Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, Part 60

Author: Floyd, J.L., & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, J. L. Floyd & Co.
Number of Pages: 1024

USA > Pennsylvania > Northumberland County > Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 > Part 60

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· the first officers of the congregation and among its

. John Stahl, a native of Germany, born Aug. leading members ever afterward. In Northumber- 18, 1741, came to America when a young man, land county he married Elizabeth B. Eshbach. who was born Dec. 15, 1776, daughter of Johannes Eshbach (1747-1815) and his wife Catharine (1749-1831). Mrs. Stahl died March 9, 1844, the mother of the following children: Thomas died young; William died in infancy; George is men- tioned below : Mary married Henry Hill and died when over eighty years old : Elizabeth, born March 9, 1811, died March 17, 1844: Catharine, born Oct. 11, 1816, died May 10, 1844, unmarried; Sarah married Samuel Stahl and died about one year after her marriage. and lived for some years in Northampton county, Pa. He was one of many signers of a petition addressed to the Honorable Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania relative to conflicting civil and military laws then existing. The petitioners were from Northampton county, which was the early home of John Stahl in this country, as stated, and the same volume of the Pennsylvania Archives in which the foregoing is recorded shows (page 190) that he was captain of the 6th Company of the ?d Battalion from Northampton county ; (page 359) that he was captain of the 5th Company, George Stahl, son of Johann Philip, was born on the farm where he afterward made his home, and received his education in the local public schools. Though his advantages were limited, he received a practical foundation and being an in- telligent inan became well informed. He followed farmning all his life, dying at his old home in 1894, and the present set of buildings on the place were put up by him. He was quite active in the affairs of his day, being a supporter of the Demo- cratic party in political matters and a member of the Reformed Church on religious questions. orderly sergeant: served six years as school di- rector, was supervisor and township treasurer, and a nsetul man generally in his community. He was an earnest worker in the Paradise Church. serving as deacon, elder and trustee, and was a man of high Christian character, respected by all Associators, of Militia of Northampton county, which was part of the 4th Battalion from Sept. 18 to Nov. 18, 1780; (page 29) that he was sec- ond lieutenant of Capt. John Roberts' 5th Com- pany, 1st Battalion of Northampton county Mil- itia. In Volume IV, page 349, John Stahl, cap- tain, is mentioned among soldiers of the Conti- nental Line who received depreciation pay : in Vol- ume VI, page 8, he is mentioned in the muster roll of Cumberland county militia, in 1722. as of Capt. Thomas Askey's Company. It is known that he served as quartermaster and recruiting officer, He served in the State militia, in which he was was with the army at Valley Forge during the memorable winter of hardship and at the cross- ing of the Delaware, Christmas night, 1726. Being a skilled mechanic, a gun and blacksmith, his serv- ices were often valuable in repairing implements of war during the Revolution, and he had as many as twenty men working under him at one time, who knew him. His grandfather, John Stahl, in

engaged in making guns for use in that war. His son. Philip had one of these guns. After the war he (having already married ) moved to Northum- berland county, Pa., where he took up four hundred acres of land in what is now Lewis (then Turbut) township. He died Feb. 27, 1809, and is buried in

company with Michael Koons and John Deiffen- bacher, had purchased two acres of ground from, John Christ for the sum of fifteen pounds, and on that plot the first church of the congregation was erected in 1808.

On. May 2, 1843, Mr. Stahl married Eliza- the old Fullmer Church graveyard. His wife, beth Deshler, who was born in Northampton coun- Elizabeth, born in 1746, died in September. 1832. They were the parents of the following children ty Sept. 26, 181%. daughter of JJacob Deshler, of Northampton county, who came to Northumber- of whom we have record: Jacob, born Feb. 16, land county in the early thirties: his wife was 1776, who died Sept. 3. 1796: Johann Philip, born Dec. 17, 1781, who died March 24. 1832: and John George, born June 11, 1791, who died Aug. 4, 1820. The son John settled in Niagara county, New York. a Hower. Mrs. Stahl died Jan. 16, 1860. She and her husband had the following named chil- dren : William .J., of Union county, Pa., who mar- ried Sarah Watt and had two children, one being Edwin (living in Indiana) ; Thomas P .. unmar- : Johann Philip Stahl, son of John, born Dee. ried, who lives at MeEwensville, Pa. : Mary E., 17, 1781, in Northampton county, Pa., was a life- unmarried. of Aaronsburg. Pa .: Levi H .: Edwin long farmer, and died in 1832. He came to North- O., born March 4, 1850, of MeEwensville, who

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married Mary A. Mengis (born June 21, 1861, died Dec. 9, 1895) and had four children; John O., who died in 1862, aged eleven years, and David F., who died in 1862, aged nine years, both dying of diphtheria; and George Calvin.

LEVI H. STAHL was born March 5, 1849, on the Stahl homestead in what was Turbut town- ship, and received his education in the old sub- scription schools of the locality. He was an en- thusiastic student, took a leading part in the old- fashioned spelling bees of the day, and by steady application improved himself materially. He served as a supply teacher in his neighborhood. He was reared to farming and also acquired a practieal knowledge of wood working. In 1888 Mr. Stahl went to farming on his own account in Delaware township, on one of his wife's grand- father's farms, living there for three years, since when he has been a farmer in Lewis township. In 1908 he settled at his present home, a farmi of 100 acres formerly the homestead of Samuel Menges who settled there in 1832 and made his home there until 1841. Mr. Menges then moved to an adjoining farm, to the east, where he died. Many ludian relies have been found on Mr. Stalil's place, among them two Indian mills of which he has retained possession. He is serving at present as one of the auditors of his township, and was a member of the road board when the new law came into existence. Politically he is a Democrat, and he is a prominent member of the Lutheran Church at Turbutville, to which his fam- ily also belong; he has been a member of the church council since 1898.

In 1881 Mr. Stahl married Kate L. Menges, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Smith ) Menges, and . they have had four children : Nellie, who is mar- ried to Oliver Rissel and has three children, Edith L., Lee F. and Myron L .; Ramah T .; Rosa E .; and Frank P.

Adam Stahl, a native of Northampton county, Pa., became a pioneer settler in Union county, this State, in that part now embraced in Snyder coun- ty. He had a farm in Union township, three miles west of Port Treverton, near Keiser's Church, and besides farming distilled applejack and rye whis- key. He died at an advanced age, late in the fit- ties, and is buried in the cemetery at Keiser's Church. He and his wife were Lutherans in re- ligious faith. He is remembered as a venerable old man, with long white hair hanging down over his shoulders. His children were: Benjamin and Jacob, both of whom settled in Ohio: Daniel, who settled on the homestead farm ; Frederick, who set- tled, on a farm adjoining the homestead ; John. who settled on a farm adjoining the homestead ; Mrs. Jacob Sholly : Mrs. Dieter Heintzleman; and Mrs. Simon Sholly.

John Stahl, son of Adam, was born in 1814 in

what is now Snyder county, and received the lim- ited educational advantages there afforded in his boyhood, but as soon as old enough to be of any use he was put to work helping to clear the land and get it under cultivation. The winters were oc- cupied in pulling stumps and other work for which there was no time in the summer season, so he had little opportunity to attend even such indifferent schools as were conducted in the neighborhood at that time. But he prospered by industry and owned his own farm. He died July 12, 1879, and is buried in the cemetery at Keiser's Church. He and his family were Lutherans in religion. He married Mary Shotzberger, daughter of Jon- athan Shotzberger, and she preceded him to the grave, dying July 12, 1868, aged fifty years. All of the seven children born to them survive: Elias.' S., of Selinsgrove, Pa .; Levi, who lives on his father's homestead at Ver- dilla. Snyder county; William. who lives two and a half miles west of Selinsgrove, in Penn township, Snyder county ; Hannah, widow of William Krebs, living at Wyoming, Del .; Aaron S. ; Ecah, who married John Aucker and lives near Keiser's Church; and Hiram, who lives near Thompson, in Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania.

AARON S. STAHL, son of John, was born Oct. 4, 1849, in Snyder county, Pa., was reared to farm life and educated in the local public schools. At the age of twenty he went to learn shoemaking, to which trade he devoted all his attention for the next thirteen years, in Freeburg, Snyder county. He learned the business thoroughly, becoming a skillful mechanic, able to turn out all kinds of footwear, and made many gaiter shoes in the days of their popularity. Wooden shoe pegs were in general use at the time he took up the work, but he kept abreast of the progress of the times and improved his products whenever possible, taking out patents of his own and showing a spirit of en- terprise throughout his connection with the busi- ness. He did repairing and had a good trade for custom work, making boots for which he received from six to fourteen dollars. After giving up the shoe business Mr. Stahl farmed for a time, and then for five years conducted the "Mount Pleasant Hotel." At the end of that time he removed to Shamokin Dam, and thence, in 1890, to Sunbury, where he has since made his home. In Sunbury he and his son Charles W. Stahl started Stahl's res- taurant, at the present site of the "Aldine Hotel," and condueted the establishment successfully for a period of three years in partnership, the father then selling his interest to his son and taking the "City Hotel" at Danville, Pa., which he carried on for six months. In 1899 he engaged in the insur- ance business, which he has since continued, having his office at No. 336 Market Street. Mr. Stahl has established an excellent patronage in this line. He is a capable business man, and has the confidence

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of his patrons, who are numerous in Sunbury and itary projects, and in their intercourse with the surrounding territory.

Martin, daughter of George and Mary (Schaffer) Martin, who lived in Washington township, Sny- der county, and seven children have been born to this union : Charles W., proprietor of a leading restaurant at Sunbury; William E., who is en- gaged in business in Sunbury ; John Howard, who is engaged in business at Lewisburg ; George Omar, telegraph operator in the employ of the Penn- sylvania Railway Company, at Sunbury : Della G., who married O. P. Bell and lives at Williamsport, Pa .; and Mary and Harry, who died in infancy. Mr. Stahl and his family are members of the Re- formed Church, and politically he is a Democrat.

Europeans their chiefs often evinced a remarkable

On Feb. 25, 18:2, Mr. Stahl married Salome skillfulness in diplomacy and profoundness of pol- icy. Their career of conquest was doubtless in- augurated by the subjugation of the immediately contiguous tribes, and thus, in the extension of their power to the south, the Andastes and Lenni Lenape were first brought under their sway. The Shawanese, Ganawese, Conovs and other Pennsyl- vania tribes also acknowledged their supremacy, and for the better government of these trouble- some feudatories the great Onondaga council was constrained, in the early part of the eighteenth century, to place over them a resident viceroy. To this responsible position Shikellimy was appoint- ed. It is not probable that he was appointed vice- roy before 1728; he was not present at the treaty with the Five Nations at Philadelphia in July of the preceding year, and LeTort does not mention him among the Indians of consequence whom he met "on the upper parts of the river Susquehanna"

SHIKELLIMY, the Indian chief whose name for a score of years was associated with every im- portant transaction affecting the Indians of the Susquehanna Valley, was a Susquehannock by birth, descended from the ancient Andastes, and in the winter of 1727-28. The first conference thus returned to govern the land from which his that he attended at Philadelphia was that of July 4-5, 1728, but it does not appear that he took any fathers had been expelled. Like many of the more enterprising youth of his tribe, he had entered the active part in the proceedings. He was present on military service of their conquerors; his valor in a similar occasion in the following October, when, war was rewarded by adoption into the Oneida after the close of the conference, the Council con- tribe, of which he at length became a chief, an ex- sidered "what present might be proper to be made" ceptional preferment for one not a member of that nation by birth.

to Shikellimy, "of the Five Nations, appointed to reside among the Shawanese, whose services The Iroquois, although not the actual occupants of any part of Pennsylvania, played an important part in its history throughout the Colonial and Revolutionary periods. They inhabited the fertile region south of Lake Ontario, and about the head- waters of the Hudson, the Delaware, the Susque- hanna and the Allegheny rivers, including the valley of the Mohawk on the east and that of the Genesee on the west. Five tribes, the Senecas, On- ondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas and Mohawks, original- ly constituted the confederacy, whence they were called the Five Nations ; a sixth, the Tuscaroras, was admitted about the year 1712, and after that they were known as the Six Nations. Each tribe exercised exclusive jurisdiction in purely domestic affairs, while matters concerning the nation as a had been and may yet further be of great advan- tage to this government." The secretary of Coun- cil had gained a more accurate idea of his func- tions three years later, when, in the minutes of Aug. 12, 1731, he gives his name and title as "Shikellimy, sent by the Five Nations to preside over the Shawanese." At the close of the confer- ence which began at Philadelphia on that date, the governor having represented that he was "a trusty good man and a great lover of the English," he was commissioned as the bearer of a present to the Six Nations and a message inviting them to visit Philadelphia. This they accordingly did, arriving Aug. 18, 1732. Shikellimy was present on this occasion, when it was mutually agreed that he and Conrad Weiser should be employed whole were determined by the great council at in any business that might be necessary between Onondaga. This was the center of their power, the high contracting parties. In August, 1740, which was practically co-extensive with the thir- he came to Philadelphia to inquire against whom teen original States. embracing also southern Can- the English were making preparations for war, ada and a part of the Mississippi Valley. In the rumors of which had reached the great council at Onondaga. He was also present at the con- ference at Philadelphia in July. 1742, at the treaty at Lancaster in June and July, 1744. and at the Philadelphia conference of the following August. He does appear to have taken a very active part extent of their dominion, their absolute power, and the statecraft exercised in rendering conquered tribes subsidiary to their purpose. they have been not inaptly styled "the Romans of America." In all the arts of a savage people they excelled. Their fields were well cultivated, their towns were in the discussions, a privilege which, among the strongly fortified, their form of government se- Six Nations, seems to have been reserved for the cured practical unanimity in the execution of mil- Onondagas. In April, 1748, accompanied by his

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son and Conrad Weiser, he visited Philadelphia, but no publie business of importance was con- sidered.

Shikellimy's residenee is first definitely located in 1729 in a letter of Governor Gordon to "Shikel- limy and Kalaryonyaeha at Shamokin." Within the next eight years he had removed some miles one of them was Cajadis, who had been married up the valley of the West Branch. In the journal to his daughter above fifteen years, and was reck- oned the best hunter among all the Indians." He recovered, however, from this siekness, and in March, 1748, was with Weiser, at Tulpehoeken, with his eldest son, "Tagheneghdourus," who sue- of his journey to Onondaga in 1737 Conrad Weiser states that he crossed the North Braneh from Shamokin on the 6th of March; on the 7th he crossed Chillisquaque ereek, and on the Sth lie reached the village where Shikellimy lived. "On ceeded him as chief and representative of the Six the 8th reached the village where Shikelimo lives, Nations. He died in April, 1749, at Sunbury.

who was appointed to be my companion and guide on a hunt. Weather became bad and the waters high, and no Indian could be induced to seek Shikelimo until the 12th, when two young Indians agreed to go out in search of him. On the 16th they returned with word that Shikelimo would be back next day, which so happened. The Indi- ans were out of provisions at this place. I saw a new blanket given for about one third of a bushel of Indian eorn."

Loskiel thus notices this celebrated inhabitant on the journey. He was, however, far from home of the valley: "Being head chief of the Iroquois living on the banks of the Susquehanna as far as Syracuse, N. Y., he thought it incumbent upon him to be very circumspect in his dealings with the white people. He mistrusted the Brethren' (Moravians) at first, but upon diseovering their sineerity beeame their firin and real friend. He learned the art of concealing his sentiments; and, therefore, never contradicted those who endeavored to prejudice his mind against the missionaries. In the last years of his life he became less reserved, and received those Brethren that eame to Shamo- kin. He defended them against the insults of drunken Indians, being himself never addieted to drinking. He built his house upon pillars for safety, in which he always shut himself up when any drunken frolic was going on in the village. In this house Bishop Johannes Von Watteville, and his company, visited and preached the Gospel to him. He listened with great attention, and at last, with tears, respected the doctrine of Jesus, and received it with faith."

The site of this village is beyond doubt on the farm of Hon. George F. Miller (1886), at the mouthi of Sinking run, or Shikellimy's run, at the old ferry a half mile below Milton, on the Union county side. Bishop Spangenberg and his party passed over the same route June 7, 1745; after passing Chillisquaque ereek and the "site of the town that formerly stood there," they "next came to the place where Shikellimy formerly lived," which was then deserted; the next point noted is Warrior's Camp ( Warrior run). Spangenberg cer- tainly did not cross the West Branch; if Weiser had done so in 1737 there is every reason to sup- There is ample evidenee in contemporary ree- ords that Shikellimy's position was one of respon- sibility and honor rather than profit or emolument. In the general system of national polity of which the Iroquois confederaey was the only type among the aborigines of America, his post corresponded to that of a Roman proconsul. But there the pose that he would have mentioned it, which he does not; from which, if there were no other data bearing on this subject, it would be fair to con- elude that in 1737 Shikellimy resided on the east bank of the West Branch at some point between Chillisquaque creek and Warrior run. But there are other data. When the land office was open parallel ceases. Although he was charged with for "the new purchase," April 3, 1769, there were very many applications made for this location. In all of them it is called either old Muncy town or Shikellimy's town. It is referred to as a lo- cality in hundreds of applications for land in But- falo Valley.

Shikelliiny, some time after Weiser's visit, he- tween 1737 and 1743, removed to Shamokin (now Sunbury) as a more convenient point for inter- course with .the proprietary governors. There he resided the remainder of his life. From this point he made frequent journeys to Onondaga. Phila- delphia, Tulpehocken, Bethlehem. Paxtang and Lancaster, as the discharge of his important pub- lie functions required. On Oct. 9. 1:42. Conrad

Weiser says that he was at Shamokin and that Shikellimy was very siek with fever. "He was hardly able to stretch forth his hand. His wife, three sons, one daughter and two or three grand- children were all bad with the fever. There were three buried out of the family a few days before,

the surveillance of the entire Indian population of central Pennsylvania, and doubtless exacted a nominal tribute, no provision whatever was made for his personal necessities, to which, with eharac- teristic diplomaey, the Provincial.authorities were indueed to contribute. "The president likewise ae- quainting the board that the Indians, at a meet- ing with the Proprietor and him, had taken notice that Conrad Weiser and Shikellimy were, by the treaty of 1732, appointed as fit and proper per- sons to go between the Six Nations and this gor- ernment and to be employed in all transactions with one another, whose bodies, the Indians said, were to be equally divided between them and us, we to have one half and they the other: that they'

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had found Conrad faithful and honest; that he is the great viceroy were interred at the burial a true, good man, and had spoken their words ground of his people. and our words, and not his own ; and the Indians At his first appearance in Colonial affairs, Shi- kellimy had a son and daughter and probably other children. A present was provided for his wife and daughter at the conclusion of the treaty of October, 1728; and on Aug. 18, 1729, the gov- ernor sent him a message of condolence upon the deatlı of his son and a shroud with which to cover him. Another son, Unhappy Jake, was killed by the Catawbas, with whom the Six Nations were at war, in 1743, and in a letter dated Jan. 2, 1744, Weiser informs Secretary Peters of the fact, suggesting also the propriety of sending the be- reaved father "a small present, in order to wipe off his tears and comfort his heart." Several having presented him with a dressed skin, to make him shoes, and two deer skins, to keep him warm, they said, as they had thus taken care of our friend, they must recommend theirs (Shikellimy) to our notice; and the board, judging it necessary that a particular notice should be taken of him accordingly, it is ordered that six pounds be laid out for him in such things as he may most want." He was expected to hunt and fish, the natural modes of subsistence with an Indian, regardless of his station, but in the waning vigor of old age he was obliged to relinquish the chase, and in October, 1747, Weiser found him in a condition of utter destitution. This he describes as follows, in a letter to Council : "I must at the conclusion of this recommend Shikellimy as a proper object of charity. He is extremely poor; in his sickness the horses have eaten all his corn; his clothes he gave to Indian doctors to cure him and his family, but all in vain ; he has nobody to hunt for him, and I can not see how the poor old man can live. He has been a true servant to the government and may perhaps still be, if he lives to do well again. As the winter is coming on I think it would not be amiss to send him a few blankets or match-coats and a little powder and lead, if the government would be pleased to do it and you could send it up soon. I would send my sons with it to Shamokin before the cold weather comes."

Upon the consideration of this letter it was im- mediately decided by Council that goods to the value of sixteen pounds should be procured and forwarded to Shikellimy by Conrad Weiser. The consignment included five stroud match-coats, one fourth of a cask of gunpowder, fifty pounds of bar lead, fifteen yards of blue "half-thicks," one dozen best buck-handled knives, and four duffel niatch-coats.

days before Weiser's arrival at Shamokin, Nov. 9, 1747, there were three deaths in the family, Ca- jadies, his son-in-law, the wife of his eldest son, and a grandchild. It is evident that he had more than one daughter at that time; "his three sons" are also mentioned. The eldest, Tachnechdorns, succeeded to the former authority of his father, and, with two others, "sachems or chiefs of the Indian nation called the Shamokin Indians." af- fixed his signature to the Indian deed of 1749. Conrad Weiser, writing to Governor Morris under date of March 1, 1755, styles him "Tachnechdorus, the chief of Shamokin, of the Cayuga nation," the latter part of which is difficult to harmonize with the fact that his father is uniformly referred to as an Oneida. His brother seems to have been associated with him: Richard Peters, the Provin- cial secretary, in his account of the eviction of settlers from lands north of the Kittatinny moun- tains not purchased from the Indians, states that his party was accompanied by three Indians from Shamokin, "two of which were sons of the late Shikellimy, who transact the business of the Six Nations with this government." Tachnechdorus was also known to the English by the name of John Shikellimy. In 1753 he had a hunting lodge at the mouth of Warrior run and resided at a small Shawanese town below Muncy creek on the West Branch. These facts are derived from Mack's journal, which also states that Shikellimy's family had left Shamokin, where they found it very difficult to live owing to the constant drafts upon their hospitality. In April. 1756, he was at McKee's fort, but greatly dissatisfied, as nearly all of his party were sick.

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Genealogical and biographical annals of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. 2, Part 60

Author: Floyd, J.L., & Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, J. L. Floyd & Co. Number of Pages: 1024

Author: Floyd, J.L., & Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, J. L. Floyd & Co.
Number of Pages: 1024