Although the land
produced abundantly, there was no way for the immigrants to sell their farm
products and no other way to earn a living until the advent of the Miami-ErieCanal.Built without machinery and completed in 1845, it forged a 248 mile
waterway between the Ohio River at Cincinnati
and Lake Erie at Toledo,
and marked the beginning of rapid growth for New Bremen.Large warehouses were constructed, enabling
New Bremen to become one of the main pork packing centers, second only to Cincinnati.
New Bremen sits near the halfway point of the canal, 123
miles from Cincinnati, at the high
point of the Loramie Summit, 512 feet above the level of the Ohio River.(The
Loramie Summit is a plateau extending from Lock 1 North at New Bremen to Lock 1
South in Lockington.)The original Canal
Marker with the numerals “123” is on display in the Museum.
Visitation
We invite you to
tour not only the Museum itself, which contains many historical artifacts, but
also the summer kitchen and the barn.The barn has a display of ice-cutting equipment, and also houses many
other old tools and equipment.The
summer kitchen has a large collection of old-time laundry equipment.
is a benefit
of N.B.H.A. membership.“The Towpath” is
edited and researched
by Lucille
Francis.
NEW BREMEN'S
HISTORICAL MUSEUM
Early
New Bremen
In
the 1830s, ships sailed regularly between Bremen,
Germany and the United States.Many German immigrants disembarked in Baltimore, Maryland and
traveled inland, across Pennsylvania through
the mountains on the National Road,
now known as US Rte. 40, to Wheeling,
West Virginia.The travelers then boarded boats on the Ohio
River on their way to Cincinnati,
Ohio.New Bremen’s
founders, mostly from Bavaria and Hanover, followed this
route. A group of them formed “The City of Bremen Society” on July 23, 1832 in Cincinnati, Ohio.A charter was drawn up among the 33 members
of the Society authorizing the purchase of land to found a Protestant
town.The Society hired two scouts to
explore Ohio
and select suitable land.The scouts
traveled throughout western Ohio and into Indiana in search of
land.They selected the present site of
New Bremen and purchased 80 acres.One
of the scouts built a cabin and remained there that first winter.The other scout returned to Cincinnati to inform the Society of the land
purchase.The plat of Bremen was officially recorded on June 11,
1933 and the 102 lots were distributed by lottery.The name was changed to New Bremen in 1835,
when it was determined that another town in Ohio
was already named Bremen.
The Museum
The
HistoricMuseum (Luelleman House) is one of the
oldest houses in New Bremen.The lot
(west half of old lot #26) was chosen in 1833 by A. H. Schreiber, one of the
original members of the City of Bremen
Society.The
lot was sold to Gerhard Heinrich Hehemann in 1837, and he and his first wife,
Maria Engel Rolf, built the house.Hand
hewn timbers were used for the exterior walls.The materials and methods of construction were crude with mud and straw,
also called daub and wattle,and brick noggin (inserts) used
between the timbers, but the house represents the influence of New Bremen’s
German heritage.The windows and doors
are plain and symmetrical, the stairway is located in the front, and the house
is adjacent to the sidewalk.
The building served as a residence and a
shop, with an addition built on around 1846.In 1847, Gerhard’s first wife died and he married Maria Engel (Stagge)
Barth, the widow of Johann Heinrich Barth.In August of 1849, Gerhard, Maria and three of their children died
during the cholera outbreak.Three minor
children survived, ages 12, 10, and 6 years as well as an older daughter, Anna
Maria (Hehemann) Isern.She and her
husband Friedrich Isern were married in 1845 and became administrators of the
parents’ estate.
The
house was purchased in 1852 by Jacob Heinrich Portune, Town Trustee (1850),
Supervisor (1856).After his death in
1857, the house was willed to Susanna (Schuhmann) Portune.
William
H. Luelleman and his wife Anna Catherine (Beckmann) purchased the house in 1868
from Susanna Portune, Ernst Friedrich Siekmeyer and his wife, Catherine
(Portune) Siekmeyer.William H.
Luelleman (b.11/24/1835) was a mason from Bohem, Hannover, Germany.
In 1866 he and Anna Catherine (b.1844 in Hannover) were married, and William
came to the United States.
Anna joined him the following year. A brick summer kitchen with a root cellar
was built behind the house in 1870.William H. Luelleman died in June of 1890.In 1896, his widow built another house on the
east half of the lot, facing Water
Street.She
then rented out the original house on Main
Street.
In
1912, William, H. F. Luelleman, son of William H. and Anna Catherine Luelleman,
built a barn and workshop between the two houses, and encased an outside toilet
built on slabs of Piqua
limestone.In 1931, the son purchased
the Main Street
house and did a major renovation.His
mother, Anna Catherine, died in May of 1942.In 1953, William H. F.’s son Carl W. Luelleman and his wife Esther M.
became owners of the house.In 1973, the
house was sold to Bruce Scheer.
Luelleman House Becomes
Museum
The twelve-room,
two-and-a-half story house became the immediate subject of a community
restoration project in order to show a fine example of architecture and also
the earliest life style of this German community.
The
New Bremen Historic Association was organized in 1973 as a non-profit group
dedicated to the collection and preservation of all that has historical
significance to the New Bremen area including Lock Two and GermanTownship.We believe that the unique German background
of this small community should be preserved and shared with future generations.
In the fall of 1973, the NBHA approached Mr. Scheer and negotiated the
preservation of the house.The house was
purchased through pledges from businesses and individuals.The founders and other volunteers did much
work in the early days to restore the building to its original look.Many fundraisers were held to fund the
restoration project.The museum was
completely paid for and dedicated on July 4, 1976.The house has been placed on the National
Register of Historic Places.
The
Historic Association has continued its work to maintain the property and
increase the collection of artifacts contained within the house, summer
kitchen, and barn.We invite you to tour
these areas and see the exhibits, which are always evolving as new donations
are made to the museum.
