| Notes |
- Kay Germain Ingalls states, "The sponsors for Elias's baptism were his parents Friedrich and Maria Barbara Trollinger." (Ref the general notes in Elias's record) thus giving Barbara's name as Maria Barbara.
Barbara also came from a German family, but which one? Again confusion surrounds the surname because of German and English pronunciation. Documents in disparate places record not only Wenick, but Wenich,Weighnich, Wenig, Winick, Wernick, Waynock, Waynick - all could be variations of the same German name. There are several possible fathers with a variation of the name in the neighborhood where Frederick and Barbara lived, one Daniel Wenich whose land adjoined John Drollinger's. Future research will concentrate on putting Barbara in the correct family.
Shortly before their first wedding anniversary, Frederick and Barbara took their first child Elias to be baptized at Frieden's Lutheran Church. Elias was born 15 July 1802. Curiously, only three of their children, Elias, Marta, and Elisabeth (Maria Elisabet in the record), appear in the translated records of Frieden's Church. This seems unusual. Inquiries as to the whereabouts of the original German records have not yet produced them. The translation in typescript is troubling because events do not seem to be in chronological order. One would expect church records to be in chronological order or at least in a rough approximation.
Barbara was left with seven children between the ages of 3 and 16. Fortunately, the oldest was a boy. Elias was no doubt well experienced in farm work, especially because his father had been ill for some months. Polly and Barbara as the oldest girls would help with the younger children. Nonetheless, Barbara surely sought support and solace among her friends and relatives. Barbara was also a North Carolina native, possibly born to the Daniel Wenich family whose property adjoined John Drollinger's. As such she was part of the close knit German community residing in Guilford and Orange counties. She knew many who were moving, particularly to the Miami Valley in Ohio and she soon contemplated moving herself. Nothing indicates that Barbara had any income or money set aside to sustain her family, so in the fall of 1818 she sold Frederick's 100 acres to Catharine Trollinger for $228. Likely she departed for Ohio soon after the sale not wanting to travel through the winter. She was definitely in Preble County by the 8th of April 1819 when she executed a power of attorney allowing her "trusty" friend George Chrisman to act in her behalf, and she headed a household in Lanier Township, 1820.
A widow with seven young children would not attempt to travel that distance alone and she would only have gone where she had relatives or very close friends. Circumstantial evidence suggests the Elizabeth Weneck who married Daniel Streader in 1798 was Barbara's sister and perhaps Daniel Wenick, Jr., was her brother. Both Daniels appear in many Preble County records, but so far there are no direct ties to Barbara Drollinger. Daniel Strader began his journey from Guilford in 1803, settling in Preble in 1809 and was well established in the community by the time Barbara moved there.
Barbara remained in Ohio for the next 30 years. She was taxed in Lanier township through 1830, but not later. About this time she must have moved to the Darke County home of her daughter and son-in-law Mary and Elijah Harkrider and when they left Ohio, in the Darke County household of Elizabeth and John Noggle where presumably she died sometime after the 1850 enumeration. She was 72 in 1850, a very old woman for her time. No record of her death nor any cemetery record has been found in either Darke or Preble counties. It is not likely that she was buried in Preble County, but all published cemetery records there were also checked. So in the end there is no tangible place to pay respects to this woman, first in a line of women who did what they had to do, no matter the circumstances.
Kay Germain Ingalls 2003
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1778 - 1850 (72 years)
