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.
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