A Brief Statement of My Transit History of Life
I, George Shetler, a citizen of German township, Fulton County, State of Ohio, U.S. of America, was born in Europe, Empire of Germany, Kingdom of Wurttemberg, Oberamt Tuebingen, in the village of Wankheim, March 10, 1815.
I received a common school education from the age of six years old to fourteen. At the end of school I was catechized and formally admitted into the church of the Lutheran faith which was the standard of religious faith of that part of the country. I received an offer of higher school education, tuition and board free, but father would not spare me helping him at blacksmithing.
At the age of seventeen I left home and country with an aunt[1] and her husband and other families for American in the year of 1832. We took a ship from the city of Rotterdam, Holland and were 60 days on the ocean, landing in New York City. From there I was wandering in various parts of the United States working at my trade of blacksmithing. While working at Shelby, Richland County, Ohio, through the summer of 1842 I formed the acquaintance of Miss Sarah Collins. Her and I concluded to write our Destiny of Life together. On November 18th we were married of the same year and settled down on a small home two miles east of Shelby. In 1848 we moved here to Fulton County, Ohio, in the woods on the same farm that Milt C. Shetler[2] lives on.
Archbold, Fulton Co., Ohio, March 16th, 1900.
[1] The aunt is very likely Katharina Goelz, born Jul 25, 1807 and married to Wilhelm Wandel, born Feb 9, 1808 in Kusterdingen. Both emigrated in 1832 together with her son Johannes.
[2] His son Milton C. Shetler, born July 16, 1859