The Oyler family, at least our branch has roots reaching back to the Palatanes in Germany, back to the 1600's and beyond.
Our known and documented history is traced to Conrad Oyler who came to Philadelphia in September of 1729 on a small ship with the Church of the Brethren, or Old Order of German Baptist, sometimes called Dunkards . He was born about 1690, somewhere near Maar near Lauterback in the state of Hessen in Germany. He had two sons and 4 daughters.
There is a variety of ways Oyler was spelled, whether changed by the folks at Ellis Island or in the translation from German to English. It is believed that a variety of last names such as Oiler, Oyler, Iller, Eiler, Eular....the list goes on and on, that these are all members of the Oyler family. They live all over the U.S. and into the world beyond. Conrad spelled his name Iller, and Oellen, or perhaps it was spelled for him on numerous documents. Conrad died in York Co. Pa. in 1751. His two sons Jacob born 1718, and Valentine 1722, both married in York Co and had several children between them.
From Conrad the history is documented in the lineage I have posted here. I have not found alot of stories on them so you will forgive me if I jump ahead.
Daniel Oyler was born in 1806 in Chambersburg Pa. He was a blacksmith
according to the 1850 Census. He was born in Pa. His wife Catherine, born
also in Pa. in 1816. They married in 1838 in Pa. . They are both buried
in Hardin County, Ohio. Their children were William b.1840, Cornelius b.1843,
Mary b.1846, Jacob b.1846, and Bruce b.1852.
Daniel and Catherine are both buried in Hardin Co, Ohio, his death
listed as 22 June 1886, I have no death date for her. But a census taken
after his death still lists her in Hardin Co.
Jacob Oyler was born and grew up in Pennsylvania, but when he and his family moved to Hardin County Ohio is unclear. His Parents are buried there, he was married there, and joined the army during the final days of the Civil War with other Hardin County boys. He fought at Ferrysburg, Va. and it was there during the final days of the war when during an skirmish with Jubal Early and the Confederate Army his company was forced to retreat back across the Patomic River. He caught a bad cold that settled in his eyes.
When he returned home after the Civil War he was forced to spend almost a year in bed with curtains drawn, the light caused violent pain. He then resumed his work as a Blacksmith, only to have to reenlist in order to try to obtain medical treatment. He was discharged after a month, and the military approved a full pension and medical care. It seems the flames of the blacksmiths shop fire caused such pain in his eyes that he never again worked as a blacksmith.
He married Wealthy Irwin, b: 19 August 1843 in Ohio, October 22, 1868 in Hardin Co., Ohio. It was after this he was given a settlement from the military and it was with this money he bought the land in Whitehall, Michigan that was until his death the family Farm. They raised onions, and later when my family lived there, you could still smell the wild onions after the mowing was done in the summers. It is thought they divided their time between Ohio and Michigan.
He eventually had the eye removed, in his pension papers it states that it was shriveled and had been blinded (their words not mine) for many years. He recieved $10 a month in 1865, and at the time of his death in 1916 he recieved $50 per month.
Wealthy and Jacob had 4 children, Clyde Lindley Oyler Sr. b: 17 October 1869 in Hardin Co., Ohio, James Finley Oyler b: 16 June 1872 in Hardin Co., Ohio, Charles S Oyler b: 15 April 1878 in Whitehall, Mi., Jessie B Oyler b: 22 September 1882 in Whitehall, Mi..
Jacob was quite a character by all accounts. He would go to town to the post office and collect his pension check, stop at the local tavern, and then at the end of the evening they would put him in his buggy and the horse knew its way home. My Aunt Anne told me that her brothers had told her when the horse was in front of the barn they knew Grampa was home, because Gramma wouldn't let him in the house when he had been drinking. So the boys would go out and unhitch the horse, and wake grampa up for breakfast. At one time he was the township constable, and he also had a horse named Prize that was a Dan Pacer and won races all over the county.
His wife died in December 1906. He and his son "Fin" lived at the farm, until Jacob went to live with his daughter Jessie and husband Lyle Dennis in Montague, Michigan, and later in Detroit. He was killed in 1916, in Detroit, when he was run over by a Trolley Car. Jacob, Wealthy, a grandson Lyle Dennis, son Finley, and my father Charles Oyler are all buried in the Fruitland Township Cemetary family plot, less than a mile from the old farm.
The farm passed to sons Clyde and Finley. Clyde also had a home in Hardin Co. Ohio. Fin remained a bachlor all of his life. Charles had a farm a few miles away in what is now North Muskegon, and where his desendents still live. Jessie's husband Lyle was a policeman in Detroit. Fin died in 1943.
Clyde married Lenna Dell Shadley, b: 25 September 1869, on 12 January 1891 in Hardin Co., Ohio. My Aunt Ann also told me this story. It seems Clyde and his Friend Bill Irwin were working for the Railroad, building what was known as the McGuffy line. They went into town to a church dance and there they met Lenna and her sister Netty. Two weeks later the couples were married. I have Lenna's mothers bible, and have traced her line of Shadley back to Aasaph who fought in the revolutionary war. His old log home still stands in Hardin county, or so I am told by a friend at the Hardin County Historical Society. I will add the pages from the bible here one day, as well as a Shadley history.
Clyde and Lenna had 8 children Goldie Blossom Oyler b: 25 September 1891 in Whitehall, Michigan, Otto Ivan Oyler b: 06 July 1893 in Whitehall, Mi. d: 26 June 1988 in Canal Fulton, Ohio, Chester VanBuran Oyler b: 1895, Mardell Oyler b: 1897 in Hardin Co., Ohio d: 1897 in Hardin Co., Ohio, William Edison Oyler b: 21 March 1899 in Whitehall, Mi., Russell Jacob Oyler b: 22 March 1901 in Muskegon, Mi. d: 07 November 1951 in Canton, Ohio, Clyde Lindley Oyler Jr. b: 17 March 1903 in Hardin Co., Ohio d: 20 June 1921 in Hardin Co., Ohio Ann O. Oyler b: 02 April 1905 in Hardin Co., Ohio d: April 1992 in Oceanside, Cal.
Lenna and Clyde farmed the land Jacob had bought all those years before. They devided their time between the farm in Michigan and their home in Alger Ohio. Lenna lived long enough to celebrate her 104th birthday before her death in 1973. I remember going to Gramma's, the woman could really pinch your cheek. And even now I can picture her in her bed in the nursing home, she was pretty alert. And she could sure curse the nurses. Clyde I am told was out on his tractor, felt weak, got down and sat under a tree and died 13 May 1948 on the Oyler farm in Whitehall, Mi.. Years later when the land was being cleared, first for a air strip, and later for a golf course, my Grampa Ott refused to cut that tree down.
Their son Otto was my grandfather. He quit school in the 8th grade and a few years later when he was 16 he lied about his age to get a job at Continental Motors. He never went back to the farm to work the land his parents and grandparents farmed. He married Edna Cecile Austin b: 1899 in Herrod, Ohio d: 03 October 1927 in Stark Co., Ohio m: Abt 1916 in Lima, Ohio. they had three children, Wendell Oyler b: 24 August 1918 in Lima, Ohio d: 30 July 1998 in Winston-Salem, N.C., 8 Charles Albert Oyler b: 28 November 1921 in Canton, Ohio d: 25 December 1981 in Whitehall, Mi. , Baby Boy Oyler b: 1925 d: 1925 . Edna had Polio, and complications from that later caused the death of their third son shortly after birth, as well as her own in 1927. Otto remarried Twila Virginia Baer b: 24 March 1899 in Ohio d: 18 April 1997 in Canton, Ohio.
He owned and operated three trucking lines, designed and built, owned and operated a golf course in Ohio, and also a combined steel warehouse and truck depot. In 1963 he decided to fix up the family farm as a summer home for the family, at that time 5 generations were still living, his mother included. In July of 1965 his mother Lenna, then 98, flew to Michigan to celebrate Ott's birthday and see what he had done with the old farm.
He razed the old family farm house and built a new home where the barn had stood. He turned the old silo into a control tower for a landing strip he was building for the commute between Ohio and Michigan by private plane. Later he founded Flight Enterprises Inc. to sell Piper aircraft, and lease planes he owned. Later he simply used it as a summer home.
In 1969 he asked his son Charles, my father, to move to Michigan and build a golf course. He quickly agreed after a family vote. The land had been in the Oyler family first as a working Farm, later as a airport, then as a golf course. It was only Natural that the Golf Course be named "Oyler Golfport". In took time to clear the now overgrown land and to layout what was to become an 18 hole golf course. And there on the family land another generation of Oylers grew up.
The course stayed in the family till after my fathers death on December 25, 1981 of Colon Cancer. In 1984 my mother sold the golf course and built a home across the street. In 1997 the house and tower were razed to make way for a driving range. It is always quite a shock to look and not see the house and tower standing there.
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