FELIX GLATFELTER (1747-1815)

In all probability, ELIZABETH was the oldest child of Felix and Elizabeth Glatfelter. She married Peter Ness (sometimes spelled Nes), who was born in 1767 and was thus several years older than his wife. He was the grandson of Henry and Dorothy (Lauffer) Walter, The Walters and Glattfelders came from Switzerland together in 1743; Dorothy was the sister of Casper's first wife. Casper and Henry together owned the first family homestead in America for three years, and then they occupied adjoining properties along the Codorus creek for the rest of their lives. When the senior Peter Ness died in 1767, leaving an infant son and namesake, it was Casper Glattfelder who is on record as having made his coffin.

Peter and Elizabeth Ness had at least nine children, who were born between 1794 and 1817. One of their descendants, Nell W. Reeser (1883-1971) an Illinois schoolteacher, spent many years of her life investigating her Ness family. After retiring she spent some time in York County and attended one or more Glattfelder reunions in the late 1940s.

Miss Reeser traced the Ness children to Ohio and Indiana, but she was never able to find when or where Peter and Elizabeth died. She finally concluded that the story passed down through her own branch of the family was probably correct: they eventually went to Virginia. Her older brother remembered being told that they spent their last years in a place where the high mountains began to shut out the sunlight early in the afternoon. This suggests that they might well have lived in a part of Virginia which became West Virginia in 1863.

What we do know is that the Nesses were living in York borough at the time of the census of 1800, in Shrewsbury Township ten years later, and in York Township in 1820. The effects of the depression of the 1820s forced Peter Ness, in company with many others in York County, to assign his real and personal property to trustees for the benefit of his creditors. Peter had to do this twice: in 1821 and 1825. It was probably soon after these unhappy events that Peter and Elizabeth left Pennsylvania.

In all probability CASPER was the second child of Felix and Elizabeth Glatfelter and was named after his paternal grandfather. Since his next youngest sibling was born in 1777, his date of birth must have been about 1775, the year in which Casper Glattfelder died.

In his 1901 history of the family Dr. Noah M. Glatfelter wrote that Casper married Mary Emig, but thus far it has not been possible to identify her among the daughters in that family, most of whose members lived in Codorus Township in the late eighteenth century. Also, in several contemporary records, but not in all, the name of Casper's wife is given as Mary Magdalena. Whatever her name, Casper and his wife

together had at least eleven children, the baptism of the first of which was recorded in the Shuster's Reformed register in 1802.

From 1805 until 1827 Casper owned a 103-acre farm located near Stoverstown. After selling it, he and his family moved to Guernsey County, Ohio. "Casper Clodfelter" appears in the 1850 census for Beaver Township in that county. Neither the date of his death nor that of his wife has yet been determined.

One of the children in this family, John Peter, returned to York County, married in 1859, reared a large family, and died in North Codorus Township. Several of his brothers and sisters left Ohio for the West, locating in Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa.

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The third child, JOHN (1777-1854), married Barbara Hovis (1780-1854), the daughter of Frederick and Magdalena (Cramer) Hovis, who lived in Codorus and later in Shrewsbury townships. The baptisms of four of her brothers and sisters, but not that of Barbara, were recorded in the register of the Stone church. One of John's younger sisters, Barbara, married Jacob Hovis, a son of Frederick.

The first of the twelve children in John's family was born in 1797, when Barbara was only seventeen, and the last in 1820, when she was forty. The baptisms of five of these children were recorded in the Shuster's Reformed register, of one in the Lutheran register there, and of two in that of Christ Lutheran church, York.

By his father's will, John was given the right to buy the smaller, and less desirable, portion of his father's real estate, amounting to 146 acres. Probably he and Barbara had lived on this farm for some years prior to 1815. By the terms of his father's will, John had to provide his mother with certain specified items each year and pay for the farm according to a long-term schedule of annual payments.

The depressed times of the 1820s hit John as hard as it did several of his brothers and sisters. In the spring of 1825 he sold the farm. Had he not done so, he would undoubtedly have had to follow the same course of action as his brother-in-law, Peter Ness. He and Barbara spent the rest of their lives as tenants. In the census of 1850 he is described as a basketmaker. They died within about six months of each other in 1854 and were buried at Ziegler’s, where their children placed tombstones over their graves.

Most of the children of John and Barbara remained in York County, but two sons (Frederick and Joseph) went to Illinois and a third (Samuel) located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Two sons preceded their parents in death, both leaving families of minor children. Jacob left three (one was born four months after he died) and John left nine.

Both widows remarried.

The fourth child of Felix and Elizabeth, ANNA MARY, was born in 1779. She married Tobias Hartman (1774-1844). His father, also named Tobias, moved with his family from Lancaster county in 1779 and purchased a property a short distance north and east of the Felix Glatfelter farm.

Between 1799 and 1809 Mary gave birth to three sons and three daughters, the baptisms of all of whom were entered into the register of Christ Lutheran church in York.

Mary died soon after the birth of her last child.

Soon after their marriage, Tobias bought a farm of 200 acres in Shrewsbury (now Springfield) Township. In 1814 he remarried and fathered as many as six more children by his second wife. In 1819 he sold his farm and moved away. He died in Spring Garden Township in 1844. Most of Mary's children remained in York County.

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The fifth child of Felix and Elizabeth, JACOB (1780-1867), presented one of several perplexing mysteries when Dr. Noah published his book in 1901. "Jacob settled in Tennessee," he wrote, certainly remembering what his father had told him more than forty years before. "Nothing is known of his descendants - all connection with his eastern relatives appears broken." More than half a century later, with the void still remaining, one might well have wondered whether any connection would ever be reestablished.

In February 1974 Janet Zemanek, then of Sterling, Colorado, informed this writer that she was descended from a "Jacob Clotfelter," who died in Nebraska in 1867. Did we know who this Jacob was? After a careful review of all the available evidence, there was only one conclusion to be reached: this was indeed the long-lost son of Felix. The date of birth inscribed on his tombstone in Nebraska differed by only four days from his date of birth as it was entered into the Lutheran Shuster's register when he was baptized in 1780.

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As a result of an unexpected communication in August 1986 with another Jacob descendant, Ruth Clotfelter Camenisch, Springfield, Missouri, twenty-two members of his family, coming from ten states, accepted our invitation to attend the 1987 reunion. Three years later, several association directors acted as hosts for about forty of Jacob's descendants, who were attending the 1990 reunion, taking them on a tour which included Bupp's Union graveyard, Sadler’s church, and other places which Jacob knew about when he was growing up in York County.

We now know that, while still in his teens, Jacob Glatfelter established a relationship with Frederick Sadler in Hopewell Township, York County, possibly as an apprentice or a hired man; that he accompanied virtually the entire Sadler family when it moved to Anderson County, Tennessee, about 1801-1802; and that he married Eva Sadler (1784-1855) in 1803. Her family name has been spelled many different ways; Jacob used the one used here when he entered her name in his family Bible.

Jacob and Eva became the parents of ten children, born between 1804 and 1822. They moved to Illinois in 1829, first living in Morgan and later in Mason County, where Eva died in 1855. Eleven years later, one year after the Civil War ended, Jacob accompanied family members to Johnson County, Nebraska, where he died, near Tecumseh, in 1867, the year in which Nebraska was admitted to statehood. Of the nine children of Jacob and Eva who survived infancy, only one remained in Tennessee. Four

died in Illinois, three in Nebraska, and one in Missouri.

Soon after Janet Zemenek and Ruth Camenisch learned that they were related, they enlisted the support of other Jacob descendants in producing a history of his family, whose members long ago began spelling their name Clotfelter. At the 1990 reunion they conducted a formal dedication of their projected work. By that time they had found a photograph of Jacob, his family Bible, and a number of other objects which belonged to his family and which almost miraculously still survived. In 1991 the Bible, owned by Jack William Crawford, was formally presented to the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society in Lancaster.

After almost unbelievably thorough and extensive research, in 1994 Janet, Ruth, and Cecil Clotfelter, acting for the Jacob Clotfelter Publication Committee, published an 850-page history of Jacob of Tennessee, and parts West.

The sixth child of Felix and Elizabeth, PHILIP (1782-1825), married Anna Mary Emig (1784-1878). She was the daughter of Charles and Anna Mary Emig; her younger sister married Philip's younger brother, Daniel. The Emigs were among the large landholders in early Codorus Township. The first member of this family arrived in America in 1743, the same year as the Glattfelders. At the end of the eighteenth century Charles Emig owned more than 200 acres, located about a mile and a half west and northwest of the Felix Glatfelter farm. The tax list for 1799 indicated something quite unusual for a York County German: Charles Emig owned one slave. Between 1816 and 1819 he served one term as a York County commissioner.

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Between 1804 and 1823 Philip and Mary Glatfelter became the parents of twelve children. During that time Felix Glatfelter died. In his will, he gave Philip the right to purchase the larger part of the homestead, some 246 acres on which the original family house, barn, and other buildings were located. Philip had to provide his mother with certain specified items each year and pay for the farm according to a long-term schedule of annual payments, as was the case with his brother John.

At the age of forty-three, Philip Glatfelter died in the spring of 1825. He was survived by his wife, mother, and twelve children, the youngest of whom was but two years old. The first administrator named to settle the estate (his father-in-law, Charles Emig) died two months later. The second (his brother-in-law, Jacob Hovis) died only seven months after his appointment. The third, his youngest brother, Frederick, survived to bring the estate to completion in 1836.

Misfortune continued to pursue this family. During the depressed times of the early 1820s, Philip had fallen behind in meeting his obligations and had to borrow in order to make ends meet. When his creditors pressed the estate for relief, the county court ordered that the real estate be sold. At the sale on July 20, 1826 the sheriff awarded the property to the highest bidder, who was Mary Glatfelter. The price she paid was

$1,825. Having made the necessary financial arrangements, she was able to keep her home and family together at the old place. Little by little she reduced the principal of the

judgments entered against her, and by 1850 she was out of debt. When her estate was finally settled in 1884, about $20,000 was available for payment to her heirs.

This courageous woman never remarried and died in 1878, after fifty-three years of widowhood, at the age of ninety-four. She survived all but six of her children. She was buried in the graveyard at Bupp's Union. In her will, she directed that "a suitable Tomb stone" be erected there for Philip and herself. Either his grave had never been marked or she wanted to have an earlier stone replaced by one more "suitable." The dates which the family gave the stonecutter for the births of Philip and Mary do not correspond with those in the parish registers when they were baptized.

All of the twelve children of Philip and Mary remained in York County. Five of them were also buried at Bupp's Union. Philip H. Glatfelter, founder of the Spring Grove paper mill, was their grandson. The late Dr. Edward A. Glatfelter, veteran teacher and administrator in the York city schools, and an active member of this association's board for fifty-four years, was also a member of Philip's family, as is former Governor George

M. Leader of Pennsylvania.

The seventh child of Felix and Elizabeth, MARGARET (1784-1854), married Philip Folckemmer (1776-1856). Their marriage on August 21, 1804 was recorded in the register of Christ Lutheran church in York. Philip was the son of Jacob and Eva Catharine Folckemmer, who lived near the Emigs a short distance north of Ziegler's church. A tombstone for their son Michael, who died in infancy in February 1772, identifies him as the first person to be buried in the graveyard of that church. The name of this family has been spelled in many different ways. The one used here was the one which Philip used in making his will.

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Between 1805 and about 1830 Philip and Margaret became the parents of eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. About 1805 they left Codorus Township and located in the new town of Shrewsbury, where in addition to a house and lot he also owned a 76-acre farm located in the town and township. The tax lists call him, and later several of his sons, a hatter.

In January 1818 Philip was appointed first postmaster of Shrewsbury. He served in that position until the 1830s. When the Lutherans and Reformed built a union church in the town in 1824-1825, he was placed in charge of the building operations. In 1833, when five congregations in the Shrewsbury Lutheran charge joined together to acquire a parsonage, he was the trustee chosen to represent the congregation in town.

Margaret and Philip were buried in the union graveyard in Shrewsbury. Philip left an estate valued at more than $10,000, to be divided among ten children and the heirs of a son who died in 1851. When the proceeds were paid out in 1861, three children were living in York County; four in Miami County, Ohio; one in Clark County, Ohio; one in Tippecanoe County, Indiana; and one in Doniphan County, Kansas.

The eighth child of Felix and Elizabeth, DANIEL (1786-1837/8), married Margaret Emig

(1788-1864). Their marriage on August 15, 1807 was recorded in the register of the old Reformed church in York. The bride was the daughter of Charles and Anna Mary Emig. Her older sister married Daniel's older brother, Philip. Between 1809 and 1828 Daniel and Margaret had eleven children.

In a number of ways Daniel was the least successful of the children born to Felix and Elizabeth Glatfelter. First, there is no evidence that he ever owned any real estate.

Until 1816 he lived somewhere in West Manchester Township (in one year he was described as a cooper) and then until his death in Codorus Township. For a time he lived as a tenant on his father-in-law's property. Second, in response to the hard times of the 1820s, he assigned what assets he had for the benefit of his creditors in 1824. Several years later, in exchange for $140 paid him by Jacob Hovis, he gave him a release for any further claim he might have on the estate of his father-in-law, Charles Emig (This transaction was later declared null and void). Third, before common, or public, schools were established in Pennsylvania in 1854, a parent who could not afford to educate his or her children could obtain free schooling for them only by declaring himself or herself a pauper, in which case the county was required to pay the tuition. The Codorus Township tax lists for 1832-1834 list three "poor children" of Daniel Glatfelter.

Our knowledge of the last days of Daniel Glatfelter is derived from the testimony of his grandson. Harry I. Gladfelter (1850-1943), who was for many years a director and officer of this association. He passed on to a number of people, including this writer, what his mother had told him years before. When the crews which were building the first railroad from Baltimore to York were working in and around what later came to be known as Glatfelter’s Station, Daniel began spending much of his time at night with them. One winter morning a fox hunter Harry I. identified as a man named Tyson found his lifeless body in the snow. Whether or not he was sober when he died Harry I. did not know. Since the railroad was completed to York in the summer of 1838, and since no newspaper notice ever found reported his death, all we can say is that Daniel died in late 1837 or early 1838.

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Although no tombstone marks his grave, it is probable that Daniel was buried at Ziegler's. His widow, who sometimes went by the name Rebecca, spent her last years with her son Philip. There is a tombstone for her at Ziegler's. She died when Harry I. was thirteen years old. One of the things he remembered about her when he was in his eighties was that he was sometimes permitted to light her pipe when she was ready to smoke.

All of the children of Daniel and Margaret remained in York County except the youngest, Israel, who went to Canal Winchester, Ohio. None of Daniel's sons and daughters named any of their children for their father, but since 1906 his blood has continued to flow prominently in the life of this association. Many of the one hundred directors who have served since its incorporation in 1910 have been his descendants, including six of the present seventeen, if we include the late Armand Gladfelter. Dr.

Millard E. Gladfelter, nationally know educator and a director of this association for seventy-two years, was a great-grandson of Daniel. Four of the latter's descendants

(Harry I., Auburn H., Charles H., and Roy D.) have served as presidents of the association for fifty-eight of the ninety-two years since 1906.

The ninth child of Felix and Elizabeth, BARBARA (1788-1868), married Jacob Hovis (1788-1827). The marriage on July 31, 1809 was recorded in the register of the old Reformed church in York. Jacob was a younger brother of the Barbara Hovis who married John Glatfelter. Between 1809 and 1827 Jacob and Barbara became the parents of nine children.

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Jacob's father, Frederick Hovis, moved from Codorus to Shrewsbury Township about 1806. About 1815 Jacob took over his father's farm of about one hundred acres, which was located in the part of Shrewsbury Township which became Springfield in 1835, and not far from Felix Glatfelter's farm. In addition to being a farmer, Jacob was also listed in the tax records as basketmaker.

In August 1827 Jacob Hovis died, leaving seven minor children and a widow pregnant with an eighth. It is evident from the surviving estate papers that, while Jacob had not had to join his wife's relatives in seeking legal relief from his creditors, there was little left for the family to live on after his death. Barbara retained the farm until 1840.

She never remarried and spent the last years with her children.

When she died in 1868, after more than forty years as a widow and the last surviving of the children of Felix and Elizabeth, Barbara was buried next to her husband in the graveyard at Bupp's Union. Probably the two stones now marking their graves were erected after her death. The inscription on Jacob's demonstrates how uncertain the family was about their father's dates of birth and death. The stone reads that he died in August 1827 (no exact date given), aged about 38 years and 8 months. Jacob himself may not have known the exact date of his birth.

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All but one of the nine children of Jacob and Barbara survived infancy, married, and became parents. Most of the Hovises in York County are descended from one of the four sons. The oldest son, Daniel, left York County soon after his marriage and died in Snyder County.

In 1996 James H. Sprenkel, who died recently at the age of ninety-five, presented the association with photographs of Barbara Glatfelter Hovis, his great-grandmother, and of her son Jacob, his grandfather. Thus we are fortunate enough to have photographs of two of the children of Felix: Jacob and Barbara, both taken in the 1860s, the last decade of their lives.

The tenth and youngest child of Felix and Elizabeth, FREDERICK (1795-1856), was born seven years after his next oldest sister, when both of his parents were already in their forties. Because he was only twenty years old when his father died, Felix gave him

$200 to compensate him for the gifts which all of the other heirs had received when they came of age, which in the case of males was twenty-one and of females eighteen.

Frederick married Dorothy Swartz (1802-1862), daughter of Henry and Anna Mary Swartz and great-granddaughter of Andrew Swartz; his farm was located just north of the Glattfelder homestead. Felix was one of the executors of the estate of Andrew Swartz, who died in 1789. Between 1826 and 1841 Dorothy Glatfelter gave birth to two sons and one daughter.

In 1827 Frederick became administrator of the estate of his brother-in-law, Jacob Hovis, and a few months later the third and final administrator of his brother, Philip. For a number of reasons, both of these assignments proved to be difficult tasks. About 1830 he and Dorothy left Codorus Township and moved to a 40-acre property which he had purchased in 1829. Here, some distance north of Wolf's church and along the East Berlin road, they spent the rest of their lives.

Frederick died in 1856 and was buried at Wolf's. Dorothy followed six years later. In the section on medicine in the 1886 history of York County (p. 458), Dr. John Wiest wrote about local "self-made healers," many of whom were women and some of whom "had large and extensive practices, especially as midwives." The only one of these he mentioned by name was a "Mrs. Gladfelter, of West Manchester Township," who "died in 1860, after practicing midwifery for about forty years." According to Wiest, "she visited her patients horseback, on a fleet-footed animal, and never refused a call day or night." Since Frederick and Dorothy were the only Glatfelters living in West Manchester Township during the period to which he was referring, Dorothy certainly must have been the midwife in question.

All three of the children in this family remained in York County. In the preface to his 1901 history of the family, Dr. Noah gave thanks "above all" to the middle son, Granvllle Glatfelder (1836-1913), "who was untiring in aiding to make the record complete." In 1910 Granville was one of the seventeen incorporators of the association and he was a director until ill health prompted him to resign in 1912.

July 23, 1998                                                                          Charles H. Glatfelter