Nelson Lafon Visits Oberholz

The picture above, the work of Nelson Lafon, is the "new" Gottfried Oberholzer home, which replaced the 400-year-old Oberholzer family home about a decade ago. Nelson is a descendant of JL Jacob Oberholtzer, whose genealogical line is recounted in The Oberholtzer Book (pp. 115-148), which was compiled and edited by Barbara B. Ford, published in 1995, by the Overholser Family Association.

Portions of Nelson's family tree appear at the end of this web page, but first, we get to see some of his lovely photographs featuring Oberholz, Switzerland, the ancestral home of our "O" families, along with a look at the surrounding area.

Some of these photos and Nelson's essay, A Beautiful Beginning, appeared in the Summer 2013 edition of the OFA Bulletin, a newsletter published by the Overholser Family Association on a semi-annual basis. In order to benefit from their ongoing genealogical research -- and all "O" family researchers should do so -- go to the OFA web site and get on the mailing list. Currently, OFA newsletters can be found in pdf format.

Overholser Family Association
http://www.overholser.net/

On August 13, 2011, my wife, Emily Marston, and I visited the ancestral villages of Aatal and Oberholz, near Wald in northeastern Switzerland. The generous advice provided by Dennis Oberholtzer, John Shinpaugh, and Jack Sholl of the Overholser Family Association made the visit more enjoyable and fruitful.

On a Friday evening, after a whirlwind walking tour of Zurich, we entered the world of the local Swiss, and commuted eastward to the small working class village of Dürnten. We rented a room for the night from a nice family, who pointed us to a local festival. It was one of those little gems that a tourist might miss -- bratwursts, fried potatoes, and a Swiss-style country band playing just enough American cover songs for us to forget we weren't at our own town fair!

The next morning, we took a bus to Wald. Close to Wald, the winding road hugged a whitewater stream amid dense conifer forests, before leveling out into a high valley surrounded by small mountains (for Switzerland), reminiscent of the Appalachians. Arriving at the bus station in downtown Wald, a picturesque but not overly-touristy little town, we struck out immediately to find the Wanderweg (footpath) north to Aatal, where our Protestant Oberholzer family would have lived, prior to their emigration to Germany.

Since the day was perfect for hiking, and since our main goal was to trek to Aatal and Oberholz on our way to a local peak, we didn't look too hard for churches or graveyards that our ancestors may have used. There was a prominent Protestant Church building there, which could have been where some of our Oberholzer family worshipped. We walked upstream along a well-groomed trail for a couple of miles, weaving among ruins of old stone dams and spillways, to some large pasture lands surrounding the little settlement of Aatal.

We encountered an interesting gentleman there, who was quite familiar with the history of the area. We learned that the streams around Wald had powered mills and textile industries, in the 1800s. In his view, the Protestants who moved to the valleys and towns were more educated and industrious than their agrarian, traditional Catholic cousins, who stuck to their mountain villages and farms. He stressed to us just how clearly divided the Protestant and Catholic areas are to this day.

As we stood outside of his house in Aatal, we were within one mile west of one of those dividing lines -- the canton boundary between Protestant Zurich and Catholic St. Gallen. Reversing the steps of my ancestors over three centuries ago, we climbed the sunny slopes and crossed the line.

Nelson Lafon entering the village of Oberholz
Nelson Lafon © 2011 All Rights Reserved

Oberholz is perched on the western edge of Canton St. Gallen, and to the east, overlooks the Jona Valley, where Wald and Aatal are located. The distant Alps and upper Lake Zurich (the Obersee) are to the south.

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The Gottfried Oberholzer home in Oberholz, Switzerland
Nelson Lafon © 2011 All Rights Reserved

This house replaced the original home (built circa 1500) at the same location. The picture above was taken from a similar vantage point as the one on page xii of Barbara Ford's The Oberholtzer Book. Willard E. Overholtzer's 1994 photograph showed the original home and middle barn. The family's big barn is seen on the right.

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The Gottfried Oberholzer home in Oberholz, Switzerland (Detail)
Nelson Lafon © 2011 All Rights Reserved

During a fortunate encounter with Gottfried's own granddaughter, who was tending flowers next door, we learned that we missed the original 400-year-old house by only a decade! It had to be torn down and replaced, circa 2000. As we discussed our story getting there, it was clear that she has gotten used to her American cousins coming visiting!

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A common encounter on the ridges above Oberholz!
Nelson Lafon © 2011 All Rights Reserved

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The hills were alive with the sound of music . . . from the cowbells!
Nelson Lafon © 2011 All Rights Reserved

Leaving Oberholz, we spent the rest of our day rambling along an idyllic ride of pastures and forests, high above my ancestral haunts. Days later, finding ourselves among the more spectacular Alps, we nonetheless looked back fondly on our first encounter with the authentic Swiss countryside.

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Emily Marston near the Schnebelhorn (elevation ~ 4200 feet)
Nelson Lafon © 2011 All Rights Reserved

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Emily Marston near the Schnebelhorn (Detail)
Nelson Lafon © 2011 All Rights Reserved

Nelson's Branches

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