Family History:Steahly Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by David Steahly dsteahly@columbus.rr.com USGENWEB NOTICE:Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. _________________________________________________________________ Steahly This is the information on the Steahly family tree as is known or deduced from information collected from the court houses in Portsmouth, OH and Pottsville, PA at this date, January 2002. It appears that there were many spellings of Steahly which were the results of church records, census takers, lawyers, county clerks, army adjutants and registrars. Some of the spellings were as follows: Steeley (will), Stahly (census-1900), Staley (census-1880 and baptism records), Stahle (tombstone), Stahley (tombstone), Stehley (Executor, Census), Sthele (baptism records) and Stechley (army discharge papers). It also appears that middle names were used instead of given names which made searching even more difficult. It may be assumed, for now, that the original spelling of the name was “Stahle” which is Germanic. Catherine (1880 census) was also spelled Catharine (rough draft and filed will) and Katharina (rough draft will, but may not be her signature). The family tree data will be filled in as much as possible, but only a short cursor will be written here, as Frederick Jeremiah Steahly is the primary lineage of this study. CATHERINE (KATERINA) STAHLE (1811-1890) We begin with Catherine (Katherina) Stahle, who came to the United States from Baden, Germany in 1854 with four sons. Named in her will as Joseph, Jeremiah, Frederick, and Lewis. They settled in Tremont, Pennsylvania sometime before the 1880 Census and 1854. Their whereabouts during this time is unknown at present. Her maiden name on Frederick’s marriage certificate was “Smith” which is obviously an error but her husband’s name was listed as Conrad Steahly. Of course the spelling of his last name was the same as the way Frederick spelled his. The story is that she left Germany to avoid conscription of her sons into the army. They arrived just shortly before the US civil war. She came as a widow however it is not known whether her husband was deceased prior to her departure or that he passed away during the voyage. Charles Frederick Steahly shows up in Portsmouth in 1860 and was born in Baden, Germany. In the Portsmouth City Directory of 1910-1911, Frederick J. Steahly ( wife Sophia) is listed as an engineer living at 401 E. 11th St. His obituary stated that he came to Portsmouth in 1868. It is therefore assumed that Jeremiah, in the will, is really Frederick and Frederick is Charles. That they used their middle names instead of their given names made research more difficult. There is no information on Jeremiah or Charles as named. Charles’ death certificate states that Mother and Father are unknown but that all their birthplaces were in Germany. It was found later that on death certificates, the names of the parents were not required so clerks just wrote in “unknown”. So, rather than wondering why they didn’t know their parent’s name, the fact is that it was probably never asked. JOSEPH STAHLEY (1840-1907) Joseph stayed in Tremont, PA and was married twice. His first wife gave birth to four children, the fourth’s name and sex was unknown to him so it is assumed that his wife died at childbirth as there is no mention of her, by name, in the will. He remarried (Rose) who left him and had given birth to one child. His will is signed with an X and was written 3 days before his death. The census reported that he could read and write English so it is surmised that he was too sick to sign the will. Of interest to note is that he was known as the bachelor uncle that stayed in Pennsylvania. His census name was spelled Stahly, however, the tombstone reads Stahley. LEWIS STAHLEY (1851-1916) Lewis (also spelled Louis in baptism records) shows up in the 1880 census but not the 1900 census. He married, Elizabeth Dixon (Lizzie) from Lebanon, PA and had four children in the 1880 census, which had the last name as Staley. They were Catherine age 6, Anna age 4 and Charles age 1. Sometime before the Census of 1900, they moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It was just recently that it was found out that Lewis went by the name of Stahley. Baptism records have the spelling as Sthele and Staley. Other children were Ernest, Ralph Philip, John Erwin, Helen, Emma, William Frederick, Franklin John, and Arthur Henry. This information came from George Hennigin who was the grandson of Arthur and son of Elizabeth Stahley Hennigin (Arthur’s daughter). According to George Hennigin, he notes that Elizabeth (Dixon) Stahley died shortly before son Arthur moved to Akron, Ohio circa 1917. Arthur had a “Tinning and Metal Shop” at one time. According to George’s mother, she had something wrong with her liver. There was an operation and she died either during or after the operation. She and Lewis were separated, but it wasn’t thought that they got a divorce as she was a Catholic convert according to baptismal records in Tremont, Pa. At the time of her death, two daughters were living with her, Helen and Emma. It was an issue whether Helen would go to Akron and live with her brother, Arthur on Lexington Ave., but she died before she could make the trip. She was 19 at the time. Emma moved to Harrisburg, Pa. and never married. FREDERICK CHARLES STEAHLY (1842-1916) Frederick Charles Steahly (Charles Frederick) came to Scioto County in 1860 at the age of 18 and worked as a shoe repairman. He met Caroline Lenhart. She liked Charles and would frequently bring shoes to be repaired whether they needed it or not. The romance blossomed and they were married. They had six children, Mary (Kennedy of Cincinnati), Charles Frederick Jr., Lizzie (Sheperd), Anna (McRoberts of New Boston), Clara (Bush)Steahly and Joseph, who died at the age of 20 in 1895. JERAMIAH FREDERICK STEAHLY (1848-1929) Jeremiah Frederick Steahly (Frederick Jeremiah) joined the union army in December of 1864 and served until August of 1865. He was in the Pennsylvania 161st Regiment, 16th Calvary, Company B. They were engaged at Hatcher’s Run, Dinwiddie Courthouse, Five Forks, Amelia Springs, Sailor’s Creek and Farmville (the Appomattox Campaign). When Lee raided the arsenal at Richmond for supplies, Frederick’s company was one of the companies that cut Lee off from getting back to his army in the south. It was after that, April 9, 1865, that Lee surrendered. Frederick’s company then went to North Carolina to the support of Sherman and then to Lynchburg, VA where it remained till the end of service. A synopsis of the battles and maps are in the folder under Frederick. His discharge papers have his name as Frederick Stechley. It appears that he started going by his middle name while in the union army. After coming to Portsmouth, Ohio in 1868, he met and married Pauline Hock on January 12, 1869. Their children were John, Louis, Albert, Edward, Frederick Jr., Jane “Jenny”, Harry, and one son, Frank Henry, who died in infancy. Pauline died in 1906 and he remarried in 1909 to Sophia Roth who passed away in March 6, 1925. It was interesting to note that in the records at the courthouse in Portsmouth there was an entry of an adoption by Frederick Steahly. Of course, they would not reveal any information as to whom or when it occurred so the question of “why” cannot be answered. At this writing I cannot believe that it was a child of Sophia’s as Frederick would have been age 61 at that time. It is also possible that the adoption was by Frederick Jr. but there is no verification of this. (His marriage license has his age as 59 but that cannot be true as the 1880 census has his age as 32 which verifies he was born in 1848.) Frederick invested in the “Steahly block” located at Fourth and Chillicothe Streets in Portsmouth and was owner of the Steahly Brothers store in that building which was managed by a son Albert. In 1900, Frederick and his son Louis built a store at 719 Chillicothe St. (Note: the family bible has his name as Frederick J. Steahly) It was recently found that the family bible was of the Hock family and not Steahly. However, there were some pictures that were retrieved of Frederick and Pauline.