|
Frederick Swygart
Rapho Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
e
by Iris Teta Eubank
Wagner
Rapho Township Warrantee Map, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website - State Archives,
Land Records,
Map created and published by the Pennsylvania State
Archives, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Frederick's
first two years in Pennsylvania
Friedrich's life circumstance is not supported by documents
of proof for the two years after arriving at Philadelphia.
Yet, traditional stories from the family of Friedrich's daughter SARAH SWAGERTY
O'HAVER offer a few elements that could be said to coincide with the family and county records of
an early Swiss immigrant
DR.HEINRICH ZIMMERMAN. Dr. Zimmerman settled first in Germantown, near Philadelphia,
in 1698. As years passed and his family began to grow, he bought land south of the present city of Lancaster known as the early Pequea
settlement.
A descendant of Heinrich, Dr. Seymour Carpenter, published in 1897 a narrative
on the life of his Swiss ancestor. Carpenter's book has been digitized by Google and is online at
www.books.google.com.
Traditional stories from Sarah Swagerty O'Haver's
family
Sarah and Joseph O'Haver lived near Frederick along
Clear Creek, seven miles northeast of the French Broad River in Cocke
County, Tennessee, where the family had settled in 1783. When
Frederick died in 1803, Sarah, as
the eldest daughter living near her father, was given the family Bible,
together with a number of medical folios, written in German text. Prior to
1830 Sarah and Joseph left Tennessee and moved to
Indiana. Sarah carried the Bible and folios with her. She told her
children the
stories her father told of his first years in America, and of the
circumstances of his meeting and marriage. Though distilled over
several generations, the information is still
valuable in seeking clues to this family genealogy.
Elements of the traditional stories
Elements of the stories
came through Sarah's granddaughter, Harriet O'Haver Edmund, whose father was Pleasant M. O'Haver, a Justice of the Peace in Sullivan
County, Indiana, in mid-19th century.
From the record of Mrs. Edmund :
(1) While teaching "language" and/or "medical subjects,"
the father of her grandmother Swiegart
"made the acquaintance of a learned Swiss physician, whose daughter was a
linguist; who
had read much on medical subjects, and perhaps
written upon them."
(2) That the physician was a revolutionist in his own country, and had to flee
for his life.
(3) That Sarah's father came to America as he was about to be
conscripted into the army.
(4) That Frederick's son John Swagerty born c1770 was a half-brother to
Sarah Swagerty O'Haver, who was born c1767. Researchers of John's lineage have
established that John's family moved to Indiana probably between 1830 and 1840.
Anna Maria Zimmerman
By the time of his death in 1750, Dr. Carpenter writes that Heinrich Zimmerman
had given most of his land to his children and grandchildren. Among
the several Zimmerman (and Carpenter) warrantees listed
on the Lancaster County Warrant Register, Anna Maria Zimmerman is
the one of most interest,
because of the proximity and configuration of the 18-acre tract warranted
by Fredrick Swygart.
Anna Maria Zimmerman is one of
several Zimmerman individuals who registered warrants for land between the years 1747 and 1750 ( year
of Dr. Zimmerman's death ), and 1753. All may not be Heinrich
Zimmerman's kin, but most likely are. Anna Maria's warrant
(#27) is dated October 10, 1750 for 100 acres. How she may
have come by the additional 131 acres is not known at this point, yet she may have been a grantee in a deed transfer during the
intervening years between 1750 when she warranted the land and 1762 when
she sold the 231 acres to Peter Sharer. Daniel Kinsinger
bought the upper part from Sharer, and Benjamin Mackey the lower
part. And Mackey bought Frederick's 18 acres.
As shown on the Warrantee Map the
date of survey for Anna Maria Zimmerman's land was December 14, 1762.
Mackey's date of survey for the 18 3/4 acres in Frederick's right was
December 15, 1762. This concurrence of survey might mean there
was an agreement of parties in selling both the Zimmerman tract and
Frederick's tract. One could surmise that the 231 acre tract was
owned by the parents of Frederick's first wife, who may have been a
daughter of Anna Maria Zimmerman.
Heinrich Zimmerman's daughter Maria married Daniel Ferree. Maria may
have been given the land by her father while still unmarried.
It may be that Frederick's first wife, a granddaughter of Dr. Heinrich
Zimmerman, was Maria and Daniel Ferree's daughter. Family
information passed through generations quite often has errors in a
generational time line.
Yet, with so many unknowns, of
course, we can't know, we can only look at the map and the dates - the
date the Rapho land was surveyed was December, 1762. The first record in Cumberland
County on which Frederick's name appears is the first tax list of Fermanagh
Township in 1763.
Patent Index
On the Patent Index, made available online by the
Pennsylvania State Archives,
Anna Maria's 231 acres was bought or patented by Peter Sharer (A.A. 5 -
108). Also in Peter Sharer's patent entry on this land, included
is a 23-acre tract warranted by Andrew Rodenburger on December 21, 1753, #
42 adjacent to the upper part of Zimmerman's tract.
Benjamin Mackey patented Frederick's 18-acre tract
Variously spelled Meyshaw,
Meshe, or Mishy on other records.
As the date of Frederick's land warrant in Rapho Township might suggest,
he may have married in 1751 or 1752, after spending his first two years,
perhaps teaching at Pastorius' school in Germantown. All of Dr.
Zimmerman's children were schooled at Pastorius' school. Maria's older sister,
Salome Wistar, lived at Germantown.
(more to come)
________________
Narrative © Iris Teta Eubank Wagner 2009
|