The German Language in our family.My mother's story was that German was spoken in the Ort family until World War II. Times were quite tense. Germans and suspected Nazi supporters were being arrested and sent to interment camps. The Japanese were not the only group to be interred, and stripped of money, property and citizen's rights! Even in the small town of Cuba there were people arrested as suspected spies. Mom said that her Dad called a family meeting when the United States entered the war in Europe. Grandpa (John) Ort's meeting was to discuss the family's position on the war. He asked the family, "Are we Germans, or are we Americans?" The answer from the adults was that we were Americans. Then he said, "German will no longer be spoken in our homes." The decision was honored by all and the German language disappeared from our family.
Carolyn Lauser Jacobs Buffalo Directory 1869 - Ort, Orth
Leona K. WilsonThe Times Herald, Olean, N.Y.
Wilson shares nearly a century of living By JOHN T. EBERTH , The Times Herald 03/28/2003
OLEAN - Leona K. Wilson was born in 1904 on a farm in Chipmonk nestled in the hills that separate Allegany and Limestone from Bradford, Pa. She was the middle child in a family of eight. She grew up without running water or electricity. She wouldn't see her first car until she was 10 or 11, she can't remember exactly. People walked, rode in horse-drawn buggies or trains. And they laughed. "We were never bored. That was a word we didn't even know," she said. "I was always happy." Mrs. Wilson will be 99 in August. She's lived to see 18 presidents and five wars, including the war with Iraq. "I was in grade school when World War I was going on," she said.
Her great-grandson, Bryan Wilson, grew up listening to stories of her life. He asked her if she'd be willing to share some of them with his classmates at Olean High School. Mrs. Wilson sat down on Thursday with 25 juniors in Jean Abdo's history class. Students who grew up secure in the knowledge that MTV and indoor plumbing will always be there for them asked Mrs. Wilson what it was like to witness the 20th century unfold. Kristannette Austin asked how the Great Depression changed her life. "I was married in the Great Depression," Mrs. Wilson said. She said her husband, Ralph E. Wilson, had steady work in area oil fields throughout the Depression. His job meant the Wilson didn't go without food or shelter. But she said they also didn't believe in letting others go without. "Often times we had two or three families living with us off my husband's wages," she told the students. "We weren't hit that hard, only that we shared what we had with friends who didn't have as much."
Courtney Blackmon asked what schools were like when Mrs. Wilson was growing up. Nick Vos wanted to know how long she stayed in school. "I went through my sophomore year in high school," Mrs. Wilson said. "I worked for my room and board the two years I was in high school." She attended high school in Bradford. She told the students that in order to live in Bradford and attend school, she had to work for a local family to pay for her food and a place to stay. Illness forced her to cut her studies short. By the time she was 17, the age of most of the students she was speaking to, Mrs. Wilson was working full-time.
For three years after dropping out of school she tended the homes of wealthy families in the Bradford area. She watched their children, she washed their clothes and she cooked their meals. But she smiles at the memory of it. "I did all the housework," she said, but quickly added that she liked the families she worked for and they always treated her with kindness. "I had an enjoyable time," she said. "I thought it was enjoyable." Mrs. Wilson said before illness ended her academic career, she wanted to become a kindergarten teacher.
But she doesn't regret the life she led after leaving school. "At 20, I got married and started my own kindergarten," she said with a laugh. Mrs. Wilson and her husband raised six children of their own and 31 foster children. She was married in 1924. By World War II she had grown children. She told the class that it wasn't until World War II that she owned a radio. One of her grown daughters gave it to her as a gift. Mrs. Wilson said she didn't own a television until many years after they became available. "Because my husband objected to it," she said. "He said it was the work of the devil." Jay Weatherell asked what television was like when she got one. "Well, it was a lot nicer programs than they have now and there were less advertisements," she said.
Kristen Sledge asked Mrs. Wilson if she ever visited a city and if so, what she did when she got there. Mrs. Wilson said growing up she would take a train from Vandalia, about a mile and a half from her home, to Bradford to visit the dentist. But what did she like to do when she visited the city, Ms. Sledge asked. "Oh, just walk up and down the streets and look at all the pretty things in the store windows," Mrs. Wilson told her. She also liked the candy stores in Bradford, she said.
©The Times Herald, Olean, N.Y. 2003
The Meaning of the Surname Ort
Southern French: metonymic occupational name for a gardener or topographic name for someone who lived near an enclosed garden, Occitan ort (Latin hortus). German: from a Germanic personal name Ort, a short form of the various compound names with the first element ord ‘point’ (of a sword, spear). German: topographic name for someone who lived at the top of a hill or the end of a settlement, from Middle High German ort (see 2 above), in the transferred sense ‘tip’, ‘extremity’. In modern German the word has come to mean ‘point’, ‘spot’, ‘place’. James P. Dove, husband of Susan GangnagelTaken from Presidents, Soldiers, Statesmen as written in 1883.
James Dove
A native of Salford, Manchester, England, was born August 8, 1839, a son of James and Jane (Murphy) Dove, both living (1883); he married Oct. 12, 1863, Susan Gangnagal, a native of Hess Dunstadt, Germany, October 30, 1846, her father Mathias Gangnagal is still living, but her mother Catherine (Karl) is dead. The following children have been born in the order named: James P., Catherine J., Philopean E. N. , Otto F., William F., Frederick W., Frank H., Susanna C., May B., Henry, Caroline J., and Elizabeth; he enlisted at the age of 21 as a private April 16, 1861, in Co. A, 21st N.Y.V.I., 1st Brig. 1st A.C., April 23, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of Corporal and Aug. 9, 1862, to that of Sergt. Feb. 2 1863, to that of 1st Sergeant. In Aug, at Ft. Runyan, VA., he was detached to Engineer Department under Lieut. Roberts, Chief of Engineer Corps. Sept. 20, 1862 he was in hospital at Washington, D.C., for about 11 days with typhoid fever. Dec. 13, 1862, at Fredericksburg, Va., he received a severe shell wound in the left leg for which wound he was treated in hospital at Fredericksburg, Va.; he was treated in field quarters most of the time during the time during his enlistment. He took part in the battles of Rappahannock Station, White Sulpher Springs, Grovetown, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg; he received his honorable discharge at expiration of term of enlistment at Buffalo, N.Y., May 18, 1863. The father of Mrs. Dove, Mathias Gangnagal, served in the 107th Pa. Vol. Inf., also one brother Frederick, who was captured and held at Salisbury, N.C. Comrade Dove draws a pension, belongs to E.N. Ford Post 336, in which he is a Past officer of Guard, is a stonequarry man, with post office address at Warren, Warren County, PA. [sic]
All twelve children lived. (1880 census)
Orth Family CrestOrigin: Germany
The surname Orth is derived from the High German word "ort," meaning "high point." The name was likely first borne by someone living at the end of a street or a village.
Spelling variations of this family name include: Ort, Orte, Orto, Ohrt, Orthmann, Ohrtmann, Ordemann and many more.
First found in Wertheim, Main, where Orto of Mendfeld is recorded to have been living in 1260.
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