Adolph and his wife Anna Maria Urbach (Arbaugh, Orebaugh, Orebach) had Anna Barbara baptized 22 Sep 1776 at the Hebron Lutheran Church, with Daniel Doser and his wife as sponsors. Five pages of information on the family are given by Ardys V. Hurt in Larry Shuck's book, " Shuck Fleshman Sydenstricker Families ". A later version of the book, " Our Families ", has a chapter of twenty pages. This family appears to be a Shenandoah Valley family, not a Culpeper Co. family. The family may have made a trip east of the Blue Ridge and had Anna Barbara baptized while they were there. It may also be the case that Rev. Franck was on a visit to the Valley and baptized Anna Barbara while he was there; however, there is little or no evidence that the Hebron baptismal register was used in this way. The name "Adolph" is sometimes reported as "Adam," not only in this case but in general.
Johannes Weingart and his wife, Anna Maria, had Susanna baptized 4 Aug 1776. There may have an earlier presence in the Robinson River community. The early patent of Michael and John Clore was reported to be a neighbor to William Vinegunt, a spelling which almost suggests the name Weingart. This patent of Vinegunt seems to have never been executed since there is no record of it.
The 1780 records of St. Mark's Parish (an Anglican church) refunded a parish levy to Woolfenbarger who had overpaid. The name is obviously Germanic but the name itself was a surprise to me as I was unaware of his presence in the community; however, the name is known in Germanic genealogical research where it is typically spelled with only one "O". The family was from Switzerland and came to Pennsylvania several years before 1780.
A scan of the last several notes shows that many of the people that are discussed seemed to have a presence in the records in the years 1776 and 1777, usually in the church records. There is a good reason for this, and the reason is Rev. Jacob Franck. He pursued his work in the church vigorously and with a good reception by the congregation. As to how effective he was, one can count the baptisms in the period from 1750 to late 1775 and form a yearly average. Doing the same for the years 1776 and 1777, one sees a striking difference. The yearly averages differ by a factor of ten! One can also see it in church attendance where it increased sharply after he came. On April 7, 1776, 176 people took communion, perhaps an all-time record for the church. It appears Rev. Franck succeeded at getting many people who not been attending church to start coming. It may have been that he worked too hard at the job, for not only did he preach and teach in the church, he conducted a school in which he was the teacher. He was gifted musically. Of his singing, it is said, "He allured both old and young, even the poor negro slaves, by his lovely singing." But within three years, he resigned, much to the disappointment of the congregation. He returned to Philadelphia, where he owned property, and left the ministry to become or return to silver smithing. He had never been fully ordained as he was on trial within the Lutheran ministerium.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.