I made it to just south of Harrisburg, Pa today. It took about 7.5 hours but I am between all the places I want to go to. The camping area does not have sewer or was but does have electricity and the cell phone signal is good which means I can call and use the computer internet. I also have TV reception so I can see some TV now. One thing that bugged me on this trip is it is so quiet so in the mornings I use the internet to pipe in a Dallas station.

I am going to stay here for four nights because there is so many places I want to go. Lancaster is where Christian Haldeman came in the early 1700's. His son Jacob was born here in 1715. John Cesnna was the sherriff in Bedford, Pa and today I noticed on the internet that there is a Cessna, Pa, which looks like a suburb of Bedford. There is a memorial to Major john Cessna in Bedford that I would like to see.

I am not sure if I can find out if any Amish or Menonites are named Halterman. They do not have phones. I did find two names of people named Halterman in East Straudsburg, Pa. This is the place that had about three major car dealerships named Halterman, Toyota, Hyundia, Chrysler and Chevrolet.

Not sure if I told you but Eddie remided me that Halterman means "man who lives on a slope or hill"

Had a busy day today. Drove up to Washigton CH, Ohio where Eddie Halterman and his wife Barbara live and spent over 4 hours going over all the ancestors and stories. Daniel L. Halterman , (who was my Great(X4) Grandfather), moved from Pa. to Pike County Ohio in the early 1800's and of all the kids he had one son was Levi and one was Jacob. Levi was my great(X3) grandfather and Jacob was Eddie's.

They live between Washington CH and Jefferson which is a town of 1200 people and Eddie started getting things organized to build a memorial to the veterans. He was able to get it done and it cost about $150,000 but when he started he told them it would be alot less otherwise it never would have gotten started.

The other picture above is a lane leading up to where some of the early Haltermans had a place. I didn't go up because there was a cable accross the lane.

Need to get to bed to get up early to head for Pa. Just south of Harrisburg in a state park. I will leave this for a home base and go into Lancaster and make a trip to East Strausburg. I hope to have enough time to see Gettysburg so not sure how long I will be there. Eddie said he did hear that there was a Halterman Church somewhere around there also.

This is also the area that Major John Cessnie lived after the revolution in the late 1700's. There is a memorial on him that I have the location on.

I still have not figured out how to do the pictures right. I had another picture but one came up wrong. Anyway there are alot of signs as shown above and I have seen a couple of Amish carts going down the road. Yesterday I told you that Eddie Halterman (Scotts Dad) was on a trip to Iowa and got back at 8:00 Sunday night so I had all day yesterday so I thought I would drive north to Amanda, Ohio because John Sale Bryan lived there over 100 yrs ago and I noticed that there was someone named Bryan there. I called them but the guys wife said they were not related and didn''t act like she was interested. The Bryan family is documented well so I have decided I did not need to look into this any more and concentrate on the Haltermans.

I made another trip to Beaver, Ohio which is only 15 miles from where I am staying to a Mount Ridge Cemetary where alot of the earlier Haltermans are buried. I found quite a few but some of the tombstones are so old they are impossible to read or they are broken or gone. I talked to Eddie last night and he said over 20 yrs ago when he was there Daniel's marker was in pieces but he was able to get an impression.

I then went into Beaver and noticed 3 old guys sitting on a bench on one corner under a tree so I went around the block talked to them telling them who I was and was looking for Halterman's and one guy pointed to a house accross the street and said I need to go over there and talk to Shirley Halterman. Her last name is not Halterman now because she is married but we spent about an hour talking and she showed me pictures and figured out how we are related. My great great grandfather Henry J Halterman, who came from this area was a brother of Eli Halterman who was her great great grandfather. Eli was in the Civil War and was wounded badly and was unfit for service for awhile but did go back before it ended and was honorably discharged. Shirley was not aware of Scott Halterman who lives in Waverly or Eddie. I think Eddies people moved to another part of Ohio and I guess I will find out how we are related to him and what his people did.

I was going to load a picture of Shirley here with a picture of some of the graves but for some reason they were put at the top of this post. The picture of the graves show that some have trees growing through them and I found more than this one like this or worse. A couple graves you can hardly see a marker even with ground level.

I am going to meet with Eddie at 1:00 today and he is about 2 hrs from here. Besides figuring out how we are related I am hoping he knows alot more history of the family. Shirley did not know that the Haltermans were Menonites so just because you live here doesn't mean you know all about the Haltermans. Some of the questions I have for him is if he knows if there are still any Haltermans that live in Pa. that are still Menonites or if he knows of other Haltermans in Pa. or has he been to Pa to look into this. There are some Haltermans in East Strausburg Pa because I have found alot of car dealerships that are Halterman dealerships.

While talking to the three old guys on the corner they told me that the Amish are buying up alot of the farms around here. They own alot of land in Pa and they sold the mineral rights to some of it and they got alot of money for it and must be there are more Amish so they decided they need to expand so they are buying farms around here and moving families in. They think that Beave will be a tourist attraction some day because of it. One of the guys was the secretary for the Beaver Valley historical society and they got me to join it, so for $20 I get a newsletter for a year.

Unexpected find

I met with the Jackson county historian yesterday, Bob Ervin at the library and he knew where all the articles on the Halterman's were but most was what I knew except for a Eli Halterman that was in the Civil War and was wounded badly and at the battle of Keneasaw Mountain, June 27, 1864 and was unfit for duty until almost the end of the war. I did find his grave at Beaver Union Cemetery in Beaver Pike Co., Ohio. Very confusing names of towns here, there is a Beaver Jackson Co., Ohio, a Beaver Pike Co., Ohio and a Beaver, Ohio and a road called Beaver Pike Ohio.

I went to Waverly, Ohio, which is the County seat for Pike County and went to the county library and looked in their research library in the basement where there was a nice lady that tried to help me find some stuff and they did have a file on the Halterman's but not much I did not know or could get on the internet. I did look at her phone books and their was only one Halterman in the phone book, "Buffy K. Halterman". The image that came to mind was some teenager or someone that might not want to talk to me. I went to eat a late lunch at the Bob Evans and when I was checking out I thought I would ask the young girl if she knew of any Haltermans and she said sure Tyler was her age and his mother was Buffy but she did not know what the fathers name was. So I asked the obvious, if she was divorced and she said no so I worked up the courage to call her. When I called her and explained she gave the phone to her husband Scott Halterman and he had me come over. He was a great guy probably about 40 and he heard of all the names on my chart and we were from the same Haltermans. The best thing was his father who is 76 has turned into a geneology nut since retiring and has a large amount of stuff on the Haltermans. He is returning from a trip to Iowa Sunday night so I will stay here at least one more day and hopfully see him on Monday.

Scott did tell me about where some of the Haltermans lived and about a road that used to be Halterman road. He also said 5 yrs ago there were alot of Haltermans around but most have died off. Scott has two sons so the name will continue on here but he said that the name here is also fading away.

He also did tell be about the skeleton in the Halterman closet. In 1927 a Leo Halterman was executed in the electric chair for killing his step brother, Charles Halterman, but I must also mention that there were also Haltermans that were doctors and other notable positions. I wished I would have taken a picture of Scott and his family but I will probably see him again. His father lives in Washington Court House, Ohio(another funny name) which is probably two hours away from where I am at in Jackson.

I plan on going up north to Ashland county to see if I can find anything on the Bryan's today.

I will post the graves of Eli Halterman and his family. I found Halterman's in three sections of this grave yard and they are in other grave yards.

They have a new golf course here and yesterday I looked at all 18 holes but did not find any ancestors or relatives.

I did go back and find the grave of Benjamin W. Sloan Sr. who died in 1843.

Went to Corbin, Ky today to see Col. Sanders original cafe. No ancestors there either.

Probably should have left today for Ohio but this did give me some time to relax, after 27 holes yesterday. Also found out that the Sloans that are having the reunion in Fraklin, Ky this weekend are not related to our Sloans so no sense trying to go to that. I will leave tomorrow and it will take me about 5 hrs to get to Jackson, Ohio which is close to where Daniel Halterman moved to (Beaver Pike) probably in the early 1800's. His son, Levi Halterman was born there in 1818 and died in 1877. His son, Henry J. Halterman is the one that moved to Shubert, Nebraska.

The Bryan family also lived in Ohio about the same time and I found out today that their is a John Bryan State Park. Not sure if he is related to us but we have a John Bryan born in Pa but moved to Polk Ohio in 1777. His son was John Sale Bryan that moved to South Dakota. The park was named for a John Bryan that was born in 1838 which is probably a generation down from our John Bryan.

Talked to a woman this morning that is a Sloan decendant and really into this stuff. She is having a reunion this Saturday in Franklin, Ky, but as of yet I cannot connect her Sloans with mine so I will probably leave here for Ohio on Thursday or Friday.

I did go out to the cemetary and did not spend much time but I did find the tombstone of Benjamin W. Sloans son of the same name but did not find his. So many of those old stones have no markings left anymore or they have been eated away by age and all that is left is a small rock.

I went to Lake City, Tn today to the factory that makes the trailer that I have. I did this because it was going to rain all day here. It was a interesting tour how they make them so light.

On the way back I took the long way and looked at Cumberland Falls.

This is where the road left the property. The rocks were part of the road. This is Jimmy Cambell