| NEW READING�New Reading, for a long time better known as Overmyertown, situated three miles from Somerset, in the western part of Reading township, was laid out in 1805, by Peter Overmyer, father of the venerable Peter Overmyer, who now resides in the vicinity of New Reading. This village is the oldest in the county, antedating Somerset, Rehoboth, Thornville, New Lexington, and all the other villages of the county. When the county of Perry was formed, New Reading was a candidate for the seat of justice, and its citizens were disappointed and displeased when they failed to secure the location. The village has just about held its own for sixty years and more. It contains two churches, a schoolhouse, store, physician, a few shops, and several neat and comfortable private residences, and had, in June, 1880, one hundred and eighteen inhabitants. The town is handsomely situated, and is surrounded by a country not only fertile and healthy, but one of the loveliest to be found anywhere in the State, and capable of being made almost a second paradise. To this country, then a wilderness, came Peter Overmyer, the pioneer, from Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. Peter was a son of John George Obermayer, as the name was written in German, who came from Germany to the United States in 1751. When Peter Overmyer came to what is now Perry county, Ohio, he brought with him some of the old heirlooms and keepsakes of his father's family, but nothing which he could prize more highly than the original of the following "passport," written in German, which his father procured when about to leave the Fatherland for the New World: "Passport of John George Obermayer.---In Blankenloch, of the Magistracy of Durlach, lying within the bounds of the highly exalted dominion, the Nagraviate of Baden, was born, on October 21, 1727, and baptized on the day following, October 28, John George, legitimate son of his father, John George Obermayer, citizen and weaver, and of his mother, Anna. "Witnesses of his baptism were John George Bane, citizen and weaver; Henry Bane, citizen of Buechig; also, Susanna, wife of Jacob Werners, citizen and weaver; also, Anna Mary, wife of John Storken, citizen of Hagsfeld. This has been copied from the 'Register of Baptisms' and the 'Church Record,' of this parish. "In testimony of his honest service and praiseworthy conduct while in our midst, especially of his knowledge and confession of the Evangelical Religion (Lutheran), I cheerfully subscribe with my own hand, and stamp with official seal. "JOHN CHRISTIAN EBERSOLD, [OFFICIAL SEAL. ] "Pastor of Blankenloch and Buechig. "Blankenloch, May 4th, 1751. "Inasmuch as the above-mentioned John George Obermayer, native of Blankenloch, has resolved, by the Grace of God, to leave this province to go to the New Country, the Colony of Pennsylvania, and has most respectfully besought and petitioned us, as the representatives of this Court, for an honorable dismissal and certificate of good character, and we cannot justly refuse, but, on the other hand, we cheerfully testify, upon the ground of truth, that he has, in his service in our midst, conducted himself as a Christian, honest, trustworthy, and industrious. �We, therefore, wish Mr. Obermayer not only all temporal, but, also, all eternal blessings. We, therefore, beseech all respective persons, whether of high or low estate, with this charge of duty, not only to permit him to pass free and unmolested wherever he may choose to go, but, also, without suspicion, kindly to receive and entertain said Obermayer, in whatsoever place or locality he may announce himself, for which we shall ever be the indebtors. "In the name of this Court of Justice, we still remain the humble servants. JUDGE BIERICH, Attorney, Kimtzma. SCHOOL SUP'T FIEGLER, Clerk of the Court. "Blankenloch, May 12th, 1751." What follows is from the personal diary of John George Obermayer, in his own handwriting: "On May 9th, 1751, we went for the last time to church in Blankenloch. There we sang once more, 'There are none whom God has forsaken,' 'Bless the Lord, O, my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name,' and 'Lord Jesus Christ to us attend.' It was the fourth Sunday after Easter, 'Cantate,' when we heard the Gospel lesson for the day, John xvi:5-15, which begins: 'But now I go my way to Him that sent me; and none of you ask me 'Whither goest thou?' ' "On May 14, we left Blankenloch, for Rheinhausen. On the 19th, we sailed from Rheinhausen, toward Mannheim. On the 20th, we went to Worms, where we sang, 'O, Holy Ghost, descend, we pray.' On the 4th of June, at two o'clock, we passed through the Bingerlock, and at seven o'clock we passed through the bay of St. Gwier, where we encountered great danger. "Our voyage upon the Rhine, from Rheinhausen to Amsterdam, was of four weeks' duration. On the 20th of June we embarked from Rotterdam, and from thence to Old England. On the 22d, we sailed in upon the vast ocean." The foregoing was translated from the German, in which language it was written, by Rev. Walter, of Somerset. Every reader of this history will regret that John Jacob Obermayer laid aside his pen so soon, and that the written record he left is so brief. Short as it is, however, it is sufficient to give a vivid impression of the father of the man who named Reading township, and the town of Reading, the oldest village in the county of Perry. Hanover, the first laid out town in what is now Perry county, was established by Jacob Dittoe, in 1804, about four miles west of Fink's tavern, on Zane's Trace, in what is now Reading township, Perry county. The village never amounted to much, though a few families gathered there, and in 1818, one of the first acts of the Court of Common Pleas of Perry was in response to a petition of the proprietor, to annul the town plat of Hanover, and the lots, streets and alleys reverted to the proprietor simply as land, and Hanover was no more. Text taken from �History of Perry County� transcribed by Timothy Fisher at his website: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~tfisher/tefishermain.htm Copyright �1999-2001 by Timothy E. Fisher; all rights reserved. |