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- The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009
John Peter Waltman (1741-1817)
John Peter Waltman, known as ?Peter,? was born on May 9, 1741, and died on November 9, 1817, at the age of 76. (This is not the Peter Waltman, 1779-1836, of Allentown, who was the son of Conrad Waltman, Jr. and the father of Joseph Waltmston.) The dates of this Peter?s birth and death are known from his tombstone in the Kreidersville Cemetery, located next to the marker honoring his father, the immigrant Conrad Waltman. As the tombstone indicates, Peter was in the 3d Pennsylvania Battalion, Deter?s Company, during the Revolutionary War. LaMance said he was a sergeant, but the DAR records said he was a private. Although he was enrolled twice, on the first occasion someone served in his place, and the second time he was on ?inactive duty.?[25] Thus, it is not clear that he served at all. Nevertheless, he is one of the four Waltmans included in the DAR Patriot Index. A study of soldiers buried in Northampton County[26] gave this entry for Peter:
Peter Waldman, Private
Born May 9, 1741, Died Nov 7, 1817
Second Class, Seventh Company, Third Battalion
Company Commanded by Captain John Dieter
Northampton County, Militia 1782, 1783
Peter apparently was the fifth of the Waltman children, and his name appears frequently in church and official records, along with that of his brother Valentine. He apparently spent his life in the area near Kreidersville. Tax lists for ownship of Northampton County showed Peter paying taxes from 1763 (when he would have been 22) through 1788. He appeared in 1764 as a communicant at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Petersville, about two miles northeast of Kreidersville, along with Valentine and Catharina Waltman. In 1772, he was one of the contributors to the creation of the union church at Kreidersville. The 1776 tax list showed that he owned 30 acres cleared, 20 acres of woodland, one horse, two cattle and four sheep. From 1779 through 1788, he had 120 acres of land. He was listed in the 1790 census on property that included one male over 16 (presumably himself), one male under 16, and five females.
Peter married Maria Elizabeth Boyer, who had been born on December 25, 1751. According to her tombstone in the Kreidersville Cemetery, she died in 1831, 14 years after Peter died. Tax records show that Peter was single in 1772. Peter andlizabeth were married in 1774, when he was 33 and she was 23, and had their first child in January 1775.[27]
LaMance said that although Conrad himself had married a commoner, he was offended ?when his son married what he considered a peasant?s daughter, a woman who worked in the field and helped to get in the hay.? She said Peter ?was getting to be something of a bachelor when he fell in love with this good-looking girl that could sing and laugh, spin and sew, and was famous for her bread and pies.? But in Conrad?s view, for Peter to marry Maria Elizabeth Boyer was ?quite a different thing? from his own situation. Because of the conflict between his father and his wife, LaMance said Peter could not even bring Conrad to his own home. And LaMance said that, in her pique, Maria Elizabeth prevented Peter from erecting a tombstone to Conrad after the old man died.[28] She added, however, that Peter and Maria Elizabeth made a home for Nicholas Waltman, the youngest child of Peter?s brother Frederick, after Frederick was killed in the war.
No link has been discovered between Peter?s wife, Maria Elizabeth Boyer, and the Boyers of Orwigsburg who moved to Easton in the mid-1800s, one of whom, Lewis Elmer Boyer (1869-1948), joined a Waltman in marriage. LaMance described Mariath?s family as ?fine people, good neighbors, religious almost to fanaticism, upright, honest, capable and industrious. But as firm as the rock of Gibralter itself. They were tall and blonde, some with hair of that rarest of all color, a pure gold. . . . Southern Bavaria is near Switzerland, and these Boyers were good singers. They were adept, like the Swiss, at yodel singing. They were a merry, laughing, witty set, although their high spirits sometimes alternated with the deepest melancholy.? LaMance said she could report these things because she had personally known some of these Boyers (although 150 years later!).
The father of Maria Elizabeth was Henry Beyer, who died in early 1775. A warrant from Thomas and Richard Penn, dated May 4, 1748, had provided Henry with 100 acres of land in Linn Township, in Lehigh County, about 20 miles northwest of A. And in 1769, Henry Silvius, Sr., sold to Henry Beyer 60 acres in Towamensing Township, in Carbon County north of Moore Township. Silvius had acquired that land in 1747 under a warrant by Thomas and Richard Penn. On his death, Henry Beyer left this property to his heirs, including Peter Waltman and his wife Maria Elizabeth.[29] Court records show that on April 14, 1775, the heirs to these two sites sold their rights to a total of 161 acres for 275 pounds for one and 125 pounds for the other. Besides the Waltmans, the heirs of Henry Beyer included Frederick and John Beyer.
Peter Waltman?s will, dated March 25, 1816, was written in German and proved on November 26, 1817, 17 days after he died. It mentioned his wife, Marie Elisabeth, and his children Anna Maria, Elisabeth, Barbara and Magdalena. Executors weons-in-law, Jost Straus and Peter Anewald.
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1741 - 1817 (76 years)
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