As Iowa was becoming the 29th state of the Union (1846), surveyed land was being sold in 40-acre parcels. Johnson County, for example, had been surveyed into 20 Townships, with each township being divided into sections. Washington Township (Township 78 N, Range 8 W, 5th Meridian), in the far southwestern corner of the county, was divided into 36 Sections, with each Section containing sixteen 40-acre parcels.
Here (above left) is a survey map from December 31, 1841, showing Washington Township of Johnson County. On the right, we’ve outlined the four plots, in the far southeastern section of the Township (Sections 25, 35 & 36) that will eventually be owned by the Boller family: Red – Jacob Boller (160 acres), Purple – Jacob Boller (40 acres), Green – Frederick Boller (80 acres), and Blue – John Boller (40 acres).
Read more about the process of surveying, platting & mapping here.
In 1845 – four years after the surveying of the area was completed, Mennonite half-brothers from Ohio and Maryland – Daniel P. Guengerich and Joseph J. Swartzendruber – traveled to Iowa City and then trekked southwest into Washington Township of Johnson County, Iowa. Along the banks of Deer Creek, they found fertile soil giving life to magnificent hickory groves and clear running streams. The next year, the Guengerich and Swartzendruber families, – including my ggg aunt – Susanna Miller – joined by a third family, came west, first by boat down the Ohio River, north on the Mississippi River to Bloomington (Muscatine), and then by wagon to Iowa City. A week later they arrived at the place they had discovered the previous year. Throughout the spring and summer of 1846, the year of Iowa statehood, these Mennonite families cleared and tilled the soil, building log cabins and household furniture from the surrounding woodlands. The two men walked to Dubuque (the only land office in Iowa at the time) where they officially entered their land claims with the U.S. Government, returning the next spring with their families.
Read more about our Amish-Mennonite connection to Johnson County, Iowa.
By 1851, other families from Ohio and elsewhere had settled near Deer Creek and the first Amish-Mennonite church was established with twenty-seven charter members. According to Iowa Census records, in 1852, the first of our immediate Boller family members, Frederick Boller of Wayne County Ohio, came west, joining with these early Johnson County Mennonite settlers as well.
For an intriguing look into the life of an Iowa farmer in the 1850’s, click here.
Which brings us, now, to my great, great grandparents…
Certainly, my gg grandparents, Jacob and Catharine Boller (pictured above), and their young family, living back in Butler County, Ohio, were hearing the good reports from this growing Mennonite community in Iowa. Our family records indicate that sometime during the early summer of 1853, following the April birth of their second child, the Bollers picked up their belongings and joined Frederick Boller, settling on 160 acres of farmland located in the southeastern corner of Washington Township of Johnson County, Iowa.
The earliest Johnson County land records we have available indicate that this 160 acres of Washington Township land (see maps above) was first purchased from the government by George W. Perkins and Ira Sheedler on April 3, 1851, probably as a land investment.
This 160-acre plot was comprised of four 40-acre plots of land, and as you can see from the map & paperwork (above) and the records (below), Perkins & Sheedler purchased these four 40-acre plots in April, 1851, filing the necessary paperwork in the Iowa City land office:
It’s our guess, that Jacob and Catharine Boller – sometime in 1852 – found out about this 160 acres of land being for sale from Frederick Boller, who was already living in Washington Township – though we don’t find a record of Frederick having purchased any land in Johnson County for himself at this point. More on that later.
According to a Washington Township map from 1869 (see above), drawn up 16 years after Jacob & Catharine Boller first arrived (1853), the Boller family acquired additional land (160 acres) surrounding their original 160-acre farm. As you can see on the closeups (below), there were three additional purchases:
So, as the harvest seasons of the mid-1850’s came to a close, the extended Boller family hunkered down on 320 acres of mostly untamed farmland located in the southwestern corner of Johnson County. Joined with their fellow pioneers of Deer Creek, this new Amish-Mennonite community was truly becoming a close-knit family:
Frederick Boller, born in Germany in 1815, coming to Wayne County, Ohio sometime prior to 1850, and then moving to Iowa by 1852. Records indicate that on May 1, 1854, Frederick also purchased 40 more acres of land on the English River in Washington County, just west of what would eventually become Kalona, Iowa. According to family records, Frederick farmed both pieces of land – the 80 acres of land in Johnson County and his 40 acres in Washington County, living in Washington County until his death in 1887. More info here.
Jacob Boller – my gg grandfather born in Wayne County, Ohio in 1825, Catharine (Smucker) Boller – my gg grandmother born in France in 1825, and, in 1853, two children – John J. Boller – born in Butler County, Ohio in 1851, and young Joseph Boller – born in the spring of 1853, prior to the move to Iowa. Sadly in December of 1854, Joseph would die, leaving the Bollers with only one child in these earliest days in Johnson County. Between 1855 and 1866, six more Boller children will be born here, including my great grandfather, Daniel J. Boller. More on him later.
We’ll discuss this more in a future segment, but for now, know that most of these 320 acres homesteaded by the Bollers stayed in the family for nearly fifty years. The only exception was the 40 acres assigned to John Boller in Section 25. As we mentioned earlier, while purchased under his name, Jacob’s older brother never moved to Iowa, settling, instead, in McLean County, Illinois. More on John Boller here.
February 10, 1846 – Nine townships in Johnson County, Iowa are incorporated – including Washington Township, home to the Boller family beginning in 1853.
April 3, 1851 – Land investors – George W. Perkins & Ira Sheedler – purchase 160 acres of government-owned land in Washington Township of Johnson County, Iowa. This land will become the home of my gg grandparents – Jacob & Catharine Boller – in 1853.
July 10, 1951 – On this, my birthday, allow me to share Our Boller Family story from July 1853.
Kudos to the amazing resources below for the many quotes, photographs, etc. used on this page.
Townships in Johnson County, Iowa, Wikipedia