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Is actually a location in Mount Sterling, Brown County, Illinois located 4 miles northeast of town. Brown County is in the western bulge of Illinois and the location where Joseph and Barbary Resch bought farmland in 1854. It was their dream, to own a large farm, to have a large family and enjoy the trials of life. David Rash and Margaret (Crummy) Rash farmed the same land. So did Joseph, David's brother, and his wife, Sarah. John Weigand and his family farmed the Ridge. So did Anthony and Elizabeth (Rash) Krupp and family. And Casper Hagel and family. Sebastian Geisler and Catherine (Rash) and family. Leborius and Barbara (Geisler) Resch and family. And many of their ancestors who today are still on Dutch Ridge.
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Here is a paragraph from La Vern J. Rippley's book titled 'The German-Americans' which I have used throughout the stories enclosed.
'Both Hollanders and Germans in early America came to be known as 'Dutch', a linguistic slip that occurred because the word 'Dutch' so closely resembles a German's designation for himself, Deutsch. The confusion is justified on other grounds; early Germanic migration to the United States came from the Low Countries (along the northern coast and flowing away from the Alps). Moreover, there has never been a clear language border between the northern region of Germany, which is referred to geographically and linguistically as Low German and that country which, in the Germanic family of languages, is called Dutch.'
Thus, a couple of strong possible explanations for the naming of Dutch Ridge. Though Joseph and his Deutsch neighbors were not the original owners of the land on Dutch Ridge, they were the farmers who established the Ridge's rich farmland and were identified as a group by their heritage by the local population.
Below is a topographical map I drew the sections of land purchased by the group of farmers who came to Illinois by wagon train around 1853 from Zanesville, Ohio. This was my first serious work effort in researching courthouse records, and I learned much about surveying techniques of the early 19th century. All are of German ancestry except Casper Hagel, who may have been from France (though his wife was of German ancestry). An interesting fact concerning this area, and many other rural locations is their reluctance to change over time. The road structure in this current topographical map below so closely resembles the plat map of the late 1800s; I was able to navigate the area and locate the farm sites using the old map. The first time I walked the original Rash farm site here brought an unexpected tingling feeling as I realized this is where my first American ancestors lived and farmed. Doing what they wanted to do. Living their dream.
What's your dream?
The Table of Contents can be reached with this link.
Updated 4 Dec 06
