An old nursery rhyme comes to life… in Bluffton/Pandora: ‘Believe it or Not!’
“There was an old woman who lived in a shoe (‘er rather in the “Schumacher House”), “She had so many children, she… ENDED UP IN RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Seriously!
The Rev. Peter and Elizabeth Schumacher, whose living quarters of yesteryear is the fulcrum for the Swiss Mennonite Memorial Society “Schumacher Homestead” here, were featured in the 1931 edition of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.”
There is a portrait of Elizabeth, and below the portrait it reads: “Mrs. Peter Schumacher, Allen County, Ohio, has 163 grandchildren!” (*The couple had had 16 children themselves, who all, amazingly for the time, grew to adulthood and married.)
And that’s not the half of it, or even a tenth of it for that matter! In a booklet about the Schumacher Family Tree, published in 1982, the late Mark Schumacher wrote that there were 452 great grandchildren. And, conceivably now, over 1,0000 great, great grandchildren.
I tracked one down. As coincidence would have it, yet another Mark Schumacher grew up in Bluffton, moved several times, and is now currently living in Cincinnati. He was back recently to visit friends and attend the Swiss Mennonite Society’s Holiday Open House recently.
Mark is particularly proud of the local family heritage. Family roots, family genealogy, is important, he said. It is these early families who, not only established a community here, but they continue to be woven through the fabric of the local society.
And keeping that heritage alive was on full display at the Christmas Open House this year. The Schumacher House was chock full of early Swiss community memorabilia. Historical Society members were dressed in period garb. And even a somewhat svelte Swiss Santa was reading the young ones holiday stories from the old country.