Bechtel Orphans
 

Newport Court Order 12 February 1798
 

In summer 1797, a German family by the name of Bechtel settled down in Newport. They came from the region of Hanau, where the man himself had studied stone masonry, and which trade he also established in Newport.  They had five children, of which the oldest was 16 years old.  His whole wealth had been expended to bring his family across the ocean and to bring them West.  In fall 1797, the mother became sick, and succumbed to the fever.

In winter, the river was frozen, and the man together with his son, in order to earn more for the family, took on the job of driving cattle to slaughter across the ice of the river to Fort Washington in Cincinnati. The ice, however, was already breaking up, and when a stubborn ox turned around so as to make a jump elsewhere, the ice broke through, leading to father, son, and steer drowning together in the river.

There stood the four small children, of which the oldest was 14, helpless and alone in the world, thousands of miles away from the place, which merely a year ago had been their homeland, and where all their friends and relations had remained. Poor and alone in a land where only few understood their language. However, the American people are as magnanimous as they are hospitable, and already on the next day many of the citizens in town indicated they would provide a home for the children. The 11 year-old boy Johannes Bechtel and his 19 year-old sister Sarah Bechtel were adopted by a blacksmith named William Anderson. The oldest child, Maria Bechtel, was taken in by John Hunter, and the youngest the five year-old Barbara Bechtel, was taken in by a German tailor, Johann H Lesner.
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