Our earliest known ancestor is Wendell Essig who was born in the canton of Berne, Switzerland about 1700. As a youth he was a miner in Germany and served seven years in the Prussian Army, and was one of the famous Imperial Guards who were chosen, history tells us, for their great size. It is believed that Wendell was present at the coronation of Frederick the Great. 
     In 1750 Wendell came to America landing at Baltimore. He was married to Anne Eve Matte and established his home near Hagarstown, Maryland. Simon was one of the several children of Wendell and the only survivor. The story is that when Simon was a young man he was sent for provision, armed with his father's gun (Wendell's Prussian Army firearm), and when he returned he found the cabin burned and all the family victims of an Indiana massacre. The gun is still a prized heirloom of an Ohio family.
     Thus we are all descendants of that Simon Essig. An interesting Family Tree was made under the direction of Isaiah Essig (near Canton, Ohio) and was exhibited at the Reunion in Ohio in 1883. It showed 1773 names of descendants of that first Wendell who is the root of the tree with Simon as the trunk. Simon settled in Pennsylvania and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. We have been told that he was a blacksmith and shod General Washington's horse at the battle of Trenton. He married Julia Schneer and with their family of six sons and six daughters moved from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania to Stark County, Ohio in 1808. As a Jackson democrat, an energetic Lutheran, and an honest citizen he left a good name to his many descendants. Most of his children became citizens of Stark County, Ohio. Of those who left, John settled in Elkhart County, Indiana, George in Whitley County, Indiana, and William in Allen County, Indiana. 
     Simon and his wife were buried in the Worstler Cemetery near Canton, Ohio, a few miles from the old homestead. 

This story was taken from a photo copy of a typed story from a paper titled: Indiana Descendants of the Simon Essig Family - That have not met in Reunion in Elkhart County since 1896. 
Compiled in 1938 by: 
Miss Maude Essig
Mrs. John W. Holdeman
Miss Pauline Lynn
       Elkhart, Ind. 
Typed as found by Cathy Long Jackson March 2018 (Simon Essig is my 6th Great Grandfather)