Count Conrad Waltman

Other Events and Attributes:

• Immigrant: 1737, Netherlands; Ship: Davy Arrived: Abt 1737 Pennsylvania

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

A Critique of the LaMance Book on the Waltmans

Over the years, there have been numerous criticisms of the LaMance book The House of Waltman and its Allied Families, published in 1928, even though most researchers have begun their study of the family with her work. Future work on thn family might well begin with LaMance's work, but it should be considered that the book contained serious problems. Many of the issues cited here relate to people she described as children of Conrad Waltman. More specific commentary on them is provided in Part II and Part III of this work. Here are a few of the comments, corrections and claims about the LaMance book that have surfaced:

Conrad Waltman, the immigrant (Conrad Sr.), is not the Conrad Waltman mentioned in Pennsylvania Archives as having been in the Revolution. The Conrad Waltman who served in the war was his grandson (call him Conrad, Jr.), 1759-1785. Althou7 women have joined the DAR claiming their family history relates back to Conrad Sr., using LaMance as the source, the DAR has now suspended applications making that claim in the absence of further proof. However, women can join the DAR citing Conrad Jr. as the family ancestor. The plaque in the Kreidersville Cemetery that says Conrad Sr. (1715-1796) fought in the Revolution is not correct and unfortunately has been misleading to researchers. It has not been authorized by the DAR and is not a DAR plaque. Apparently it was supplied by the Veterans Administration on the basis of a flawed claim based in part on the LaMance book.
LaMance did not believe that a person named Conrad Jr. existed, and so he is not mentioned in her book at all, despite clear genealogical evidence to the contrary. Conrad Jr. was a son of Valentine Waltman, a son of Conrad Sr.
Peter Waltman (1779-1836) was a son of Conrad Jr., and not a son of Valentine. Peter had three siblings, all children of Conrad Jr. Both Maria Barbara Waltman, who was born in 1781 and married George Gruber, and her brother Johannes Wal, born in 1783, moved to Lycoming County. At least two researchers were exploring the details of their lives in 2008. A third sibling, Elizabeth Catherine Waltman, born in 1784. apparently also survived to adulthood.
Valentine Waltman probably was born before 1733, not in 1742, and must have come to America with Conrad Sr. in 1738. (Conrad?s twin girls, reportedly born in 1738, apparently were not his first children.) Valentine?s wife was named Catherirucker, not Catherine Bieber. It was his son, Conrad Jr., who married Catherine Bieber.
Apparently, Conrad Sr. did not have a son named Andrew/Andreus, born in 1760, as LaMance said. It appears LaMance confused him with the Andrew Waltman, born in 1765, who was the son of Valentine. There is evidence of only one Andrew of thae in the area at that time, and Katherine Waltman likely was too old to have had a child in either 1760 or 1765. The Andrew Waltman who married Margretta Zerfass and fought in the Revolution appears to have been the son of Valentine. LaMance said that Andrew the son of Valentine went to Sabuta, Mississippi, but it appears that the family member who went to Mississippi was not Andrew but John Waltman, born in 1789, a son of Andrew and Margretta.
The date of birth of Katherine Waltman that is shown on her tombstone, 1708, is probably correct. LaMance said it was wrong and should have been 1718, probably in order to make it more likely Katherine had children over such a long period ome. This may suggest that Conrad Sr. also was born earlier than 1715.
Elizabeth Waltman, daughter of Conrad Sr., who married John Dreisbach and is buried in Kreidersville, was totally omitted from the LaMance book.
These are some of the major errors that appear in LaMance?s book, and there were other small ones, mostly related to her claims regarding the children of Conrad Waltman Sr. Besides these, a major omission is any genealogical evidence of y existence of Conrad Sr. He was shown by LaMance and other researchers arriving in Philadelphia in 1738 and being present at the baptism of only one of his children, Anna Barbara, in 1745. But there is no other evidence of Conrad ? no evidence in tax records, oaths of allegiance, church attendance, baptismal ceremonies, wills, land records, burial, tombstone, or anything other records. LaMance implied Conrad lived in the Kreidersville area, but there is no evidence of it, and finding this evidence seems to be a major challenge for future researchers.

See more details of these genealogical issues in Part II of this paper.

An Interesting Puzzle. A special curiosity regarding LaMance's research is that, although she presented herself as the confident expert on the Waltmans, her 1904 book on some of her other ancestors, The Greene Family and Its Branches, d the Waltmans only very briefly. In this book of 394 pages, only pages 247-250 related to Waltmans and descendants (these pages can be viewed on the pdf version of the link above). Most surprisingly, these pages do not mention Conrad Waltman. Instead, they suggest that the progenitor of the Waltman family, Valentine Waltman of Germany, had a son, also called Valentine, who traveled to America with "Miss Bierly," and among their children was a John Waltman, whose "proud little wife" was "Anna Maria Marguerite (Surface)," and they had a son Valentine Waltman, who married Achsa Wilson. In short, this 1904 account omitted the immigrant Conrad Waltman who was the focus of her 1928 book, suggested that the Valentine Waltman who traveled to America was married to "Miss Bierly" (her second book said that it was the immigrant Conrad who married Katherine Bierly), and indicated that the man who married Margretta Zerfass was not Andrew Waltman but "John" Waltman. Thus, there were major errors in her account of the Waltmans in the 1904 book, exacerbated by her account in the 1928 book.

A question is why her 1904 account of the Waltmans was so erroneous, when she was younger (47), presumably more energetic in genealogical research, and had more recent ties to her mother and other ancestors. Since the 1928 book attributedf the Waltman information to Lora's mother and Lora's great-grandmother, Margretta Zerfass Waltman, why did they not provide her with the correct information as she developed her 1904 book? A possible explanation for this is provided by LaMance's descendant Kathy Johnson:


I think that the bulk of the Greene book was written during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Nelson Nichols (Lora's father) died in Ohio in 1865, and around 1878 Lora and her mother Kezia ended up in Missouri. This was a sparsely populated area, and with the two women in the same house there would be ample opportunity for sharing of family history. [Kezia Waltman Nichols died in 1895.] With the publication of the Greene book in 1904, the death of Lora's husband Marcus in 1906, and the marriage of her only child, there was time to concentrate on the other side of the family. Her travels for the WCTU took her all over this country, providing opportunities for research and writing. I have newspaper clippings from 1912 to 1927, from Miami to Alaska, showing her speaking engagements. I have some of her original papers on "The Southern Watkins Family," which she wrote after her son-in-law joined the family. There are 8 pages and she incorporated some of the information in the Waltman book. I imagine that family history was a lifelong passion as it is for so many.


As indicated earlier in this chapter, a fair amount of what was written by LaMance about the Waltmans was greeted with skepticism. She claimed she got the information from her mother, who got it from her grandmother, but LaMance seems teen very liberal in presenting fact and opinion regarding the immigrant Conrad Waltman and his descendants. She was contested strongly on her view that Conrad had served as a private in the Revolutionary War and on her opinion that there never was a Conrad Waltman Junior. As indicated here, Margaret Wilkins presented evidence to the DAR to try to prove that LaMance?s 1928 book had many errors. More detail on this dispute is presented at the end of the next chapter.

LaMance also received mixed reviews on genealogical work that she presented on other families, including the one on the Greene family. [66] One relating to the LeValley family included this comment on a website:


LaMANCE SPECULATIONS (in her books The Greene Family and Its Branches, and Huguenot Pedigrees, and papers in the R.I. Hist. Soc. Library and Salt Lake City). CAUTION: Lora LaMance did a lot of sloppy guessing. She mixed LeValleys with DeVolneys, Le Vallois, and de la Vals. Any LeValley information traceable to her needs further proof. [67]


Another LeValley researcher published the comment that ?Laura LaMance wrote a lot of speculative balderdash.? [68]

Lora LaMance clearly was not deterred from her genealogical mission by any of the criticism. Her book on the Waltmans remains as the main source of information for many researchers, despite the efforts of others to point out problems. Inn to the notes and ?corrections? supplied by Margaret Wilkins, the copy in the DAR library contains a pasted-in page of Errata from LaMance herself. The page noted that much new material had arrived after the first 13 chapters had been sent to the press. It said that LaMance fell and broke her right shoulder at the age of 71 and had to dictate changes to a stenographer, and some errors, presented in the errata sheet, did not get corrected. The changes, however, did not appear to affect the text relating to Valentine or Peter Waltman or their descendants. Nor was the substance changed by comments that she penciled into her copy of the book after it was published.


The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

The Battle of Fort Washington

There was only one ?Conrad Waltman? in the records of the Revolutionary War, and it is not clear if it was the immigrant Conrad (1715-1796?) or his grandson Conrad (1759-1786). In the Pennsylvania Archives, a muster roll of ?Captaimpany, Northampton County, Flying Camp, 1776,? in the War of the Revolution, [38] showed 43 privates and three officers. ?Conrad Waltman? was one of the privates. It is clear that the company was involved in the infamous Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776, but it is not clear whether Conrad Waltman was then with the company, or which of the two Conrad Waltmans it was.

The senior Conrad Waltman would have been 61 in 1776. Some believe that at this age Conrad was too old for military service, and under the existing rules his service would not have been required. Some who think otherwise argue thatcal that a patriotic man aged 61 could have offered his services to help the Revolution and that, lacking military experience, he probably would have been given only the rank of private. The rule was that all fit men between 16 and 50 were required to join the militia, but the oldest in most of the companies was in his mid-30s. As best can be determined, the privates in Captain Rundio?s company were quite young, many in their teens. Peter Rundio (1738-1817) himself was 38, and his first lieutenant, Robert Brown (1744-1823), was 32.

The ?Flying Camp,? of which Conrad Waltman was a member, was created by the Continental Congress on June 3, 1776, as a mobile reserve to defend the ground between New York and Philadelphia. Flying Camp members differed from the rea by expressly accepting service outside of their home states under the command of Continental general officers. The Flying Camp militia members from Pennsylvania were enlisted only through December 31, 1776, and if they had not been captured or killed, it is likely that those in Captain Rundio?s company did not serve beyond that date. The Pennsylvania members were especially active in serving as a reserve for General Washington in protecting New Jersey for his Army, but they also served in the battles of New York, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. [39]

It was not until September 10, 1776, that the Standing Committee for the militia for Northampton County met at Easton to make major decisions regarding the company. The minutes [40] reported that Peter Rundio was appointed captain if John Hays, ?who declines going into service on account of the present troubles in his family having lately lost his Daughter, as by Colo. Dreisbach?s Letter to this Committee appears.? Robert Brown was appointed first lieutenant to Captain Rundio, Andrew Boyd (who did not appear in the later muster roll) was appointed second lieutenant, and John McDowell, Junior, was appointed ensign.

A history of Northampton County, published in 1877, said that the county was assigned a quota of 346 men for the militia, [41] and that Captain Rundio?s company of Flying Camp volunteers fought in the battles of Long Island and Fort n 1776. (The Long Island battle actually occurred in August, before Rundio became captain.) The big event at Fort Washington, on the northern tip of Manhattan Island, was described by historians as perhaps the biggest disaster of the war, and it seems clear that Rundio?s company was there. It took place on November 16, 1776.

What happened with the Flying Camp on that highly troubled day at Mount Washington is not recorded. In the confusion of the surrender of 3,000 men, it is highly likely that various military units were merged and intermingled as the ught to defend Fort Washington and then surrendered, and it is likely that unit affiliation was lost, or at least confused. One history said that Rundio?s company ?was in the battle of Long Island, and after the evacuation of New York was left in Fort Washington on the Hudson River under Col. Magaw of Chester County. On the 15th of November, Sir William Howe invested the fort and demanded an immediate surrender and after a day of hard fighting, Col. Magaw surrendered his 2,000 men to Howe . . . . Rundio?s men were imprisoned in a church and left for days without food; many died, etc.? [42]

What appears to be an official account of the battle was printed in the 1877 history of Northampton County:


November 15th, 1776. General Howe sent a flag demanding a surrender of Fort Washington, or all to be put to the sword ? an answer to be returned in two hours. Colonel McGaw, commanding on the Island, having called the Field Officers together, a Council was held, and it was unanimously agreed to return for answer that we were determined to hold the Fort to the last extremity, and to rely on General Howe?s usual clemency in being put to the sword.

November 16th. An attack having began early in the morning, continued until about 3 o?clock in the afternoon, whom the Hessians, being in possession of the hill on the north, the British, Scotch, and Hessians on the east and south, General Howe sent a second flag, with the following summons.

The Commander-in-Chief demands an immediate and categorical answer to his second summons of Fort Washington. The garrison must immediately surrender prisoners of war, and give up all their arms, ammunitions, and stores, of every kd two Field officers to these quarters, as hostages. In so doing, the General is pleased to allow the garrison to keep possession of their baggage, and the officers to have their swords.


Agreed to: J. Patterson, Adjutant General; Robert McGaw, Colonel of the Fifth Pennsylvania Battalion, Commanding at Fort Washington. [43]


William Paul Deary, a scholar of the military at that time, [44] provided a similar version of what occurred that day. He wrote that in early November 1776, it was clear that the British, having taken lower Manhattan, were going tete the capture of the island, then known as York Island. They would then advance into New Jersey from the northern tip of the island, near Mount Washington. On November 12, American reinforcements were sent forward from Fort Lee, across the river in New Jersey, including 840 from the Pennsylvania Flying Camp. The effect was to increase the Mount Washington garrison by half, to a little over 3,000 men by the morning of November 16. The British and Hessians were coming in superior numbers, about four to one, but General Washington and his colleagues, meeting on boats in the middle of the Hudson River on the night of November 15, decided to hold their positions and not withdraw their troops. By the morning of November 16, the garrison on Mount Washington, led by Colonel Robert Magaw, consisted of about 1,300 continental regulars, 1,100 from the Pennsylvania Flying Camp militia, and about 600 state troops from Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The Flying Camp group included full regiments led by officers Baxter and Swope, and it appears that the Baxter contingent included Captain Rundio?s company.

By 1 p.m. on November 16, Deary wrote, after five British attacks on Mount Washington on three fronts, nearly all of Magaw?s garrison had been driven into Fort Washington itself or its perimeter. Surrender talks began before 2 pt 3 p.m., and at 4 p.m. the garrison marched out and laid down its arms. In the fighting, only 54 Americans had been killed and 100 wounded. British General Howe later reported that 2,837 prisoners were taken, of whom 230 were officers. General Washington and three other generals actually had been on York Island in the morning, but they left in time to avoid becoming casualties themselves.

Deary wrote that the name ?Battle of Fort Washington? is ?misleading, since the small earthwork pentagon that overlooked the Hudson River atop Mount Washington served no purpose except to provide temporary and illusory shelter for thefenders.? He said the battle was ?commonly regarded as the worst defeat for American arms during the eight-year war for independence.? [44] The British moved on. If the Mount Washington garrison had been evacuated in advance, the three thousand men there would have been able to join Washington?s army in New Jersey. Deary said that ?Generals George Washington and Nathanael Greene have long been regarded as the American parties most responsible for the debacle on upper York Island.? However, the battle never received the attention it deserved because the Americans recouped with victories at Trenton on December 26 and Princeton on January 2, and Fort Washington was largely overlooked by historians.

The British apparently were ill-prepared to house and feed the 3,000 prisoners they took at Fort Washington. Many were marched to lower Manhattan where they were incarcerated aboard the infamous prison ships, in churches, in a n one or more sugar warehouses. Both the churches and the prison ships were reported to be horrible places, lacking in food and water. Many prisoners died, and others became very ill. Deary quoted one historian as saying that when an exchange of some of the prisoners occurred on May 6, 1778, ?of the three thousand who were captured at Fort Washington, but eight hundred were reported as still living.? [45]

However, other accounts indicate that a number of the soldiers were paroled. Deary said that most of the officers taken in battle, if not seriously ill or gravely wounded when captured, were put under loose house arrest, at first inty and later on western Long Island, and most survived until they were paroled or exchanged. There is much information about the battle on the internet. For a sampling, search on "Battle of Fort Washington."

What Happened to Rundio?s Company? The details of what happened to Captain Rundio?s company ? and to Conrad Waltman ? are not known. The muster role of the company listed Rundio as captain, Robert Brown as First Lieutenant, John McDign, and 43 privates, including Conrad Waltman. Altogether, they were 46. Lieutenant Brown was definitely one of those captured, which suggests that the entire company was at risk. Mrs. William Brown, of Bethlehem, a daughter-in-law of Lieutenant Brown, provided the author of the 1877 history of Northampton County with a framed certificate in which Brown and his colleagues, writing from the prison ship Judith, pledged to British General Clinton that if released they would not challenge the British authorities. This was understood to permit Brown and others to be paroled. The date of the document is December 10, 1777, which indicates that the group had been imprisoned for more than a year. [46] Brown?s text is as follows, misspellings from the original:


We wose names are hereunder written do pledge our faith & Honour to Genl. Clinton that wee will not depart from ye house wee are plaised in by the Commisary of Prisoners; nor go beyond the Bounds Prescribed by him, and farther that wee will not do or say anything Contrary to the Interest of his Majesty or his Government. [47]

Robert Brown

On Board of ye ship Judith, Decem?r 10, 1777.


It is not clear how many men were covered by this document, or who they were. The certificate held by Mrs. Brown did not show the names that Lieutenant Brown said were ?hereunder written.? Nor is it clear if the men had to remain ip or could walk about freely. An applicant to the DAR in 1918 wrote that Lieutenant Brown had been able to pursue his previous trade as a blacksmith and thus was able to earn money to provide food and other necessities for his men. A profile of Robert Brown, who was later promoted to general, written for the 1877 Northampton County book, described the event this way: Brown had been captured at the surrender of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. He and his companions had fought for 48 hours without food or water, and when their ammunition was gone, they surrendered. Along with 2,000 others, they were held in a church in New York, where two or three hundred died. Although he was let out on parole, Brown was not released until January 25, 1781 ? more than four years after the battle -- when he returned to Northampton County. [48] Later he was a prominent citizen, elected to the Fifth United States Congress from Northampton County and reelected seven times, serving from 1798 to 1815.

Another account of the prison ship Judith is provided in the story of a famed French volunteer named Dubouchet, who was put aboard the Judith a year later, in October 1777, but apparently during the time that Lieutenant Brown was on


In New York he was consigned to the prison ship Judith, a floating hell, stinking, swarming with vermin, ridden with dysentery, scurvy, the itch. It was very cold weather, and many had their feet frozen. The five hundred prisoners were released from the ?foul cloaca? of the hold at fixed hours, to breathe. ?Even the air was measured out to us.? The prisoners could hardly hope to survive more than a few months. At the daily distributions of loathsome food, feeble struggles took place. ?Woe to him who was too weak to drag himself to the food-issue! He was counted as dead.?

Dubouchet subsisted for twenty-four hours on a piece of bacon and a little oatmeal flour, which he cooked on a shovel. Many committed suicide. When one desperate man jumped overboard the British captain shouted: ?Let him alone! He insists on dying; you must not use force on anyone!? [49]


There is no way to determine if Conrad Waltman was among the group captured with Lieutenant Brown. Nor is there a way to determine if all of the 46 soldiers on the muster roll were actually present at the battle. It is possible thaas taken at some earlier time as simply a general account of those who were once part of Captain Rundio?s company. It does not appear to be a post-battle ?return.?

What Happened to the Men in Captain Rundio?s company? There are two sources of information. One is the Pennsylvania Archives listing, which indicated that nine of the 43 privates died shortly after their capture, between December d January 14, 1777. Their names on the muster roll of Rundio?s company are followed by ?d. [date].? For example, the listing for one of the nine reads ?Jacob Moritz, d. Dec. 28, 1776.?

The second source is an apparently official document, forwarded to the editor of the 1877 Northampton County history. This is in two parts. The first is a list of Captain Rundio?s Company which is virtually identical with the list os in Pennsylvania Archives, except that the order of names and some of the spellings vary, suggesting the second list may have come from a different source. The other part is headed ?A list of those that died in their imprisonment in New York, 1776.? This list includes ten men, not nine, adding John Dull, who died on January 4, 1777. This full list is as follows:


December, 1776

John Christian, December 25th; Jacob Moritz, 28th; John Diffenderfer, 29th; Benjamin Swartwood, 3d of January, 1777; Ned Lafferty, 4th do [ditto]; John Dull, 4th do; Pharo McGee, 9th do., Jacob Warner, 9th do.; John Handelong, 11th dimer, 14th do.

(Signed) John McDoawl, Ensign, 30th

Endorsed: A list of Captain Rundio?s Company, by Andrew Boyd


The signing of the list is curious. Ensign McDowell seems to have signed it on December 30, 1776, which would have been the day before the term of service for the Flying Camp expired, but the deaths covered by the list continue up t. Andrew Boyd, who ?endorsed? the list, was the man appointed Second Lieutentant in Captain Rundio?s Company at the meeting of the Standing Committee in Easton on September 10, 1776, but his name did not appear on either list of Rundio?s company.

If these lists are correctly interpreted, within eight weeks of the fall of Fort Washington, nine or ten of the 46 men in Rundio?s company had died ? nearly 25 per cent! ? apparently either from wounds of the battle or from illness oment.

However, there is evidence that some of these suggestions of deaths in the Pennsylvania Archives were not correct. At least three of the ten who were reported to have died were still living in the 1800s.


* Isaac Shimer, a private, is listed in the Archives as ?promoted to Lieut. of Capt. Arndt?s Company; d. Jan. 14, 1777.? The well-regarded register of officers in the war, by Francis Heitman, [50] apparently agreed with this conclusion of ey death. It gave this entry for Shimer: ?Isaac Shimer (PA), 3d Lt of Baxter?s PA Battalion of the Flying Camp, 9th July 1776; wounded and taken prisoner at Fort Washington, 16th Nov, 1776 and died shortly afterward.? However, a website of the Shimer family said that after the war, Isaac Shimer became a justice of the peace in Williams Township, Northampton County, and that he lived from 1749 to 1838. This suggests he was 27 when the war began and that the reports of his death in early 1777 were exaggerated. [51]

* Jacob Warner, a private, listed in the Archives as having died on January 9, 1777, is shown in the DAR Patriot files as having died in Nazareth in 1820, at the age of 78. He had been born in 1741, and was thus 35 when the war began. [52]

* John Dull, a private, is recorded, as noted above, as having died on January 4, 1777. However, the on-line card file of the Pennsylvania State Archives shows that he was still alive in 1781, when he did another tour of military duty. Conutors to the OneWorldTree program of Ancestry.com said he was born in 1753 and died in 1835, not in 1777. He would have been 23 when the war began. There are 37 members of the DAR who trace their lineage to John Dull, far more than those who claimed Conrad Waltman as a patriot ancestor.

Regarding the officers:

* Colonel Magaw, who was in charge of the entire garrison at Fort Washington, was captured and paroled. Apparently, the conditions were not severe for him. He was a bachelor, and he had time and opportunity to court and marry his future , Marieta van Brundt, the teenage daughter of a prominent Kings County resident. [53]

* Colonel Baxter, who supposedly had charge of Rundio?s company at Fort Washington, was reported by Heitman to have been killed in the battle on November 16, 1776.

* Lieutenant Brown, as noted above, was not released for four years.

* Ensign McDowell, who signed the list of the deceased quoted above, apparently was promoted after being appointed to Captain Rundio?s company. Heitman identified him as captain of Montgomery?s battalion of the Flying Camp, July to December6, and Lieutenant Colonel in the Pennsylvania Militia, 1777-78. It appears he was not captured.

* Captain Rundio was back at home taking the oath of allegiance in Northampton County on August 8, 1777, nine months after the surrender of Fort Washington, which suggests he was not taken prisoner and perhaps did not even participate in thetle. Peter Rundio apparently got the job by default, as noted above, when at age 38, he was appointed captain as a replacement for John Hays. Four years after coming home to take the oath, in 1781, Rundio was recorded as a member of the Northampton County militia, not as a captain but as a drummer, suggesting that leading men into battle was not his forte.


Was Conrad Waltman Involved? No one is known to have claimed that Conrad Waltman was taken prisoner, but if he was present, he may well have been captured, given the reports of the events of November 16. However, one can speculate, if he was captured, may have escaped or been released before Lieutenant Brown was released. If it was the elder Conrad who was involved, it is possible that he was simply enrolled in the battalion and then sent home because of his mental disability, as LaMance claimed, without having participated in any battles. If Conrad Junior was the man mentioned in the Pennsylvania Archives, it is clear that he was back in Northampton County shortly after the battle, at least by the time his son Peter was conceived in May of 1778, six months later, and by the time he was married on September 15, 1778.

Indication that the soldiers in the Flying Camp may have been younger (and therefore that this was the younger Conrad) comes from the testimony of a Frederick Nagel, of Allen Township, who was only 15 in 1776. [54] Although his namepear with Captain Rundio?s company, Nagle clearly came from the same area as the other recruits. Nagle testified in court in 1837, 61 years later, in quest of a pension relating to his service. He said that at that time he came from Allen Township, that in June 1776 he had become a volunteer in the Flying Camp, enlisting in Lehigh Township under Jost Dreisbach. He had marched into Moore Township and joined the company commanded by Captain Nicholas Kern. They in turn joined with other companies in Easton, under the command of Colonel Peter Kichline, and then went to New York.

On August 26, Nagle said, his group joined still other forces and went to Long Island in boats. The next morning, the battle commenced, he said, and the British came so hard that the colonel ordered a retreat. Nagle said he was ta, along with about 700 others, and they were kept in churches and fed on only green apples. About the first of October 1776, they were put on a British ship, the Julianna, and at the end of October, they were offered a release if they would swear that they would not take arms again, but Nagle and several others refused. They were then taken to Halifax, where they remained for more than two years. He was discharged after being released and reaching Windsor. The story of this Flying Camp battalion is similar to that of Captain Rundio?s company, but the event that Nagle described was earlier, on August 26, and the one attributed to Lieutenant Brown was on November 16, 1776. The ship names also differed, although they were similar: Julianna for Nagle in August, and Judith for Brown in November.

Much attention has been given to the prison ships used by the British in the War. One article claimed that ?more Americans died in British prison ships in New York Harbor than in all of the battles of the Revolutionary War. . . . Thholes of filth, vermin, infectious disease and despair. The ships were uniformly wretched . . . .?

Which "Conrad Waltman" was in the Flying Camp?

LaMance was clear she thought it was Conrad Senior who was in the war. She wrote that at that time Conrad?s brain was troubled because of his family difficulties, and that melancholia gripped him. [56] However, she said, ?old as hey, 1776, when he was 61, he joined the Flying Squadron to repulse the British in New Jersey and Long Island. . . . But it was soon evident that there were too many ?wheels? in his head for a soldier, so he was dismissed and sent home.? She concluded that ?the old Count not only joined the army himself, but all eight of his sons served in the Revolutionary War, three sons-in-law, and sixteen grandsons. We doubt if there is another American family that has a record that equals it.? While there may be doubt about Conrad, it appears to be correct that, at least, eight people, possibly all sons of Conrad, served in the military during the war.

In 1926, when LaMance applied for DAR membership on the basis of the patriot status of ?Baron Conrad Waltman,? she justified it by citing the Pennsylvania Archives record. Her application said there were ?27 soldiers from this one frved in the Revolutionary War, a record without equal in the War.?

It was undoubtedly because of LaMance?s claims that ?Ripley?s Believe It or Not,? a popular newspaper cartoon of the mid-1900s, carried a sketch of Conrad Waltman on February 13, 1941. [57] The cartoon, printed in hundreds of newss the country, said this:

Family descendants who accepted these conclusions placed in the Zion Church Cemetery in Kreidersville, about 1986, a metal marker honoring the senior Conrad Waltman (1715-1796). Immediately next to the marker for Conrad is a German-language tobstone and an English-language metal marker for ?Peter Waldmann.? This is the John Peter Waltman, known as ?Peter,? who was a son of Conrad Senior. Conrad would have been 26 when Peter was born. The markers for Conrad and Peter are about 20 yards beyond the southeast corner of the church, and in 2007 each had a bronze marker and an American flag.

Conrad was believed by LaMance and others to have been buried in the same churchyard, but no grave has been located. However, LaMance also said that Conrad?s son John Peter was the one who established the tombstone for his mother but he did not do so for his father because of the grudge between his wife and Conrad, who never accepted the common low status of Peter?s wife. [58] This seems odd, since LaMance also said that Conrad died at the home of Andrew Waltman, who she argued was also a son of Conrad, and if that were true (apparently it is not),one might think that Andrew would have been the one to erect a stone to his father. Family researcher William Fiedler [59] said he understood that Conrad was buried in a pauper?s grave toward the back of the Kreidersville cemetery, but there is no written evidence for this. An expert on the cemetery said that, if Conrad?s name had been found among the stones or records, it would appear in the church record of burials, but it does not. (The ?Burial Record? published by the church said that the committee that compiled the list of burials found 478 ?unknowns.? They were graves with sandstone markers bearing no inscription. Later, when the graveyard was improved, these stones were removed.)

In any event, the marker that honors Conrad is simply a memorial of honor and not a tombstone or a place of burial. Genealogists with the Daughters of the American Revolution said that a study of the men and women buried in the cee Zion Church in Kreidersville, first copied in 1937 and then revised in 1943, did not mention a Conrad Waltman. The same is true of the church?s own list of burials, compiled in 1940.

Although some observers believed that the plaques honoring Conrad and John Peter were placed there by DAR staff, one of the people responsible for installing them, William Fiedler, [60] said that the plaques were requested of the Fedent through the military affairs office of Northampton County. Fiedler and others presented documentation to certify the participation of Conrad Waltman in the Revolution, and the county forwarded this to Washington and obtained the plaques. DAR staff said that, since about 1985, the DAR has required verification of information placed on its cemetery markers. The plaque in honor of Conrad had not been verified with the DAR, and the DAR said it would not verify it in 2006 without further proof of Conrad?s service. In any event, the marker is not a DAR plaque.

It is understood that the documentation submitted to the Northampton County office to justify issuance of the bronze plaque consisted, in part, of submission of the Pennsylvania Archives listing of a ?Conrad Waltman? as a private in lso submitted was a copy of a letter of May 4, 1928, from the Archivist of the Pennsylvania State Library and Museum, certifying that the name of ?Conrad Waltman appears as a Private on a Muster Roll of Captain Rundio?s (Rundis) Company of Northampton County Militia, Flying Camp, 1776, in the War of the Revolution,? and citing the pages in Pennsylvania Archives where the name appeared. [61] Although those who believe this letter certified that Conrad Senior was the one who was in the War, in fact the letter said only that a person by the name of Conrad Waltman was on the roll, and thus it left open to interpretation which of the two Conrads was the one on that list.

Also noteworthy is a large plaque placed in front of the Zion Church in 1931 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell Chapter of the DAR. [62] It says: ?This tablet is in commemoration of the services of Revolutionarrs buried in Zion?s Stone Church Cemetery, Kreidersville, PA. This marker is dedicated in grateful recognition of their patriotism, valor and fidelity.? The tablet contains 60 names, one of which is ?Peter Waldman, May 9, 1741 ? Nov. 9, 1817.? This is the only Waldman/Waltman on the plaque. There is no Conrad, which suggests either that the compilers of the list did not believe Conrad served in the War or that he is not buried in that cemetery, or both.

Another consideration is the genealogical study of the Bieber/Beaver family, which attributed the military service mentioned in Pennsylvania Archives to the younger Conrad Waltman (1759-1785) but said (incorrectly) that the youngs a son of the immigrant Conrad. The 1939 book, on page 651, in a list of the children of Michael Bieber (1740-1832), said this:


Catherine Bieber, born October 29, 1761. She was confirmed ?Jubilate, 1776? (viz., Lutheran record, Zion?s (Stone) church, Kreidersville, Pa.) m. Sept. 15, 1778, to Conrad Waltman, Jr., b. Feb. 7, 1759, d. Dec. 3, 1785 (viz., Christ church record, Shoenersville, Pa.) Conrad Waltman, Jr., was a son of the Immigrant Conrad Waltman. Conrad Waltman resided in a portion of Northampton Co. designated ?Trockenland,? i.e., dry land, so called because in dry spells it was exceedingly felt, even causing earth to crack. The exact spot is not known to me, but was around Shoenersville or Catasaqua region. [63]

Conrad, Jr., was a Revolutionary War soldier, viz., Penna. Archives, Fifth Series, Vol. III, p. 537, and Vol. XXIII, p. 455. Issue 2 sons and 2 daughters.

Applications to the DAR

The genealogist Margaret Wilkins first applied for membership in the DAR in 1943 based on the assumption that she was descended from Conrad Senior and that he had been a private in the Revolutionary War. She then said her line ran fown through his son Valentine, and Valentine?s son Peter. However, she wrote to the DAR on October 10, 1950, to provide a page of corrections to the LaMance account. Peter was the son of Conrad Junior, she said, and not the son of Valentine. Conrad Junior, according to Wilkins? changed DAR application, was the son of Conrad Senior, and Valentine was not included in her line. (Dorothy Waltman Ware?s application to the DAR in 1978 said the same thing.)

Further, Wilkins wrote in 1950, it was wrong for LaMance to say that ?the old Count not only joined the army himself,? since it was Conrad Junior who had been mentioned in the Pennsylvania Archives and not Conrad Senior. Wilkins? pations was pasted inside the copy of the LaMance book in the DAR library in Washington ? possibly by Wilkins herself ? and it was still there in 2006. The page was also included in the library?s Conrad Waltman patriot file.

Byron Waltman wrote in 1962 that the LaMance claim that Conrad Senior was a member of Washington?s army at the age of 61 had been recorded in the DAR as an error, the name being confused with that of Conrad Junior. The 2003 edition atriot Index included four Waltmans who had been designated as ?patriots? ? Andrew, Conrad Junior, Michael and Peter -- but did not include Conrad Senior. [64]

The record on Conrad Waltman Senior at the DAR Library in 2006 said, in one computer file, ?Patriot Deleted.? A newly established computer file on Conrad Senior was then marked ?FAMPCS? ? Future Applicants Must Prove Correct Services meant was that, although, as of March 2006, the DAR had approved the membership of 17 individuals who based their applications on the presumed participation of Conrad Waltman Senior in the Revolutionary War, it would accept no more unless it was proven that Conrad Senior actually had participated in the War. [65] Nine of these 17 members (including LaMance) had traced their lineage through Andrew Waltman (believing him, apparently erroneously, to be a son of Conrad) , four through his daughter Margaret, one through his son John Peter, one through his son Hiram Michael, and two through his ?son? Conrad Junior (Wilkins and Ware), although it appears that Conrad was not the son of Conrad Senior either.

Following the interaction with Margaret Wilkins, the DAR decided to accept applications based on the participation of Conrad Junior in the war, accepting the view that the Pennsylvania Archives was referring to Conrad Junior and not nior. In 2006, there were four DAR members who had based their applications on the patriot status of Conrad Junior, including Margaret Wilkins (after she revised her application) and Dorothy Ware (both through Joseph Waltman, son of Peter Waltman), genealogist Irene Diehl Konrad, of Florida (through Mary Waltman Meyer, a daughter of Peter), and Pamelia Trupiano Bennett Carter, of Michigan (through Rebecca Waltman Hinckle, another daughter of Peter).

The evidence may be considered inconclusive regarding Conrad Senior?s service in the War, but it would appear very difficult for future DAR applicants to prove that he was in fact the private listed in the Pennsylvania Archives. Thegainst Conrad Senior having been in the War are these:


-- the belief that he was too old at 61 to have joined (even though it has been shown that some men aged 60 and older were involved in the War);

-- the belief that, between two men with the same name, it was more likely that the other Conrad Waltman, then 17, was the actual participant. (Evidence of the participation of 15-year-old Frederick Nagle, above, strengthens this the youthful age of several other members of Capt. Rundio?s company. If the older Conrad had been born in 1705, as argued by those who believe his wife was born in 1708, as written on her tombstone, then he would have been 71 in 1776, clearly beyond military age.)

-- the Beaver genealogy, which clearly says Conrad Junior was the private in the War;

-- the concurrence of later genealogists in these viewpoints;

-- the absence of research findings demonstrating the presence of Conrad Waltman Senior in normal genealogical records;

-- the lack of solid verification for the Kreidersville Cemetery marker asserting that Conrad Senior was the ?Conrad Waltman? who was a private in the War;

-- the decision of the DAR staff to delete Conrad Senior as a ?patriot? and to require further proof before revising that view; and

-- the DAR decision, after considerable research, to allow applicants to base their lineage instead on the military service of Conrad Junior.



DAR officials concede that they are not omnipotent and that the information in a DAR file is not necessarily dispositive of the military status of a presumed patriot. Despite this caveat, it must be said that most of the DAR recordluable in examining the information developed by others in their genealogical research and in providing clues for further examination. The DAR staff clearly has become stricter as time proceeds in regard to the degree of proof it requires. All of the genealogical issues are open to further debate and proof, but it would not be easy to prove a different result for Conrad Senior.


The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

The Genealogical Problems

Genealogists have focused on several major issues relating to the Waltman family:


* First is the question of whether the ?Conrad Waltman? who is recorded as serving as a private in the Revolutionary War was the immigrant Conrad Waltman (1715-1796) or a later Conrad Waltman (1759-1785).



* Second is whether the younger Conrad Waltman (referred to here as Conrad Junior) was a son of the first one. Some believe he was. Some believe he was a son of Valentine Waltman, who was a child of the first Conrad Waltman (Conranior), and that therefore Conrad Junior was a grandson of the first Conrad. LaMance believed the second Conrad Waltman did not exist at all.



* Third is the question of when Valentine Waltman was born, and where. LaMance said he was born in 1742 in America, but genealogist Hannah Roach thought he must have been born before 1733, although this is before the immigrant Conraltman traveled to America in 1738.



* Fourth is whether Peter Waltman (1779-1836) was the son of Valentine Waltman or of Conrad Waltman, Junior.


As will be indicated below, the answers appear to be these:

Conrad Waltman Junior (1759-1785) definitely existed.

Peter Waltman (1779-1836) definitely was the son of Conrad Waltman Junior.

Conrad Waltman Junior probably was the son of Valentine Waltman.

Conrad Waltman Junior (1759-1785) most likely was the ?Conrad Waltman? who was in the Revolutionary Army, and not Conrad Waltman Senior (1715-1796).

Valentine Waltman?s birthdate and birthplace remain a mystery, although he clearly lived in the Schoenersville area, north of Allentown, southeast of Kreidersville.

The whereabouts of Conrad Waltman Senior (1715-1796) during his lifetime remain a mystery. LaMance is the only person to claim evidence of his life, and all of that seems to be hearsay.

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

The Genealogical Problems

Genealogists have focused on several major issues relating to the Waltman family:

First is the question of whether the ?Conrad Waltman? who is recorded as serving as a private in the Revolutionary War was the immigrant Conrad Waltman (1715-1796) or a later Conrad Waltman (1759-1785).

Second is whether the younger Conrad Waltman (referred to here as Conrad Junior) was a son of the first one. Some believe he was. Some believe he was a son of Valentine Waltman, who was a child of the first Conrad Waltman (Conranior), and that therefore Conrad Junior was a grandson of the first Conrad. LaMance believed the second Conrad Waltman did not exist at all.

Third is the question of when Valentine Waltman was born, and where. LaMance said he was born in 1742 in America, but genealogist Hannah Roach thought he must have been born before 1733, although this is before the immigrant Conraltman traveled to America in 1738.

Fourth is whether Peter Waltman (1779-1836) was the son of Valentine Waltman or of Conrad Waltman, Junior.

As will be indicated below, the answers appear to be these:

Conrad Waltman Junior (1759-1785) definitely existed.

Peter Waltman (1779-1836) definitely was the son of Conrad Waltman Junior.

Conrad Waltman Junior probably was the son of Valentine Waltman.

Conrad Waltman Junior (1759-1785) most likely was the ?Conrad Waltman? who was in the Revolutionary Army, and not Conrad Waltman Senior (1715-1796).

Valentine Waltman?s birthdate and birthplace remain a mystery, although he clearly lived in the Schoenersville area, north of Allentown, southeast of Kreidersville.

The whereabouts of Conrad Waltman Senior (1715-1796) during his lifetime remain a mystery. LaMance is the only person to claim evidence of his life, and all of that seems to be hearsay.

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Conrad in America
LaMance contended that Conrad's parents were heartbroken that their son would not return to Bavaria, and several times they sent him small kegs of gold to pay his transportation home. (It is not clear how LaMance knew these details,s no supporting documentation and only her claim that this information was passed down through her family, in particular her mother?s recollections of conversations with her grandmother.) [28] For four years, LaMance said, Conrad flatly refused to leave his commoner wife to return home, and his father Valentine then urged him to bring back the entire family. While they could not be presented to the court or to society, they would be made welcome at home. According to the recollections of LaMance's family, Conrad concluded that he would be humiliated if his family was ignored by the nobility when he returned. But in a spirit of reconciliation with his father, he named his most recent child, born in 1742, Valentine Waltman, after Conrad's own father. (Valentine?s birthdate is in dispute, as will be detailed in the next chapter. Some believe he was born about 1732 and came to America with his parents in 1738. Also, it is possible that Conrad's daughter Eleanor was born in Europe about 1730, and she may also have traveled to America with her parents. These possibilities raise doubts about LaMance's stories of Conrad's flight to America.)

LaMance indicated that Conrad traveled frequently to Philadelphia, basically for the purpose of gambling, but she was unclear about the location of his home. She never actually said the homestead was located in Kreidersville, but r that from her book. Kreidersville is in Allen Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, on the border with Lehigh Township. [29] The little village is south of what at one time was Route 45. By 2006, it had been renamed Route 248. The town is about one mile east of the Lehigh River and the border with Lehigh County, about two miles north of the town of Northampton, ten miles north of Allentown, about four miles west of Bath. LaMance said that Conrad?s new home ?was a large but plain log house in a frontier land, with what he considered peasants for neighbors, and occasional Indian visitors dropping in upon him.? It is clear that family members lived near Kreidersville, for they attended Zion (Stone) Church in Kreidersville and the Emmanuelsville church only two miles away. The website of the Dreisbach Family Association at one time contained an interesting history of Zion Stone Church in Kreidersville, with photographs, but the link does not always work. See also this site. (One of Conrad Waltman's daughters, Elizabeth, married a Dreisbach.)

Various records also suggest that the family stayed in different communities, including at least one in Bucks County, possibly before reaching the Kreidersville area, as they journeyed north from Philadelphia, their port of entry, orary basis after reaching the Kreidersville area. There is evidence that they lived in Bucks County in the area around Bedminster, east of Quakertown, during the period 1745-1760. This comes from the baptism record of their daughter Anna Barbara in 1745, the marriage of their daughter Elizabeth in 1758, and the baptism of two sons of Elizabeth in 1759 and 1760. Their son Valentine reportedly married Catherine Br

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

The Story of the Davy
The LaMance story is that, like many of his Frundsberg ancestors, Conrad fell in love with a commoner, Katherine Bierly, born in 1718 in Bavaria. LaMance said their marriage would have been illegal in Germany, due to the rule of ebr equal birth. ?Royalty could not marry nobility, and nobility could not marry commoners. The Bierlys were commoners.? [17] Both Katherine?s parents, who were very religious, and Conrad?s parents strongly opposed a marriage.

Frustrated by this opposition, in 1738, when she was 20, Katherine and a maid fled to Holland. (Five of her siblings had already sailed to America.) Conrad met Katherine there shortly afterward, and they were married, according to fusing the urgent pleas of his parents to return to Bavaria, LaMance wrote, Conrad took Katherine to Amsterdam, and in July of 1738 they sailed aboard the vessel Davy, commanded by William Patton. [18] On the 25th of October, 1738, they arrived in Philadelphia, and in time traveled northward to the eastern portion of Pennsylvania near what today is Allentown. [19] Conrad signed the list of passengers with an ?X? (his mark). [20] LaMance wrote that, after their arrival in America, ?now Katherine was a legal wife. None too soon, for late in the year she gave birth to twins.? The twins, Katherine and Margaret, were born on Christmas Day, 1738.

The year 1738, when Conrad Waltman sailed, has been reported as a devastating year for trans-Atlantic travel. Large numbers of Germans, especially from the Palatine, converged on Holland anticipating ship transportation to America. ept in holding areas for long periods of time, and many became ill before being sent on to England. Often they were transferred to other ships for the passage across the Atlantic. A newsletter entitled Beyond Germanna [21] has provided some of the ?horror stories of sufferings and death? aboard these ships.
There had been a steady increase in the number of Germans sailing for Philadelphia ? 268 in 1735, 736 in 1736, and 1,528 in 1737, according to a report in this newsletter. Despite this, shippers were not ready for the massive numbs who sought to sail in 1738. The report said that the first wave of Palatines in 1738 reached Dutch territory in April and was sent to a holding area near St. Elbrecht?s chapel below Kralingen. The ships did not begin moving until June, and in the meantime much disease had broken out among the prospective passengers at Kralingen, who were by then called the ?Kralingers.? Exceptional crowding then occurred within the ships. Upon arrival in Philadelphia, the captains of four ships reported the combined deaths of 425 people during the crossing. Another report said that most of the deaths were blamed on dysentery, head sickness and violent fever. A letter dated October 18, 1738, from Philadelphia, a week before the Davy arrived, said that about 1,600 people had died on the 15 ships that had arrived so far that year. Writers in Philadelphia called 1738 the Year of the Destroying Angels.
The Davy, which carried Conrad Waltman, left Amsterdam for Cowes, in southern England, in July, and then crossed the Atlantic, and it was part of this series of ships that was afflicted in this way. One might assume that Conrad Wale his wealth, could have been among the Kralingers who had to face this ordeal. The document cited above, Beyond Germanna, included this paragraph, in part drawn from the Pennsylvania Gazette:
The ship Davy qualified in the port of Philadelphia on October 25th. The next day the Gazette revealed the horrible story of the voyage. The captain, both mates and 160 passengers died at sea. It was the ships carpenter, William Patton, who bought the ravaged vessel up the Delaware. Patton listed 74 men, 47 women and no children as the remaining passengers but only 40 of the men were well enough to come to the courthouse. In this context, the Gazette commented for the first time on the general situation, Most of the Ships which bring Dutch Passengers this Year have been visited with a Sickness that has carried off great numbers.

Most reports of the arrival of the Davy in Philadelphia identified William Patton as the captain, but if the report above is correct, Patton was actually the ship?s carpenter and was only captain by default after the real captain pere are differing reports on how many people were on board the Davy. The report here said a total of 121 ? 74 men and 47 women. The classic book on Pennsylvania German Pioneers, by Strassburger and Hinke, provided lists of the names of immigrants into Philadelphia. It said there were 141 passengers on the Davy, including 94 men and 47 women. Another report listed 95 people on the Davy, all men. [23] Still another said there were 180 passengers, but it provided a list of only 40 names. [24] If the account above is correct, these 40 might have been the ones who were well enough to go to the courthouse to take the oath of allegiance. Of these, one was ?Conrad Waldman,? and he was one of 18 who signed with an ?X? and had their names written by a clerk.

Where was Katherine? LaMance contended that Conrad Waltman?s wife, Katherine Bierly Waltman, journeyed to America with him aboard the Davy. But did she? There is no Katherine on any list of the Davy?s passengers. There are only m

Normally, the absence of female names on a ship?s passenger list would not be surprising, since it was the practice in the mid-1700s that these lists contained the names of only the males over age 16. It was much later in that centun and children were regularly included in the lists. However, the organization ProGenealogists, a family history research group in Utah, has begun to publish on its website passenger lists from this period that include some names of women and children, [25] and it has published a list for the Davy that includes women. Its website in early 2006 said the Davy carried a total of 141 -- 94 men and 47 women. Its list included the names of children aged as young as six months, which would indicate that the Gazette quotation above (?no children?) was not correct. It also included names of female passengers. Most interesting was that its list of females on the Davy did not include ?Katherine Waldman? or any other ?Katherine? (except for two unrelated children with their parents), nor did it include any ?Bierly.? This raised the question of whether Conrad and Katherine actually sailed on the Davy together, whether they ran to Holland and then together to Philadelphia, as LaMance said.

The ProGenealogists explanation of its inclusion of the names of some women and children, and the non-listing of others, is that its lists began with the Strassburger and Hinke lists of males over 16 and then added women and childrent only to the extent that accepted research by other genealogists had verified that those women and children had been aboard. No official record exists of all the passengers on the ships, and ProGenealogists has said its list, at best, would be only be partial in regard to women and children and most likely never complete. Thus far, there is no proof that Katherine Bierly Waltman was on the ship, or that she wasn?t.

LaMance reported [26] that in the period 1725-32, four Bavarian brothers and a sister ? all named Bierly ? traveled to America. She said they left behind another sister, Katherine Bierly, the one who married Conrad Waltman. [27] Thcount that Conrad and Katherine traveled together may be correct, but it may also be possible that Katherine went to America with her brothers and met Conrad Waltman there. Perhaps later research will confirm that Katherine was on the Davy with Conrad. Perhaps it may also address the suggestion (in the next chapter) that Valentine Waltman, a son of Conrad and Katherine, was born a number of years before the 1738 sailing of the Davy, and the possibility that he may have traveled to America as a child. Currently, there is no record of Valentine either traveling to America or being born in America.



Was of German nobility. His wife Katherine lived on the Waltman estate, but was not of nobility. They married in Holland, so there marriage was not recognized in Germany as legal. They came to America in 1737, and had a large family, but Katherine had to take over almost all of the work, as work was "beneath" Conrad. He considered the
residents peasents. He entertained himself by gambling but he usally lost everything he had. He was the only heir in the family and his parents kept begging him to return home, but he wouldn't leave Katherine. They sent him money, which he gambled away. Eventually the family estate in Germany went to the 'Crown.' Conrad's favorite son, Nicholas, was killed in the American Revolution
and this unsettled his mind to such an extent that he never recovered, for many years he was incurably insane. Katherine took care of him as long as she lived, then the youngest son did. All eight of his sons served in the American Revolution. Also during the Revolution two well known vistors stayed with there old friend Conrad Waltman, they being; Baron Johann DeKalb and Baron Von Steuben, who where stationed at Valley Forge for the winter.

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5711242/conrad-waltman

Conrad married Maria Katherine Bierly in 1732 in Netherlands. Maria (daughter of Daniel Bierly) was born in 1708 in Bayern, Germany; died on 25 Mar 1786 in Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania; was buried in Zion's Stone Church Cemetery, Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Eleanor Waltman apparently was married to George Lutz, although LaMance thought Eleanor's husband was Michael Lutz. LaMance said Eleanor was born in 1740, but a baptismal record in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, showed that Eleanor and George Lutz had a son in 1748. This suggests that Eleanor may have been born as early as 1730, before Conrad Waltman traveled to America in 1738, and thus Eleanor may have been born in Europe. A tax record suggests that George and Eleanor Lutz moved from Montgomery County to Berks County about 1752. Eleanor was a widow as early as 1767, and tax records show she had considerable property in Amity Township, Berks County. The last record of her life was in 1781, and she must have died after that, presumably in Amity Township. One of her children, George Lutz, Jr., died there in 1802, and her daughter Susanna Lutz Ludwig died there in 1818. LaMance believed that Eleanor and George Lutz had a daughter, Eleanor Lutz (junior), born in 1767, but no evidence of this child has been found. LaMance said that Eleanor took in two children, George and Samuel, of her brother William Waltman after William was killed during the war. However, there is doubt about whether Conrad had a son named William Waltman (see below). LaMance said that William's son George married Eleanor Lutz (junior), his cousin and foster sister, but this has not been confirmed either. LaMance said that Eleanor and family moved to Bedford County in 1790, and it was there that cousins George Waltman and Eleanor Lutz were married. But Eleanor Waltman Lutz probably was dead by that time, and records show it was another Waltman family, descended from the immigrant Emanuel Waltman, that moved to Bedford County in 1790. If there was a George Waltman who married an Eleanor Lutz, one possibility is that it did not happen in Bedford County; another is that this George Waltman was descended not from Conrad and William but from the line of the immigrant Emanuel Waltman.

There are many unknowns in the story of Eleanor Waltman, and the result is substantial confusion. The LaMance story appears to be full of errors. LaMance thought that Eleanor, a child of Conrad, was born in 1740, and that she was married to Michael Lutz, born in Switzerland in 1727.[3] Other records suggest, probably correctly, that Eleanor married a George Lutz. A baptismal record at New Hanover Lutheran Church, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, shows that George and Eleanor Lutz had a son, Johannes, baptized in December 1748. If this is the same Eleanor and if she was about 18 when Johannes was born, the date suggests that Eleanor herself may have been born as early as 1730, before her father Conrad traveled to America, and that she was born in Europe.

There is evidence that many people named Lutz lived in Pennsylvania in this era, and LaMance appears to have attributed relationships between them that were not merited. Believing that Michael Lutz was the one who married Eleanor Waltmane said that the father of Michael Lutz was named George Lutz and that he had come to America aboard the Davy in 1738, the same ship that carried Conrad Waltman, and that therefore the Lutz and Waltman families knew each other. (At least one version of the Davy passenger list called him ?George Sutz.?) A book published in 1736 showed a Michael Lutz, born in 1697, as a member of the New Goshenhoppen Reformed Church, in Upper Hanover Township, Montgomery County. A church record showed that a Michael Lutz and his wife (Eleanor?) were sponsors at a baptism in 1756 at Tohickon Church, Bedminister Township, Bucks County. This is the same church where Conrad Waltman's daughter, Elizabeth Waltman, married Joseph Dreisbach two years later, in 1758. These records appear to show that the Waltman and Lutz families both resided in Bucks and nearby Montgomery counties and that they were acquainted at an early stage. This could have led to the marriage between George Lutz and Eleanor Waltman, but it is not clear how George was related to Michael.

It appears that Eleanor's family moved from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, about 1752 to Amity Township, Berks County. At least three children had been born in New Hanover Township, Montgomery County -- George, Jr. (about 1746), Johann), and Susanna (1750). But George Lutz appeared in a tax record of Amity Township, Berks County, in 1752, and at least one child (Jacob in 1760) was born in Amity Township. Eleanor's husband George Lutz died before 1767, when the tax list for Amity Township showed Eleanor Lutz as a widow. This same tax record for 1767 also showed Eleanor's son George Lutz, a single man, apparently living with or near his mother. Tax records in subsequent years showed separate entries on this property for "George Lutz" and "Widow Lutz" or "Eleanor Lutz." She appeared in the tax lists up through 1781, indicating that she died after this date. The family seems to have remained in Amity Township. Eleanor's son George died there in 1802 and her daughter Susanna Lutz Ludwig in 1818. George appeared in the tax lists as late as 1785. He married Anna Regina Fritz in 1769 in the Lutheran Church in New Hanover Township (probably near the Fritz home). He died in Amity Township, Berks County, in 1802; Regina died there before 1800.

LaMance named a number of children that she said belonged to Eleanor, but they seem to belong to other Lutz families. Among the names she found, LaMance said that Hiram, Andrew Adam, George and Conrad Lutz had military records,[4]butary records for people of these names exist, there is no proof that these were children of Eleanor. Research shows there were many Lutz families in the same general area, and it is possible that LaMance simply found Lutz names in the records and attributed their parentage to Eleanor. After her book was published, LaMance made handwritten notes in her personal copy of her book. Among other things, she said that, when Eleanor Waltman Lutz?s brother William Waltman died during the Revolutionary War, Eleanor took in and raised two of his children, George Waltman and Samuel Waltman, then about 10 and 13. She said that George, born in 1769, married his cousin and foster sister, Eleanora Lutz (Junior), early in 1790. (She thus would have become Eleanor Lutz Waltman, in contrast to her mother, Eleanor Waltman Lutz.) However, no evidence has been discovered that Eleanor had a daughter named Eleanor, or that there was a marriage between Eleanor (junior) and a George Waltman. Also, doubts have arisen about the existence of a William Waltman (see below) who LaMance said was a son of Conrad and brother of Eleanor. Nevertheless, this story has been copied from LaMance by others.

A final complication is that LaMance said Eleanor and her family moved to Bedford County in 1790, and it was there that Eleanor Lutz (junior) married George Waltman. But Eleanor probably was dead by that time. It is established that des of the immigrant Emanuel Waltman, founder of a different line of Waltmans in America, moved to Colerain Township, Bedford County, from Loudoun County, Virginia, about 1790. Records indicate that some segment of the Lutz family also moved to Colerain Township from Loudoun County, over a period of years. A similar move was made by members of the Exline family, and one of them married one of the Emanuel Waltman descendants in Bedford County. The three families appear to have been part of a migration from Loudoun to Bedford counties. When LaMance was researching Waltmans in Bedford County, it seems more likely that it was descendants of Emanuel Waltman that she discovered in the records, not descendants of Conrad. Indeed, an Exline family history said that these were the only Waltmans in Bedford County at the time. There is no record that any of Eleanor's children lived in Bedford County. Also, since tax records showed Eleanor and children with substantial property in Berks County, it is more likely that Eleanor remained there rather than move to Bedford County, a substantial distance to the west. If there was a George Waltman who married Eleanora Lutz (junior), he may have been a descendant of Emanuel, or they were married in some place other than Bedford County. No evidence of such a marriage has been located.

Eleanor married George Lutz est 1745 in Pennsylvania. George was born est 1725; died before 1767 in Amity Twp, Berks County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 1777, Northampton County, Pennsylvania; American Revolution (US) 4th Company, 4th Battalion, Northampton Co. Militia

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Valentine Waltman lived in Northampton County. At one time, he owned property close to Zion Church in Kreidersville, and later he lived in the Schoenersville area, near the property known in 2007 as Lehigh Valley International Airport. He was a Second Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War and apparently was a leader of the Waltman family and of his community. There is dispute over when he was born. LaMance said it was 1742, and this date has been copied by some other students of the family. However, genealogist Hannah Roach and others thought it might have been before 1733, since Valentine?s first wife, Catharina Br

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57805411/valentine-waltman

Valentine married Catherine Brucker in 1755. Catherine (daughter of Jacob Brucker and Madeliene) was born on 21 Feb 1732 in Petersbach, Bas-Rhin, Grand Est, France; died on 18 May 1786 in Schoenersville, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Valentine married Magdalena Brucker after 1786. Magdalena (daughter of Jacob Brucker and Madeliene) was born about 1745. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Margaret Waltman married John Yonce (or Yunt or Younce), who had been born in Germany, a son of Melchior Yunt. LaMance said she was one of twins, born in 1738 on Christmas Day, just after Conrad arrived in America. Other genealogists have offered different dates for the birth of the twins. However, if their brother Valentine was born much earlier, before the trans-Atlantic trip in 1738, the twins might also have been born earlier and traveled to America with their parents. Reportedly, Margaret and John had eight children. LaMance said Margaret?s husband and sons served in the Revolutionary War. The family lived in Lancaster County and later in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. A handwritten note in LaMance?s book said John Yonce died in 1812 at the age of 97. Margaret reportedly died in Dauphin County in 1815.

Family/Spouse: John Yonce. John (son of Melchoir Yant) was born about 1725; died in 1812 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Katherine Waltman, according to LaMance, was one of the twins born on Christmas Day in 1738. LaMance said she eloped at 15 and married Barnett Hampsher (or Hampshire). She was a mother at 16 and lived in York and possibly Lancaster Counties. ?Bernard Hamsher? was in the tax list of Shrewsbury Township, York County, in 1781, 1782 and 1788, and in the 1790 census for that township.[2] LaMance said that Katherine?s sisters Margaret and Eleanor also ran away from home, and that Katherine found husbands for them. One website said that Katherine had nine male children. One of her sons, Daniel Hampshire, married a cousin, Elizabeth Waltman, daughter of Katherine's brother Valentine (Note: this is not accurate, the Elizabeth Waltman(d/o Valentine) married Daniel Hamsher, son of Adam). Both Daniel Hampshire and Valentine Waltman were in the Allen Township tax list for 1788. LaMance thought Catherine was still alive in 1811, when she signed legal papers.

Birth:
twin of Margaret

Katherine married Barnett Hamsher in 1753. Barnett (son of Johann Martinus Hamscher and Anna Margaretha) was born est 1735. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 1776; American Revolution (US)

Notes:

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.

John married Maria Elizabeth Boyer about 1774 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Maria was born on 25 Dec 1751; died on 01 Feb 1831 in Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania; was buried in Zion's Stone Church Cemetery, Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 1779; American Revolution - Killed 6th Regiment of Northampton Troops

Notes:

He left three sons, one of whom died without heirs


(The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009)

Frederick Waltman (1742-1779) was a fifer in the 6th Regiment of Northampton Troops of the Continental Line. His date of birth, as given by LaMance, is likely in error, since it is incompatible with the birthdate of his sister Elizabeth (below). She said he was killed or died in the War. Pennsylvania State Archives show that 12 pounds were provided to his estate through a certificate dated November 24, 1785, and 52 pounds on another occasion. An Ancestry.com source said he had four children. LaMance said he had five. LaMance said that Frederick?s brother John Peter made a home for Frederick?s son Nicholas after Frederick died, and that Nicholas was a farmer in Northampton County. He should not be confused with another of Frederick's brothers, Nicholas Waltman.

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Elizabeth Waltman Dreisbach (1742-1821)

Conrad Waltman's daughter Elizabeth Waltman was born on July 25, 1742, according to her tombstone. This is the same year that LaMance claimed that Elizabeth's brothers Valentine and Frederick Waltman were born, but given the tombstone f Elizabeth's birth, the 1742 birthdates for Valentine and Frederick must be in error. Elizabeth married Johannes (John) Joseph Dreisbach, a member of the prominent Dreisbach family of the Kreidersville area. The Dreisbach family had been instrumental in the founding of Zion Stone Church in Kreidersville, and an interesting history of the church, with photographs, is provided in the Dreisbach Family Association website. The Dreisbachs were also closely involved with the Anewalt, Hower and Waltman families. John Dreisbach had been born in 1734, a son of the immigrant Simon Dreisbach, Sr. (1698-1785). They were married on November 14, 1758, at Tohickon Reformed Church in Bucks County, when Elizabeth was 16.

Tohickon is quite far from Kreidersville. One possible explanation for the wedding taking place there is that, four years after their arrival in America, Conrad Waltman and family might not yet have reached the Kreidersville area on theiorth from Philadelphia. Another explanation, provided by Hannah Roach, is that numerous families from Northampton County moved south temporarily due to disputes with Indians about this time, and some attended the Tohickon Church. The Dreisbachs were also prominent in the Kreidersville area, and family members appeared in Lehigh Township tax lists.

Both Elizabeth and John Dreisbach were buried at Kreidersville, further clarifying that she was part of the Waltman family discussed here. Up to 1940, there were 53 Dreisbachs, descendants of the immigrant Simon Dreisbach, buried in they at Zion Church, and at least eight of them served in the Revolution.[38] The Dreisbachs certainly rivaled the Waltman family in providing soldiers for the Revolutionary Army as well as in populating the area around Kreidersville. (Note: There is such a large interest in the history of the Dreisbach family that no fewer than 63 individuals have submitted their own versions of the Dreisbach family tree to Ancestry.com.)

Elizabeth died on December 14, 1821, 25 years after John, who died on September 27, 1796. The Dreisbach family website said they had eight children. Elizabeth's sons John Adam and Simon were baptized in Tohickon in 1759 and 1760, before ed further north. However, a son, Conrad (named for her father?), was baptized at Zion Church in Kriedersville in September 1781, and the sponsors were Peter Waltman and his wife, seeming to confirm that Elizabeth was the sister of Peter.

Elizabeth married Johannes Joseph Driesbach on 14 Nov 1758 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Johannes (son of Simon Driesbach) was born on 01 Feb 1735 in Germany; died on 27 Aug 1796 in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; was buried in Zion's Stone Church Cemetery, Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Anna married Jacob Kuder after 1783. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: Abt 1776; American Revolution - killed

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Nicholas Waltman (1750?-1778). LaMance said that, at age 19, Nicholas went with his brothers to the defense of Philadelphia in 1775. This would indicate he was born in 1756. She said he died or was killed in battle during the War. LaMance said Nicholas was the favorite child of his father, and his death is what drove Conrad crazy. LaMance may not have been correct about his age. Northampton County tax lists for Lehigh Township in 1772 list "Nich's Waltman," a farmer, having paid about two and a half pounds. If this is the same person and if LaMance had his birthdate correct, Nicholas would have been only 16. It is possible that he paid taxes, but if he was a farmer and had to pay, he would have been older than 16 at the time. Genealogist Hannah Roach suggested Nicholas had been born about 1750.[7] There is a ?Nicholas Waldman? in the Pennsylvania State Archives listed as serving with the 1st German Battalion under Capt. Benjamin Weiber, but it is not clear if this was the same person. The report of the early death of Nicholas also is unclear. In 1784, a Philipp Waldmann, son of "Nicolas and wife," was baptized in Hain's Reformed Church in Lower Heidelberg Township, Berks County, the same church where children of Ludwig, brother of Nicholas, were baptized. This suggests Nicholas was still alive in 1784 and did not die during the War.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: Est 1780; American Revolution

Notes:

Possibly could not get along with his father and broke away from the
rest of the family. He went to Maryland, and his sons later to
Indiana.

Hiram married Maria Magdalena Prutzman in Apr 1784 in Frederick County, Maryland. Maria was born about 1766 in Maryland; died in 1850 in Frederick County, Maryland; was buried in Apples Church Graveyard, Thurmont, Frederick County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: Est 1780; American Revolution

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Conrad married Catherine Bieber on 15 Sep 1778 in Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Catherine was born on 28 Oct 1761 in Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania; died on 23 Oct 1844 in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Barbara married John Sterner in 1788. John (son of Nicholas Sterner and Elizabeth Bast) was born on 12 Nov 1760; died on 14 Mar 1843 in Schoenersville, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; was buried in Schoenersville Cemetery, Hanover, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Died:
Maker names her as Catherine Hompshire, also states sermon by Rev. Gray.

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20937620/elizabeth_catherine-hampshire_(hamsher)

Elizabeth married Daniel Hamsher in 1783 in Hanover Twp, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Daniel (son of Lieutenant Johan Adam Hamsher and Anna Margaretha Heckman) was born on 6 Aug 1760 in Berks County, Pennsylvania; died on 10 Aug 1835 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Kiehle Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: Abt 1780; American Revolution

Family/Spouse: Maria Margaretta Zerfass. Maria (daughter of Captain Johan Adam Zerfass and Maria Elizabeth Shaffer) was born in 22 Dec1768 in Whitehall Twp, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; was christened on 07 Jan 1769; died in 1831. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Susanna married George Kuder about 1789. George was born on 24 Jun 1765 in Germantown, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Adam Leach about 1798. Adam was born in 1777; died about 1840. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Revolutionary War soldier, oldest of six sons

Jacob married Catherine Ulrich in 1793. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Anna Barbara Waltman was born on June 21, 1777, and baptized on June 29 at Zion Church.[31] She died on August 4, 1853, at the age of 75. She married Peter Anewalt, Senior, who had been born on November 12, 1772. He died on July 20, 1825, 28 years before Anna Barbara died. Peter Anewalt was a farmer and weaver who owned 150 acres in Allen Township and 145 acres in adjoining Lehigh Township. ?Barbara? received property from the estate of her father, Peter Waltman, in 1852. Among the children of Peter and Anna Barbara Anewalt was a Peter Anewalt (1797-1841), who married Elizabeth Bliem. The tombstones of Peter and Anna Barbara Waltman Anewalt in the Kreidersville Cemetery have erroneous dates and appear to confuse Peter with his father, Valentine Anewalt (1731-1802), who emigrated to America on the Snow Squirrel in 1761.[32] Catharine Anewalt, a daughter of Anna Barbara Waltman and Peter Anewalt, was a direct ancestor of William J. Fiedler, Jr., of New Tripoli, Pennsylvania, who in 2006 was doing research on the related families

Sponsors were Henrich Boyer (same name but not the father of Maria Elizabeth Boyer Waltman, since he had died in 1775, two years earlier) and Anna Barbara Waltmann, sister of Peter. Her tombstone erroneously said she was born on June 5, 1778, but the date of death is the same, August 4, 1853.

There is confusion about the dates and names because there is also a tombstone for an ?Barbara A. Anewalt? at Zion Church Cemetery that says she was ?born May 14, 1742, married Peter Anewalt, and died at 28, August 4, 1828.? The dates and numbers make little sense. Despite the name on the tombstone, it appears from the records that this ?Anna Barbara,? born in 1742, was not a Waltman and was not the wife of Peter Anewalt, but actually the second wife of Peter Anewalt?s father, Valentine Anewalt.

It appears that Valentine Anewalt (1731-1802) first married, in 1753, Johanna Margret Kurtz (1733-1793), and they had nine children, including Peter Anewalt (1772-1825). He then married ?Anna Barbara,? last name unknown, who was born in 1742 or 1743 and died in 1828. They had no children. See Humphrey, Pennsylvania Grave Stones, Northampton County, For People Born Before 1800, Larjon & Co., Washington DC (2000), page 8 for the confusing Anewalt tombstone records.

The marker for Conrad Waltman was placed in the Kreidersville cemetery in 1986 by William J. Fiedler, Jr., and Aaron Hower of New Tripoli and possibly other family descendants. William Fiedler is descended from several families who lived in the Kreidersville area in the 1700s ? the Waltmans, Anewalts, Dreisbachs and Howers. Bill?s father, William Jacob Fiedler (1911-1970) married Edna Saylor Hower (1911-1974), who was the daughter of Lloyd Clarence Hower (1880-1959) and a granddaughter of Thomas Hower (1854-1928). Thomas Hower?s father, Aaron Hower 1823-1867), was the son of George Hower (1798-1886), who was married to Catharine Anewalt (1802-1884). Catharine, in turn, was the daughter of Peter Anewalt (1772-1825) and Anna Barbara Waltman (1777-1853), who was a daughter of Conrad Waltman?s son John Peter Waltman (1741-1817) and his wife Maria Elizabeth Boyer (1751-1831). George Hower was the son of Johann Nicholas Hower (1751-1824) and Elizabeth Dreisbach (1762-1839). Elizabeth Dreisbach was the daughter of Simon Dreisbach, Jr. (1730-1806), granddaughter of Simon Dreisbach, Sr. (1698-1785), and the niece of John Dreisbach (1735-1796), who married Elizabeth Waltman, a daughter of Conrad Waltman, Senior. Thus, these four families were intricately intertwined. See more details in the chapter on the children of Conrad Waltman. To bring the links up to modern times, the Hower Family Reunion in 1987 welcomed as guests Minerva and Dr. Charles Waltman (1906-1995), of Easton, Pennsylvania, a prominent descendant of Conrad Waltman Senior, Valentine, Conrad Junior, Peter and Joseph Waltman

Anna married Peter Anawalt about 1796. Peter (son of Valentine Anawalt and Joanna Margaret Kurtz) was born on 22 Nov 1772 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania; died on 20 Jul 1825 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania; was buried in Zion's Stone Church Cemetery, Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Anna Maria Waltman was baptized at Zion Church on April 8, 1779. She died on September 12, 1852, at the age of 73. A proceeding in Northampton County Court[33] in November of that year described her as a ?lutatic? (presumably it was meant to be ?lunatic?). The will of her father, Peter Waltman, dated March 25, 1816, 18 months before he died, provided that 300 pounds be left and remain a charge on his lands for the use of Anna Maria, and that after she died, the property would be distributed to his other three daughters. (His two sons already had died.) In the court proceeding, the two surviving sisters (Barbara and Magdalena) and the daughter of the other sister (Elizabeth) sold their rights to the real estate to Conrad Keck and John Miller. (LaMance created confusion on this issue. She saw the tombstone of "Maria Waltman" and erroneously believed she was the daughter of Valentine who was named "Maria Barbara.")

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Peter Waltman was born on June 10, 1781, and baptized on July 8 of that year at Zion Church. He died on January 14, 1811. The church record said he died of ?magere Krampf,? which has been translated as a form of cramps. The Zion Church record said he was aged 29 years, 7 months, and 4 days. Apparently he was not married. LaMance said this Peter Waltman, born in 1781, was often confused with the Peter Waltman born in 1779. That Peter was the son of Conrad Waltman, Junior. The two Peters were only two years apart in age, and she said that because of this, their fathers also were often confused. That may have been true, although LaMance herself was confused, thinking that the Peter of 1779 was the son of Valentine rather than the son of Conrad Junior.

Notes:

The Waltman Family of Northampton County, By Neil A. Boyer, 12 Jun 2009

Magdalena Waltman married Adam Lerch. She is buried in Zion Church cemetery in Kreidersville. Judging by the tombstone, she was born at the end of 1786 and died on June 7, 1869, at the age of 82.[36] The will of her father, Peter, left property to ?his three daughters, Barbara, Magdalena and Elizabeth? to share after the death of their sister Anna Maria. Under the Northampton County court order mentioned above, property in this instance was distributed to ?Magdalena Lerch.?

Family/Spouse: Adam Lerch. Adam was born on 24 Dec 1774; died on 26 Jan 1840 in Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania; was buried in Zion's Stone Church Cemetery, Kreidersville, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Maria Catherine Hecker on 30 Mar 1784. Maria was born on 20 Oct 1763 in Pennsylvania; died on 20 Nov 1837 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in South Sparta Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 18 Aug 1814; War of 1812 (US) Capt. John F. Ruhe Co.

Peter married Elizabeth Fatzinger on 10 Jan 1804. Elizabeth was born on 16 Oct 1785; died on 29 Aug 1820. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Peter married Susannah Wint on 16 Mar 1823. Susannah died on 16 May 1853. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Maria never married.

Family/Spouse: Catherine Sandel. Catherine (daughter of George Sandel and Catherine Bieber) was born in 1803; died in 1873. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Michael Sandel. Michael (son of George Sandel and Catherine Bieber) was born on 23 Jan 1792 in Lowhill, Northampton County, Pennsylvania; died on 1 Feb 1861 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Kiehle Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Christened:
Baptism records names "parents: Daniel and Catherine Elizabeth Hamsher; Sponsors, Valentine and Catherine Waltman, grandparents"

Valentine married Mary Elizabeth Welch about 1817 in Pennsylvania. Mary was born on 20 Mar 1793 in Pennsylvania; died on 20 Feb 1878 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Kiehle Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Christened:
Baptism Sponsors: John Adam Hamsher and Anna Margaret.

Adam married Elizabeth Overpeck on 10 Apr 1811. Elizabeth was born on 06 Dec 1784 in Springfield, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; died on 18 Apr 1866 in Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Susan Fritch. Susan was born in 1791 in Pennsylvania; died on 01 Jun 1869 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Peter married Abalona Croman about 1823. Abalona was born on 27 Jan 1805 in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; died on 22 Nov 1878 in Logan County, Ohio; was buried in Stoney Creek Cemetery, Union Twp, Logan County, Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Jacob married Sarah Anderson on 22 Oct 1820. Sarah was born on 01 Aug 1804 in Vermont; died on 19 Aug 1869 in Sandusky County, Ohio; was buried in McGormley Cemetery, Ballville Twp, Sandusky County, Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: Abt 1812; War of 1812 (US)

Bernard married Rebecca FlickSparta, Livingston County, New York. Rebecca (daughter of Martin Flick and Susanna Magdelena Scholl) was born in 1803 in Pennsylvania; died on 20 Dec 1893 in Rochester, Monroe County, New York; was buried in Sparta Center Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Katherine married John Traxler about 1820. John (son of Henry Traxler and Elizabeth Hummer) was born on 04 Dec 1796 in Hunterdon County, New Jersey; died on 26 Sep 1845 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Nicholas Bale. Nicholas was born on 06 May 1791; died on 24 Sep 1842 in Lima Twp, Washtenaw County, Michigan; was buried in Lima Center Cemetery, Lima, Washtenaw County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Conrad Hamsher who resided on East Hill, died June 28th, aged 75 years and 6 months. His funeral was held at the Kiehle church in Sparta last Monday morning, the Rev. P. A. Strobel of Dansville officiating. The deceased was native of Northampton county, Pa., but removed to this county when quite a boy. He leaves a widow, one son and six daughters. The attendance at the funeral was quite large.
(Dansville Advertiser, Thursday July 4, 1878)

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/23691127/conrad-hamsher

Conrad married Judith Hughes about 1827. Judith (daughter of Daniel Hughes and Elizabeth Stephen) was born on 30 Nov 1808 in Macungie, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; died on 30 Aug 1888 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Kiehle Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Sophia C. Karcher about 1830 in Livingston County, New York. Sophia was born in 1804 in Pennsylvania; died on 13 Mar 1875 in Nunda, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Nunda, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Ms. Hamilton in 1808 in Shubuta, Clarke County, Mississippi. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Daniel Blank. Daniel (son of Blank) was born on 4 Mar 1797 in Pennsylvania; died on 12 Jul 1865 in Dansville, Steuben County, New York; was buried in Bluff Point Cemetery, Dansville, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Catherine Lorish. Catherine was born on 10 Oct 1806 in Pennsylvania; died on 9 May 1896 in Livingston County, New York; was buried in Arnold Cemetery, Conesus, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: George Kanouse. George was born in ca 1778 in Pennsylvania; died on 29 Dec 1855 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John Heckman. John was born about 1785. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Hannah Zerfass. Hannah (daughter of Abraham Zerfass and Hannah Knause) was born on 11 Feb 1807 in Pennsylvania; died on 27 Jun 1869 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in South Sparta Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Amelia. Amelia was born in May 1792; died on 17 Apr 1820 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in South Sparta Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Henry Driesbach, Sr., was one of the pioneers and one of the advance guard of those emigrants who, turning their backs to the home of their youth and the comforts and luxuries of the older States, moved to a country covered with forests to make it the home of civilization, and to displace the wigwam of the Indian for the school-house, the church, and the comfortable dwelling. They were conquerors, not by sword and musket, but by proper and rugged tools moved by stalwart arms, strong native intelligence and by the immutable truths of the Bible and that religion which teaches an intelligent an heartfelt devotion to the God of their fathers. No one among their number is more worthy a place in this History of Livingston County than Henry Driesbach, Sr., for he was one whose strong arm, brave heart, and unwearied industry aided in making her foremost among the agricultural counties of the State. It is with peculiar pleasure that we record the name of such men on the pages of this History. He was born in Pennsylvania, April 3, 1790. In the year 1806 he removed to Sparta with his father's family. When old enough he purchased a piece of land containing seventy acres.

One day a land agent called at his father's and proposed to sell Henry this piece of land . He replied that he had no money with which to purchase it. The agent informed him that he would trust him for it and give him all the time needed in which to pay, provided he pay the cost of making out the contracts which was $1.50. This was another poser to the young man for he saw no means by which to raise the required sum. But his mother came to the rescue and said, "Henry, if you really wish to take up that land I'll pay for the contract." Accordingly she paid the agent the money, papers were made out and Henry became the possessor of the seventy acres of land.

At this time the land was valued at ten shillings per acre, and here was a debt of $87.50 for Henry to pay. Soon the sound of his ax began to resound through the forest. In short time he made a small clearing and then commenced building him a house, working at it at odd times until he enclosed it and finished off one room. This done, like Jacob of old, he looked around for a wife, a companion who would share with him the comforts of his home. He soon found one in the person of Lydia, daughter of Harmon Hartman, of Dansville, whom he married in 1819. She was in every sense of the word worthy of her husband, and their life was a happy one.

He used to relate in a pleasing manner how ardently he struggled to pay for his first seventy acres of land. The land office from which he purchased was at Geneva, fifty or more miles distant for his home, and nothing but a foot path marked by blazed trees to guide him there. He says, "I remember on one occasion when there was ten dollars due the office, by the hardest kind of scarping I got the money together and with a gun on my shoulder, I started on foot for Geneva. In due time reaching there, I paid my money an started for home." "In those days deer and bears were plenty in the country and often, too, a panther was to be seen prowling about. I saw but little game until nearly home and then espied a noble deer some rods for me. I raised my gun, fired, and the deer giving one jump dropped dead. With my hunting knife I skinned it, cut out the hind quarters, strung them over my shoulders and marched home with my venison." This took place near what is now called Reeds Corners. Another time, when on his way home, as he reached a dense part of the forest, he heard a strange noise which came from a large tree.

Looking up he saw a huge panther glaring down at him. Bringing his gun to bear on the frightful beast he fired. The bullet entered its throat just under its mouth, inflicting a fatal wound. The panther fell to the ground, snapping his teeth at him in the most ferocious manner. He fired again and this time the ball entered his brain, causing instant death, Mr. D. sold the skin for eight dollars, thereby receiving nearly enouh to pay the next installment on his contract.

At length having paid for his seventy acres he gradually took up land and paid for it till many years before his death he owned six hundred acres of land, the most valuable in the county. Mr. Driesbach was successful as a mechanic as well as an excellent farmer. At an early age he united with the Lutheran Reformed Church at Dansville, and during the remainder of his life was a devoted and prayerful member of that church. He was always a Democrat but never troubled others with his politics. He died at the advanced age of eighty-two, honored and respected by all who knew him. Although he had gone to his final rest, his widow still lived in the very house to which her husband took her when a bride. Mr. and Mrs. Driesbach were the parents of eight children, four of whom died in childhood.
(History of Livingston County, by James H. Smith, 1881)

Henry married Lydia Hartman in 1819. Lydia (daughter of Harmon H. Hartman and Maria Catherina Weaver) was born on 22 Jul 1799 in Macungie, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; was christened on 15 Sep 1799 in Macungie, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; died on 19 Oct 1885 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Micheal married Nancy Covert about 1824. Nancy was born on 14 May 1802; died on 03 Apr 1838; was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, Dansville, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Micheal married Maria Patchin about 1840. Maria was born on 08 Aug 1798; died on 04 May 1890; was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, Dansville, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Henry Sterner, Jr.. Henry (son of Henry Sterner and Susannah Kline) was born on 28 Apr 1822; died on 11 Dec 1890. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Joseph Sterner. Joseph (son of Henry Sterner and Susannah Kline) was born on 24 Jun 1830 in Schoenersville, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; died on 8 Apr 1911 in Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Went to Michigan.

Family/Spouse: Stephen Fish. Stephen (son of Nathaniel Fish and Polly Kimbel) was born in ca 1796 in Livingston County, New York; died on 15 Mar 1900 in St.Johns, Clinton County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Daniel married Hannah Hughes about 1845 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. Hannah (daughter of Daniel Hughes and Elizabeth Stephen) was born on 13 Dec 1816 in Macungie, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; died on 13 Jan 1885 in West Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Kiehle Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Dansville - Mrs. Elizabeth Steffy died in this village yesterday afternoon. She was born in Sparta eighty-six years ago and was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Valentine Hamsher, wife of Ramous Steffy, and mother of Daniel and Amariah Steffy. Funeral will be held on Saturday at the home of Levi Kuhn, where she died.
(Dansville Express, Thursday, January 26, 1905)

Family/Spouse: Ramous Steffy. Ramous (son of Isaac Steffy and Catherine Wolf) was born on 27 Apr 1812 in Macungie, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania; died on 25 May 1890 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married Abraham Hartman about 1847 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. Abraham (son of Henry Hartman and Elizabeth Zerfass) was born on 10 Mar 1819 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 25 Mar 1908 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

His sister Elizabeth(b.1818) married Ramous Steffy. There maybe two Jacob Hamsher, as there is a Jacob Hamsher in 1830 census in Sparta, possibly had a son Jacob, who was living with Valentine and Elizabeth Hamsher in 1850. Mary E. Hamsher, ae. 76, was living with Jacob in 1870 in Springwater.

Jacob Hamsher, a prominent farmer of East Hill, died on Thursday morning of cancer of the stomach, 67 years old. The funeral will take place to-morrow afternoon from the school house at that place.
(The Buffalo Courier, Buffalo NY, Sunday, January 6, 1901)

Jacob married Pauline Hughes about 1860. Pauline (daughter of Thomas Hughes and Elizabeth Fronk) was born on 14 Oct 1839 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 2 Feb 1931 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Kidd-Fronk Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Mr. Meter. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Rebecca Artman on 8 Feb 1836 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. Rebecca (daughter of John Artman and Anna Justina Knause) was born on 7 Apr 1816 in Pennsylvania; died on 29 Jan 1882 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Maria married Reuben Kiehle in 1835. Reuben (son of Abraham Kiehle and Elizabeth Hughes) was born in 1808; died in 1896 in West Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Kiehle Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Lived in Elkhart Co.,Ind.

Reuben married Martha E. White about 1840. Martha was born in 1821; died in 1882; was buried in Oakridge Cemetery, Goshen, Elkhart County, Indiana. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Laura Trescott. Laura (daughter of Asa Trescott and Elmira E. Smith) was born in Nov 1850 in Livingston County, New York; died on 28 Oct 1932. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Jonas Shafer. Jonas was born in 1821; died in 1906; was buried in Union/Scottsburg Cemetery, Conesus, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Injured in a logging accident in 1867 in Michigan - Had Travelers Insurance and was paid $200 after a drag-hook of chain caught his arm tearing it open from the elbow to wrist.

William married Elizabeth Kiehle about 1845. Elizabeth (daughter of Abraham Kiehle and Elizabeth Hughes) was born on 18 Feb 1821 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 13 Jul 1870 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Sparta Center Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Harriet Johns about 1845. Harriet (daughter of David Johns and Jane) was born in Jun 1826 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died in 1900 in Nunda, Livingston County, New York; was buried in West Sparta Oak Lawn Cemetery, West Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Susan wrote her Will on 18 April 1864 and states the following regarding her personal property. "I give and devise to my Husband Edmund Hartman his heirs and assigns all that tract or parcel of land situate in the Town of North Dansville and bounded as follows: on east by Main Street, on the North by the Dutch Lutheran church lot; on the west by lot of Stephen Brown and on the south in part by Franklin Street and in part by lot of Mrs. Brown and being the same premises purchased by me of Aaron Brown and wife, together with all the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining: To have and hold the premises above described to my husband Edmund Hartman his heirs and assigns forever."

Hartman- In this village, April 16th, Susan E., wife of Edmund Hartman, aged 45 years, 1 month, and 12 days. Mrs. Hartman was a great sufferer during ten painful years, but a patient one, as became her sterling Christian character, she was an earnest, consistent member of the English Lutheran church from a child of twelve years, and her life of devotion to Christian principles causes many to bless her memory.
(Dansville Advertiser, Thursday, April 24, 1873)

An article in the same paper as her obituary(24Apr1873) states of "A Remarkable Case" in which Mrs. Edmund Hartman suffered close to ten years with dropsy and tumor. "Mrs. Hartman was a great sufferer during ten painful years, but a patient one, as became her sterling Christian character. She was an earnest, consistent member of the English Lutheran church from a child of twelve years, and her life of devotion to Christian principles causes many to bless her memory."
(Dansville Advertiser, Dansville, New York, Thursday 24 April 1873)

Susan married Lieutenant Edmund Hartman about 1855 in North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. Edmund (son of Henry Hartman and Elizabeth Zerfass) was born on 30 Apr 1830 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 19 Jun 1876 in North Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Margaret Houts. Margaret was born about 1855. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Solomon married Elizabeth Sipe about 1853. Elizabeth was born in 1825 in Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Charles married Mary Ann Kaylor on 01 Mar 1859. Mary was born on 10 Jul 1839 in Harrison Twp, Logan County, Ohio; died on 19 May 1924 in Altamont, Labette County, Kansas. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 11 Aug 1862; American Civil War (North) 96th Ohio Infantry, Co.H & transferred to Co.D (18Nov1864) Battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Cane River, Fort Gaines, Fort Morgan, Spanish Fort, Fort Blakely, Mobile and Whistler. Discharged 7 Jul 1865

Martin married Anna E. in ca 1870. Anna was born in May 1849 in Pennsylvania; died in 1921; was buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Pleasant, Logan County, Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John Huss. John was born in 1814 in York County, Pennsylvania; died on 9 Oct 1865 in Johnson County, Iowa; was buried in Oakland Cemetery, Solon, Johnson County, Iowa. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: James William Ernsperger. James (son of Christopher Ernsperger and Catherine Fister) was born in 1823. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Lucy married George W. McGormley on 31 Dec 1847 in Sandusky County, Ohio. George (son of William McGormley and Susan Williams) was born on 26 Dec 1826 in Perry County, Ohio; died on 3 Apr 1886 in Ballville, Sandusky County, Ohio; was buried in McGormley Cemetery, Ballville Twp, Sandusky County, Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 14 Aug 1862; American Civil War (North) 111th Ohio Infantry, Co.A Enlisted as a Privated, promoted to Full Sergeant. Battles of Stones River, Loudon Creek, Strawberry Plains, Georgia Campaigns (Rocky Face Ridge, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountian,A tlanta, Stone Mountian), and Nashville. Discharged 27 Jun 1865

Charles married Emma M. Smith on 26 Nov 1896 in Ohio. Emma was born on 09 Jun 1845 in Sandusky County, Ohio; died on 13 Jun 1935 in Sandusky County, Ohio; was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Mrs. Caroline Hartman, wife of George Hartman, died at the family home at the lower end of Main Street Saturday afternoon. She had been sick for some time, and as Mr. Hartman had also been ill for a time, the care of the two aged people had devolved upon the daughter Miss Mary Hartman, who gave the closest attention to the sick ones until a nurse was called in to assist. Mrs. Hartman was the daughter of Bernard Hamsher of Sparta and she was born in the house on the Magin farm near the Lackawanna depot which was removed when Mr.Magin built his present residence, Dec. 5, 1824, so the she was a little more than 88 years at the time of her death. She married to Mr. Hartman Oct. 18, 1854, by Rev. David Lantz, and she had lived in the home where she died nearly al lher married life. She was beautiful in her younger days and as the years advanced she developed into a noble woman, beloved not alone by her family but by her acquaintances and friends. As a mother she had no superior and as a friend to the afflicted and the poor she was ever ready to give of her sympathy and her means, counting it always more blessed to give than to receive. While at her home in Sparta as a girl she was a leader in musical circles, having a voice of rare sweetness and volume, and until she left her own home to build up another for her husband and children she was a member of the choir of St.John's Lutheran church at the center. Mrs. Hartman is survived by her husband, her daughter, Miss Mary Hartman and two sons, Frank M. Hartman and Albert W. Hartman. Funeral services were held from the house on Tuesday, Rev. M. R. Heilig of St. Paul's English Lutheran church officiating, and she was buried on the family lot in Greenmount.
(The Dansville Express, Thursday, March 27, 1913)

Caroline married George Hartman on 18 Oct 1854 in Sparta Center, Livingston County, New York. George (son of John Hartman and Mary Longnecker) was born in 1827 in North Dansville, Livingston County, New York; died on 9 Mar 1916 in North Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Genesee Country Express and Advertisor
Thursday, January 21, 1937

30 Years ago

Mrs. Susannah Oberdorf died on January 16th, at the home of her son, B.H. Oberdorf. She is survived by two sons, County clerk B.H. Oberdorf and W.S. Oberdorf and by a sister and two brothers, Mrs. George Hartman and Jonas G. Hamsher of this town and M.S. Hamsher of Canaseraga.

Family/Spouse: Peter John Oberdorf. Peter (son of Joseph Oberdorf and Elizabeth Brewer) was born in 1828; died in 1906 in Monroe County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 5 Jun 1865; American Civil War (North) 147th New York Infantry, Co.D Transferred out of Company D, 147th Infantry Regiment New York on 5 Jun 1865. Transferred into Company B, 91st Infantry Regiment New York on 5 Jun 1865. Mustered Out Company B, 91st Infantry Regiment New York on 3 Jul 1865 at Washington, DC.

Notes:

Dansville, Oct. 30—Jonas Hamsher died last night at his home In Gibson Street, after a short illness. He was 93 years old October 1st, having been born in Sparta in 1831. He always lived in this vicinity and was a farmer for many years. His father, Bernard Hamsher, came to Sparta from Pennsylvania over a century ago. He served two whole years in the Civil War in Company D 147th N. Y. V. losing a finger at the battle of the Wilderness. Mr. Hamsher married Cornelia Woodruff, who died a number of years ago. Of the four children born to them three survive. Mrs. Fred LeRouette of Conesus, Glenn Hamsher of Dansville, Herbert Hamsher of Rochester. He was one of the brightest and sturdiest men of his age in this section and was loved by everyone. His grandfather fought in the War of the Revolution, his father in the war of 1812, he fought in the Civil War and his son, the late Gates Hamsher was a soldier in the World War. The funeral arrangements are not yet completed. He was a member of the local Seth W. Hedges Post G. A. R.
(Evening Tribune-Times, Hornell NY, Friday, October 31, 1924)

Jonas married Cornellia R. Woodruff about 1868 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. Cornellia was born in 1848 in Geneseo, Livingston County, New York; died on 2 Jun 1896 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Sparta Center Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 30 Aug 1862, Sparta, Livingston County, New York; American Civil War (North) 136th New York Infantry, Co.I Battles of Chancellorville, Gettysburg, Rescaca, and Cassivile Honorably Discharge 22 May 1865

Notes:

Death of Martin S. Hamsher.
Martin S. Hamsher died at his home in Canaseraga Tuesday afternoon. He was born in Sparta about 80 years ago, was the son of Bernard Hamsher and grandson of Daniel Hamsher, both of whom cams to Sparta from Pennsylvania along in 1820 or a little later, Bernard Hamsher taking up and clearing the farm north of Sparta Center now owned by Leonard Tucker, where the son Martin was born. In 1862 the deceased enlisted in Co. I, 130th N. Y. V. and served his full term of enlistment. He was a farmer nearly all his life; was a Mason and a member of the G. A. R., and was married nearly fifty years ago to Miss Virginia Losier, daughter of Hon. Abram Loxier who represented the 2nd district of this county in the assembly in 1853 and 1854. He is survived by his wife, and a daughter, Mrs. Arthur Gibson of Ossian, and by his brother Jonas Hamsher of this village, who is the last of his father's large family.
(Dansville Express, Dansville NY, Thursday, July 26, 1917)

Martin married Virginia Lozier about 1869. Virginia was born on 20 Aug 1845; died in 1932. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

History of Washtenaw County, Michigan, by Charles Chapman & Co, 1881, vol 2, page 773

Daniel Bale, son of Nicholas and Elizabeth Bale, was born June 10, 1823, in Livingston county, N. Y. In June. 1834, he accompanied his parents to Michigan, and after one year's residence in Scio, they settled in Lima twp. He was married Oct. 8, 1854, to Amanda C. Tuttle, of Freedom twp. They have 4 children? Albert A., born July 27, 1855; Ida E., born Aug. 22, 1857; Esther B., born Dec. 6, 1861; and Cynthia A., born Feb. 3, 1869. After marriage he resided on the homestead for some years. In 1869 he located at Chelsea, where he has since resided. His father came to this county in 1834; in December, 1836, located in Lima twp., where he died Sept. 24, 1842. Mrs. Bale, mother of Daniel, was the mother of 11 children, 2 of whom are living. She was born in Northampton county. Pa., Jan. 19, 1801, and died at Chelsea, Feb. 13, 1881, aged 80 years and 25 days

Daniel married Amanda C. Tuttle on 08 Oct 1854. Amanda was born about 1830. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Sophronia married Jonathan E. Kellogg on 25 Oct 1848 in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Jonathan was born on 23 Mar 1828 in Tompkins County, New York; died in 1904 in St.Johns, Clinton County, Michigan; was buried in Mount Rest Cemetery, Saint Johns, Clinton County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Eliza Ann Harris. Eliza was born in 1837; died in 1916 in St.Johns, Clinton County, Michigan; was buried in Mount Rest Cemetery, Saint Johns, Clinton County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Irene. Irene was born in ca 1838 in Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Catherine married Valentine Fish on 24 Sep 1853 in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Valentine (son of Stephen Fish and Catherine Hamsher) was born on 3 Feb 1832 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 13 Mar 1920 in St.Johns, Clinton County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Lester Lucius Cooper. Lester was born on 25 Feb 1808 in Addison County, Vermont; died in 1897 in Lima Twp, Washtenaw County, Michigan; was buried in Lima Center Cemetery, Lima, Washtenaw County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

James married Mary Harris on 09 Feb 1880 in Michigan. Mary was born about 1841 in Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

A Death on Sandy Hill
Mrs. H. S. Hartman of Sandy Hill died early Tuesday morning of rheumatism of the heart after an illness of several mouths. She was the eldest daughter of the late Conrad Hamsher of Sparta and was 64 years and 5 months old. She leave a husband and ten children, Mrs. Wm. Sample, Mrs. Chris Wagner, M. B. Hartman and John H Hartman of Sparta; Mrs. D. G. Haynes, Joseph Hartman, Miss Ida Hartman, Clarence Hartman, Mrs. Nic Friese, of Sandy Hill, and Lewis A Hartman of West Sparta. The members of her father's family who survive are Mrs. Henry Zerfass of Dansville, Mrs. John Sample of Sparta, Mrs. Jesse Carney of Springwater, and Mrs. Geo. W. Johns of Rochester. The funeral is to take place on Friday at 11 a. m. at the house.
(Dansville Express, December 22, 1892)

Died:
Sophia died of Heart Disease.

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39110550/sophia-hartman

Sophia married Henry S. Hartman on 6 Oct 1844 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. Henry (son of Henry Hartman and Elizabeth Zerfass) was born on 12 Jul 1820 in North Dansville, Livingston County, New York; died on 29 Dec 1896 in Dansville, Steuben County, New York; was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, Dansville, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Hannah married John Shaffer on 24 Jan 1850. John (son of Henry Shaffer and Maria Magdalena Kline) was born on 9 Feb 1824 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 1 Apr 1903 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Death of Mrs. George W. Johns
Mrs. Mary E. Johns, wife of Geo. W. Johns of Rochester, died Tuesday evening, aged 73 years. She was the daughter of Conrad Hamsher, one of the earliest settlers in the town of Sparta. She leaves besides her husband two daughters, Mrs. W. M. Butler of Rochester and Mrs. Walter Dixon of East Bethany, Genesse Co., and three sisters, Mrs. Zerfass of Sparta, Mrs. John Sample of Ossian and Mrs. Jesse Carney of Springwater. Mrs. Johns was for a number of years a resident of this village and moved to Rochester with family about 1880, where Mr. Johns engaged in the drug business. Funeral will be held Saturday at one o'clock from Miss Kiehle's residence on Ossian Street.
(Dansville Express, Dansville NY, Thursday, January 14, 1904)

Mary married George W. Johns about 1850. George (son of David Johns and Jane) was born in 1829 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died in 1904 in Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

DEATH OF MRS. ZERFASS.
Born in Sparta and sha had lived there all Her Life.
Mrs. Julia A. Zerfass, one of the very older residents of the town of Sparta, died at the home of her son Byron A. Zerfass below Cumminsville, early Monday morning, aged nearly 80 years. She was the widow of Henry Zerfass who died in 1895. She was born on the M. Magin farm May 26, 1832, her father and mother Conrad Hamsher and Julia Hughes Hamsher having come into the town from Pennsylvania early in the last century. She was married to Mr. Zerfass fifty-three years ago and had lived in Sparta all her life. She had been sick for more than two years and on the 20th of January 1911 she fell and broke her hip, and she never left her bed after that. She was a member of St. Paul's Lutheran church. Her near surviving relatives are her son Byron A. Zerfass and her sister Mrs. John Sample of Ossian. She was a good woman, and her end was full of peace. Funeral services will be held from the house at three o'clock this afternoon, Rev. M. R. Heilig to officiate.
(Dansville Express, Dansville NY, Thursday, May 9, 1912)

Julia married Henry Zerfass about 1858 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. Henry (son of Abraham Zerfass and Hannah Knause) was born on 26 May 1826; died on 1 Sep 1894 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

MRS. CATHERIN E CARNEY.
Died Thursday and Buried in Carney Hollow Cemetery Sunday
Mrs. Catherine Carney, wife of Jesse Carney of Carney Hollow in the town of Springwater, died at her home last Thursday morning at the age of 73 years and a few months. She was born in town of Sparta, on the farm now owned by James A. Shafer, December 29, 1837, her father who was Conrad Hamsher who married Judith Hughes, then owning the place. Fifty years ago she married Jesse Carney, an enterprising farmer, and they had always lived in the near vicinity. Her death was the first in the family in half a century. Some few years ago she had a severe stroke of paralysis which left her in a precarious condition, but from it she partially recovered, only to be stricken again and again. She was a noble woman, cheerful in disposition, and a helpmeet to her husband who must feel sorely distressed by his bereavement. She is survived by her husband and two sons and two daughters.
Bert and Floyd Carney and Mrs. John E. Rowe of Carney Hollow, and Mrs. Harry Hall of Him rods, besides two sisters Mrs. Julia Zerfass of Sparta and Mrs. John Sample of Ossian. The funeral was held at the house on Sunday and it was attended by many friends, the Rev. Rider of the Evangelical church at Wayland officiating, and she was buried in the Carney Hollow Cemetery.
(Dansville Express, April 21, 1910)

Catherine married Jesse Carney on 17 May 1860. Jesse (son of Joseph Carney and Frances Roberts) was born in 1836; died in 1913; was buried in Pleasant Valley West Cemetery, Springwater, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Carney Hollow.
Erhart Hamsher died at his home in Carney Hollow, Thursday afternoon of inflammation of the bowels. He had been working hard the week previous and it is thought he strained himself. Mr. Hamsher was a son of Conrad Hamsher, one of the old residents of Sparta, and he leaves a wife but no children. Funeral services were held Sunday.

In Memory of Erhart Hamsher

Gone from our home has the father so dear;
Gone, and has left us so lonely here,
While the absent form and vacant chair -
Tell of the sorrow so hard to bear.

Swiftly and sudden the messenger came,
Less than a week of anguish and pain,
Patient and calm the suffering he bore,
Oh! can't it be we shall see him no more?

Down where the waves of the river roll high,
Sadly, and softly, we whispered goodbye,
Over the stream that was darker than night,
Quickly we saw him go out of sight.

Over the stream came the boatman so pale,
Came with a boat and snowy white sail;
Swiftly he bore him over the foam,
Gone has the dear on, gone from our home.

Ne'er to return in his sociable way,
Much we shall miss the kind words he would say.
Lonely and sad is the home that he left.
Ties have been sundered and hearts are bereft.

Soon will the shadows of earth life be passed,
Sorrow and sighing be over at last;
Soon we shall meet in the mansions of day.
Go where our dear ones will ne'er fade away.

(Dansville Express, Dansville NY, Thursday, July 23, 1891)

Erhart married Mary Hartz about 1860. Mary (daughter of Christian Hartz and Margaret Schwingle) was born in Jun 1839 in Springwater, Livingston County, New York; died in 1917; was buried in Pleasant Valley West Cemetery, Springwater, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John Wesley Hamsher. John (son of Henry Hamsher and Rebecca Artman) was born on 12 Mar 1844 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 2 Oct 1917 in Bolivar, Allegany County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Lydia married John Wesley Sample about 1873. John (son of John Sample, Jr. and Lavina Weidman) was born on 26 Dec 1844 in New York; died on 23 Jul 1913 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Philip Traxler. Philip (son of Peter Traxler and Elizabeth Kuhn) was born on 20 Feb 1828 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 02 Jan 1907 in Nunda, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Normal, McLean County in 1874

Catherine married Henry Van Dorn before 1860. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Charles P. Dean. Charles was born in 1841. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In 1881 John was living in Nunda as a farmer with 82 acres. It is
said that he later moved to Nebraska.

John married Ellen Egan in 1868 in Nunda, Livingston County, New York. Ellen was born in 1846 in Livingston County, New York; died on 10 Oct 1882 in Nunda, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Nunda, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Living. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Perry married Mary Jane Covert in 1861. Mary was born in Jul 1832; died on 27 Jan 1904; was buried in Ossian Center Cemetery, Ossian, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married William Henry Hall in 1855. William was born in Dec 1830 in Dansville, Steuben County, New York; died in 1900 in Dansville, Steuben County, New York; was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, Dansville, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Daniel married Harriet M. Holden about 1860. Harriet was born in 1838; died in 1868; was buried in Rogersville Forest Lawn Cemetery, Dansville, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Military Service: 25 Aug 1862, Rochester, Monroe County, New York; American Civil War (US) 8th New York Cavalry Medal of Honor - During the battle of Waynesboro, Virginia, on March 2, 1865, fourteen soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor. Twelve of the fourteen awards were for the capture of flags of the Confederate Army, and two others were for recovery of a captured standard of the Union force. Second Lieutenant Andrew Kuder earned the Medal of Honor for his capture of a flag of the Confederate Army.

Notes:

Andrew served as assessor in Conesus and also for two years as President of the Hemlock Agricultural Society, which to this day still operates a fair that is on the National Registry of Historical Places.

Andrew Kuder, a volunteer of the late war, who rose to the rank of Captain, now a thriving farmer of the border town of Conesus, Livingston County, N.Y. was born in Groveland, near the center of the county, on November 11, 1838. His paternal grandfather, George, came from Germany, and settled in Pennsylvania, where his father, John, was born in 1802. John Kuder, who was a farmer, came to Sparta, N.Y., and from there to Groveland, where he bought a farm of 160 acres of land, upon which he lived for the remainder of his life. He married Miss Catherine Lorish, of Pennsylvania; and six children were born to them, all of whom are still living. The mother has completed her 88th year.

Andrew Kuder, who was the fourth child, was educated in the district schools at Groveland and the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary of Lima. After completing his education, he taught school for one term in Michigan, then returned to New York. In 1862 he enlisted in the Eighth New York Volunteer Calvary as a private, and was in Federal service until the close of the Civil War. Andrew Kuder?s military record was a brilliant one, in which his descendants may feel just pride. He fought through many of the important battles of the war, and was promoted successively to be Corporal, Sergeant, First Lieutenant, and Captain. With the last commission he was discharged, June 27, 1865, at Rochester. He was presented by Congress with a medal of honor for his distinguished bravery during the war. The occasion was his capture of a standard of colors from a division of Jubal Early's raiders in the Shenandoah Valley. The medal specifies the valorous deed for which it was awarded, and is esteemed a family treasure, one to be cherished as an heirloom by future generations of patriotic Kuders.

In the autumn of 1865 Captain Kuder bought the Hitchcock homestead, and married Miss Mary L. Hitchcock, the daughter of Hector and Mary (Loomis) Hitchcock, the former owners of the property. The Hitchcocks are descended from three brothers, who came from Wales to America in 1635, and founded the town of East Haven, Conn. To Captain and Mrs. Kuder three children have been born ? Halcyone, Dwight H. and Katherine.

Captain Kuder is a member of the Masonic Lodge, No. 778, of Livonia Station. He is also a member of Post 382, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he has been a commander. He has always been a Democrat in political creed, and cast his first presidential vote in 1860 for Stephen A. Douglas. He has held the office of Assessor of this town, and wsa President of the Hemlock Agricultural Society for two years. Shortly after he returned from the stirring scenes of warfare, with the memories of drum-beat and buglecall, bivouac and march, still fresh in his mind, he engaged in the peaceful pursuits of husbandry, to which he has since continued to devote himself with intelligent and unwearied activity. A portrait of the true-hearted son of the soil, whose spurs were nobly won in defending the Union, will attract the attention of the reader on another page of the "Review."

From: Biographical Review: The Leading Citizens of Livingston and Wyoming Counties, New York. Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston, 1895, page 490 - 493.


Andrew Kuder:
Enlisted in Company L, New York 8th Cavalry Regiment on 25 Aug 1862.
Promoted to Full 1st Sergeant on 15 Oct 1864.
Promoted to Full 2nd Lieutenant on 01 Nov 1864.
Promoted to Full 1st Lieutenant on 13 Apr 1865.
Promoted to Full Captain on 31 May 1865.
Mustered out on 27 Jun 1865 at Alexandria, VA.

Hartwell B. Compson, Robert Niven, & Andrew Kuder
Waynesboro, VA 03/02/65

BRILLIANT CONDUCT IN A FIERCE BATTLE

LEAVING Winchester, Va., on February 27, 1865, General Sheridan began his march to Petersburg, Va., with the intention of destroying the Central Railroad and James River Canal. General Early with a large Confederate force stood ready to oppose and frustrate, if possible, the expedition, and upon learning of the approach of the Federals went into position at Waynesboro, Va. The two armies clashed March 2d. The rain had been pouring in torrents for two days and the roads were bad beyond description ; nevertheless the Union men seemed tireless, although neither they nor their horses could be recognized for the mud which covered them. General Early had at his disposal two brigades of infantry and some cavalry under General Rosser, the infantry occupying breastworks. General Custer was ordered to attack the enemy and, not wanting the Confederates to get up their courage during the delay that a careful reconnoissance necessitated, made his dispositions for attack at once, sending three regiments around the left flank of the enemy, which was somewhat exposed by being advanced from, instead of resting upon, the bank of the river in his immediate rear. "Our general committed an unpardonable error in posting so small a force with a swollen river in its rear and with its flanks wholly exposed," says a Confederate report of General Early's position. General Custer with two brigades, partly mounted and partly dismounted, at a given signal boldly attacked and impetuously carried the enemy's works, while the Eighth New York and the Twenty-second New York Cavalry formed in columns of fours, dashed over the breastworks and continued the charge through the little town of Waynesboro, the Twenty-second supporting the Eighth New York. The Eighth crossed the South Fork of the Shenandoah River-General Early's rear-where they formed with drawn sabres and held the east bank of the stream. The enemy being now pressed by Custer found their retreat cut off, and, completely disorganized, confused, bewildered, threw down their arms. Amidst cheers and hurrahs the victorious Federals surrounded their brave opponents.
The substantial result of this magnificent victory was the capture of the Confederate General Wharton and some 1,800 officers and men, fourteen pieces of artillery, seventeen battle- flags and a train of nearly two hundred wagons and ambulances, including General Early's headquarters wagon, containing all his official papers and records, 1,500 stands of small arms and 800 team horses and mules.
It was a battle where the Eighth New York Cavalry, under the gallant leadership of Major Hartwell B. Compson, earned undying fame. The major himself performed wonderful feats of bravery and set an example which electrified his men and inspired them to deeds of splendid heroism. At the head of his troops who were selected to make the attack, he charged down the highway into Waynesboro. The enemy had five pieces of artillery in the roadway and had thrown up earthworks on each side of the road ; behind these breastworks infantry was posted. He was at the head of his command with a color-bearer on one side and a bugler on the other, when they struck the Confederate forces and a hand-to- hand fight took place. Just then General Early and his staff moved down their front to direct the movement of the Confederate forces.
Coming upon Early's headquarters battle-flag he ordered the bearer to surrender. A fierce fight at close quarters ensued and finally a heavy blow with the sabre knocked his opponent from his horse and the flag was captured.
Breaking through the Confederates, he moved his forces down towards South River and kept up the charge until he reached the bank. Seeing that the enemy were closing in on his rear and that his support did not come up, he crossed the river and found earthworks thrown up on the opposite side from which the enemy could have prevented their crossing had they occupied them. He at once dismounted his men and placed them in the Confederate earthworks. Then when Custer pressed down upon the rebels they were forced to cross the river, where they were ordered to surrender. The result was that when the battle was over Colonel Compson's command alone had taken 800 prisoners five pieces of artillery, 1,500 stands of small arms and eight battle-flags.
Being needed no longer at the ford, Compson, who had noticed the enemy moving their wagon-trains over the mountains by way of Rock Fish Gap, followed with his regiment, overhauled it and captured everything in sight. It was in this action where Second Lieutenant Robert Niven, of Company H, of the same regiment, had a hot encounter with a body of rebels. "I was ordered to pick out five men from my company," says the lieutenant, " to go ahead as an advance guard and we pressed along the narrow, hilly road, densely lined with woods. By this time the atmosphere was quite foggy. I had gotten far in advance of my comrades when suddenly I found myself right in the midst of a wagon-train composed of about ten wagons and a dozen Confederates, commanded by a lieutenant. With a great show of bravery I ordered them to surrender and promised that every one who attempted to escape would be shot on the spot. But they saw that a one-man order to twelve scattered men was practically worthless, when the bushes around there offered such a good opportunity to get away. Consequently, when the regiment came up I had captured not only three or four prisoners, but also two rebel flags, ten army wagons with mules attached, the lieutenant's horse, and all of General Early's official papers."
Second Lieutenant Andrew Kuder, First Sergeant Charles A. Goheen and Sergeant Daniel Kelly of Company G, and also Corporal Henry H. Bickford and Sergeant James Congdon as well as Private John Miller of this same regiment, the Eighth New York Cavalry, were fortunate enough to capture rebel colors in this grand melee.
Rebel flags were also captured in this battle by Privates Peter O'Brien and Warren Carman, of the First New York Cavalry (Lincoln), and Harry Harvey, George Ladd and Michael Crowley of the Twenty-second New York Cavalry. All of above mentioned were awarded the Medal of Honor.



Died:
He was struck by lightning while at work in the carriage house on his farm in Conesus.

Family/Spouse: Mary L. Hitchcock. Mary (daughter of Hector Hitchcock and Mary Loomis) was born est 1840. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Huldah. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Vienna Zerfass about 1838. Vienna (daughter of Abraham Zerfass and Hannah Knause) was born on 14 Jul 1818 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; died on 28 Mar 1882 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Polly married George Zerfass on 12 Apr 1838. George (son of Abraham Zerfass and Hannah Knause) was born on 28 Jan 1805 in Northampton County, Pennsylvania; died on 19 Jan 1882 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Sarah Shafer in 1850. Sarah (daughter of Jacob Shafer and Anna Wilkinson) was born in 1833 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 1 Jan 1878 in Salt River Twp, Shelby County, Missouri; was buried in Shelbyville Masonic Cemetery, Shelbyville, Shelby County, Missouri. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

DAR member through Adam Zerfass (#18048)

Catherine married Lester Bradner Hammond in Oct 1869. Lester (son of Morgan Hammond and Polly Stout) was born on 10 Oct 1832 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died in Aug 1900 in Duluth, St. Louis County, Minnesota. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Bernice P. Gregory on 25 Jun 1863. Bernice was born in 1840. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Sabina Adelia Johns. Sabina (daughter of George H. Johns and Susan Ann Rau) was born on 28 May 1846 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died in 1911 in Livingston County, New York; was buried in South Sparta Cemetery, Sparta, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

DREISBACH, Monroe A. – Monroe A. Dreisbach died at Duluth, Minnesota from a shock on February 25 at the home of his son, Carl Dreisbach. Deceased was 67 years old and he was a resident of Westfield for 14 years. He was a member of Jemison Lodge, I.O.O.F. of Westfield, and a member of the Rodgersville Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, of South Dansville, N.Y. Mr. Dreisbach was a graduate of Mount Union College of Alliance, Ohio, and received the degrees of A.B. and LL.D. In his young manhood he practiced law in Nevada and was District Attorney of Carson City, Nevada. He was affected by a sunstroke that undermined his health to such an extent that he was obliged to quit the practice of law and he devoted the remaining years of his life to agricultural pursuits. He was a man of broad education and was familiar with six different languages besides history and science. He was an active Odd Fellow and had many warm friends in that order as well as throughout the town. He is survived by one son with whom he was living at the time of his death. He also has twelve grandchildren.
(Free Press. Wellsboro Agitator 5 March 1919)

MONROE A. DRIESBACH, son of Peter and Hannah (Zerfars) Driesbach, is a native of New York State, born in the town of Sparta, Livingston County, April 18, 1845. His parents were of German descent, but the date of the arrival of his ancestors in America takes us back before the days of the American Revolution.
His grandfather, Henry Driesbach, emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1804, and settled in the wilds of New York, in what in now called Genesee Valley, purchasing a large tract of land, some of which still remains in the possession of his descendants. Both the father and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, fought in the defense of their country, one, in the Revolution, for American Independence, and the other, in the war of 1812, and was in the memorable battle of Lundy's Lane. Monroe, our present subject, was brought up on a farm, as the "best man," his mother being a widow for many years. After reaching his majority, he, to satisfy his ambition for learning entered Alliance College, afterward transferred to Mount Vernon College in Ohio, from which he graduated. He then entered the Albany Law School, and graduated with high honors. He was married September 23, 1874, to Helen A. McNair, at Danville, New York. Mr. Driesbach was in the employ of Messrs. A. W. Cootes & Co., Alliance, Ohio, manufacturers of farming implements, as book-keeper, until his departure for Nevada in the spring of 1877. He was elected District Attorney of Ormsby County, Nevada, in 1878. Mr. Driesbach is a resident of Carson City, and is a man much respected by his fellow-townsmen.
(Thompson and West 1881 History of Nevada, page 544 (this is also where the illustration is from))

The (modern day) Carson city DA's office election history for 1878 shows Monroe defeated Trenmor Coffin (also on page 544 of T&W) as a Citizen's Party candidate. Trenmor ran as a Republican. Monroe received 534 votes to Trenmor's 435. Trenmor later became a well known politician in NV. Monroe did not run for reelection in 1880. Republican Horace Bartine was elected over Democrat N. Soderberg. - Clyde Underwood

Monroe and his wife Helen Ann separated while they were in Nevada. Helen Ann returned to NY. Monroe stayed in NV. Their young son Clarence died in 1883 and Helen Ann died in 1884. Their children Carl and Margaret were raised by Helen Ann's brother Hugh McNair and his wife Ida. Note that the obit says Monroe is buried in South Sparta, but he does not appear to be indexed in fag's index for South Sparta - Clyde Underwood

Monroe married Helen Ann McNair on 23 Sep 1874. Helen was born on 1 Aug 1847 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; died on 22 Oct 1884 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Elias Driesbach, was a son of Henry and Lydia Driesbach, and we are sure that in saying he is a worthy son of his highly respected parents, we but utter a truth that is his due. Like his father he is a farmer and no better cultivator of the soil is found in the town of Sparta. Besides this he is one of the largest land owners in that town. His homestead farm where he resides consists of one hundred and thirty-nine acres. It is beautifully situated on elevated land above the magnificent valley of the Canaseraga, which lies in all its beauty in full view of his homestead, stretching far away to the north, until lost in the valley of the Genesee. No finer view than this is found in Western New York. Elias D., was born at Sparta, Feb. 17, 1822. In his youth he was subjected to the trials and hardships incident to a life in a new country, and therefore had few advantages for gaining an education. But he made the best use of those he did have, and obtained a competent common school education-all that was necessary to rank him among the intelligent, successful farmers around him. It is not saying too much that he possesses in a large degree, native sagacity, judgment and discernment. He is a man of much practical ability, order and promptness. His honor and integrity have never been questioned or doubted and his word has always been regarded as good as his bond-which is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, good. In his dealings with men he is upright and just, demanding what is his due, and giving to others their whole due to the last farthing. Until he was twenty-three years of age he lived with his father, and much of his labor was devoted to assisting him on his farm. January 16, 1845, he married Susannah, daughter of Joseph Kidd, of Dansville. She, though now an invalid, is all that a wife and mother should be, kind, affectionate and exemplary. Thus far six children have been born to them, named as follows, Susan Catharine, Lydia Ann, Mary, Rosy, Joseph and Emma. Mr.Driesbach settled on the farm where he now resides, soon after his marriage. He has been very fortunate in his business relations. By successful negotiations and far-sighted enterprise, he has accumulated quite a large fortune. Among his property he owns five hundred and ninety-four acres of valuable land, one hundred and forty acres of which are situated in the town of Springwater and the remainder in Sparta, including the old homestead of seventy acres, purchased by his father. Mr. Driesbach is a member of the Lutheran Reformed church, of Dansville, having united with that congregation many years ago. The old church, which still stands, was erected in 1826, and his father was very active in building it and sustaining the congregation. Mr. Driesbach has, since uniting with the church, been a consistent, influential, devoted, and exemplary member. In politics, like his father, he is a Democrat, strong in the faith of the fathers of that party. While firm in his principles, he still accords the same right to his political opponents, believing in everyone's thinking for himself, and would not, if he could, control any person in his political or religious rights or belief. It is just to Mr. Driesbach to state that in his business relations, in his family and as a citizen, his life and career is certainly an honor to his town and county, and that the pages of this history could not properly be filled without a fair, impartial, and just biography of him.
(History of Livingston County, New York, 1881, by James H. Smith the following biography is written)

1860 census Sparta, Elias Driesbach, ae.39, farming, real estate value $6,950, personal proprety value $2,000. 1870 census for Elias Driesbach, ae.47, reported the value of his real estate as $23,230 and his personal property as $2,770.

Elias married Susanah Kidd on 16 Jan 1845. Susanah (daughter of Joseph Kidd and Catherine Vogle) was born on 13 Dec 1823 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died in 1888 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

In 1860 Henry was living in Sparta with Emmeline Osborn(ae.38), Andrew
Osborn(ae.13), Benjamin Miller(ae.24), and Samuel Barker(ae.20).
Henry was the head of the household and had a farm with a real estate
value of $10,000 and his personal property value was $1,865.
From the History of Livingston County, New York, 1881, by James H.
Smith the following biography is written.
"Henry Driesbach, Jr., was another son of Henry Driesbach, Sr., whose
biography appears in the pages of this work. He was a farmer, and in
the truest sense realized and appreciated the duties, trials and
embarrassments of all agricultural life. It is said by those in
the great book of human nature that all men are born with natural
proclivities for certain business occupations or science. Hence, one
man is a chemist, another an anatomist, another an astronomer, some
are intuitively mechanics and some musicians. Conceding this to be
true, then, we unhesitatingly say that Henry Driesbach was intuitively
a farmer. To him the farm was as natural as the native heath of the
McGregors to Roderick Dhu.
One of the distinguishing features of Livingston county is the
success of its farmers in raising stock. Into this Mr. Driesbach
entered enthusiastically. His judgment in this department was second
to no man's in the county young as he was during the active period
of his business life.
He was born at Sparta, Livingston county, May 9, 1824. He lived
with his father until he was twenty-eight years old. Having attained
that age he decided to commence business for himself. Being of an
independent, self-reliant turn of mind, and determined to be indebted
to no one for whatever success awaited him, he declined to ask his
father for any pecuniary assistance. Trusting to his own intelligence
and business capacity, he purchased on his own account the farm
just north of the village of Dansville called the "Shepard farm."
Without a dollar in the world he entered into speculation. His
self-reliance gave him success, and within a comparatively brief
period of time he stocked his farm, paid for it and brought it to a
very high state of cultivation. As an evidence of his perseverance we
relate the following:
A portion of his farm extended to the bottom of the Canaseraga, and
was accordingly so damp and boggy that it was a common thing to see
cattle almost hopelessly mired in the bogs.
Mr. Driesbach conceived the idea of draining those lands. He
accordingly commenced a system of drainage by underground cause ways
with such success that he soon made the lands perfectly dry, fertile
and productive. Henry Driesbach was a man of uncommon good sense,
thoughtful, candid, honest and direct. He had no platitudes. One
always knew exactly how to take him, and if he gae his word he carried
it out to the letter, as of to the time, place, and everything. He
was a man of very few words, but when he spoke it was to the point.
He was retiring but firm in his convictions, to an extent little
removed from stubbornness. In the midst of activity and usefulness he
was seized by an incurable malady which ended his days while he was in
the prime of manhood, and in the midst of his financial success and
usefulness, he died October 28, 1868, aged 45 years. His knowledge of
the value of farming land was almost unequalled an assessor of the
town of Sparta for a considerable period of time. In politics he was
a Democrat, honest and true to his convictions, but modest and
unassuming in declaring them. He early united with the Lutheran
Reformed Church at Dansville and was in every sense a worthy,
consistent Christian man, observant of all duties and ordinance of the
Church such was Henry Driesbach, Jr., in every sense a man who
commanded the respect and esteem of all who knew him."

Catherine married William Hartman on 25 Apr 1850 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. William (son of John Hartman and Mary Longnecker) was born on 30 Jan 1820 in North Dansville, Livingston County, New York; died on 12 Apr 1890 in North Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Lydia married Lieutenant John H. Galbraith on 9 Feb 1854 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York. John (son of Patrick Galbraith and Elizabeth) was born on 08 May 1826 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 23 Feb 1880 in Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Frederick married Esther Wood on 16 Mar 1869. Esther was born on 12 Feb 1840; died on 26 Apr 1916; was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, Dansville, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Henry married Eunice Faulkner on 24 Dec 1862. Eunice (daughter of William Faulkner and Sarah J. Kilbury) was born on 03 Oct 1844; died on 20 Oct 1922; was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, Dansville, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: George Kidd. George (son of Abram Kidd and Sarah Fronk) was born in 1843 in Livingston County, New York; died on 7 Jan 1938 in Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Living in Sparta in 1880 as a farmer with 81 acres.

Family/Spouse: Mary E. Caton. Mary (daughter of James Caton and Hannah Swarts) was born on 9 Sep 1861 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; died in 1931 in Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

David married Louisa in 1891. Louisa was born in Apr 1874 in New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Laborer, living with Hannah's brother, Abram Hartman's family, in 1850 in Sparta,NY

..death record of his son Henry, 1932, states his father was "Nathaniel Fish" and mother "Hannah Hartman"

Died:
1860 Census Mortality Schedule states that Nathaniel Fish died of 'Spasms' (aged 29 years, farm laborer, married).

Nathaniel married Hannah Ellen Hartman in 1854 in New York. Hannah (daughter of Henry Hartman and Elizabeth Zerfass) was born on 7 Jul 1834 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 13 Feb 1911 in Arenac County, Michigan; was buried in Clayton Cemetery, Maple Ridge, Arenac County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Valentine married Catherine Bale on 24 Sep 1853 in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Catherine (daughter of Nicholas Bale and Elizabeth Hamsher) was born on 01 Jul 1832 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 05 Aug 1866 in Lima Twp, Washtenaw County, Michigan; was buried in Lima Center Cemetery, Lima, Washtenaw County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married James C. Fish in 1852. James was born in Apr 1831 in New York; died on 21 Aug 1919 in Walworth County, South Dakota. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Peter A. Cornbau. Peter was born on 19 Aug 1836; died on 5 Jan 1916 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Sarah married John Mason Howe about 1877. John was born in Apr 1846 in Ontario; died in 1918 in Sanford, Midland County, Michigan; was buried in Jerome Township Cemetery, Sanford, Midland County, Michigan. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Death of James M. Hamsher
James M Hamsher died at the home of Geo. Cornbau on Morse Street, where he had lived the past winter, on Sunday. He was born in Sparta in 1853, his parents being Daniel Hamsher and his mother Harriet Hughes before her marriage, and he had lived for several years in the town of West Sparta. He was a farmer. His wife died in 1899, and he is survived only by two sisters, Mrs. Mary Cornbau of this village and Mrs. John Howe of Sanford, Michigan. Funeral services were held at the house Tuesday afternoon. Rev. Alex Berg of St. Paul's United Lutheran church officiating, and he was buried in Greenmount cemetery.
(Dansville Express, Dansville NY, Thursday, April 19, 1917)

James married Sarah M. Harris on 14 May 1891 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York. Sarah was born in Sep 1844 in St. Lawrence County, New York; died on 30 Jul 1902 in Woodville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/203881736/amariah-steffy

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Dansville, March 29 - James Steffy, an employee of the Dansville & Mount Morris branch of the Erle railroad, was instantly killed about 9 o'clock this morning near the D. & M. station. He was riding on a car filled with ashes that was being taken to Groveland for filling in earth carried away by the recent flood. While the train was in motion a pocket became loose and Mr. Steffy fell through to the track. Aside from a few bruises about the face, he was not cut. Mr. Steffy was about 65 years old leaves his wife, seven grown up children; six sons and a daughter.
(The Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester NY, Saturday, March 30, 1918)

Family/Spouse: Frances Barnes. Frances was born in 1853; died on 10 May 1933 in Tyrone, Schuyler County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Apparently Henry Pickard died between 1872 and 1875 and the three oldest children were then raised by Elizabeth's parents, giving them the name Hartman.
In the 1875 census of Ossian, Elizabeth Pickard and the three children, with the surnames Pickard were living with Abraham and Mary Hartman. I(Andrew) would assume a short time after the 1875 census Abraham, his wife, daughter and
three grandchildren removed to South Dansville. (At the time of this update, I had been unable to obtain the 1880 census of Steuben County to further prove this). April 1998, I have found this family in the 1880 census living in Burns,Allegany Co.,NY; all seems normal, except living next door to the Hartman's and Peasley's is the Elias Kiehle's family and their boarder, Henry Pickard!! So apparently, Elizabeth Hartman and Henry Pickard got divorced about 1875 as the 1880 census shows Allen Peasley, as Abraham Hartmans son-in-law.

Death of Mra. Peasley.
Mrs. Elisabeth Peasley died at her home east of the Lackawanna depot In this town late Monday night at the age of 66 years. She had been ill several months and during the latter part of November she was obliged to give up. She was born on Sandy Hill, the daughter of Abram Hartman, and she was married to Allen Peasley thirty-seven years ago. She had always lived in this vicinity. She is survived by her husband and by three daughters and two sons, Mrs. Milton Holbrook, Mrs. Elizabeth Maynard, Mrs. Ephraim Holbrook, Arthur Peasley and Abram Hartman. The remains were brought to the borne of Milton Holbrook on Main street and funeral services will be held from that place Friday afternoon at two o'clock, Rev. Mr. Heilig officiating, the deceased being s member of St. Paul's English Lutheran church and she will be buried in Greenmount.
(Dansville Express, Thursday December 25, 1913)

Elizabeth married Henry C. Pickard about 1864. Henry (son of William Pickard and Charlotte Monsfield) was born in 1841 in Livingston County, New York; died after 1880. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Elizabeth married Joseph Allen Peasley about 1876 in Michigan. Joseph (son of John Peasley and Mary Guernsey) was born in 1852 in Brookland, Potter County, Pennsylvania; died after 1913. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

1900 census of Abraham and Mary Hartman in Dansville, children born "2" living "1" AND Hamsher genealogy names the daughters as Elizabeth and Agnes.

Family/Spouse: Emma Ruth McNett. Emma (daughter of Alexander McNett and Mary H.) was born on 20 Nov 1867 in Almond, Allegany County, New York; died on 23 Oct 1953 in Port Allegany, McKean County, Pennsylvania; was buried in Fairview Cemetery, Port Allegany, McKean County, Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Funeral Rites Today For John Hamsher
Funeral sendees for John Bernard Hamsher, 70, who died Wednesday night April 7, 1913 in his home in South Main St., after a long illness, will be held in the home at 2:30 p. m. to-day. The Rev. Charles A. Williams, pastor of First Methodist Church, will officiate. Burial will be in Greenmount Cemetery. Mr. Hamsher was born in Sparta and had lived all of his life in this vicinity. Surviving are his widow, Maude; two daughters, Mrs. Howard Robards and Mrs. Winfield Fowler, both of Dansville; one son Raymond Hamsher, Dansville; two step-daughters, Mrs. Minnie Gardner and Mrs. Helen Salinger, both of Rochester; one step-son, Arthur Muck of Bath and two sisters, Mrs. Sarah Steffy and Mrs. Bert Caton, both of Dansville, and six grandchildren.
(Dansville Breeze, Saturday, April 10, 1943)

Family/Spouse: Mary M. Holbrook. Mary (daughter of James Martin Holbrook and Julia Elizabeth Sterner) was born on 3 Feb 1876 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; died on 10 Jan 1930 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Abbie E. Phillips on 27 Feb 1930 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York. Abbie was born on 26 Mar 1876 in Greenwood, Steuben County, New York; died on 2 Oct 1935; was buried in Heritage Hill Cemetery, Arkport, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Maude Naylon about 1940. Maude was born in 1873 in Avon, Livingston County, New York; died in 1953 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Wayland Village Cemetery, Wayland, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Sarah married Eri Gee in 1889. Eri (son of Thomas Miles Gee and Betsey Lucinda Mead) was born on 26 Jul 1868 in Lawrenceville, Tioga County, Pennsylvania; died on 6 Nov 1949 in Horseheads, Chemung County, New York; was buried in Townsend-Erwin Cemetery Erwin, Steuben County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Sarah married George Byron Steffy in 1901. George (son of James Andrew Steffy and Frances Barnes) was born on 8 May 1875 in Sparta, Livingston County, New York; died on 19 Aug 1937 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, North Dansville, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Dansville Breeze
Dansville, Livingston County, New York.
April 19, 1960

Mrs. Lydia Caton Dead at 84, Funeral Service Held Yesterday

A funeral service was conducted in the Chamberlin Funeral Home yesterday afternoon for Mrs. Lydia Caton who died in her home at 71 Perine St. Thursday (Apr. 14, 1960).

Mrs. Caton, 84, was the widow of Bert Caton. She was born in Allegany County and had resided in Dansville for the past 42 years.

Surviving are a son, Bert Caton Jr. of Dansville; a daughter, Mrs. Charles Perry of Dansville, a step-daughter, Mrs. Charles Nichols of Rochester; 18 grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

The Rev. Bertram M. Croop, pastor of the Methodist Church, officiated and burial was is Kidd Cemetery, Dansville.

Lydia married Birdsall Burtis Caton in ca 1884. Birdsall (son of James Caton and Hannah Swarts) was born in 1866 in North Dansville, Livingston County, New York; died on 18 May 1959 in Dansville, Livingston County, New York; was buried in Pleasant Valley West Cemetery, Springwater, Livingston County, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Mr. Welch. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]