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THE BROBST CHRONICLES

A HISTORY OF THE EARLY BROBST/PROBST
FAMILIES IN PENNSYLVANIA

Index and Table of Contents to The Brobst Chronicles
Title Page
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter One - The Early Swiss/German Probsts
Chapter Two - The History Of The German Immigration To America
Chapter Three - The Struggles of the Settlers
Chapter Four - The Early American Pennsylvania Brobsts
Chapter Five - Children of Philipp Jacob Probst
Chapter Six - The Other Children of Philipp Jacob Probst
Chapter Seven: The Other Children of Christophel Probst
Chapter Eight: Other Interesting Brobstology Intermarriages
Appendices

Chapter V

CHILDREN OF PHILIPP JACOB PROBST

Philip Jacob and his brother Johann Michael both settled in what is now called Kistler Valley, lying along Kistler Creek, between Lynn Township (Northampton/Lehigh County) and Albany Township (Berks County). They and their families lived within a couple of miles of the county line, Philipp Jacob in Berks and Johann Michael in Lehigh. They all attended the Brobst�s Jerusalem (Red Door) Church in Stony Run, Albany Township, just a mile from the county line. That's where most of their children were baptized, although they were more likely to have been born in their mother's bed on the farm.

Kistler Creek wanders down (southwestward) a little valley (Kistler Valley) from east of Lynntown in Lynn Township, Lehigh County, toward the Maiden Creek west of Kempton, Albany Township, Berks County. So it crosses the Lehigh/Berks county line. Part of it is in Lehigh, part in Berks. Philipp Jacob Probst and his family lived in Kistler Valley in Albany Twp; their house was next to Kistler Creek. Many of the Kistler families lived farther east along Kistler Creek, in Lynn Township, as did some of the later Brobst families. To make things confusing, the Jerusalem "Red" Church, which had many members from both the Kistler and Brobst/Probst families, is in Albany Twp, lying right along the Berks/Lehigh border. In fact, the county line passes through the back corner of the cemetery! So the births and baptisms of many Kistler and Brobst babies born in Lynn Twp were recorded in Albany Twp! And some of the Albany Twp Brobsts and Kistlers attended the Lutheran church in Lynntown, Lynn Twp, with the same confusing result. So the church records don't indicate where the parents lived, only where the baby was baptized.

It is noted that although there were ample Probsts and Brobst in Albany Township in 1757, there was probably none in 1907, 150 years later. The Albany Township school records showed no Brobsts in school that year.

Following is the account of Philipp Jacob's and C'erine's seven children.

Their three sons -- Johann (Jean) Michael (1721), Johann (Jean) Martin (1726), and Johann (Jean) Valentine (1724) -- lived with their parents in the old Probst farmstead at Fetherolffsville, 1� miles east of Kempton, less than a mile from the Jerusalem Church.� Later, they owned adjacent prop�erty in Berks and Lehigh County, and were listed on the tax rolls for Berks County for 1752 and 1759^[2].� The property deeds usually listed the name as "Probst", but the signatures were all "Brobst."� All of the Brobsts discussed in this report are connected to those three brothers and their first cousins (children of Johann Michael Probst), and their descendants.

The farmsite is located just about a mile northwest of the Jerusalem "Red" Church in Stony Run, in what was back then called Fetherolfsville. It lies just north of Kistler Creek, at the intersection of Kistler Valley Road and Old Philly Pike. The bridge is still called Fetherolfsville Bridge on county maps.� The original log house is gone, but the stone house which replaced it (probably after he died) is still there. The stone house was built in the late 1700s and modified and expanded in recent years, and is currently occupied by Jos. Freeman & family. Martin's Grist Mill was just across the street, also on the north side of Kistler Creek, but is no longer there; it was located in what is now just a grove of trees. The house left Brobst hands probably in the early 1800s.� Interestingly, the front walkway is made of the millstones from Martin Probst's Mill which was across the street.

1. (Jean) Michael Probst.

(Note:� Throughout this report, I refer to this Michael as "(Jean) Michael" to reflect his French citizenship.� In French, �Jean� equates to the German �Johann�. He was born in Alsace, France, of German parents, but (Jean) Michael was himself a French citizen when he came to America (as were the other members of his family).� This also will help to distinguish (Jean) Michael, son of Philipp Jacob, from Johann Michael, younger brother of Philipp Jacob. Similarly, I refer to (Jean) Valentine and (Jean) Martin, to distinguish them from the many other Valentines and Martins.)

(Jean) Michael was only 12 years old when his family arrived in America in 1732.� At the age of 21, he married Margaret Shadt (daughter of Henry and Susanna Shadt) and had one son, Heinrich (1745).

(Note: that previous reports that Margaret's surname was Shade were in error,^[3] although it is also noted that there were many families names "Shade" in that area of Pennsylvania a couple of generations later.� Also, the name might have been �Schadt�. The name may have become Americanized to �Shade�.)

According to Mormon Church records, Margaret died in 1745 in childbirth with Heinrich. (Jean) Michael began searching for another mate. In 1746, he married Maria Elizabeth Albrecht (Albright), daughter of Johan J. and Magdalena Albrecht. A year later, when his father became quite sick, he took over management of the family farm.� They had ten children^[4].� Those children are well documented:� Martin (1747), Johannes F. (ca 1750), Michael (1751), Jacob F., Anna Catharina, Eva Rosina (two of them; both died young), Anna Maria Barbara (1756), Valentine (1764), and Christian (1767).�

On May 3, 1749, (Jean) Michael was granted 50 acres of his own land in Albany Township, Berks County, just a mile northeast of his father's farm where his two brothers also lived. In 1766 he acquired 100 more acres in Brunswick Township, Berks County, added to in 1769 with 40 more acres.

There is a report that Lt. Col. Michael Brobst served with General Stanwix in 1758-1759 against the Indians on the Pennsylvania frontier.� However, that Michael was actually Michael Bobst (1739-1836), son of the immigrant Hans Heinrich Pabst, and not related to the Brobst/Probst families.

(Jean) Michael was for some years the tax collector in Albany Township.^[5]�� He became naturalized in Philadelphia in 1761, having walked all the way there and back (over 50 miles each way) with his brother (Jean) Valentine and his neighbor/friend "Jurg" Kistler. He was a farmer and a miller, and was a veteran of the Revolutionary War.

Elizabeth Albrecht must have had a difficult pregnancy with Christian, for she died just a couple of months after his birth in September 1767.� After her death, (Jean) Michael married a third time to Margaretha Friesz, a newly-widowed neighbor, and had one child (George Michael) by her.

Interestingly, the family bible of his son Christian stated "Beloved parents of mine had 18 children all baptized and ordained members of the Lutheran Church except two girls who died young and mother died in Sept. 1767 Psalm 190 and father died in 1769." Since his son George Michael was born in 1771, that death date is obviously in error, and has been since shown so. Also, the records show only twelve children; the births of the six other children alluded to by Christian have not been found in the records.

(Jean) Michael remained on his farm in Albany Township, Berks County, until he died in 1771 at the age of 50. He left no will, and his brother (Jean) Valentine (1724) and a friend, Andreas Hagenbuch, were named as his administrators. Orphan Court records note the names of this widow, Margaretha, and ten children of whom only three were adults (George Henry, Martin, and John).� His youngest, George Michael, was born four weeks after his father's death.

After (Jean) Michael's death on Aug 1, 1771, his widow Margaretha married Frederick Senztel of Reading, and took her son George Michael with her into that marriage.

Johan Heinrich (1744), (Jean) Michael's son by his first wife, and a yeoman, was one of the executors of his Uncle Valentine's (1764) estate.� He lived in Lower Macungie Township, Lehigh County. He had one son, Henry (1770) by his first wife, Margaretha Barnhill; Henry married Sally Fogel.� In his second marriage to Catharina Siegfried, he probably adopted her daughter by a previous marriage, Catharina, and they had two children of their own.� He was a Revolutionary War veteran, and served in the Continental Line. Little has been revealed of his descendants.

Martin

In 1770, Martin (1747), (Jean) Michael's first child by his second wife, married his stepsister, Anna Maria Friesz, daughter of his father's third wife, and lived in Kistler Valley in Lehigh County as a life-long farmer and tavern-keeper. He lived on his father's farm at Fetherolffsville, and took over that farm when his father died in 1771.�� He was a Revolutionary War veteran.

Martin and Maria had at least three children -- Johannes F. (1778), Christian (1782), and Anna Maria Elizabeth (1784).� Johannes F. became a farmer in Steinsville, near the Brobst Gristmill on Ontelaunee Creek in Berks County; after his death, his son Jacob F. and later his grandson Benjamin took over the Steinsville farm.� His great-grandson, Rev. Samuel Kistler Brobst, was the author of a German songbook and was a cofounder of M�hlen�berg College in Allentown. Christian had a nearby farm. Anna Maria Elizabeth married Johan George Bobst (not Brobst); their son Christian Bobst became a civic leader and judge in the Nebraska Territory.� This was the only recorded marriage between a Brobst and a Bobst.

In 1786, Martin was licensed to operate a tavern in Lynn Township, near Steinsville. His son, Johannes F., took over the tavern in 1815. Martin died around 1806; Johannes F. administered his estate.

In 1770, (Jean) Michael's son Johannes F. (John) (1750), (a reputed "hard drinker") married Anna Barbara Stambach (1748), daughter of Johann Philipp Stambach (1720) and Anna Maria Christina Kuntz (1727).� (One record shows his name as Johannes Martin, rather than Johannes F., but that does not seem correct.� It is also not certain that his middle name began with �F�.) Johann Philipp Stambach arrived in America in 1739 on the ship "Friendship".� Six years later Johann Philipp married Anna Maria.

It is noted that one Swiss correspondent believes that the Stambach family originated in Switzerland, under the name �Stammbaum�.

The records show twelve children of this marriage:� Catharina (1772), Martin (1773), Anna Elizabeth (1775),^[6] Maria (~1777), Johannes Jr. (~1778), Johan Peter (1779), Ferdinandes (1781), Johan Jacob (1783), Maria Christina (1784), Christian (1785), Maria Elisabetha (1787), Margaretha Elisabetha (1789), and Rebecca (1792).� All of the children were probably born in Lynn Township, Northamp�ton (now Lehigh) County, where the family farm was located, just a short distance from Philipp Jacob�s farmstead.� Except for Maria (1777) and Johannes, Jr. (1778), all of them were baptized in the Jerusalem (Red) Church in Stony Run; Maria's and John Jr.'s baptismal data is missing, and their birth year is estimated from their position in the sequence of children (as shown in Johannes' will). It is noted that there was no regular pastor at the Jerusalem Church in 1777 and 1778.

Note:� The term "Junior" doesn't always mean that the male bearing that title is actually the son of the implied "Senior". It was often used just to denote the younger of two males having the same first name, more as a means of avoiding confusion rather than implying a father-son relationship.

Johannes F., like most of the Brobsts, was a farmer, living first on his father's farm, and then on his own, nearby to his father, the Kistlers, and the Eckenrodes. But he also operated the Brobst Grist Mill and the Union Forges with his brother, Michael.� In the baptism record of his daughter Rebecca, he is referred to as "Prof. Probst"; the significance of that title is not known, but its legitimacy seems doubtful!� Elsewhere, he is referred to as �Johannes Probst, Esq.�; that title, too, seems questionable.

He established his family farm in Lynn Township, Northamp�ton County, and Albany Township, Berks County, with the county line running through the farm.� It was close to his father's farm, and only a mile from the Jerusalem (Red) Church in Stony Run, Albany Township.� His children were born on the family farm, but were baptized in the Jerusalem Church in Berks County, thereby confusing the county of place of birth with the county of place of baptism.� It is noted on an 1876 map of Albany Township that Jacob Leipensberger had taken over the Albany Township portion of the farm.

Johannes F. did not serve in the militia in the Revolutionary War.� He was a life-long farmer and remained on the family farm until he died in 1792 at the young age of 42.� His will parceled out his farm to his sons Martin and Johannes Jr.; Martin was 19 and Johannes Jr. was 15.� But the farm was to become Martin's; little is known of Martin's wife and family.� Johannes, Jr., was the g�g�g�grandfather of the author of this report.

Maria Catharina

Maria Catharina (1772-1814) married Samuel Kistler, son of Michael and Magdalena (Mantz) Kistler. They had a son Jacob, but nothing is known about their descendants.

Martin

In 1792, after his father died, Martin (1773) took over the family farm.� He was only 19, and so could not own the farm, so his mother retained ownership.� But Martin, along with his younger brother Johannes Jr (~1778), ran the farm. Not much is known of him.� His wife was Elisabeth, but her parentage is not known. They had at least one daughter, Diana Christina, of whom nothing more is known.

Johannes, Jr.

Johannes (John), Jr. (1778), born just after the end of the Revolutionary War, married Susanna Follweiler, daughter of Bernhard Vollweiler, in January 1798 in Lehigh County. His brother, Martin, had already taken control of the family farm, so John had to head out to fend for himself. They may have� lived on his brother�s farm there until about 1807, when they moved into the Schuylkill/Northumber�land County area. According to his hand-inscribed (in German, of course) family Bible, they were the parents of eight children from 1800 to 1812: Jacob, John, Reuben Catharina, Jacob I., Daniel, Lydia, and Obadiah. (Note:� Obadiah was the author�s g�g�grandfather.� The bible is in the hands of one of the descendants of Anna Taylor, a daughter of Susanna Follweiler Brobst by her second husband.)

Johannes, Jr., died in Shamokin, Northumberland County, in the spring of 1813, just six months after Obadiah�s birth. Susanna remarried two years later to Benjamin Taylor, and had five more children � Anna, George, James, Henry, and Susanna � then they moved to Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, in the late 1820s. At least six of the children from both marriages � John, Reuben, Jacob, Obadiah, Anna, and George � all lived most of their adult years in Mahoning and Trumbull Counties, Ohio. The first Jacob died as an infant; Lydia lived in Crawford and Mercer Counties, Pennsylvania, with her husband Christian F�rst, Jr.; and the fate of Catharina and Daniel is unknown. Obadiah, g'g'grand�father of the author, was in Crawford County, western Pennsylvania, with his wife, Mary Anna (nee F�rst) in the 1840 census, and later moved to Mahoning Co, Ohio, to be with his brothers John, Reuben, and Jacob.

Johannes, Jr., had been very hard to trace; some Brobst descendants had searched for decades trying to track down his family.� There were (and still are) so many Johannes (John) Brobsts for whom no family relationships have yet been found.� John was the most common male name in the Brobst family (Mary was the most common female name). The family Bible, just discovered fortuitously in 1998 in a library in Warren, Ohio, was the key.

Elisabeth, Maria, and Ferdinand

Anna Elisabeth (1775), disappeared from the records very early in her life, but probably died before 1787.

There is a report that Maria (~1777) married somebody and moved to Washington County, Maryland, but that has not been verified.

Ferdinand (1781) also disappeared early in his life.� He may have died young, or left Pennsylvania young, for the Pennsylvania census records from 1790 on never mentioned him as head of a household. He is not buried at the Jerusalem (Red) Church in Stony Run. He just vanished, and probably died young, before 1787.�

None of the three of them was mentioned in their father�s will.

Johan Peter, Johan Jacob, and Maria Christina

In 1803, Johan Peter (1779) died, leaving his wife, Catharina (nee Gl�ck) and their daughter, Salome. The next year, Peter's younger brother, Johan Jacob (1783), a tailor, married Catharina!� In 1807, Johan Jacob and his family moved to Troy (Marcy), Bloom Township, Fairfield County, Ohio, northeast of Columbus, where they continued farming with their nine children.� Johan Jacob's son David operated the Brobst Store and Post Office in Marcy during the 1800s; after he died, his wife Cecelia (Dove) operated the store until nearly 1930!� David had 22 children!� Many other Glick family members lived there as well.

His sister, Maria Christina (1784), and her husband George Teagarten, joined them there. She and George had five children. They lived in both Fairfield and Pickaway County, Ohio. After George died in 1812, she married Johannes Billman, but died only two years later.

Christian

Christian (1785) married Sally Zoll, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Merckel) Zoll.� He was first a harnessmaker, and for a time lived and worked in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, PA, where he was an owner of business property.�� He then moved to Pottsville, and built a stone house on the corner of Centre St. and West Norwegian Road. Christian became a mover and shaker in local politics, including serving a term as Schuylkill County Commissioner in Orwigsburg. He owned a large estate of land. He served in the war of 1812.�� Their daughter, Catharina, was married to a postal mail carrier in Minnesota who froze to death one night carrying the mail. His son, Benneville, drowned in a canal near Pottsville while a young man.� Another son, Caspar, was a saddler by trade, and operated a boarding stable for horses.

Maria Elisabetha

Maria Elisabetha (1787) married Andreas Wertman, son of Jacob and Anna Maria Barbara (nee Steinbruch) Wertman, beginning one of several long relationships between the Wertman and Brobst families.� They lived in New Tripoli, Lehigh Co; their children married into the Mosser, Kistler, and Mantz families.

Margaretha Elizabetha

Margaretha (1789) married Johannes Heinrich Billman (1792-1869), son of Johannes and Elizabeth (Brobst) Billman. They lived in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.� Nothing is known of their children.

LtCol Michael

Michael and Magdalena (nee Everett), farmers and millers, lived first in Berks County, then in Northampton County. They had eleven children: George Michael, Valentine, Johannes Jacob, Magdalena, Mathias, Maria Catherina, Gotfried, Catherina, Susannah, Elizabeth, and Maria.

In 1775, he purchased 783 acres of land in Berks and Northampton Counties.� He was then one of the major landowners in Berks County, with over 1000 acres.� Michael and his brother Johannes F. operated the Brobst Grist Mill and the Union Forges. Michael served first as a major and then a LtCol, Northampton County Militia, in the Army of the Revolution. Using flour from Michael's and John's grist mill, his family provided bread to George Washington's army!

Their son, Valentine, served as Justice of the Peace for Tulphehocken Township, PA, for 30 years. George Michael inherited the Union Forges; his grandsons, John and Solomon, operated a tannery in the Borough of Turbotville, Northumberland County.^[7]� For reasons unknown, Michael disinherited his son Johannes Jacob who later moved to Maryland and operated the "Mary Ann" furnace and forge there^[8]; this is the John Jacob mentioned in Appendix 1.

Crazy" Jacob F.

Jacob F. married Magdalena Braver (Biever?), and set up farming in Mifflinburg, Northumberland Co. He was also an innkeeper; his hotel was on the stage road between Catawissa and Philadelphia.� Their children were Philipp, Catherine, Jacob, and Gotfried.

Philipp changed his last name to "Bobst" (why?), and became one of the leading hotel keepers in Kutztown.� Perhaps Philipp changed his name to �Bobst� to distance himself from his father! Jacob was a Revolutionary War veteran.

Anna Maria Catharina

Catharina married Johann Daniel Stambach and had three children:� Anna Maria, Johann Daniel, and Maria Elizabeth. They moved to Catawissa where they bought land in Shamokin Township, Northumberland County.� Her husband was killed in the Revolutionary War by a cannon shot. Daniel was Obadiah�s godfather.

Eva Rosina

Actually, there were two daughters named Eva Rosina.� The first one died in the year of her birth (1755).� As was common then, they named the next daughter after the deceased infant.� However, the second one fared no better, dying in her birth year (1757).

Anna Maria Barbara

The fate of Barbara is unknown. At one time, it was thought that she married Peter Friesz, but that record is in error.

Valentine

Valentine� (1764), one of the more interesting and successful of the Brobsts, married Elizabeth Levi (daughter of David and Margaretha (nee Eschbach) Levi, who were Jewish, not Lutheran), and had six children: Christian, Anna Maria, Catharina, Magdalena, Sarah, Margaretha, and Valentine, Jr.� (Note that previous reports of Elizabeth's surname being Leavy were in error.^[10])� There may have also been a Johannes, but most records are not clear on him.�� (See Appendix 1 of this report for details on Valentine.)

Valentine went on to become a rich landowner and hotel proprietor in the Reading, Pennsylvania, area. He was a Major in the Berks County Militia. He died in Catawissa, Columbia Co, PA, while visiting his brother Christian.� His estate was disposed of fraudulently in a scandalous affair involving his daughter (grand-daughter?) �Bertha�; the matter is discussed in Appendix 1. He is buried in Reading, Berks Co, PA.

Many of the earlier published history books about Valentine are wrong, but at the time they were written (around 1900) the writers knew less about the Brobsts than we do now; the many Brobst genealogists working hard in recent years to sort out our ancestors are owed our thanks.� Those county histories stated that Valentine (1764) was the son of the immigrant Valentine (1724), but that is incorrect.

Valentine's second oldest son, Christian (1787), established the Brobst House (with Valentine's financial and managerial assistance), a hotel and inn (The Brobst House) in Rehrersburg, northwest of Reading, discussed later in this report. The inn may actually have been owned by Valentine; it most likely was financed by him.� That enterprise is discussed later in this report. He and his wife, Catharine Kreider, had six children.

Christian

As a young man, Christian (1767), the brother of Johannes F. and Valentine, dreamed about building a railroad along the Susquehanna River which flowed near his home in Berks County.� He served as a youth with the Lancaster County Militia in the Revolutionary War, guarding British prisoners.� Later he was a Captain in the Northumberland Militia in the War of 1812, and went on to become one of the leading lights of the Brobst family.

On May 17, 1779, he was taken prisoner by the British and taken to New York City, confined in the notorious Sugar House, from which he escaped five months later; he swam over the river and joined his regiment Oct 30, 1779 at Peekskill, Westchester County, NY.^[11]

In September 1789, he married Eva Barbara Drumm.� While still living in Berks County, he and Barbara had five children:�� Maria Catharina, Elizabeth, Michael, Valentine, and Joseph. In 1795, while Joseph was just a baby, he moved from Berks County to Catawissa in Northumberland County, with nothing more than his household goods and carpenter tools.� Catawissa was still frontier country, having been first settled in 1775.

His other children -- Sarah, Christian, Samuel, Solomon, and William -- were born there. Samuel's daughter, Angeline, is shown in the photograph.

In 1799, he rebuilt an old 1774 grist mill in Catawissa and then built a new one nearby (see Appendix 12). He became one of the local solid citizens -- a merchant and a miller.� He started the "Catawissa Lutheran Congregation", and later donated land for St. Johns Lutheran Church and Union Cemetery in Catawissa, where he and Barbara are buried.� He established a solid relationship with his friends, Daniel and Margaretha Stambach (godparents of Obadiah Brobst).�

Christian started the first fire company in 1827.� He served a term in the state legislature.� He was a man of "limited school training, but ... rare foresight and reasoning power of a high order."^[12]

With the help of his young sons, Samuel and Christian A., he performed the initial crude but effective surveys for the laying of track for the Catawissa Railroad (later the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad).� His first survey instrument was a bottle partially filled with water to indicate the level position!� Later, he financed the first railroad bridge over the Susquehanna River at Catawissa. The first train traveled over that route in 1854; but Christian died five years earlier so didn't live to realize his dream.^[13]� His railroad bridge was still in use as late as 1952!

Christian initiated the first free public school system in America, and served as the system's first president. His son, Christian A., Jr., also served as school board president in 1838.� His son, Joseph, is credited for initiating the conversion of the German Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania from the German language to English. His son, Samuel, was a Catawissa merchant. His grandson, David, started the well known Bloomsburg Carriage Works in 1849.

His son Michael Martin was a land agent and merchant in Catawissa; Samuel was also a merchant there. Samuel's daughter, Angeline, married Major Francis L. Bowman.� Michael's son, Christian Good Brobst, moved to Iowa before the great and destructive railroad strike took place in Catawissa around 1775.

Two years after the death of his wife, Christian was badly injured in a steam explosion on a Susquehanna River boat, and subsequently died of his injuries in 1849.

George Michael

George Michael (1771) was the son of (Jean) Michael and his third wife, Anna Margaretha Friesz, widow of Johan Peter Friesz.� George Michael first mar�ried Catharina Linzell, and had seven chil�dren:� Johann Friederich, George, Margar�etha, Catharina, Jacob, George Michael, Jr., and Heinrich� With his second wife, Anne Lincoln Glasgow, he had three more: Elizabeth, Catherine, and William.

(Note:� By now, you certainly have noticed that the Brobsts kept using the same first names over and over -- John, Daniel, Michael, Martin, Maria, Anna, Elisabeth, Catharine, etc.� So did the other settlers -- Stam�bachs, Kistlers, Kuntzes, etc. There was a pattern to the naming of children, described in Appendix 3.)

[Back to the Top]

REFERENCES:

1. Berks County, PA, Deeds, Vol. A-2, p. 187-190, recorded 25 Nov, 1760 *** [return]

2.�History of Berks County, Vol 1, page 454 *** [return]

3. Regarding Jean Michael's first wife. Most records show her surname as Shade, first name unknown.� Several records in Pennsylvania libraries and historical societies show her name as Margaret Shade. The credibility of that first name is unknown.� Dora Kamalu has found proof that Margaret's surname was Shadt, not Shade. Her parents were Hein�rich (Henry) and Susanna Shadt (or Schadt) of Macungie, Northampton County; his will clearly identifies Heinrich Probst (1745-1805) as his grandson.� However, the name of Henry's wife (Heinrich's mother) is not given in the will of 1768; she may have died prior to that, and so led to Jean Michael seeking a second wife (Maria Elizabeth "Marilis" Albrecht). It is also noted that in the mid-1800s, a Jacob Shade lived in Berks County; his name was sometimes spelled Schad. It may be that he comes from the same family as Margaret Shadt.� It may have suffered the fate of many German names which became Anglicized -- Shade for Shadt. ** [return]

4. Hollenbach, "BROBST FAMILY ...." ** [return]

5. History of Berks County, Vol I, page 454� *** [return]

6. Beat H�feli, Grossackerstrasse 25, CH‑4566 Halten, Switzerland <[email protected]> [return]

7. Herbert Bell, History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, page 766� ** [return]

8. William A. Brobst, The Brobst Forges and Grist Mills, 1998� ** [return]

9. John Linn, Annals of Buffalo Valley, 1755-1855, 1968 ** [return]

10. For many years, the many descendants of Valentine have had trouble finding out anything about his wife, Elizabeth Leavy, a woman of some mystery.� After some tedious and detailed work in 1996, Dora Kamalu found proof of why nobody could learn about Elizabeth.� Hold your hats -- her name wasn't Leavy at all; it was Levi!� Elizabeth's parents were David and Margaretha (nee Eschbach) Levi, of Jewish descent.� The spelling of "Leavy" was obviously based on her real surname, but whether the change in spelling was accidental or intention�al is not known. There's no history that indicates any anti-Semitism among the early Brobsts, so it was probably� unintentional.� Dora Kamalu found the marriage record of Elizabeth's parents in the files for the Jerusalem Union (Red) Church in Stony Run, Albany Township, Berks County. That record lists her mother's surname as Levi. Further, Elizabeth's birth record lists her father's name, David Levi, as well.� David converted to Chris�tianity from Judaism in 1759. Dora Kamalu has traced Elizabeth's ancestors back three genera�tions on her mother's side.� Dora said she is going to try to find David Levi's parents, but "it isn't easy to research Jewish names in that time period." Elizabeth's maternal grandmother was an Antes. Dora said, "She was a sister to Henry Antes who did much to establish the Moravian church in Bethlehem (Emmaus), PA, and throughout Montgomery County, PA.� There is much written about him.� His father was Freder�ick Antes and he brought his family to the New World in the early 1700s."� Note the similarity in names between this Antes family and the surname of Philipp Jacob's wife's sister, Anne Catherine Anthes. [return]

11. Rec. of Bureau of Pensions, Wash. DC, Rev. Muster Roll of Mass., vol. 53 p.210; vol. 52 p. 195, vol. 9 p.430. [return]

12. History of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, 1887 ** [return]

13. Jeanne B. Roberts and John R. Albright, "The Birth of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad", A History of Catawissa, Pennsylvania ** [return]

This page was last updated on Monday, 21-Feb-2011 18:23:44 MST
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