#TBT - Amish in Butler County
In 1819, Christian Augspurger, born in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines, Haut-Rhin, France, and a group of six Amish Families immigrated to America, specifically Butler County.
Once here, they set up what was, at the time, the most westward Amish settlement. The community would expand, becoming one of the fastest growing Amish settlements in America.
The original Amish pioneers, following Christian’s lead, settled in the Milford area of Butler County, just east of the Seven Mile Creek and near the present-day location of Collinsville. However, when Christian Augspurger later purchased land in Madison Township, many Amish families followed, buying acreage not only in Madison, but in St. Clair, Liberty, Wayne, and Lemon Townships as well.
Christian bought his second farm and built a bank barn and a home on a rise overlooking the Great Miami River, just south of the village of Trenton. He built the home of stone harvested from the river, called it the home farm and gave it the name of “Chrisholm.”
Christian Augspurger eventually came to own nearly 2,000 acres, enough to leave each of his surviving children a farm of at least 160 acres. Christian Augspurger was in the process of building his third home on a farm he had purchased in Wayne Township, when he died in 1848. Christian’s oldest son, Joseph, inherited this farm.
When Christian passed away, he did so without a will. His extensive land holdings were divided amongst his heirs by the courts. All of it recorded in estate documents, such as these:
