One House’s Story: The Kazmaier Family

I always notice this farm on the west side of the road just northeast of Strasburg whenever I drive north to Canton on Interstate 77. The large red barn is really hard to miss! This is just one story from that farm’s history.

The Kazmaier name is spelled many different ways in the historical record. I have chosen to use the spelling used in George W. Kazmaier’s obituary.

The first member of this branch of the Kazmaier family, Johann Georg Kazmaier (1834-1891), immigrated to Tuscarawas County sometime before 1854. That year he married fellow recent German immigrant Philippina (Phoebe) Rieth (1834-1899). At least two of Johann’s younger brothers followed him to Tuscarawas County in the late 1850s and the three brothers all settled in Lawrence Township. Johann (sometimes called George as well) and Phoebe had at least two children, both sons, one born in 1859 and a second son, George W. Kazmaier (1863-1905) born in 1863.

Prior to acquiring his own land, Johann and his brothers worked as farm laborers on the farms of other Lawrence Township families. The Kazmaier family was living on the property in Lawrence Township at least as early as 1875 when Johann and one of his brothers are recorded as being the owners of the 60 acre parcel along the road between Strasburg and Bolivar. Eventually Johann’s brothers relocated to other states, one to Kansas and the other to New York, and Johann and his family became the sole owners of the farm. When the 1880 census was taken, George W. Kazmaier was the only child recorded living in the household.

While there was undoubtedly a dwelling house on the property earlier, the current house and barn are believed to have been built around 1885. The house on the property now, though altered a great deal since its construction, was built in the very common National Folk style of architecture. The unique, cruciform cross-gables are decorated with Queen Anne-like gable detailing. The barn is a very typical style referred to as a “bank barn” that allows entrance to the upper level via an earthen bank on one side. Also surviving is a small, spring house that would have provided both fresh water as well as a place to cool and store products of the farm.

George W. Kazmaier worked as a teacher at a number of schools in the area during the 1880s and into the 1890s. Johann Kazmaier died in 1891 and, likely it was after that when George, Caroline, their adopted son/nephew, and Caroline’s father moved onto the Lawrence Township farm. After George’s mother passed away in 1899, George’s extended family were the sole occupants of the farm. George continued to make his living as school teacher and administrator, but in the early 1900s moved into the political spectrum.

George Kazmaier ran as the Democratic candidate for the position of Lawrence Township Assessor in the spring of 1903, a post he won with an 89 vote majority. That he was diligent in his duties as Assessor is evidenced by the fact that in his first year in the post, he increased township revenue by $14,100 (or around $400,000 today). George was certainly making a name for himself in local politics, but his political career and his life were cut short in the winter of 1905.

George contracted, or perhaps lived with for years, a case of tuberculosis and in December 1905 it caused his death. He was only 42 years old at the time. Caroline and their adopted son, now nearly 20 years old, continued to live on the farm until 1911. That year Caroline sold the 60 acre farm for $4,000 (around $125,000 today) and moved to Dover, Ohio. Caroline lived in Dover until her death in 1946, two years after the death of her adopted son. George and Caroline Kazmaier are buried in the Grandview Union Cemetery in Strasburg, Ohio.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2023.