John B. Gingrich^{[1, 2]}

1847 - 1919  (72 years)

• Name	John B. Gingrich
  Born	24 Jul 1847	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
  Gender	Male
  Residence	1869	Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [9]
  Occupation	1871	Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [8]
  	Blacksmith
  Residence	1871	Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [8]
  	Mennonite
  Occupation	1881	Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [7]
  	Blacksmith
  Immigration	1 Aug 1899	Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, United States   [11]
  Name	Johann B. Gingerich
  Eby ID Number	00039-3196
  Died	29 Oct 1919	Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, United States   [10, 11, 12]
  	Cause: kidney failure
  Buried	Greenwood Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, USA   [10, 11]
  Person ID	I5991	Generations
  Last Modified	12 May 2024

  
  

  Father	Johannes "John" Gingrich,   b. 26 Dec 1814, , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 11 Dec 1875, , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 60 years)
  Mother	Anna Burkhard,   b. 1 Nov 1814, , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 17 Oct 1883  (Age 68 years)
  Married	7 Feb 1837	, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [13, 14]
  Family ID	F1823	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mary Ann Hembling,   b. 17 Jul 1851, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 1 Nov 1928, Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, United States  (Age 77 years)
  Married	19 Jan 1869	, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada   [9, 11]
  Children	1. Isaiah H. Gingrich,   b. 7 May 1870, Floradale, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 10 Aug 1939, Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, United States  (Age 69 years)   2. Noah H. Gingrich,   b. 15 Jun 1872, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 16 Mar 1961, Elmira, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 88 years)   3. William Gingrich,   b. 13 Feb 1874, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 3 Feb 1952, Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, United States  (Age 77 years)   4. John Hembling Gingrich,   b. 4 Jan 1876, Floradale, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 13 Aug 1962, Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, United States  (Age 86 years)   5. Josiah Hembling Gingrich,   b. 22 May 1878, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 1967, Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, United States  (Age 88 years)   6. Jesse H. Gingrich,   b. 28 Sep 1880, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 7 Feb 1959, Canton, Stark, Ohio, United States  (Age 78 years)   7. David Gingerich,   b. 15 Nov 1882, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. Yes, date unknown   8. Mary Ann Gingrich,   b. 20 Aug 1885, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. CA 1918  (Age 32 years)   9. Edwin Gingrich,   b. 8 Jul 1888, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 26 Aug 1888, Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 0 years)   10. Anna Gingrich,   b. 22 Feb 1893, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 3 Mar 1893  (Age 0 years)   11. Milton Gingrich,   b. 25 May 1896, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 3 Sep 1896  (Age 0 years)   12. Jonas Bingeman Gingrich,   b. 20 Mar 1898, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada ,   d. 21 Mar 1898, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada  (Age 0 years)
  Last Modified	13 May 2024
  Family ID	F1841	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  John Gingerich, "was born July 24th, 1847. He is married to Mary Ann, daughter of William and Mary (Martin) Hembling. They reside in the town of Berlin and have a family of ten children... The two youngest died in infancy." Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.]. ________________________________________________ Gingrich. - John B. Gingrich died at Grand Rapids, Oct. 29, 1919: aged 72 y. 3 m. He was a brother of Bishop A. B. Gingrich of Elmira, Ont. He lived most of his life in Waterloo Co., Ont. He moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., about twelve years ago. July 24, 1847 (actually his birth date not marriage), he was married to Mary Ann Hembling, who was for him a faithful helpmeet for over fifty years. To this union were born seven sons (Isaiah, John, Josiah, Jesse, Noah, William, and David) and one daughter (Mrs. Mary Schwartz) who died about a year ago. He is survived by seven sons, 22 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren. He was a member of the United Brethren in Christ for over forty years and was a bright and shining light wherever he went. Peace to his ashes. Gospel Herald - Volume XII, Number 34 - November 20, 1919 - page 639 __________________________ The John B. Gingrich Account Book By Jim de Waal Malefyt The John B. Gingrich "Account Book" was started in March of 1883 by John B. Gingrich when he lived in Floradale in Woolwich Township, Waterloo County, Ontario. John was a blacksmith and was married to Mary Ann Hembling, daughter of deacon William Hembling. The account book has been handed down in this Gingrich family for several generations and was copied by the author in 1996. The book (20 cm x 32 cm) contains numbered pages of his business accounts with about 110 of his clients written in script at the top of each page. Names of his clients are listed below for reference to those interested in what their ancestors may have bought or had repaired at the blacksmith shop of John Gingrich in the late 1800s. A copy of the John B. Gingrich Account Book is on file at the Kitchener Public Library. The business entries in this account book span a ten-year period from 1883 to 1893. Dates are located on the left side of the page. The middle contains the item John worked on or made or the barter item received. The last two columns on the left of each page contain the amount of credit, "Cr," or the cost of his service drawn, "Dr," from the account. Blacksmith items John worked on commonly included making, sharpening or repairing farm implements and attachments to horses such as shoes, "waggon tyres," harness rings, "wiffletrees,"1 harrow, sleigh, buggy, neckyoke, chains, and clevises2. Home and farm implements he made or repaired included sugar pan, hinges, meat hooks, chimney irons, shoe scraper, fork handle, thistle cutter and stove lids. In exchange for his services, John often accepted or bought wood, butter, apples, eggs, beef, oats, wheat, barley, pigs, or he accepted labor for threshing, digging potatoes, butchering or hauling manure. Interspersed in the account book are some pages of interest to the genealogist. Page 155 contains John Gingrich's time-line from his birth on July 24, 1847 until 1883. Somewhat overlapping is another time-line on page 77 from his marriage on January 19, 1869, until his stroke in 1908. The births and marriages of John's and Mary's children are listed on pages 156 and 158 respectively. The family register of John's father-in-law, deacon William Hembling, is given on pages 112-113 and a short biography about how William Hembling was orphaned by the 1831 cholera epidemic and adopted by Isaac C. Shantz near Berlin. John B. Gingrich was born on July 24, 1847 near Waterloo, Ontario, most likely in Woolwich Township, Waterloo County, to John H. Gingrich and Anna Burkhart. John became a blacksmith and kept a business ledger in which he also wrote family events and dates. John wrote that he went to school at age four in 1851 and finished school in 1863 at age 15. Starting in April of 1864 he worked on the farm and then was bound out as a blacksmith apprentice in November. In 1865 he read the entire Bible and joined the Mennonite Church on August 5 at age 18. In 1866 he was baptized in the Mennonite Church, probably by bishop Joseph Hagey. In 1867 he was a blacksmith in Preston and in November he worked in North Woolwich. In 1868 he worked on deacon William Hembling's sleigh and made an acquaintance with the deacon's daughter, Mary Hembling. Mary Ann Hembling was born July 17, 1851 near Waterloo, Ontario, the daughter of deacon William Hembling and Mary Dirstein. Mary was the eighth of twelve children. She was baptized in 1868 by bishop Abraham W. Martin. On January 19, 1869, John B. Gingrich married Mary Ann Hembling. After John and Mary were married they moved into David Brubacher's house on February 2, 1869 and John worked for David that year. On January 6, 1870 John moved to Floradale near the Grand River. In 1871 John was recorded in the Waterloo County Census of Ontario as being a 23 year-old blacksmith, a Mennonite and of German origin. Ten years later in 1881, he built a new blacksmith's shop. In 1883 John joined the Temperance People and the Mennonite Brethren Church (MBC). This was the year he recorded his blacksmith accounts in the subject account book. The following year in 1884 he moved to Sand Hills. Nine years later, on January 19, 1893, John moved to Berlin, now Kitchener. During this time, John and Mary had ten children: Isaiah, Noah, William, John, Josiah, Jesse, David, Mary Ann, Edwin (died in infancy), and Anna (died in infancy). Many of the sons used the middle initial of "H," possibly for the "H" in Hembling, their mother's last name. On August 1, 1899, John B. Gingrich moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan where his oldest son, Isaiah, had moved in 1891. Evidently, John moved to Grand Rapids and rented a house at 89 North Pine Street, not too far from his son Isaiah's house at 326 First Street. Mary stayed behind and had to be persuaded by an interesting letter from John that he cared deeply for her and wanted her to come and take the train to Grand Rapids. From page 77 of the account book, we learn that John continued working at various factories in Grand Rapids until his "stroke of paralysis" at age 60 in January of 1908. On June 29, 1904 John Gingrich had gone back to Canada to bury the former deacon William Hembling. William Hembling had moved to Grand Rapids to be with his daughter and son-in-law and died there of paralysis and old age on June 27, 1904 at age 85. His remains were taken by train and he was buried in the Elmira Mennonite Cemetery, Woolwich Township. The costs of his funeral were listed on page 152 of the account book. After his stroke, John Gingrich continued to earn income by becoming a "soap dealer." Pages 161 through 182 for the years 1909 through 1918 list the companies John bought supplies from for the business he operated out of his home on North Pine Street. He sold such items as Bonney Fleur perfume, laxative tabules, healing salve, vanishing cream, Red Rose toilet water, witch hazel cream and S.V. Soap. John B. Gingrich died at the age of 72 on October 29, 1919 of kidney failure and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mary (Hembling) Gingrich died November 1, 1928 in Grand Rapids from a fractured hip and hardening of the arteries, at the age of 77. She also was buried by Rauschenberger in Greenwood Cemetery. The John B. Gingrich "Account Book" provides us with a decade of information about the economic interactions which took place between a Mennonite blacksmith and many others who lived in Waterloo County in the late 1800s. These interactions between a blacksmith and his community of relatives and neighbours tell us of the tools, implements and services he provided, and the ways in which debts were settled. It provides us and their descendants with a rare glimpse of how they conducted business in the last century with the "village blacksmith

  
  

• Sources

  [S3] Book - Vol I A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 372. [S3] Book - Vol I A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 89. [S3] Book - Vol I A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 695. [S5] Vit - - ON, Waterloo - 1858-1869 Marriage Register. [S130] Census - ON, Waterloo, Woolwich - 1881, Film 1375901 District 162 Sub-district A Division 2 Page Number 29 Household Number 129. [S131] Census - ON, Waterloo, Waterloo Twp. - 1851, Div 3 Pg 24. [S130] Census - ON, Waterloo, Woolwich - 1881, Div. 2 Page 29. [S144] Census - ON, Waterloo, Woolwich - 1871, Div. 2, Pg. 38. [S5] Vit - - ON, Waterloo - 1858-1869 Marriage Register, No. 398 Return of marriages solemnized by Abraham. W. Martin, a minister of the Mennonite Society. GINGRICH, John, 21, Waterloo, Waterloo, s/o John & Anna GINGRICH to Marian HAMBLING, 17, Woolwich, Woolwich, d/o William & Marian HAMBLING, witnesses: John GINGRICH, Waterloo & William HAMBLING, Woolwich, January 19, 1869 [S3231] Find A Grave, Cemetery, Greenwood, North America, Kent County, Grand Rapids, and Greenwood Cemetery. 1847. " John B. Gingrich (1847-1919) - Find A Grave...". Findagrave.Com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/110366025/john-b.-gingrich. [S46] Gingrich, John B. - Account book. [S8] News - Gospel Herald, Obituary of John B. Gingrich Volume XII, Number 34 - November 20, 1919 - page 639. [S3] Book - Vol I A Biographical History of Waterloo Township and other townships of the county : being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin..., 371. [S9] News - ON, Waterloo, Kitchener - Canada Museum und Allgemeine Zeitung (1835-1840), 23 Feb 1837:12. 7 Feb 1837 Benjamin Eby m. Johann Gingrich, Woolwich to Miss Anna Burkhart, Waterloo.

  
  

• Event Map

  Born - 24 Jul 1847 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - 1869 - Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Married - 19 Jan 1869 - , Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Occupation - Blacksmith - 1871 - Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Residence - Mennonite - 1871 - Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Occupation - Blacksmith - 1881 - Woolwich Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada Immigration - 1 Aug 1899 - Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, United States Died - Cause: kidney failure - 29 Oct 1919 - Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, United States Buried - - Greenwood Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Kent, Michigan, USA  = Link to Google Earth