Harshbarger line: Casper Schurch died 1739

 When I write a blog post, it's my goal to have 6-10 paragraphs of information I can share.  This post won't have that; it may not even have 6-10 sentences.  So this is more an acknowledgement that he is in the Harshbarger line than an attempt to tell his story. 

I'm reasonably sure that Casper (Kasper) was born in Sumiswald, Bern, Switzerland, in either 1649 or 1657.  His parents may have been Jacob Schurch and Anna Mummenthaler, if he was the one born in 1649, or Joseph Schurch and Elsbeth Guntlisberg, is he was the one born in 1657.  Casper's wife, Verena Burkhart, was baptized in 1666, but we can't draw conclusions from that because it was common for men to be older, perhaps decades older, than their wives.  Verena was the daughter of Jacob and Barbara Graber Burkhart. 

Casper seems to have stayed pretty much under the radar, because he seems to have been a Mennonite.  Many in the Harshbarger line were Swiss Mennonites, so this is not surprising.  One source says that the family left Sumiswald about 1695 and went to Basle Canton, Switzerland, where the living conditions were not so harsh.  Many Mennonites went to the Palatinate area of Germany and lived there under slightly better conditions than they had in Switzerland, but eventually some of those families came to America, more specifically, Pennsylvania.  

Casper Schurch, one of them at least, appears to have begun his journey in 1731 and arrived in Pennsylvania in 1732.  Depending on which of these is our ancestor, he would have been 83 or 75 years old when he arrived.  I wonder how vigorous he was, and how he withstood the difficult trip over seas.  Was he well enough to build a home for himself, or did he live with one of his children, I wonder?  

The records seem quiet again, until Casper died in July of 1739.  He and Verena had at least seven children, and records show at least three of them in Pennsylvania.  Most websites show him as having died in Lebanon County but there was no Lebanon County at the time, so he would have died in Lancaster County.  I haven't been able to locate a will or estate papers for him.

That is it.  About all we can guess from these brief glimpses is that he was an honorable man, that he cared for his family (or his family cared for him?) and that he was brave to come to America at what was an advanced age, whichever Casper he is.  Like so many others, he is almost lost to history and to his descendants.  I hope someday someone is able to fill in the "dash" in his life and tell us more about him.

The line of descent is:

Casper Schurch-Verena Burkhart

Anna Shirk-Johannes Gingerich

Joseph Yost Gingrich-Anna Elizabeth Huber

Maria Gingrich-Adam Burkholder

Joseph Burkholder-Elizabeth Miller

Barbara Burkholder-Benjamin Buchtel

Nancy Fannie Buchtel-Adam Kemery

Della Kemery-William H Withers

Goldie Withers-Grover Harshbarger

Cleveland Harshbarger-Mary Beeks

Their descendants