(The brief narrative that follows is the work of Alan Bilger, Tiffin, Ohio.  It concerns his family's roots in Pennsylvania and the emigration of two brothers to Ohio in the late 1800's)

This branch of Ohio Bilgers are known to have descended from Isaac Bilger and Elizabeth Bechtol of Middleburg, Union County, Pennsylvania.  Isaac was believed to be either one of possibly thirteen children of John George Adam Bilger or one of the grandchildren, who was born in 1809 and died in 1837.  There appears to be at least two Isaac Bilger's, the other married to a Leonora or Nory Heineman and who served in the War of 1812.  We are seeking any information regarding the former in order to help clarify the lineage.

Isaac and Elizabeth had three children, George, Amelia and William.  George, was born on March 21, 1833 in Middleburg, Union County.  In the spring of 1854, George came to Ohio and in the fall of that same year, returned to Pennsylvania and settled in Beaver Springs.  He married Charlotte Hommel on August 7, 1856 and they had five children, three daughters, Jane E., Annie C. who married Charles C. Gross, Mollie R. married to John D. Haines and two sons, Charles M. and James F., who both died while very young and are buried in Beavertown cemetery.  George served in the Civil War, his service described in the narrative that appears later.  Amelia Bilger married Phillip Amig and our William I. Bilger married Elizabeth Snook.

William I. and Elizabeth (see photo at left) had five daughters and three sons (see photo below left), Sarah, married Charles Getz, Mary E., married Henry Gross, Malinda, married Lincoln Swanger, Harriet, married Samuel Yocum and Ida O.N., died at the age of seventeen of typhoid fever (see photo at right).  Robert Bilger, the oldest son, married Harriet Bogar and they had nine children, John Nevin, James P., George William, Paul F., Lottie married William Moyer, Carrie married Edward Lakjer, Mame married a Schultz, Maud married Earl Miller and Charles Franklin.
 
 
 
Robert Franklin, born in 1856, remained in Pennsylvania and the source for my information about him and his descendants comes from my cousin, Mary Ruth (Kauffmann), who is married to Norman W. Wagner of Milroy, Mifflin County, and is descended from one of Robert's sons, George William.  George William married Ruth A. Wilson and they in turn had 5 daughters and two sons.  One of those daughters, Laura Evelyn, (see photo at right) married George Kauffmann, and she is the mother of Mary Ruth.  Another Bilger relation, who was the first to contact me and put me in touch with Mary Ruth is Mary's nephew, Keith Bilger. Keith's grandfather is George Harold Bilger, Sr., the second of the two sons of George William.  Keith's father is George H. Bilger, Jr., the eldest of three brothers and three sisters.  Keith and his wife Donna live in Lewisburg with their two children Ashley and Jacob. (As a side note, in 1997, I mailed out inquiries (cards) to every Bilger in Snyder and Union Counties and out of those 40 some cards, I received  just two responses, one from Dorothy Shively, of Frederick Bilger's Sr.'s line and the other from Keith.

Isaac A. was born on January 4, 1859 and was raised near Beaver Springs, Beaver Township, Snyder County.   In the fall of 1877 or spring of 1878, Isaac A., age 19 and Charles H., age 18, left Pennsylvania to come to Ohio.  Unlike their uncle George who came here in 1854, they ultimately chose to stay although they seemed to have close ties to home.  Isaac A. settling in Seneca County, Reed Township, near the town of West Lodi.  Isaac was described as a "contractor of stone, brick and plaster" (see photo at right)  in the book "Sons of Beaver Springs", page 129.  In the 20 years ago column of the Adamsburg and Beaver Springs newspaper, dated June 9, 1910, however, it has Isaac operating a barber shop in West Lodi in June of 1890.

On December 21, 1880, Isaac married Florence Nightengale Shetterly (see photo at left) and had three children, a daughter, Ida, born March 8, 1883 who married Ohlen E. Hippler, a son Howard Franklin, born December 3, 1886 and a second daughter, Olive Jane born March 12, 1888, who married Robert W. Hunt.  Isaac made a number of trips back to Pennsylvania, one such trip noted by the Adamsburg and Beaver Springs newspaper, in the January 4, 1906 edition.  It reports that Isaac, his son Howard and niece Miss Cuba Getz were in Beaver Springs for a visit.  When Isaac wasn't in Pennsylvania, he seems to have pretty much lived most of his life in and around West Lodi.  Isaac A. died on September 18, 1937 and is buried alongside Florence, who passed away on March 30, 1934 in the Armstrong cemetery, Reed Township, Seneca County on CR 162 just east of Republic and south on the road running out of West Lodi.

Howard Franklin, Sr. (see photo at left)  married Margaret Virdilla Ritter (see photo at right) on September 11, 1907, Margaret or "Maggie" was also from Snyder County.  Howard and Margaret had 13 children, Nadean Kathryn, Pauline Verdilla, Ned Isaac, Mildred, Mary Ellen, Margariet Florence, Marian Elizabeth, Ted Franklin, Sarah Jane, Molly May, Howard Jr., Jack and William.  Margariet Florence died in infancy in 1916 while Ned Isaac died in 1940 after a prolonged bout with an acute infection (Over 2½ years, 11 operations & 18 hospitalizations).  Of the sons, Howard Bilger Jr. married Marilyn J. Lowe and they are my parents (see photo of the sign at Bilger's Rocks).

One of many memories I have of my grandparents is of grandma's kitchen.  As you walked into the kitchen there was the faint aroma that came from her old wood burning stove she used for cooking right up until the time she could no longer care for herself.  When my sister, Brenda, and I came over to grandma and grandpa Bilger's, around milking time, she would ALWAYS have a plate of the biggest and moistest molasses cookies you ever tasted.  She said she used "black strap molasses" which was what made it good and baked it in that same stove even though she had an electric one.  To wash those cookies down, we would run out to the barn with a pitcher and fill it with FRESH, warm, Jersey milk that has to be the sweetest milk there is.  We'd dip it out with a long handled ladle from the big holding tank. I really miss those days and I wish she would have left a recipe for those cookies although part of the secret of it's taste has to be that it was cooked in that old wood stove.

Grandpa and his son's were all involved in either the masonry trade and/or general construction.  Grandpa Bilger eventually became construction superintendent and had a hand in building a number of schools and libraries around Norwalk and the Cleveland area.  It wasn't until the depression when construction came to a standstill that grandpa become a farmer in order to help feed his large family.  My dad basically took up farming and had a fair number of dairy cattle early on but later went into other lines of work ultimately retiring from Mosser Construction Co..

Charles H. (see photo at left) was born near Beaver Springs in 1860, and after leaving Pennsylvania at the age of 18 with his brother Isaac, he lived in West Lodi for a time.  Two years later, Charles is back at home at William's residence at the time of the 1880 census, apparently to marry Anna (Annie) Snyder (see photo at right) of McClure on April 18, 1880 and to nurse a broken arm.  They returned to Ohio a short time later, living in Rockaway where they had four children, William Foster, born in 1881 and who died at the age of 12 on November 25, 1893, the result of typhoid fever, Lloyd Bilger, Arthur Bilger born July 8, 1883 (see photo below right) and a daughter born on August 22, 1894.  Charles seems to have been moving around a good deal as various sources placing him in West Lodi, then Willard, Rockaway, Bellevue, Fostoria and then back in Willard.  Charles is reported to have visited Beaver Springs according to the Adamsburg and Beaver Springs newspaper, dated June 28, 1906 for the first time in 15 years.  We obviously know he was also in Pennsylvania for the Bilger reunion in 1917 (see photo above)

Charles died on December 13, 1936 and is buried close to Isaac and Florence at the Armstrong Cemetery although it is reported in the December 16, 1936 issue of The Sentinel, Lewistown Penna., that Charles was buried in Willard. Charles wife, Anna, does not appear to be buried with him as there are but two gravestones, Charles and William Fosters.

Arthur Bilger married Mary Kathryn Fletcher on November 10, 1910 and they had three children, a daughter, born July 11, 1912, Fletcher Arthur, born March 26, 1914 and Robert Lloyd, born May 03, 1916. Arthur worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.  Fletcher A. Bilger married Bernita Pauline Miller and they had three children, Boyd Fletcher, Thomas Aldrich and Martha Jane.  It is Tom A. Bilger, who lives in Muncie, Indiana with his wife Margaret and two children, Zachary and Katherine who has provided much of the information and photos regarding his family.