Founded in 1730, St. Mark's Parish covered the western part of Spotsylvania Co. On 1 Jan 1735, Orange County was formed and St. Mark's became the parish for it. At this time, Orange Co. included several of the present day counties, including an area in the Shenandoah Valley. When Culpeper Co. was formed in mid-century, St. Mark's became the parish for what is today's Culpeper, Madison, and Rappahannock Counties. In 1752, Bromfield Parish was split off. St. Mark's included several pockets of Germans (Mt. Pony, Little Fork, and the Robinson River) at some time during its existence. The following members of the Germanna community are mentioned in the Vestry minutes: Frederick Cobler, Michael Holt, Thomas Wayland's wife, Matthias Blankenbaker, Jacob Holtzclaw, Jacob Fishback, Frederick Zimmerman, Christopher Kabler, Conrad Cabler, John Cobler, and Woolfenbarger.
Woolfenbarger? The mention of this man was the first time that I remember encountering the name ever. And here he is in the Germanna area in 1780. Just who was he? Not a lot was to be found immediately but my antennae were tuned to the name should I encounter it again. After a while I did pick up some information on the family.
The family originated in Switzerland, lived for a while in the Alsace, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1730. The head of the family was John Wolfersberger and his wife was (Anna) Margaret Ensminger. Seven children are known for the family: John Peter; Ursula (died young); Jacob Frederick and John, Jr., who were born in the Alsace; and Mary Catherine, Anna Marie, and John Philip, who were born in Pennsylvania.
The family eventually dispersed with (George) Michael, the son of Peter, going to Culpeper Co., Virginia. Other family members, of the third generation from the first generation John and Margaret, went to Shenandoah Co., VA, Greenbrier Co., (W)VA, Surry Co., NC, Ohio, and Tennessee. One grandson, Benjamin, went to Wythe Co. in Virginia.
The Culpeper man, (George) Michael, was baptized 15 Mar 1747 and died in Sep 1789 in Culpeper Co. He married, about 1771, Elizabeth Wenz and they had seven children: Elizabeth, who married ___ Hergebrode; Catherine, who married Jonas Troutman; Sarah, who married Michael Baker; George (died young); Hannah, who married Peter Spangler; John; and Margaret.
I have much more information on the Wolfersberger family in a 1987 note by Raymond Martin Bell. Much is known about the ancestry of John and Margaret, the immigrant parents.; The Wolfersberger line has been traced to Jacob, who married, in 1575, Elsbeth Knecht in Ettenhausen, Switzerland. Wolfersbergers were living in this village in 1467.
One reason that I interpret the meaning of Germanna broadly is to enhance the chance that I will learn something about the lesser known members of the community. I still wish that I knew more about the Wolfersberger family in Culpeper County than I do presently.
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.