However, in the area around Batesville, these percentages are much higher: 74% of the 10,741 people in Laughery, Adams and Ray Townships claim some German ancestry and 60% claim only German ancestry! This is the area of the heaviest north German settlement.

Further east, 70% of the 4,882 people in Jackson, Kelso and York Townships Dearborn County and Highland Township of Franklin County claim some German ancestry, and 50% claim only German ancestry. South German settlement was particularly strong in these townships.

Heavy German settlement extends beyond these seven townships and encompasses about 300 square miles in northern Ripley, Southern Franklin, and northwestern Dearborn Counties. It extends from Yorkville, New Alsace, and St. Leon in the east, to Napoleon and Enochsburg in the west, and from Peppertown and Klemme's Corner in the north to Stumke's Corner and Fink's Church in the south. There are approximately 20,000 people in this entire area of whom 2/3 claim some German ancestry and 1/2 claim sole German ancestry. Significant German ancesry is also found in Decatur County communities such as Millhousen.

The other significant ancestral groups today in this area are the English and those who claim some Irish ancestry. About a quarter of the population in Ripley and Franklin counties claim some English ancestry and about 14% only English ancestry. About 19% claim some Irish ancestry, but less than 5% claim only Irish ancestry.

The next largest group are of French origin, 4% of the population in these two counties claim some French ancestry, but less than 1% claim only French ancestry. Some of these may even be of German ancestry from Alsace in France. People may change the way they report their origins in the census when political control of their ancestral home land changes.

Finally, there are only 80 to 160 residents of these two counties who claim solely Dutch, Italian, Scotch, or Polish origin, resectively. Other groups are smaller still. Twelve percent of the respondents to the census in Ripley and Franklin counties did not report their ancestry at all. Thus, the present population of Batesville and the surrounding communitites is overwhelmingly German in origin.

The next two chapters will deal specifically with the history of the north German ancestors of many of the Batesville area families. The first concerns their religious history. the second concerns their political and economic history.