One House’s Story: The Hendershott Family

This house sits prominently on the corner of a busy New Philadelphia intersection and has, over time, transitioned into a multi-family dwelling. Its roots though lie with the family of a Civil War Veteran and successful New Philadelphia businessperson.

A note about addresses: House numbers and street names often change over time.

There is some confusion about when this branch of the Hendershott family arrived in Ohio from New Jersey via Pennsylvania, but the patriarch of the family was Isaac Hendershott (1788-1817). Isaac married Susannah Shoemaker (1788- ) around 1810, though if that was in Pennsylvania or Ohio is unclear. The lack of clarity comes from that the fact that their eldest son, Michael Hendershott (1811-1900) listed his birth state as Pennsylvania but later family records record Isaac and Susannah as being married in Ohio in 1810. Regardless, the family was residing in Belmont County, Ohio by the time of their second son’s birth in 1813.

Issac Hendershott died in 1817 after falling off of a ladder and his wife Susannah remarried shortly after. Michael Hendershott married Mary Reed (1815-1864) in Belmont County in 1833 and, within a few years, relocated to the town of Batesville, Ohio in Guernsey County where Michael was recorded as being a Hatter. Michael and Mary started a very large family that included ten children, equally divided between males and females, though not all of the children survived to adulthood. One of thier sons, Isaac Reed Hendershott (1839-1919) was named after his paternal grandfather and maternal grandfather.

Isaac was one of two of the Hendershott sons to enlist in the Union Army at the beginning of the Civil War. Isaac joined Company H of the 122nd Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Zanesville, Ohio in August 1862. He rose to the rank of First Sergeant in Company H before being promoted to 1st Lieutenant in Company I in June 1864 as the regiment took an active part in the campaign in Virginia. Isaac was promoted again in December 1864, this time to the rank of Captain of his original Company H. His promotions spoke to both his ability and intelligence, as well as the losses suffered by the regiment while on campaign. Isaac Hendershott would carry the honorific rank of Captain for the rest of his life.

Immediately after the war, Isaac made his way to New Philadelphia and started working as a clerk in local grocery. He met Loretta Jane Kurtz (1845-1921), the daughter of prominent local doctor Dr. Issac H. Kurtz (1812-1894), and the couple were married in the fall of 1865. Isaac became an active member in the local Masonic Lodge in New Philadelphia, eventually operated his own store, and went into the insurance business as well. Through this success he was able to purchase a lot on the southwest corner of West Fair Street and (then) North 7th Street. There he built a large wood framed home in the popular Italianate style with deep bracketed eaves, hipped roof, and a large bay extension on the west side of the home. The house originally did not have a porch, but the Hendershotts added one to the home in 1891.

Isaac and Loretta raised four children in the home on West Fair, including one son who went on to become a prominent local doctor in his own right. Dr. Byron C. Hendershot (1868–1911) had a private practice on the 100 block of North Broadway and was a member of Union Hospital’s Board of Trustees. Isaac was promoted around 1895 by the insurance company he represented and he and Loretta moved from New Philadelphia to Tiffin, Ohio. Dr. Hendershott lived in the home on West Fair briefly before Isaac and Loretta sold the home to a successful New Philadelphia merchant in 1901.

The Hendershotts resided in Tiffin for the remaining years of their lives and, when Isaac Hendershott died at his home in Tiffin in March 1919, the New Philadelphia newspapers reported it on the front page of the paper. Loretta would outlive her husband by only a couple of years, dying in August 1921, and also warranted local newspaper coverage as well. Both are buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in Tiffin, Ohio and the house they built in New Philadelphia still sits prominently on its corner of Fair Avenue NW.

© Noel B. Poirier, 2023.