the water rights.  This water was 
carried through a mill race to his mills.

George Aultman, one of Isaac and Nancy's sons, received a Bible as a gift from 
his Grandfather John and Grandmother Elisabeth Aultman when he was 16 years old -
in 1838.  I am the proud owner of that Bible now.  The inscription inside the cover
is precious to me.  I know from this inscription that the faith of my fathers 
was strong and good.

On May 11, [1843], George Aultman married Margaret (Peggy) Conrad.  Peggy is the
reason my father, Floyd Aultman, always said that we had as much Conrad blood as
Aultman.  Petty many times took time off to go fishing with her grandson, Floyd.

In 1862 George and Peggy became sole owners of the Aultman Woolen Mill.  They 
moved it about five miles down stream to a site two and one-half miles east of
Clark.  On this Conrad Tract, military lots 15 and 16, inherited from Peggy's 
parents, John Jacob and Mary Lowe Conrad, George and Peggy built new buildings 
to house the wool mill equipment.

Albert Aultman, a son of George and Peggy, worked here manufacturing, selling 
and delivering woolen goods.  The business was called G.R. Aultman, and Son.  
A daughter of Albert, Hazel Graham, could remember her father starting out in 
his horse-drawn van to sell woolen goods.  The mill was originally run by water
power, but later a large boiler was installed to make the power steam.  This was
much better than water power because it meant no worry about flood damage to the
dam or lack of water during a dry spell.  George and Peggy and Albert and Anna 
Ream Aultman owned and operated this mill for fifty years.  Albert met Anna Ream
when she came to work at the mill.  She was from Shanesville, Ohio.  Albert and 
Anna's daughter, Hazel, married James Graham and lived in Holmes County all their
lives.  A son, Walter, married to Mae Patterson, had a lumber mill in Clark.  
Born to Walter and Mae were Anna Mary, Lucille, Harold and Helen.  Anna Mary and
family live in Akron, Ohio.  Harold the son, married Mildred Robinson from Coshocton,
Ohio.  He worked on the farm where the wool mill still stands until he went to Akron
to work for Goodyear in their Research and Development Department.  In 1950 he 
was transferred out to Litchfield Park in Arizona to work in the Plastic Division
of Goodyear Aerospace.  Harold and Mildred have a son, David, who lives in the 
Seattle area with wife, Bonnie and children, Geoffrey and Janna.  David Aultman 
has a cabinet and furniture making enterprise.

I want to get into the act, too - so I have to go back in time to February 23, 
1844, when my Grandfather John Wesley Aultman was born to George and Peggy Conrad
Aultman.  John married Lucy Ann Conkle, daughter of George and Abilene (Long) 
Conkle, on August 23, 1866.  They built their house and farm buildings on land 
adjoining John's father and mother's farm with the mill.  They raised six children
here, and in their later years retired in Millersburg.

John and Lucy's youngest child was my father, Floyd Aultman, born in 1891 on 
July 25.  He was an excellent sutdent, so they sent him off to Oberlin Business 
College.  After World War I, Floyd and Eulalia Close Aultman bought the farm 
where Lake Buckhorn is today - a mile north of Clark.  After a term as Auditor
of Holmes County, Floyd passed the examination and was appointed State Examiner
of Public Offices, where he worked diligently for 35 years.

I doubt that my father, Floyd, ever missed the Conrad Reunion - held in August
(third Sunday).  His beloved grandmother, Peggy, invited her 22-member family 
for a reunion - held on her porch in 1871.  At that time she asked the family 
to make it a point to get together each year.  And the Conrad Reunion has never
missed a year - as far as I know.  In 1980, the Conrads celebrated their 150th
Anniversary of their Holmes County settlement.

After my Great-Uncle Albert Aultman died in 1934, Floyd took over the family 
records and wrote: "A Sketch of the Ancestry of George R. Aultman and Margaret
(Conrad) Aultman and a Record of Their Descendants Through 1967".  This is 
a good reference book.  His wish was that one of us would find more in the 
past history and carry on from 1967.

Floyd and Eulalia (Close) Aultman had three daugthers.  Evelyn Elliott married 
to Robert, son of Lincoln, born in Clark.  Virginia Spring married to Robert, 
son of Herman, born in Cambridge, Ohio.  Eileen Steele married to Forde, son of
J. Earl Steele, born and lived his life in Holmes County.  The three of us - 
and our husbands - gave Floyd and Eulalia nine grandchildren, and the grandchildren
added twelve great-grandchildren and then on to two great-great-grandchildren.
None, now, live in Holmes County.

How hard ancestors worked to make their way in the world!  We should be grateful
for what we have today.  But with busy days they still took time to build churches
and attend them.  They were thankful.

Submitted by Eileen Aultman Steele.