Boeshars in Washington County, 1860 — Catharina was not alone

A handwritten abstract of the 8th Census, 1860, Washington County, Ohio — Salem Township, post office Lower Salem, and Aurelius Township — recording three Boeshar households.

Re-read at full resolution, August 2026. An earlier pass at this page worked from a thumbnail and got several details wrong: the post office is Lower Salem (not “Sand’s Salem”), the Aurelius householder is Jacob (not “Jost”), and Theobald’s eldest daughter is Maria C. (not “Verona”). Corrected below.

Why it matters

Catharina Boeshar was born at Breitenbach in the Palatinate in 1840 and married Johann Michael Wildermuth in Washington County on 7 September 1862. Her page has long said the same thing about the years between:

“Catharina’s own emigration is less documented in this archive — her Atlantic crossing date, her port of arrival, and how she came to Washington County are open research.”

This sheet answers the last part of that. She came to a place where Boeshars already were.

Two years before her marriage, the census finds three Boeshar households in the county.

Salem Township, Lower Salem — dwelling 174

Thobald Boeshar — 27 — Farmer — real estate $1,200, personal $240 — born Bavaria Elizabeth 22, Ohio · Maria C. 3, Ohio · Elizabeth 2 · Salm(?) 3/12

Salem Township — dwelling 175

Louisa Boeshar — 50, widow — born Bavaria Christian 22, Carpenter, born Bavaria 1838 Jacob 16, Apprentice, born Bavaria 1844

Aurelius Township

Jacob Boeshar — 42 — Farmer — $2,000 / $600 — from the Rhine country, annotated “b. 1818” Phillipine 42 · Charley 16, farm hand · Jacob 10, born Pennsylvania · Theobald 8, Ohio · Mary 6 · Fritz(?) 3 · Christian 1

(A fourth, non-Boeshar household follows — an Ullman family, the wife Catherine born in Hessen.)

Jacob Boeshar’s children give the route

This is the most useful line on the sheet. In Jacob’s household the birthplaces run Rhineland → Pennsylvania → Ohio: the two eldest born in Germany, Jacob at ten born in Pennsylvania, and Theobald at eight and everyone younger born in Ohio.

So this family crossed about 1849–50, spent a couple of years in Pennsylvania, and reached Washington County around 1852. That is precisely the path Johann Michael Wildermuth took — New York in 1847, Pennsylvania by 1852, Ohio after — and it is the ordinary Palatine route to the Ohio Valley.

And a widow with two Bavarian-born sons, one already a carpenter and one apprenticed, is exactly the profile of a family that emigrated together and buried its father either at home or on the way.

Catharina, orphaned of her father before she was three and leaving a widowed household in the Pfalz, almost certainly came to kin. That is an inference, not a finding — none of these people is yet demonstrated to be her relative — but it reframes the question. The useful question is no longer “how did a young Pfälzerin get to Marietta alone?” but “which of these Boeshar households was she coming to?”

Two details make the widow’s household the one to look at first. Louisa Boeshar was born in Bavaria about 1810 — Catharina’s mother Maria Margaretha Jung was born in 1814, so Louisa is of that generation exactly. And her son Jacob was born in 1844, four years after Catharina.

Against it: Catharina’s only recorded sibling was a brother Jacob, born 1837 at Breitenbach — close to Louisa’s Christian (1838) but not a match, and Louisa is not Margaretha. So this is a household worth checking, not an identification.

Where to look next

• Whether any of these Boeshars came from Breitenbach or the Kusel district — the same corner of the Palatinate the Jungs and Schlichers came from. The sheet says “Bavaria” and “Rhein,” which is consistent but not specific.
• A passenger list carrying more than one Boeshar, c. 1849–52. Family groups are far easier to find than lone young women, and Jacob’s family gives a date range to search.
• Pennsylvania, briefly, around 1850 — where Jacob’s son was born, and where Johann Michael Wildermuth also was.
• The recurring given names to trace: Theobald, Christian, Jacob — and note that Christian was Catharina’s own father’s name.

Also on the sheet: Robert Earl copied out a surname etymology for Rode from a name dictionary — an officer of the court or town crier, from a pet form of names in Rod-, “renown.” He did this when a name puzzled him, on the theory that a meaning sometimes points to an origin. Not evidence about anyone, but characteristic.

Source: handwritten abstract of the 8th Census (1860), Salem and Aurelius Townships, Washington County, Ohio, from Robert Earl Wildermuth’s research papers; in Chuck’s keeping. Photographed 2026 and re-read at full resolution.