When I follow the Schweickart name backward through my uncle John’s books, Frederick and Louisa are where the family’s Ohio story becomes much more tangible. There are census households, church records, changes of address and a building business. There are also gaps that John leaves open. Their chapter connects the earlier Alsace research with the Ironton family that comes after them.
From Alsace to the Ohio River
John’s genealogy places Frederick’s birth in the Lembach–Wissembourg area of Alsace in 1832. His account follows Frederick through French Army service and migration to America around 1860, then to relatives near Ripley, Ohio. The book uses both Friederich and the later English form, Frederick. It does not identify a verified passenger ship or arrival port.[1]
That last distinction matters. John describes possible routes across the Atlantic, but a possible route is different from a recovered travel record. I want the family history to retain that boundary rather than fill the missing passage with a scene nobody recorded.
Louisa’s family was already in Ohio
Louisa Friedly brings another migration history into the same household. John identifies her parents as Louis Friedly and Magdalena Yockey and follows the family through the Ripley area. The census summaries in his book place nine-year-old Louisa with her parents in 1850 and in their Union Township household in 1860. They record a household moving between town and farm life.[2]
Frederick and Louisa married in 1862. John also records a marriage between Frederick’s cousin Phillip and Louisa’s sister Barbara. The Friedly connection is therefore part of the wider family network, rather than a surname appearing only once in the chart. The book gives two different November dates for Frederick and Louisa’s wedding; the year is retained here while the day remains to be checked.[2]
A household on both sides of the river
The family account follows the couple from the Ripley area to Dover, Kentucky, and then to Ironton, Ohio, in 1873. John’s transcription of the 1870 census lists Frederick as a farmer and Louisa as keeping house, with four young children in the household. The surname appears there as “Swikart”—a useful reminder that a search using only today’s spelling can miss a family record.[3]
In the 1880 Ironton household, Frederick is listed as a carpenter. The older children’s entries include store work, school and life at home. These small descriptions give the family a setting beyond the birth and marriage dates: earning a living, raising children and moving as circumstances changed.[3]
Carpentry, contracting and the family business
John describes Frederick’s progression into building and contracting in Ironton. His account dates the formation of Schweickart and Son, with William, to 1895. It follows the business through Frederick’s retirement and a later reorganization as the Schweickart Lumber Company in 1913. The 1900 household summary also lists Albert and Otto as carpenters.[4]
The book preserves two explanations for Frederick’s training: an old family account of an apprenticeship in Alsace and John’s view that he may have learned the trade in Ironton. Neither is treated here as a settled apprenticeship record. The change from farming to building is documented more clearly than the place where he first learned the craft.[4]
Louisa and the later household
The same chapter records family losses alongside the business history: the deaths of sons Frank and George in 1887 and Charles in 1892. Frederick died in 1906. John then follows Louisa’s household with her adult daughter Margaret in the 1910 and 1920 census accounts. Margaret’s recorded work connects her first with the lumber company as a stenographer and later with sewing at home. Louisa’s story continues through her death in 1920.[5]
For me, that is a reason to read the household entries alongside the company names. Louisa and Margaret belong in the account in their own right. The work of keeping a home and supporting a family continues through the moves, the business changes and the losses.
Where this chapter connects
Frederick and Louisa’s son Albert John was the father of Albert Junior. Albert Junior and Mary Eleanor Howell connect this line with the Howell, Wiseman and Stewart branches. Their later move to Michigan carries the story into the next part of the archive.[6]
Follow the family branches → · Read Albert and Eleanor’s story → · Explore the interactive family tree →