Harshbarger line: Johan George Weikert 1682-1755

 A short blog post is better than no blog post, I guess.  I have been trying to honor each of our family ancestors (males, mostly, but once in a while a woman) who came to and lived in what is now the United States of America.  Some people, like George Weikert, seem to have left few records.  Yet, because they had children who had children (etc.), they are part of our family history and deserve to have a mention in this blog.

Johan George (Georg) Weikert was born September 23, 1685 (or possibly 1682) at Eschollbrueck, Darmstadt, Hessen, Germany.  His parents were Johan and Maria Magdalene Wetzel Weiker. (Note: There are various spellings for his surname.  I'm using the one that appears the few times I have seen his name in print.  Eschollbrueck was a very small, very Lutheran town when George was born, and is still quite small.  

I have located nothing that tells us whether George had siblings, or what may have become of them, nor we know much about his life in Hesse.  He married Barbara Elisabeth Daecher, daughter of Herman and Anna Catherina Werthes Daecher, with conflicting marriage dates of 1711 and 1719.  If the marriage took place in 1711, Elisabeth would have been just 17 years old, a little young even for the time, but Georg would was in his mid to late 20s and would have been quite old enough to "settle down".  We can surmise that the young couple attended the church in town that is apparently still standing.  George would also have recognized the town hall, which was almost 100 years old when he was born.

Probably for economic reasons, George and Elisabeth came to Pennsylvania in or before 1724.  Their earliest known record is of George as one of the founding members of the Old Goshenhoppen church in what is now Upper Salford Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.  This church was a combined Lutheran and Reformed church, but I've been unable to determine whether the two congregations worshiped together or whether separate services were held.  

I'm not sure how many children George and Elisabeth had.  At least one died as an infant and there is a possibility that there were multiple births, as there seem to be two sets of twins in the family.  Some of the children, who were born in 1739 and 1741, may not actually belong to this family, as Elisabeth would have been in her mid 40's when she had them.  We can at least assume this was a large family, with some of the children having been born in Hesse and some in Philadelphia County.  

I've not found land, nor military, nor estate records for George so about all I can say of his life here was that he was a farmer and that, according to one source, he was an elder of the church.  I don't how how he and his family fared economically, but I like to think that he was at least somewhat successful here.  He was alive during some of the French and Indian War, when many people fled their homes and returned to live nearer the East Coast.  We don't know whether George was one of those who left, or one of those who stayed, nor do we know whether he ever took up arms against the natives who attacked much of the area. 

George died March 16, 1755, in or near Goshenhoppen, where he had apparently lived for over 30 years.  He isn't listed in the burial listings for the church, but there could be reasonable explanations for that.  It could also be that he was buried nearer his home.  That's another of the mysteries of George.  

As mentioned, this is a short blog post but it does continue the story of the German immigrants and is interesting to me because George arrived earlier than many of the other Germans I've written about.  

The line of descent is:

Johan George Weikert-Anna Barbara Elisabeth Daecher

Maria Salome Weikert-Benedict Kepner

Bernard Kepler-Maria Elisabeth Lindemuth

Andrew Kepler-Anna Maria Kramer

Mary Kepler-George Harshbarger

Lewis Harshbarger-Catherine Mentzer

Emmanuel Harshbarger-Clara Ellen Harter

Grover Harshbarger-Goldie Withers

Cleveland Harshbarger-Mary Beeks

Their descendants