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Augspurger, Christian (1782-1848)
Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1943 Mar 11 p. 4
Birth date: 1782
text of article:
Medal Of Honor For Superior Farming
Paris, October 1, 1814. Decoration of the Lily-flower, No. 20,131.
Mr. Christian Augspurger, Proprietor at Strasburg
I have the honor of informing you, sir, that the king has deigned to accord to you the lily flower; you are in consequence authorized to wear it.
Be assured, sir, of my distinguished consideration.
(signed) The first valet of the king,
__________
For several centuries Mennonites have been known as excellent farmers. Governments have generally recognized this economic contribution in one way or another. But perhaps no Mennonite farmer achieved greater distinction than did Christian Augspurger in 1814 when the french government conferred upon him the Decoration of the Lily0flower. the picture of the medal and the citation are shown above.
The Augspurger family has long been prominent in southern Ohio. it was in 1939 that Chrstian Augspurger's granddaughter, Mrs. Otella Compton, was selected as the "American Mother". She is the mother of a family of famous children including Dr. A. H. Compton nobel prize winner from the University of Chicago, President Karl T. Compton of the Massachusetts School of Technology, and W. M. Compton, manager of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association. the fourth child is the wife of a famous Presbyterian missionary in India. The four children have a total of 31 college and university degrees.
The account below was furnished by Rev. J. E. Amstutz of Trenton, Ohio, and was taken from the History of Butler County, Ohio.
Christian Augspurger was born in 1772 [sic 1782] in Loraine, France. He came to America in 1817 and settled in Pennsylvania, and a little alter, in company with others, went as far west as the Miami Valley in Ohio.
Here he decided to make his future home, but being a friend of society and in a strange country without friends, he became discouraged and in 1818, with his family, returned to France. Finding upon his return to France that the farm which he had managed there had been leased to another man for a number of years, he decided to return to America and make his permanent home and fortune there. In the spring of 1819, he again left France but this time with his own family and a group of 36 additional families.
The change for the Augspurgers from Europe to America was very great, and especially for Christian Augspurger, as he had lived on one of the finest and best improved farms in Rance, consisting of about five hundred acres of choice land.
The farm was leased for a number of years, and belonged to Charles Schulmeister, who served as a spy under Napoleon the First, and was considered to be one of his best. His property was very valuable. The farm on which Christian Augspurger lived was so well improved, that princely personages and generals in the army frequently paid visits there. Schulmeister also lived on the farm.
It happened, however, that Marshal Bertrand received a large territory from Napoleon the First, on which he wished to introduce farming according to french style, and sought advice or information in regard to it; for which purpose he requested Christian Agusburger [sic Augspurger] to come to Paris, where Bertrand then lived. He complied with this request, and in company with his cousin Nicholas Augsburger went there for that purpose, to the satisfaction of the marshal. They were shown through all the parliamentary buildings and saw the throne.
Later, Christian Augspurger received the Decoration of the Lily Flower as a memento. It is now in the possession of his Ohio descendants. The medal consists of a ruby in the form of a star, with gilded points, and a ribbon affixed thereto, with a description, and signed in the name of the first valet of the king.
When Christian Augsburger [sic Augspurger] arrived in America the second time he purchased a farm near Collinsville, Ohio. In 1829 he also purchased a two hundred and fifty acre farm near Woodsdale, Butler County, Ohio. At one time he owned nineteen hunded and seventy-five acres of land in this county.
