Henry was born June 22, 1776, in the Stembel home on lot #9, Middletown, Maryland⁽¹⁾. His baptism on August 14 of the same year was sponsored by his uncle and namesake, Henry Leudert (Leutert), his mother's brother. Unfortunately we know little of Henry's childhood.

On March 9, 1798, at the age of 21, Henry married Christiana Harmon in Middletown. According to family records, Christiana was born in Germany and was raised in a German-speaking household, and never learned to speak English well.⁽²⁾

Henry was an energetic man who was a hatter by trade,⁽³⁾ but who was also drawn to public service. He was a deputy sheriff at the age of 24.⁽⁴⁾ Two years later he was appointed Middletown's first Postmaster.⁽⁵⁾ In 1809, he was a manager of one of the construction crews building the turnpike from Middletown to Boonsboro, Maryland, 10 miles to the northwest, on the other side of South Mountain from Middletown.⁽⁶⁾ By this time he also owned a mill with his brother John.⁽⁷⁾ In 1810, Henry was appointed a Justice of the Peace.⁽⁸⁾ Two years later, during the War of 1812, Henry was a Colonel in the Maryland Militia.⁽⁹⁾ In 1817 he ran for a seat in the Maryland General Assembly, but lost.⁽¹⁰⁾

Sometime between the elction and the 1820 federal census, Henry moved his family to Georgetown in the District of columbia (at the time, Georgetown was a separate town from Washington). He may have moved there to take a position in the young federal government. After living in the Distrct of Columbia for a few years, Henry moved his family to Dayton, Ohio.⁽¹¹⁾

Henry and Christiana had three known children. Nearly ten years separate the first and second child, so it seems likely that other children were conceived during this period, but I have found no records of any other births.

Henry died September 2, 1829, while visiting his family in Middletown.⁽¹²⁾ He was just 53 years old. He was buried in the Middletown Lutheran Church's cemetery.

Christiana lived 29 more years. In the 1850 census, she was living with her son, Roger, and his family. Also living with them was a 20 year-old German girl, Catherine Harmon, probably a relative of Christiana's.

Christiana died in 1858 and is buried in Dayton's Woodland Cemetery.

Henry and Christiana's three known children:

A. ELIZABETH Stembel Protzman. Elizabeth was born on December 15, 1798, in Middletown, Maryland. Sometime before 1820 her family moved to Georgetown in the District of Columbia. There she married Henry Protzman, a native of Hagerstown, Maryland.⁽¹³⁾ I don't know if Henry came to Georgetown with the Stembels, or whether Elizabeth met him there. Henry was a widower who brought three children by his first wife to the marriage.

Sometime after 1826 and the birth of their second child, Elizabeth and Henry moved to Dayton, Ohio. I assume Elizabeth and Henry accompanied her father to Dayton.

Henry and Elizabeth remained in Dayton where they had seven children of their own before Henry died in 1848, at the age of 56. He is buried in Dayton's Woodland Cemetery.

Elizabeth lived nearly 30 years more. In the 1850 and 1860 census she, and some of her sons, owned farms in Harrison Township, just north of Dayton. In the 1860 census Elizabeth's farm was valued at $10,000, one of the more valuable in the area. In the 1870 census, her family had moved to Bath Township in Greene County, Ohio, which was just east of Dayton.

Elizabeth died in 1876 and is buried in Dayton's Woodland Cemetery.

Elizabeth and Henry Protzman's seven children:

1. Caroline Matilda.Caroline was born March 17, 1823. There is some doubt as to where she was born. In the 1870 census, her place of birth was given as Ohio. I tend to believe she was born in Washington, D.C., because that is where her younger brother, John, was born a year later. On November 4, 1845, Caroline married Joseph Harshman. They had 13 children.


At the time of the 1850 census Joseph and Caroline were living northwest of Dayton. Joseph's occupation was recorded as "miller." Ten years later they were living in Greene County, east of Dayton. Joseph's occupation was recoded as "distiller and miller" and his property and personal estate was valued at nearly $70,000. In the 1870 census, they were still living in Greene County. His occupation was recorded as "manufacturer" and his net worth had increased to $215,000! This made him one of the wealthiest men in the area. Something happened, however, between the 1870 and 1880 censuses. In 1880, Joseph was no longer a wealthy manufacturer, but a farmer in Harrison Township, Montgomery County,Ohio.

Caroline and Joseph had 13 children. Of the 13, 12 survived to adulthood. Of these, eight of the nine oldest never married. The one who married remained childless. The three youngest did marry, but two of the three had just one child, and the third had three children. Of Caroline and Joseph's 12 children who survived to adulthood, they had just five grandchildren. However, their 12 children were remarkably long-lived. Eight of the 12 made it to 75 years-old, and five of the eight were over 80 at the time of their death.

Joseph died February 12, 1898, at the age of 77. Caroline died October 21, 1909. She was 86. Both are buried in Dayton's Woodland Cemetery.

2. John H. John was born around 1826 in Washington, D.C. He moved to Ohio with his family soon after his birth. When John was 21 his father died and left the farm to him. The 1850 census recorded the value of the farm as $17,800.

Sometime around 1852 John married Mary Jane (surname unknown). They had seven children. At the time of the 1860 census, they were living in Osborn, Greene County, Ohio. John's occupation was clerk. His real estate was valued at $5,920, and his personal property was valued at $500. Ten years later, in the 1870 census, John's family was still in Osburn. He had risen to the position of bookkeeper. His real estate was now valued at $20,000 and his personal estate valued at $11,000.

There is some question as to how many children Mary gave birth to. I have a record of eight children, but in the 1900 census Mary reports's she has given birth to six children, four of which are still living, and in the 1920 census she reports she has given birth to seven children, four of which are still living. Further reserch is needed.

John died five years after the 1870 census, on July 24, 1875. He is buried in Dayton's Woodland Cememtery.

Mary remained in Osburn for the rest of her life. She died in 1920, she is also buried in Dayton's Woodland Cemetery, as are many of their children.

3. Oliver Hazard Perry. Oliver was born June, 1827, soon after his family moved to Ohio. On September 5, 1850, he married Laura Mallissa Clark. They had ten children in all.

In 1861, at the age of 34, Oliver volunteered to fight for the Union in the Civil War. He spent 3 years in the Ohio Volunteer infantry. While in the service, he reportedly kept a detailed diary which I'm told can be found in the Wright State University (Dayton, Ohio) Archives. According to family members, Oliver lost an eye during the war. I'm told that when he returned, his wife's family helped set them up on a homestead in Piqua, Ohio. However the census records don't support this. At the time of the 1870 federal census, Oliver and his wife were living in Harrison Township, Montgomery County, Ohio. Oliver was a farm hand. By the 1880 federal census, they had moved to Shelby County, Ohio (just north of Miami County, where Piqua is located). They remained in Shelby County at least through 1900, but by the 1910 census they had moved to Piqua for their final years.

Of Oliver and Laura's ten children, at least 6 of them married and three other daughters may have married. I'm still researching them. One son never married. Many of Oliver's children remained in Shelby County.

Oliver died May 28, 1914, in Piqua, Ohio. Laura died a year later on September 10.

4. William Hale. William was born March 1830, in Ohio. At the age of 27 he married Mary (surname unknown). In the 1860 and 1870 federal censuses, William was a farmer in Harrison Township, Montgomery County, Ohio. In the 1880 census, William had moved to Mad River Township, Montgomery County, where he was farming.

William and his wife had three children. One married and the other two remained single. According to the 1900 census, only two of their three children were still living.

William died in 1913 at the age of 83. I haven't found a record of Mary's death.


5. Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin was born July 2, 1833, in Dayton, Ohio. He died three weeks after his 21st birthday in 1854. In the 1850 census he was not living with his family, in fact his name was not found in the complete census index. According to family records, Benjamin was referred to as Dr. Benjamin Franklin Protzman, so he may have been away attending medical school when the census was taken. He must have been much loved by the family for two of his brothers named sons after him.

6. Roger Stembel. Roger, named after his uncle Roger Nelson Stembel, was born about 1835 in Dayton. Sometime before the 1960 census, he married Charlotte Kiser. They lived in Dayton. Roger and Charlotte had two children.

Roger died November 27, 1865, at the age of 30. Charlotte died eight years later. It may be significant that Roger died young (30) and both of his children died at the age of 23.

7. Catherine Bell. Catherine was born about 1838 in Dayton. In 1862, she married George W. Getzendaner. It appears they soon moved to Missouri because that's where their first child, Arthur, was born. Three years later, at the birth of their second child, Minnie-who was born in 1867, they had moved back to Ohio. Three years later, when the 1870 census was taken, they were living in Osborn, Greene County, Ohio. By this time they had a third child, George.

Sometime between 1877, when their seventh child was born, and the 1880 census they moved to Jennings County, Indiana. Sometime between the 1880 and the 1900 census, Catherine died, and George and some of their children were living in Chase County, Nebraska. Chase County was a sparsely populated county, adjacent to Colorado. Only 2,559 people were living in the entire county 1900. I have found no record of Charles's death,

B. CAROLINE Stembel Smith. Caroline was born in 1808, in Middletown, Maryland, ten years after Elizabeth. Sometime before 1820 her family moved to Georgetown, D.C. A few years later, her family again moved, this time to Dayton, Ohio. There she met and married Dr. Edwin Smith on November 27, 1827. Caroline was 19 years old, Edwin was 22. They remained in Dayton where Edwin operated the Dayton Academy. Caroline and Edwin had eight children, none of whom lived to see their 35^th birthday! Their ages at their deaths were 27, 26, 1, 29, 15, 30, 1, and 34. Caroline, herself, only lived to be 36. She died on September 25, 1844, possibly giving birth to her eighth child who was born that same year (I don't know which day). The daughter was named Caroline.

Why did Caroline and all her children die so young? Was it due to a genetic disorder? This needs more research.

Edwin remarried and had two more children. At the time of the 1860 federal census, his occupation was given as attorney. The census reveals his real estate at the time was valued at $45,000, higher than all but one other entry in the census pages I examined. According to Dr. McLean, Edwin went on to represent Montgomery County in the Ohio State Legislature.

Caroline and Edwin Smith's eight children:

1. William H. William was born in 1829, at Dayton. He died unmarried on April 23, 1856, at the age of 27.

2. Louisa. Louisa was born in 1831, at Dayton. She married Joseph Peirce, date unknown. I don't know if they had any children. Louisa died October 20, 1857 at the age of 26.

3. Roger Nelson. Roger was born in 1833, at Dayton. He died the next year on August 12, 1834.

4. Stephen F. Stephen was born in 1837, at Dayton. He died unmarried on September 5, 1866, at the age of 29. Dr. McClean, in a letter dated August 29, 1984, noted that his mother, Miranda Poffenberger Hefflebower, knew Stephen very well and often talked about him. He was known for his classical education and his flare for style.

5. Lillie. Lillie was born in 1839, at Dayton. She died May 26, 1854, at the age of 15.

6. Edwin B. Edwin was born about 1841. He died unmarried on May 18, 1871. He was about 30 years old.

7. Theodore Stembel. Theodore was born in 1843, at Dayton. He died May 2, 1844.

8. Caroline. Caroline was born in 1844, the same year her mother died. Considering the name given to her, it's possible that her mother died giving birth to her or that her mother was in very poor health and wasn't expected to live much longer. Caroline married a Mr. Awl, date unknown. I don't know if they had any children. Caroline died September 7, 1878 at the age of 34.

C. ROGER NELSON Stembel. Roger Nelson was born on December 27, 1810,⁽¹⁴⁾ in Middletown. When he was about 8 or 9, his family moved to Georgetown, D.C. A few years later his family moved to Dayton, Ohio. Roger attended Miami College (now Miami University), in Oxford, Ohio⁽¹⁵⁾. After graduation at the age of 21, he received an appointment as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy. He first saw service in the Seminole war in 1836. In 1843 he married Laura McBride of Hamilton, Ohio. Later that year he was promoted to Lieutenant.

Laura was the daughter of James and Hannah McBride, prominent citizens of Hamilton. James McBride was an architect by trade but was fascinated by history, law, math, and science. He spent considerable time conducting research and also wrote extensively. He and Roger carried on a lengthy correspondence. James made copies of his letters to Roger and saved all of Roger's return letters. Eventually he had these letters bound. Most of these volumes are available for review at the Cincinnati Historical Society⁽¹⁶⁾.

In 1861, Roger was promoted to Commander and assigned special duty near St. Louis, to help oversee the building and testing of a flotilla of gunboats to patrol the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Once the flotilla was ready, Roger was placed in command of the timberclad gunboat Lexington. Soon after that, he was given command of the ironclad gunboat Cincinnati. As Captain of the Cincinnati, he and the fleet he was assigned to, engaged the Confederate flotilla in a number of skirmishes along the Mississippi River.

On February 6, 1862, the gunboats attacked Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. They were one prong of a two-pronged attack. The other prong consisted of Union Army troops under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant. The Cincinnati was the flagship of their flotilla of gunboats, with Flag Officer Foote in charge of the attack and Roger Stembel Captain of the flagship. The Cincinnati was hit 31 times, with one crewman killed and nine wounded. Finally the gunboat's superior firepower overwhelmed the Confederate troops defending the fort, and Fort Henry surrendered...before the Army even had time to attack! Roger, as Captain of the flagship, represented Admiral Foote and accepted the surrender of General Lloyd Tilghman (who also was represented by a subordinate).⁽¹⁷⁾

In early May, the Union flotilla was back on the Mississippi River where they were ordered to engage in a daily bombardment of Fort Pillow. Fort Pillow, on the Tennessee side of the river, was heavily fortified and was blocking the Union fleet from going downriver. Every morning a mortar boat was towed downriver to bombard the fort. It was protected by one of the flotilla's ironclads. On the morning of May 10, that duty fell to the ironclad Cincinnati, under the command of Commander Stembel. About six o'clock in the morning, a Confederate fleet of eight vessels attacked the Cincinnati and the mortar boat. The Cincinnati was rammed first by the Confederate vessel, General Bragg, then the vessel Sterling Price, and finally by the Sumter. Before being rammed by the General Bragg, the Cincinnati was able to swing her bow around, so the hit was just a glancing blow. The next two hits, however, seriously damaged the Cincinnati. At some point during the battle, Commander Stembel left the safety of the wheelhouse to go out on the deck to rally his men. According to a newspaper account, Commander Stembel drew a revolver and shot the Captain of one of the rebel vessels, but as he was turning to return to the pilothouse he was shot in the back by a sharpshooter aboard the Confederate ship Sumter. The projectile entered his back near a shoulder blade, passed through his neck, and exited just under his chin. Commander Stembel was carried below decks, thought to be dead or mortally wounded.⁽¹⁸⁾ Roger's son, James, was on board at the time serving as a Master's Mate. He was only 15 at the time. It must have been very upsetting to see his father carried below deck bleeding profusely from the throat and back. Roger survived, however, and returned to active duty after the war. He rose to the rank to Rear Admiral and was placed in charge of the entire Pacific Fleet before he retired.⁽¹⁹⁾

At the time of the 1880 census, Roger and Laura were living in St. Paul, Minnesota. I have no idea why they moved to Minnesota.

Roger died of pneumonia on November 20, 1900, in New York City. His wife, Laura, died one month later. Admiral Stembel and Laura are buried in Arlington National Cemetery, across the river from Washington, D.C. Forty-three years after his death, the Navy honored him by naming a destroyer after him, the USS Stembel. It was launched May 8, 1943, at the Bath (Maine) Iron Works.⁽²⁰⁾

Roger and Laura Stembel's two children:

1. Clara Jane. Clara was born in 1844 in Butler County, Ohio. In her early 20s she married Charles Schmidt (or possibly C. D. Schmidt⁽²¹⁾), a wealthy wine importer from New York. Charles was about 15 years older than Clara. They had at least one child, Laura, who was born about 1866. At the time of the 1870 census they were living in New York City. Ten years later, in 1880, they were living in St. Paul, with Clara's father and mother.

Sometime after the 1880 census, Clara and Charles moved back to New York, and Charles passed away (or maybe Charles died in Minnesota and Clara moved to New York after his death). We know this because Admiral Stembel's obituary, written in 1900, described Clara as a widow residing in New York City.⁽²²⁾ However, I have not been able to locate Clara in the 1900 census records. In fact I have not been able to find any records of Clara or Laura after the death of Admiral Stembel in 1900.


2. James McBride. James McBride Stembel was born July 31, 1846, in Washington, D.C. He was named for his mother's father.

As a teen-ager James served in the Civil War as an Aide to Admiral Foote. As a reward for his excellent service Admiral Foote secured a position for James at the U.S. Naval Academy, but he left the Academy for U.S. Service Academy at West Point where he earned a commission in the Army.

In August, 1870, James was posted at Fort D.A. Russell in Wyoming. That summer, he and Capt. Robert Montgomery led a contingent of 30 troops as an escort for an expedition from Yale College (now University) looking for dinosaur fossils in the West. Among the students who were on the expedition was Eli Whitney, grandson of the inventor of the cotton gin.

Sometime after 1870 James married Louise Deshler. This was Louise's second marriage. She brought a child, Clarence Woodrow, to the marriage. While James and Louise had no children in their marriage, James legally adopted Clarence as his son.

The 1880 census shows James as a First Lieutenant in the army, stationed in Wyoming. Louise was not living on post, and in fact I haven't found her recorded anywhere in the census. Both James and Louise are missing in the 1900 census. I suspect they may have been overseas, although James was reportedly at his father's side when he died in New York in late 1900. This absence makes it hard to know where they lived after they married. Louise died in 1904 at Atlantic City, NJ, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. She was 59 at the time of her death. James died three years later and is reportedly buried in Pau, France. I have no idea why James was in France at the time of his death, however France figures prominently in his son Clarence's life, as we shall see. Another question is why James wasn't eventually buried in Arlington National Cemetery with his wife and parents?

James and Louise's son, Clarence (also know as Clarence Penn-Gaskell), worked for the railroad all his life. At the time of the 1880 census he was living in Oelwein, Iowa, where he worked as a railroad agent. Later that year he married Marion Lamprey, a granddaughter of the founder of the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press newspaper.⁽²³⁾

Marion had been married previously and brought two children to the marriage: Alvin and Dorothea. I assume Clarence formally adopted them, because Alvin was always known as Alvin Stembel throughout his life. It's interesting to note that Dorthea and Alvin were born in France (although Alvin usually gave Minnesota as his place of birth). To make things even more interesting, the 1930 census shows Clarence and Marion with two granddaughters, Marian (age 10) and Amelia (age 7), living with them. Though Marian was born in Texas and Amelia was born in Minnesota, the census shows that their father was born in France and their mother born in New Mexico! Because the last name of both girls is given as Stembel, we might assume that their father was a son or adopted son of Clarence, who was born in France and married a woman born in New Mexico. That could fit Alvin, but we have no record he married anyone from New Mexico. His only known wife was born in Minnesota. This is a mystery in need of research.

Passenger lists show that Clarence's wife Marion visited France in 1929, accompanied by her granddaughters Marian and Amelia. Marion again visited Europe in 1935, and the passenger list on their return voyage shows she was accompanied by her granddaughter Marian (but nor Amelia), a Nancy Groff - age 16, and a third passenger Dorothy Horne, age 40 (same age as Marion's daughter Dorthea would be). Nancy Groff was listed at the same address as Dorothy Horne. We should note that Nancy Groff had also traveled to France with Marion in 1929.

Clarence and Marion's son Alvin married Phyllis Johnson in about 1931. I don't have any record of previous marriages for Alvin, but his draft registration form, filed in 1917, shows he was living in Dallas, Texas, at the time which might explain the granddaughter who was born in Texas in 1920 and whose father, like Alvin, was born in France.

Clarence died in 1939 in La Jolla, California. After her husband's death, Marion moved to Pasadena, California, where she died in 1943. Her obituary says she was survived by her son Alvin, 5 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.⁽²⁴⁾

There are a lot of unknowns yet to be found for this very interesting family.