lived on a farm

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

Thomas Glenn b. 1766

/ Kirstin Miller

Thomas Glenn, my 4th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Thomas Glenn was born on March 4, 1766 in Pennsylvania. His parents were Thomas and Elizabeth, newly discovered ancestors, maybe from Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland, not a lot of facts and records yet. His dad most likely came to America with others from Ireland at the beginning of the Irish Potato Famine.

Thomas Glenn married Jane Bromfield on May 12, 1789 in Cumberland, Pennsylvania at the Presbyterian church. Thomas and Nancy probably had 10-12 children and farmed in Island Creek, Jefferson County, Ohio. Thomas fought in the War of 1812, a major in Andrews Regiment, Ohio Militia.

There was a cholera epidemic in Ohio that began in 1830. Both Thomas and his daughter Elizabeth died of cholera. Thomas was 82, Elizabeth was 55. Thomas is buried at Island Creek Cemetery in Toronto, Jefferson County, Ohio, in the “Pioneer Section”.

The 1850 US census mortality schedule database proving Thomas and Elizabeth’s deaths is little morbid but packed with family history information and at the bottom, a note of about the crops, land soil and cholera in the area. “The above township is well adapted to raising wheat crop, oats and indeed almost kind of product common to this country. The land is rolling but little broken rich and fertile soil mostly limestone. Wheat and apple crop … in 1849 of the farmers … our third crops better … the cholera carried off many of the citizens in 1849” Some of the note is unreadable.

Glenn, Thomas and Elizabeth 1850 mortality schedule
Thomas Glenn and daughter Elizabeth Speedy 1850 mortality schedule


Sources

  • Ohio Tax Records, 1800-1850 at FamilySearch
  • United States War of 1812 Index to Service Records at FamilySearch
  • United States Census (Mortality Schedule), 1850 at FamilySearch

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

William Stewart and Jenny White b. 1776

/ Kirstin Miller

William and Jenny White Stewart 4th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree

William’s will, his Find a Grave memorial and a letter are all the records for William and Jenny. Both were probably born in Pennsylvania about 1776, then married around 1796 and probably farmed in Allegheny County, PA. Jenny and William had at least 5 kids: sons John and William and 3 daughters, names unknown, all mentioned in William’s will. Son John stayed in Pennsylvania and his sons Alexander and Henry were in the Civil War. Son William married Elizabeth Crooks, their daughter Elizabeth Stewart is the mom Harve and great grandpa of Elizabeth Speedy.

John’s son Henry wrote a letter to his cousins Harve and Ernest Speedy. Henry was a genealogist and was working on his Stewart family tree. He shared his info with his cousins, not sure what his cousins shared back with him.

Stewart, Henry letter to Harve Dec 31 1939

Stewart, Henry letter to Harve Speedy Dec 31 1939

William wrote his will May 7 1813 in Moon Township, Allegheny County, PA. The will names John and William and 3 daughters, names not given, one is probably Francella or Francina. Part of the will, handwritten 3 pages: My body I commit to the dust and my soul unto god who gave it me as to my worldly substance that God has been pleased to bestow me I divide in the manner following. I leave and bequeath unto my well beloved wife Jenny Stewart one of my houses and she is to have her choice of them. -William leaves his wearing apparel and books to his children, at the discretion of his wife. Except the large Bible which he leaves to son William. John receives a saddle. All the remaining is offered up for sale, as his family thinks proper.

William has a Find a Grave memorial at Clinton UP Cemetery- most likely that’s his burial place. Jenny White Stewart’s death and burial place are unknown, it’s likely she remarried.

Sources

Mattie Frerichs b. 1911

/ Kirstin Miller

Mattie Frerichs 2nd great aunt on RootsMagic tree.

Mattie Frerichs was born November 4, 1911 in Butler County, Iowa. She was the youngest Enno and Annie Henrichs Frerichs’s 10 children, their births spanned 20 years from 1891 to 1911. On the Butler County, Iowa 1920 census Mattie was 9 years old and living with her parents and siblings: Sena (Cazina), Martena, Etta, John and Enno Jr. Mattie’s older brother George and sisters Mary, Kate and Flora were married with children and Mattie was an aunt to at least 3 nieces and nephews including Stanley b. 1915, son of Mary Frerichs and George Roose.

Frerichs, Mattie and Hilko Janssen 1936 marriage (1)

After high school Mattie graduated from Iowa Teachers College and taught in rural Iowa schools. On November 25, 1936 she married Hilko Janssen at the Lutheran church in Clarksville, Iowa. Mattie’s sister Sena and husband Hubert Ressler were attendants at the wedding.

Mattie and Hilko farmed and had 3 children. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary November 23 1961 at St James Lutheran Church in Allison, Iowa with a program presented by their nieces and nephews and a reception.

Mattie died on January 30 1984 at age 72. She and Hilko are both buried at Allison Cemetery. Hilko lived another 13 years, he died in 1997. In July 1995 he was in the Clarksville Star newspaper remembering the annual Butler County Fair. In 1995 Hilko was attending the fair for the 80th year in a row and remembered his first fair in 1916 when he walked a mile to the fairgrounds and bought an ice cream cone for 10 cents.

Sources

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

Asa Angell b. 1771

/ Kirstin Miller

Asa Angell 5th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

Asa Angell was the 4th child of Israel and Martha Angell, born  August  24, 1771 in Providence, Rhode Island. Asa grew up during the American Revolution, his dad was a Colonel in the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment  and probably came home with stories of the war.

Asa married Cynthia Hill in 1794 and they moved to New Berlin NY. From the Genealogy of Thomas Angell book, “Asa, Abner and Israel Angell, sons of Col. Israel, went to the State of New York, and settled in the town of New Berlin, Chenango Co., where they purchased farms. A cousin of theirs, who has visited them, reports that their descendants are numerous. We are told that the family of Dexter Angell have in their possession the gold medal awarded by Gen. Lafayette, to Col. Israel Angell. We know less of the descendants of Asa, than of either of the other brothers.” Asa’s son Dexter may have had his grandpa’s gold medals for awhile, with him in Indiana and New York, today they’re at the Rhode Island Historical Society.

Asa and Cynthia stayed in New Berlin and had 8 children. Asas was a farmer and a cooper- he made big wooden barrels, casks, kegs. Asa’s children Betsy, Lewis and Henry all stayed in the NY area, Adeline died young. Oldest son Dexter Angell went further west, to Indiana. Two of Dexter’s children, Charles and Delia, went to Iowa where their aunt, Asa’s sister, Mehitable Angell Wilkinson was living. Delia married William Flood they had a son Asa and are the great grandparents of Elizabeth Speedy. Angell, Asa and family

Sources