Roots Trek: Dutch Corner

Showing posts with label Dutch Corner. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

George Wisegarver and Mary Elizabeth Steel Wisegarver

George Wisegarver, my 6th great-grandfather, was one of the earliest of all my ancestors to become a resident of Bedford County. He was a German immigrant. Some researchers show that he and Mary Elizabeth Steel were married in Bedford County in 1770, but with no attached sources I have no way to confirm that. A publication of the Historical Society of Bedford County indicates that he helped lay out a road in 1771, proving he was in Bedford County well before the Revolutionary War. He's also listed in the 1772 tax roll as owning 100 acres of land, 20 improved, 2 horses and 1 cow.

George is also a Revolutionary War veteran, having served in the Bedford County Militia. In 1781 he was listed as a private in Captain Charles Taggart's Company, 5th company, 1st Battalion. More research is needed to determine if he achieved a higher rank than that of private.

Rye was a profitable crop in Bedford County and this was probably a primary crop for George. Many farmers grew rye for the purpose of manufacturing whisky. Few of them owned more than one still, but George in listed in a 1792 historical record to have actually owned 2 stills.

By 1798, as shown on the tax list, he was quite a successful land owner. His own farm (or farms) consisted of of land at a value of $1282. In addition, he owned land in both Bedford Township and St Clair Township which he leased to 12 other farmers. The value of that land totaled $6,649, quite a tidy sum in the late 1790s.

George and Mary had at least 2 children, maybe 4, maybe even 5. The census records prior to 1850 only list the head of household's name, so the other household members are up for speculation and interpretation.

George was one of the original land owners in Dutch Corner. His initial purchase of land was not too far southwest of the John Ickes homestead. A listing in findagrave.com shows that George and other family members were buried on the Blair Ott farm. Lori at dutchcornerpa.org informed me that the Ott farm was the old Wisegarver farm and that the headstones, and maybe the graves (though doubtful) were either destroyed or moved as the new owners didn't want people coming and looking for dead ancestors. Another listing at findagrave.com shows that the headstones were located at St. John's Church near Cessna. I located what I thought would be the Wisegarver farm from the Dutch Corner land map on a current map. Sure enough, Ott Road (which would have been on Ott farm) ran right through the middle of it. It also happened to be just a little north of the church to which the headstones were moved.

The Wisegarver home was probably in the middle of this modern-day road.

Probably part of the original Wisegarver homestead (the land, not the building)

Another view of the Wisegarver homestead

The creek that ran through the Wisegarver farm. The house would have been very nearby.

Leaves turning color

The remains of an old bridge that crossed the creek

St. John's Church and Cemetery in Cessna.
There's only about 20 headstones in the cemetery.

I'm not sure where Mary Elizabeth is buried, but this may be her headstone, also in the St. John Church Cemetery.
The headstone is unreadable.

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All original content, images, commentary, etc. copyright © by Joy Denison 2015-2016. All rights reserved. All writings, poems, speeches, essays, images, scans, likenesses, etc. by Adam Ickes (b 1845) as well as personal histories, images, and all other content by all persons referenced and discussed within the pages and posts in this blog may not be copied, shared, or reproduced in any way without expressed permission by the owner unless included here from other referenced sources or are historical records already considered to be in the public domain.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Adam Ickes and Mary Haverstock Ickes

Adam came to Dutch Corner in Bedford County PA with his parents, John and Mary, and a few of his siblings around 1792. He was about 19 years old. He worked on the family farm.

Mary and Adam probably met and were married at the Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church. Over the space of 24 years Mary gave birth to 13 children. All of them lived into adulthood except for two. Catherine, born in 1819, and Sarah, born in 1829, probably died in infancy.

In 1822 Adam's father, John, purchased farmland in what is now King Township in Bedford County. I know absolutely nothing about farming but having been there it appears to me that they relocated to a much better piece of land. The farm in Dutch Corner was not on any water that I could see and it was at a relatively high altitude on a steep slope. The new farm was adjacent to the Bob's Creek branch of Dunning's Creek and was much, much flatter. In 1823 (the year Adam's mother died) John sold the farm to Adam but he continued to live with Adam and his family until he died in 1829.

According to land records, over the next 14 years or so Adam continued to buy and sell portions of his original land purchase as well as adjacent parcels of land. It was surveyed and resurveyed multiple times over. The 1832 tax records indicated that he owned 190 acres of land, 2 horses, and 2 cows, all of which was worth $375.

Mary died in 1852. She would have been about 66 years old. After Mary's death Adam married Elizabeth Lingenfelter. Lingenfelter was her married name and no one (so far) has been able to identify her birth family. She was 15 years younger than Adam and lived 15 years past his death. She was buried in a family cemetery with one of her daughter's family which, according to findagrave,com is now "defunct".

The 1861 map shows Adam's house to be located right by Bob's Creek, making it fairly easy to retrieve water for cooking, cleaning, and bathing.

Adam's farm is labeled A. Ickes in the upper right portion of the map. (Click to enlarge.)

On a present day map, the farm is located between East Garman Road and West Garman Road.

Adam's farm from the end of West Garman Road where horses are grazing.
The creek is just behind the trees where the house would have been located.

Looking at the the farm through the trees from the end of East Garman Road.

The creek that runs adjacent to Adam's farmland near where his house would have been located.

It appears Adam may have suffered from cataracts in his old age.

Adam was active in the Lutheran Church and his will shows his love and gratitude to God:

"In the name of God. I, Adam Ickes of the township of Union County of Bedford and state of Pennsylvania, being in ? good bodily health and of sound and disposing mind and memory calling to mind the frailty and uncertainty of human life, and desires of settling worldly affairs and directing how the estate with which it has pleased God to bless me with shall be disposed of after my death while I have strength and capacity so to do make and publish this my last Will and Testament hereby revoking and making null and void all other wills and testaments by me heretofore made and First, I commend my immortal being to him who gave it and my body to the earth to be buried with reasonable expense by my Executors hereinafter mentioned or named, and as to my worldly estate and all the property real, personal and mixed of which I shall die seized and possessed of which I shall be entitled at the time of my decease. I devise, bequeath and dispose thereof in the manner following, viz: My will is that all my just debts and funeral charges shall by my executors hereinafter named shall be paid out of my estate as soon after my death as shall by them be found convenient. I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Elizabeth my mare, buggy and harnace, two cows, one bureau. It is further my will that my wife Elizabeth keep the farm and receive the proceeds thereof for one year after my death, also it is my will that my executors pay her the interest of one thousand dollars yearly and if she should get sick or helpless it is my will that my executors pay her more yearly, sufficient to keep her from suffering for want of necessary sustenance & at the expiration of one year after my death, it is my will that my farm that I now reside on shall be sold with my personal property to the best advantage by my executors and the proceeds thereof be equally divided among my children share and share alike. I do hereby constitute and appoint my sons Conrad and George Ickes sole executors of this my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year first above written.

Witness: T.H. Wright

Joseph Ickes

Codicil

Whereas, I Adam Ickes of Union Township, Bedford county have made my last will and Testament in writing bearing date 26 March A.D. 1864, now I do by this writing which I do hereby declare to be a codicil to my said will. I do hereby order that my will is that my personal property be sold by my executors as soon after my death as convenient, that is what may remain after my wife has taken a certain portion sufficient for her to keep house which am’t is to be left to the judgement of my executors and lastly it is my desire that this my codicil be annexed to and made a part of my last will and testament to all intents and purposes. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal 30 Day of March, 1864."

Adam died in 1870 at the age of 87. He would have had children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren attend his funeral service. Adam and his first wife, Mary, are buried next to each other in the Old Union Cemetery near his mother and father.

Haverstock, Reighard, Imler, & Hann

First off, I know absolutely nothing about Christina Hann and her family. I don't even know if she really belongs in my family tree, but her name kept popping on all the genealogy websites (which isn't unusual) so I decided to go with it. If I ever get a chance to research her and her family I'll edit what I've got here.

Also, I haven't done any research on the Imlers. The Imler family is highly researched and there are so many differing opinions I can't keep it all straight in my head. From what I can tell Maria's grandfather, or father, or both immigrated from Bavaria, Germany in the early 1700s. One of them maybe, or probably, served in the Revolutionary War. They were both named George - at least they were called George. Or maybe it was her father and her brother who were called George. See what I mean? It can make your head spin! I do know that George Imler bought land in Dutch Corner because I've seen the survey. I also know that Maria Imler married John Frederick Reighard in the Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church (discussed in an earlier post), but actually that information came from a book and not an actual historical record so maybe I don't "know" that after all. The Imlers appear to be one of the oldest families in Bedford County and their family is HUGE there even today. They certainly left their mark. If anyone is interested in finding out more about the Imler family, and Marie Esther Imler specifically, good luck! When you make sense of it all, please fill me in.

John Frederick Reighard was born in Germany in 1729. He was an early settler in Bedford County as he shows up in the tax rolls in 1777. He is listed in Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots, Vol. 3, so we know he is a Revolutionary War veteran but we don't have any details. He and Maria had at least 4 children.

The general consensus from the online community is that John and Maria Reighart are buried on the family farm in Dutch Corner. Land is bought and sold quite frequently, and subsequent owners are relunctant (to put it mildly) to let descendants of early homesteaders traipse around looking for headstones. According to a post (from a book, not from first-hand experience) on findagrave.com, the farm cemetery was once called Holderbaum Farm Cemetery but is "now" called Mattas Farm Cemetery. I didn't even attempt to try to locate it.

Tobias Haverstock, wife, and 3 sons emigrated to York County Pennsylvania via New York from Switzerland in 1765. I just realized I have no record of he and his wife, Christina, ever having lived in Bedford County. It looks like they both died in York County. Tax rolls show Tobias to be a distiller; in other words, he made whisky. This wasn't as controversial back then as it was during the Daisy Duke days in the South. Often it was hard to find water that was safe for human consumption, so something distilled was believed to be safer to drink than contaminated water.

Tobias and Christina's son, Conrad, is another Revolutionary War Veteran. He served in the York County Militia and worked his way up to the rank of Lieutenant. He left York County and went to Bedford County sometime after 1783. There he met and married Margaret Reighard. They had 10 children, maybe more. Conrad and Margaret eventually followed at least one of their children to Wayne County Ohio where they are buried.

Conrad was involved in the Whisky Rebellion of 1794 which is a fascinating piece of history. I'll write about it in a subsequent post.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church is located in Dutch Corner. It's in a beautiful valley surrounded by hills and farm land. It's one of the oldest congregations in Bedford County. You can read more about its history here.

Although the original building is long gone, the current building is in the same location where my ancestors went to worship. Here's a few pieces of history I've been able to uncover that show my ancestors' involvement in this church:

In Jan of 1760 Johannes Frederick Reighart and Maria Esther Imler (my 6th g-grandparents) were married there.

On 14 Apr 1812 Adam Ickes (my 4th g-grandfather) was confirmed there.

Recorded in an 1819 Record of Contributions: Adam Ickes $1.50, John Ickes Sr. $1.00, John Wisegarver Sr. $3.00, John Lingenfelter $1.00, [John] Frederick Reighert $3.00.

There were a few cars in the parking lot, so I went in to see if I could get a few questions answered about the Lutheran Church in Pleasantville while Brent captured a few images of the current church building. There were several church ladies there performing various acts of service. They were very kind and extremely helpful. One of them, JoAnn (I think) Hammond, is almost surely related to me through my Hammond ancestors.

The church is located at 741 Messiah Church Road Bedford, PA 15522

It may not be the same structure, but this would be the same scenery my ancestors saw
walking out the front door of the church.

Another view from the front door.

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John Ickes and Maria "Mary" Elizabeth Stambaugh Ickes, 5th great-grandparents

I won't go into too much of John's history prior to coming to Bedford County, but I will mention a few things. He was born in Hanover, York County, Pennsylvania in 1742. When he was 21 yrs. old he married 16 yr. old Magdalene Stambaugh. They had 4 children. Magdalene died sometime in 1772 at the approx. age of 25 . Two years later he married her younger sister, Maria Elizabeth Stambaugh. Elizabeth was 24 yrs. old when they married. According to future land records she went by the name of Mary as well as Elizabeth. John and Mary had 5 children. Mary raised her sister's children as well as her own.

John served in the York County Militia in the Revolutionary War. In 1781 he was listed as a private and it appears he served in the same battalion as his wives' brother, Jacob Stambaugh. In 1785 he was listed as a lieutenant. The war was over in 1783 and upon his release he was entitled to receive veterans benefits in the way of pension and/or bounty-land grants. Lieutenants were entitled to 200 acres of public land. (If you're interested, you can read more about it here.)

Some veterans chose to locate the public land associated with their bounty-land warrants and settle there, but most veterans sold them and simply returned back home. I have no idea what the actual details of John's benefits or his transactions entailed, but I'm fairly certain his veteran's benefits helped to accommodate his move to Bedford County and the acquisition of land there.

John, Mary, and some of their children came to Bedford County around 1792. He would have been about 49 years old. According to early land records, Henry Ickes had purchased land in Bedford County in about 1777 (if I'm reading the record correctly). Other genealogists tie John to an uncle Henry, his father's brother. Whether he's related to Henry or not, I think I can safely assume that John was not the first Ickes in Bedford County, but he was my first direct-line ancestor.

John first purchased land in what was called Dutch Corner, a portion of Bedford and St. Clair Townships bordered by the Evitts Mountains on the north and on the east. It was settled mostly by German immigrants. You can find out more about Dutch Corner at dutchcornerpa.com.

The application and surveys - here and here, for John's first two tracks of land can be found on the PA State Archives website. Unfortunately, the surveys show the size and shape of each parcel of land, but there's no information about the exact location. Bill Bowser of the Dutch Corner History Group put all the surveys together like puzzle pieces and superimposed them onto Google Earth.

Land Application signed at the bottom by John Ickes

With all these resources it wasn't hard to find John and Mary's original Bedford County homestead on a present-day map - provided all the information I had was correct.

One of the neighbors is pretty proud of the neighborhood. At least we knew for sure we were in the right general area.

A family farm on Oppenheimer Road on the way up the hill to John and Mary's old homestead.

We had to wait for a few pheasants to cross the road.

Some of the views were spectacular!

Here it is!

This is as far as we dared take our rental car. We think his land went up pretty close to the ridge.

From my research of even more land records it seems that John and Mary sold this farm and bought another (better) farm in St. Clair Township in Bedford County in 1822. Just a year later he sold the new farm to his son, Adam. I'll discuss more about that on Adam's page. It also appears from census records that John and Mary continued to live with Adam and his family after Adam took charge of the family farm.

John's will speaks of his devout Christianity and belief in the eternities:

"In the name of God amen, I John Ickes of the Township of Bedford and County of Bedford and State of Pennsylvania, considering the uncertainty of this mortal life and being of sound and disposing mind and memory make this my last will and testament first and principally, commend my soul into the hands of Almighty God, hoping for remission of all my sins through the merits of Jesus Christ my blessed Savior redeemer and my body, to the earth to be buried in a Christian like manner, and as for such worldly estate and effects which I shall be possessed of or entitled to at the time of my decease I give and bequeath the same as followeth that is to say, first my will is that all my estate real and personal shall be sold by my Executors and the money ariseing from the sale thereof to be divided amongst my children – 2nd I have though proper to make one exception in this my last will and testament that is my son Adam Ickes shall have the priviledge of taking my plantation that I now live on at nine hundred pounds and if he does, then Jacob Ickes’ portion to be paid one year after my decease John Ickes in two years, Henry Ickes in three years, Elizabeth Ickes in four years, to have her bed and bedding one cow two sheep and one hundred and fifty Dollars besides her equal share with the rest. Phillip Ickes in five years Adam Ickes in six years. Margaret Stambaugh Dec’d her share to be divided between her first husbands children viz: John Amich, George Amich, Jacob Amich, Peter Amich and Elizabeth Eyler. Jacob Amich to have as much as one of his brothers and half as much in seven years. Peter Ickes Dec’d his portion to be divided equally and wife share & share alike in eight years. Susanna Cobler Dec’d her portion to be equally divided amongst her children Polly, Isaac, Adam & Michael Cobler in nine years. Should my son Adam Ickes decline taking my plantation at the price stated then I authorize and empower my Executors to make a good and sufficient Deed of conveyance to the purchaser and my heirs to have their portion at the same time. And lastly I hereby appoint my son Adam Ickes and John McDonnald Executors of this my last will and testament, hereby revoking all former wills by me made.

"In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal the twenty day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty three."

Mary died in August of 1823, 2 months before John wrote this will. 5 1/2 years later John passed away. He was 87 years old. Both John and Mary are buried at Old Union Cemetery in Osterburg, Bedford County, PA. From her research, Aunt Allie wrote that in a 1934 edition of the Bedford Inquirer, a local newspaper, it was reported, "Work was started last Friday to clean up Old Union Cemetery. All the weeds, briars and brush are being removed and the ground leveled. When completed it will be sowed with lawn grass and then kept mowed. In looking over the cemetery, a headstone was found bearing the inscription - John Ickes, born 1742."

Old Union Cemetery is located on the west side of Highway 869 (William Penn Road) just north of Kansas Street. (Not to be confused with Trinity United Church of Christ and its cemetery on the east side of Hwy 869.)

John and Mary Elizabeth's grave markers

There are two unmarked grave markers on either side.
The one on the left is a flat stone at ground level and the one on the right looks like a large rock.
They're probably not their infant children given their ages when they moved to Bedford County,
but they could be infant grandchildren.

Many war veterans are buried in Old Union Cemetery

This memorial was erected 50 years after the cemetery clean-up which was written about in the Bedford Inquirer in 1934.

There was a large bush/tree growing in the back of the cemetery with lots of these pod looking things growing on it.
I thought they were cool.

John Ickes: Husband, Father, Christian, Patriot.

Update: While doing immigration research for a genealogy class I was teaching at a local library, I was searching for evidence of John's father or grandfather's immigration from the Palatine area of Germany/France in the off chance I might actually find something. As expected, I did not find the Ickes immigration, but very unexpectedly I did fine his wives' family's immigration.

Unfortunately, my computer crashed and I lost all of my original research and documentation. But parallel research was done by this family here. (The link probably won't open unless you're logged in to familysearch.org.) From what I remember, it was Magdalena and Elizabeth's father, grandmother and step-grandfather who came to the US from Kuzenhausen France in 1739. Their deceased grandfather was the son of Félix Stambach who had relocated to the Alsace region of France from Moravia (currently the Czech Republic). Félix would have been my 9th great-grandfather.

And here's the really cool part. Félix Stambach's estate in Kuzenhausen France still exists. And it's a living, working museum called La Maison Rurale de l'Outre-Forêt or The Rural House of the Outer Forest. Pics and info can be found here.