JOHN JACOB ROHN
DOB – 11/22/1834
PLACE OF BIRTH – BADEN
GERMANY
DOD – 12/13/1919, AT 85
YEARS, 21 DAYS
PLACE OF DEATH – HOME AT
MILL CREEK, WALLA WALLA
PLACE OF INTERNMENT –
LYONS CREEK CEMETRY AKA MILL CREEK
CEMETRY AKA HENRICKS CEMETRY.
John Jacob Rohn was born
in Baden, Germany in 1834. He was
orphaned at the age of 10 and raised by an uncle. At the age of 16 or 17, he immigrated to the
United States and lived in New York City for about 5 years working as a gilder.
In 1855 he enlisted in the
US Army, was initially stationed in New York City. In 1856 he was transferred to San Francisco,
then Red Bluff, California, then Fort Lane, Oregon, and finally Fort Walla
Walla, Washington where he was assigned to Company C of the First
Dragoons. His military service largely
involved the “Indian wars”. In 1857 he
was assigned to Fort Walla Walla and was there when the (where 1st
and Main intersect) first flag was raised over the fort. On September 28,1910, he was a guest at the
ceremony commemorating the abandonment of the fort the final lowering of the
flag.
His military assignments
involved skirmishes with the Indians. In
May of 1858, Colonel Steptoe on his ill-fated expedition resulting in deaths
and the routing of most of his force at Rosalia, WA in what is known as the
“The Battle of Steptoe”. John Jacob Rohn
was not present, but in September 1858 under the command of Colonel George Wright
returned to recover the remains of the fallen, and then proceeded on to the
Spokane area where the captured and hanged a total of seventeen Indian leaders,
without trial. The area became known as
Hangman Creek.
On January 24,1860, at
rank of Private, he was honorably discharged from the First Dragoons at Fort
Vancouver, Washington. He was 26 years
of age.
After his discharge, he
promptly returned to Walla Walla and filed claim to 160 acres of land on Mill
Creek, about 10 miles from town. He
began the task of clearing and preparing his property for farming. With $500 that he had saved from his military
stipend he purchased cattle, and despite one early setback became a successful
farmer. He worked hard and became known
as “one of the most respected and successful men in the area”.
On September 30, 1866, at
the age of 32 John Jacob Rohn married Sarah Elizabeth Sanders on her 18th
birthday. Sarah died on October 23, 1872
at age 23, leaving 4 children, one of who died at age 2 and is interned next to
her mother and father in the Lyons Creek Cemetery, AKA Mill Creek Cemetery, AKA
Hendricks Cemetery. John never
remarried, raising their children himself.
John Jacob Rohn, wife,
Sarah was also “Buried in a cemetery
near their home on Mill Creek. It was
called Hendricks Cemetery. Later he had
a beautiful tombstone placed on the grave site.
It was a statue of a pretty woman standing on a pedestal. The statue is life-sized standing elegantly
on the engraved stone. Daughter Sarah Jane
Rohn who died 2 years after her mother is buried next to her mother, and John
Jacob Rohn.”
John Jacob Rohn became a
naturalized citizen on May 13, 1879. He
attended the final lowering of the flag over Fort Walla Walla on September
28,1910. He attended the unveiling of the
monument to the memory of two officers and five soldiers who lost their lives
at Rosalia in the Indian skirmish at ‘the Battle of Steptoe’.
He died on December 19, 1919,
at his home on Mill Creek, and was buried next to his wife and young daughter
at the then Hendricks Cemetery, now Lyons Creek Cemetery. He left behind four living children,
daughters, Nancy Katherine ‘Katie’ Rohn (married Thomas Bryant), Malina Jane
Rohn (married Harry Gilkerson), Sarah J. Rohn (died in 1874) and son, Joseph
Frederick Rohn (married Sarah Louisa ‘Lulu’ Beeson).
Professor W. D. Lyman
wrote of J.J. Rohn: “One of the thrifty farmers and pioneers of the county”; “Entirely
a self-made man. Starting in a new land, without even a knowledge of our
language, he has, by his unaided efforts, wrought his way to a competency, and
to rank among the leading farmers of the county. Few men enjoy a greater degree of the esteem
and good will of their neighbors, than does Mr. Rohn.”
