John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 1561

In volume 5, the number 4 issue (July 1993), of Beyond Germanna , I published a short note on the Bunger family which was based on information from B. C. Holtzclaw and Ina Ritchie Sipes.  I would, of course, be interested in any refinements to this information.

Felta Bunger bought 100 acres on a branch of Deep Run from Michael Wilhite and Mary, his wife, on 1 Aug 1775 (Culpeper Co. DB H, p.111).  Valentine Bungard, or Bangert, signed the Church Covenant of the German Lutheran Church 27 May 1776, and also the petition by the male members of the church 22 Oct 1776, asking that they be freed from levies to support the Anglican Church.  Veldun Bonger/Banger and his wife Elizabeth sold this 100 acres to their son John on 22 Jan 1795 (Madison Co. DB 1, p. 172f).  His signature is a classic German script.  The personal taxes of Madison Co. show that Felty Bunger was levy free for the first time in 1800, indicating that he was around 60 years of age and born about 1740.  On 26 Aug 1802, Felty and Elizabeth Bunger deeded to John Henshaw 100 acres (DB 3, p.211) on Hutchesons Mountain, which they had purchased of Alex Tull on 8 Dec 1788 (Culpeper DB P, p.52).  He appears in 1803 for the last time in the personal taxes, and his family seems to have moved away from Madison Co. about then.  The will of Felta Bunger was probated in Greenbrier Co., VA (now WV) on 11 Mar 1806.

Felta's wife was named Elizabeth and there seems to have been some relationship to Matthew House and his wife Mary Margaret.  Valentine Bungert and Elizabeth, his wife, were godparents of Salome, daughter of Matthew and Mary Margaret House in 1776, and of another of their daughters, Catherine Elizabeth, in 1778.  Matthew Houses sons, Michael and Jacob, and their wives, appear as sponsors of the children of Valentine Bungards son Jacob at Hebron (the German Lutheran) Church from 1790 to 1798.  The lists of confirmations at Hebron indicate that Valentine and Elizabeth Bungard had these seven children:

  1. John, b. 1762, confirmed 1782 at age 20.
  2. Magdalena, b. 1763-4, confirmed in 1782 at age 18.
  3. (Anna) Margaret, b. 1766-7, confirmed in 1782 at the age of 15.
  4. Jacob, b. 1768-9, as he was confirmed in 1785, age 16.
  5. Philip, who was confirmed in 1789 without any statement of age, but perhaps he was born 1770-71.
  6. Henry, who was confirmed in 1794 at the same time as his sister Catherine.  Perhaps he was born about 1772.
  7. Catherine, who was probably born about 1774.  Girls were often younger when confirmed than the boys/men.

Probably, there were no children older than John since there were no confirmations of Bunger children from 1776 to 1782.
(06 Jan 03)

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.