Miller, Faber b. 1905

Maria Anna Kryder b. 1770

/ Kirstin Miller

Maria Anna Kryder 5th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Maria Anna Kryder was born in 1770 in Berks County, Pennsylvania to John & Anna Fuchs or Fox, the 2nd of 5 kids. In 1790 Maria married Johann Fryberger and by 1800 Maria and Johann had 3 kids and were on the census in Centre County, about 147 miles west of Berks County, PA. In 1810 Maria and Johann had 7 kids and lived on a farm in the same area. Maria’s brother John and his family were nearby.

The 1820 US census has Maria with Johann and kids in Stark County, Ohio. Along with Maria’s brother John Kryder and family and hundreds of others from Pennsylvania they moved 200 miles further west to Stark, OH. Maria’s parents and other siblings stayed in Pennsylvania. Maria’s daughter Elizabeth Fryberger married Henry Miller. Their son Peter Miller and his wife Esther moved 700 miles further west to Bremer County, Iowa, their great grandson was Faber Miller my grandpa.

Miller, Wm bio with mom

Elizabeth, daughter of Maria and Johann 

Maria was a widow in 1845, she was 75 years old. Maria lived to age 81 she died in 1851. Both she and Johann are buried at Maplegrove Mennonite Cemetery in Hartville, Stark County, Ohio, USA.

Sources

Andrew Malone and Mary b. 1775

/ Kirstin Miller

Andrew Malone 5th great grandpa on RoostMagic tree

Andrew Malone was born about 1775 in Pennsylvania, Mary was born about the same time and probably near the same place. They married around 1795. Mary’s last name and parents are unknown. The 1820 census shows Andrew and Mary lived in Washington Township, Franklin County, PA about 40 miles northwest of Baltimore  They lived in Franklin County until 1828 or 1829 when the family moved west. Andrew and Mary were in their 50s, their kids were in their 20s, 30s. Maybe a son or daughter in law joined the journey. If the family drove their horse and wagon 10 miles every day the 258 mile journey to Stark, Ohio would have taken about 35 days.

Families moving west in the 1800s dealt with some things. Once they arrived at their new home, “earlier settlers … were confronted with two sets of problems: the one concerned with shelter, food, health, and protection – things vital and immediate … the other with ownership of land, transportation, and currency – things necessary for his economic advancement … Without the successful solution to the first, there was little need to worry about the second”.

In Stark County, Ohio, the Malone family joined an already established  community of German American  farmers from Pennsylvania. Their Ohio neighbors may have been their same Pennsylvania neighbors: Bair, Fryberger, Harter and Miller families. The community stepped up, pitched in, helped out to make the move easier for the new arrivals.

Andrew and Mary’s children married and had families in Stark. Their daughter Margaret married George Bair, grandparents of Fianna Druckenbrod who with her husband William Miller moved further west to  Bremer County Iowa.

Malone, 1850 Ohio

1850 US census Stark, Ohio

The 1850 US census shows Andrew lived with daughter Margaret, her husband George Bair and their young family. Every person on the census page is born in Germany, Pennsylvania or Ohio. Most are farmers, with  a blacksmith, carpenter and a couple laborers.

Sources

  • Pennsylvania, Septennial Census, 1779-1863 at Ancestry
  • United States Census, 1850 at FamilySearch

John Fryberger b. 1767

/ Kirstin Miller

John Fryberger 5th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

John or Johann was born in 1767 in Pennsylvania to Ludwig and Anna Betty Fryberger. John was probably confirmed in Bern Church on October 22, 1786. The 1790 census in Berks County, PA shows John’s mom Widow Fryberger, John’s brother Jacob Fryberger as John’s neighbors. The widow had 3 children in her home. Jacob had a spouse and 4 kids, John was still single. John married Anna Maria Kryder on July 11, 1795 in Pennsylvania. John and Anna had at least 8 children. By 1820 the family had followed hundreds of other German Americans from Pennsylvania farm country to Ohio. The 1820 and 1830 censuses show John and family living in Stark County, Ohio. John and his sons were farmers, landowners. In 1814 John’s daughter Elizabeth married Henry Miller, their son Peter would move to Bremer County Iowa and have a son William whose daughter Lola married another William Miler they were parents of Faber Miller.

John lived to age 78, he died in 1845. He was buried in Maplegrove Mennonite Cemetery in Hartville, Stark County, Ohio. The cemetery no longer exists, “the cemetery was removed, at least 20 years ago, when an addition and parking lot were added to the church.” This is written, no date at John’s Find a Grave memorial. John’s wife and daughter Elizabeth Fryberger Miller are also buried there.

Long after John was gone his grandson John was in The farm journal rural directory of Stark County, Ohio, published in 1915. Photos in the directory show how ancestor farm families lived at the time. And directly above John Fryberger entry is Zenas Fry, another farmer in the area, originally from Pennsylvania. Zenas married Mandana Miller, she was the granddaughter of Henry and his wife Elizabeth Fryberger Miller.

Sources

  • 1790 United States census database at FamilySearch
  • Pennsylvania, Church Records – Adams, Berks, and Lancaster Counties, 1729-1881 at Ancestry
  • Pennsylvania, Septennial Census, 1779-1863 at Ancestry
  • The farm journal rural directory of Stark County, Ohio at Archive.org

John Kryder b. 1736

/ Kirstin Miller

John Kryder 6th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

John or Johann was born in France, Germany or Pennsylvania on or around April 22, 1736, sources vary. By 1767 he was definitely in Pennsylvania where he married Ann Maria Fuchs or Fox. John and Ann had at least 5 children born between 1768 and 1775 in the area of Lancaster, PA.

John and family were part of the German American Pennsylvania community. During the American Revolution they were in the Big Runaway of 1778: “The Big Runaway was a mass evacuation in June and July 1778 of settlers from the frontier areas of what is now north central Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War.” The locals knew of the dangers because of the war, had requested aid: rifles, armed men from the Continental Congress, none of it arrived in time. So everyone fled with livestock and whatever possessions they could carry. Books and movies could be made about this one event, it’s huge and lasted through 1779 when the American gov’t committed more aid to “security of the frontier”.

Kryder John bacon and beef soldJohn sold bacon and beef to the Continental Army during the American Revolution. His neighbor George Marquart had the mutton and Jacob Yeiser provided the brandy. At some point John fought in the American Revolution. There’s no military records yet, but his headstones recognize his service in the American Revolution and the French Indian Wars. John has a headstone probably original from his death in 1803 and then a newer marker which his descendants set out out in 1994.

Sources

Margaret Malone b. 1818

/ Kirstin Miller

Margaret Malone 4th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Margaret was born in Pennsylvania on June 30, 1818, the daughter of Andrew and Mary Malone. By 1830 the Malone family was in Stark County, Ohio. On the 1830 US census Margaret’s family shows a total of 6 people. Before 1850 only men’s names were recorded, women and children in the home were tick marks. The 1830 census has Andrew and Mary Malone with 4 kids, a son 20-29, Margret and another daughter 10-14 and a daughter 15-19. No names or information for any of Margaret’s siblings yet.

In Ohio on March 24, 1836 Margaret married George Bair. George’s family was also from Pennsylvania and moved to Ohio in 1805. Ohio’s population was 45,000 in 1800 then 1.4 million in 1840 with lots of German Americans coming to Ohio from PA. Margaret and George Bair had 5 kids: 4 daughters and a son. Their oldest child Elizabeth Harter Bair married Samuel Druckenbrod whose daughter Fiana Druckenbrod lived with her grandparents for at least one year. Fianna married William Miller in Ohio and they moved to Bremer County, Iowa where their daughter Lola married another William Miller and had a son Faber Miller.

Bairs, Malone, Millers, Kryders in Plain Ohio.

Margaret and George, their neighbors the Bairs, Kryders, Millers

Margaret and George farmed. An 1870 atlas of Stark County show Margaret and George’s land, surrounded by relatives all around. Close neighbors left to right: J and WL Miller, JM Kryder, Franklin Bair, JH Bair, JS Miller and George Bair and Margaret’s land at bottom right.

George and Margaret are both buried at Saint Jacobs Lutheran Cemetery, in Stark County. They share a headstone. Margaret died in 1894, 2 years after her husband.

Sources

Catherine Kryder b. 1775

/ Kirstin Miller

Catherine Kryder 4th great aunt on Roots Magic tree

Catherine was born May 8, 1775 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to John and Anna Maria Fuchs/Fox Kryder. Parents John and Anna both migrated from Germany and married, raised their family in Lancaster, PA, “By 1775, Germans constituted about one-third of the population of the state.” [At Wikipedia with sources.] Catherine was the youngest in the Kryder family. Her older sister Anna Maria married Johann Fryberger and they left for Ohio where their daughter Elizabeth married Henry Miller and their son Peter moved on to Bremer County, Iowa where his son William had a daughter Lola, mom of Faber Miller.

Catherine’s parents and siblings and her husband and children are recorded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mennonite Vital Records, 1750-2014. These are individual index cards, 1000s of cards, typed up to track local family histories. The cards are part of the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, still in Lancaster, PA right next door to the Tanger Outlet Center. Mennonites are/were an Anabaptist group committed to peace and pacifism, following the ministry of Jesus. Mennonites were named for Menno Simons of Friesland, Netherlands who was a contemporary of Martin Luther and other Protestant leaders. A person could spend months learning about the history of and current Mennonite religion.

Back in PA, Catherine married Michael Hess in 1795. Catherine and Michael had 11 kids, 9 stayed in Pennsylvania, son Benjamin left for Kansas, daughter Anna left for Illinois. Michael was a soldier in the American Revolution. The only record, so far, of his service is a veteran’s burial index. One of his soldier benefits may have been the chance to buy land. In 1818 Michael bought 100 acres of unimproved land from the US gov’t at 10 pounds per acre. Michael and Catherine with their family and, probably, helpful neighbors would have turned this unimproved land into a homestead and farm, with their hands and tools, machinery of the 1800s. They would have built up a house, barns, fences, water wells, chairs, beds and hundreds of other things.

Catherine and Michael’s family are connected through marriage with other Miller relatives: Bair, Druckenbrod and Harter- families that started in Pennsylvania, moved on to Ohio, then on to Iowa. Catherine and Michael are buried at Stover Cemetery in Aaronsburg, Pennsylvania, an older country cemetery.

Sources

Pleasant Davis and Sarah Horton b. 1790

/ Kirstin Miller

Pleasant Davis and Sarah Horton, are most likely, 4th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree.

Pleasant Davis and Sarah Horton were both born in Virginia around 1790. They married on September 9, 1806 in Virginia. Pleasant fought in the War of 1812: 87th Regiment, Virginia Militia, he was a private. An Indiana death certificate for daughter Susan Davis Black has both Peasant Davis and Sarah Horton on the record. Proving Sarah Davis -great grandma of Faber Miller- is their daughter has no factual records but has some probable records. There is the book ‘A tabulation of the descendants of Joseph Horton : a soldier of the American Revolution’ a published family history with reference to Horton Davis who went to Iowa- probably Sarah Davis’s brother. Also there is a family history compilation, not quite a book, some of it shared on Ancestry, that may be the reason Florence Miller, sister of Faber, and Ellen Mitchel 1st cousin 1x removed of Faber and Florence, wrote up notes on their ancestors to share with the person working on the family history, way before online family history existed. And Sarah Davis and Jacob Miller named sons: James Davis, Horton and Pleasant Miller; common to carry on family names, maiden names of mothers. 

Burdine's letter

Sources

Jacob Miller and Mary Stephenson b. 1771

/ Kirstin Miller

Jacob Miller and Mary Stephenson on RootsMagic tree

Jacob Miller was born in 1771 in Monroe, Virginia. Mary Stephenson was born in 1772 in Virginia. They share a single record, their marriage on July 2,1802 in the commonwealth of Virginia. Jacob’s dad Jacob and Mary’s dad Samuel gave permission for the marriage and signed the marriage certificate. The Miller, Stephenson, Pleasant Davis and Horton families were all connected in Virginia, then Ohio. Jacob and Mary’s son Jacob married Sarah Davis. Sarah Davis Miller’s mom’s family is the Horton family and they have a published family history that may give more clues to Jacob Miller and Mary Stephenson of Virginia.Miller, Jacob Sr marriage 1802

Their wedding record, “Know all men by these presents that we Jacob Miller and Samuel Stephenson are hold and firmly bound into James Monroe, Esq gov’r of the commonwealth of Virginia and his supervisors in sum of 150 dollars with condition that there is no lawful cause to obstruct a marriage intended to be solemnized between the said Jacob Miller and Mary Stephenson of this county and that this obligation to be void otherwise to be, and remain in full force and virtue sealed with our seals and dated this third day of July eighteen hundred and two. Jacob Miller , his mark and Saml Stephenson.”

Sources

  • West Virginia Marriages1780-1970 database at FamilySearch
  • Public Ancestry photo “Nicole Meruvia originally shared this on 09 Jan 2012”

John Howard Montgomery b. 1887

/ Kirstin Miller

John Howard Montgomery 1st cousin 4x removed on RootsMagic tree

John was born December 3, 1887 in Minneapolis. He was the son of Anson and Bertha Wait Montgomery. Howard, John’s middle name, was his paternal grandma’s maiden name. John, his parents and brother Tracy Wait Montgomery lived in Minneapolis where Anson was a printer,  then by 1910 they were in Butterfield, Missouri. John graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in Education and French language. In 1913, 1924, 1927, 1929 and 1932 he sailed to France for the summer. In 1918 he started his teaching career at Mercersburg Academy a private school in Pennsylvania, it’s still there. He taught French and was head of the French department when he retired after 40 years and moved to Madrid, Spain.

1939 yearbook photo with autograph

J. H. Montgomery 1939 yearbook photo with his autograph

He lived in Spain for a couple years then died June 17, 1960, he was 72 and had heart disease and maybe lung disease. The Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974, a record at Ancestry is a sixteen page document verifying his death and burial and listing his possessions. His inventory included a pocket watch, a pocket knife, an Olivetti “22” portable typewriter, a Philips radio-record player and a family photo.

John is buried in Madrid at Saint Isidore Cemetery, Cementerio de la Sacramental de Santa Maria, Patio de la Concepcion, Section 8, row 4, No. 10 is written on his death record. The cemetery has an incredible history and is “one of Europe’s most interesting graveyards”. The lion photo is one of thousands of headstones or sculptures at the cemetery.

Lion, Saint Isidore Cemetery, Google Maps

Lion, Saint Isidore Cemetery, Google Maps, photo by Horacio Montana San Roman, image capture: May 2019

Sources

  • New York, Passenger and Crew Lists 1820-1957
  • Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974 at Ancestry
  • U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 at Ancestry
  • United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925 at FamilySearch
  • United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 at FamilySearch
  • Saint Isidore Cemetery at Wikipedia
  • Sacramental Cemetery of San Isidro in Madrid 
  • Photo of lion  at Saint Isidore Cemetery Google Maps, photo by Horacio Montana San Roman, image capture: May 2019

 

Samuel Druckenbrod and Maria Menser b. 1805

/ Kirstin Miller

Samuel  Druckenbrod and Maria Menser 4th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree

Samuel was born May 5, 1805 in Warwick Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Maria Menser was born around the same time, in the same area. Samuel and probably Maria’s family were in America by 1750, from Germany. Warwick, PA is in between Allentown and Philadelphia. Penn-sylvania “Penn’s Woods” was founded by William Penn, no relation, on land Penn received from King Charles II to pay debts the king owed Penn’s dad. William Penn helped German citizens to migrate to America and Pennsylvania was home to 100,000 German Americans between 1683 – 1783.

Samuel and Mary married on June 12 1825 at a German Reformed church in Warwick. The Warwick church record book was written in English and German languages. Samuel and Maria had 6 children and four sons were baptized in this same Warwick church: Allen, Andreas, Daniel and Samuel Druckenbrod Jr.  Samuel Jr., born May 6 1834, is the dad of Fianna who married William Miller, their daughter Lola is the mom of Faber who married Gladys.

Druckenbrod 1850 cenus

Samuel and Maria or Polly, their family 1850 census

By 1850 Samuel, Maria and their family with groups of other Pennsylvania families traveled to Stark County, Ohio. “The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 linked the east to the west … Ohio’s population increased from 45,000 in 1800 to over 2 million in 1850, including many German-speakers from Pennsylvania.”

Samuel and his four older sons were all farmers. Bair, Essig, Harter, Kryder and Miller families were neighbors, all ancestors of Faber in the future. Maria died around 1864, Samuel remarried, Mary Moonshower was his 2nd wife. Samuel died on August 20, 1883 at age 78. Cause of death was heart disease.

Sources