Recently, the question was asked whether any Germanna families moved to Pennsylvania, and especially to southwest Pennsylvania. The answer is yes.
Johann Friederick Baumgartner was baptized 5 June 1706 in Schwaigern. His mother was the sister of Johann Michael Willheit. Joh. Fried. Baumgardtner arrived in Philadelphia in 1732 and he moved to the Robinson River Valley. He married Catherine of unknown surname. Joh. Fried.’s sojourn in Virginia was cut short by his early death in 1740. Catherine married secondly John Deer.
They (the Baumgardners) had five children:
Dorothy married Robert Fleshman and they moved to Greenbrier Co., then in Virginia, but now in West Virginia.
A second child, Adam, married Elizabeth Clore. He, too, died very young, leaving only one heir, Jesse. (Elizabeth married secondly John Becker.) Jesse moved to Washington Co., Pennsylvania, where he married Elizabeth Dolby/Dalbey and raised a family of nine children.
(Two of the sons of Joh. Fried. and Catherine never married.)
Joel died of smallpox and he left his land to his mother and then to his brother Frederick.The other bachelor son, George, had land in Washington Co., Pennsylvania, which he sold in 1786.
The fifth child of Joh. Fried. and Catherine, Eve/Eva, married Mordecai Boughan. Eve was born posthumously of her father's death and does not appear in his will, but John Deer’s will calls her the sister of Dorothy.
[Jesse, the grandson of Joh. Fried. and Catherine Baumgartner and the son of Adam, also was born posthumously of Joh. Fried.'s death. His mother, Elizabeth (Clore) Baumgartner, and her second husband, John Becker, brought Jesse for baptism where it is not noted that John Becker was not the father of Jesse. Other documents prove Adam was the father of Jesse.]
Thus, there were descendants of Baumgartners and Clores in southwest Pennsylvania. These Baumgartners generally became known as Bumgarners. Jesse’s wife, Elizabeth Delbey, lived to be 95. By then, she had outlived eight of her nine children.
(11 Jan 06)
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.