Daviess County MO Archives History .....JEREMIAH LENHART FAMILY OF DAVIESS COUNTY 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 4:43 pm

THE JEREMIAH LENHART FAMILY OF DAVIESS COUNTY
	Narrator:  Mrs. Mary Holliday, 95

     Mrs. Holliday's narrative is corroborated by that of Andrew McClelland 
aged 86 a former neighbor, now of California.
     Jeremiah Lenhart (1805-1877) came from Ohio and settled in section 10, in 
1841 he moved into Colfax township, of Daviess county.  He put up the first 
mill in this part in 1842, made of native rock, run with two or four horses 
and it would grind 50 bushels a day.  Settlers from 10 to 30 miles around went 
to it.  In a rush, they camped out round the mill, and might be there a week, 
waiting their turn to come.  Besides, he was a preacher, the first preacher in 
that township and organized the first church right in his own house.  It was 
near Morrowbone creek.  At first, this church was held from home to home, then 
in the school house, as members grew.
     He was known as Uncle Jerry over the country.  He was, as we can see, a 
sort of Jack of all trades, being a wheelwright, as McClelland recalls, for he 
could shape wooden articles for household purposes, and besides all this, he 
was a farmer.  After his death 1877, his widow moved to Hamilton with her 
family and took in boarders.  Mrs. Jim Puckett while a school girl here in the 
early 80s, boarded with grandma Lenhart, as she came to be called.  Alma 
Howard remembers several of the younger Lenharts and said that they lived in 
the present Overstreet house east of the north side school.  Mollie Lenhart, 
daughter of a son of old Jeremiah, was a dressmaker here in the 80s and 
catered to a stylish trade.
     When Jeremiah Lenhart died, the Methodist church bell tolled his age for 
him seventy two strokes.  This bell had not tolled for any one for some time 
before him, and that was the last time that that particular bell ever tolled.
     Mr. Lenhart is buried in the new cemetery at Hamilton.  His grave is 
marked, but the graves of other Lenharts resting in that lot are unmarked.  As 
was rather typical of preacher's stones, his stone has a hand holding a Bible.
     Interview  1934.


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