The family of Johannes Harshbarger 1770-1853

 As usual with the early Harshbarger family, there are more questions than answers with these people.  Besides lacking absolute proof that this Johannes was the son of Christian and Magdalena van Gundy Hershberger, the dates that are given for his children don't match up with his marriage date as printed in the History of Centre County by John Blair Linn.  In that book, the marriage of Johannes and Christena Elizabeth Fehler is given as 1804, at Brush Valley Union Church.  But several of his children are given birth dates of before that date.  So we are left wondering whether there is a first wife whose name we have not located, or whether the marriage took place after several of the children had been born.  

Christena Elizabeth Fehler was the daughter of John Jacob and Anna Eva Behney Fehler, but the names of the people in that family don't give any help in sorting this out, because even children known to have been born to the couple don't seem to have names that have been in the family for generations.  

However, we do know the children's names, and have birth dates for all but the first son, George.  George is thought to have been born about 1796.  He married Mary Kepler, daughter of Andrew and Anna Maria Kramer Kepler.  Their  children were Milo, Lewis, John, Andrew Jackson, and Leah.  I will follow this family in a future post.

Eva was born December 9, 1798 and died in 1874.  She married Samuel Long, the son of Johannes Long and a mother as yet unidentified.  Their children were Johannes, Anna Marie, Rachel, Leah Mae, Margaret, Samuel B., Reuben, Jonathan, Elias, and Daniel.  Eva died in Copley Township, Summit County, Ohio.

Leonard was born October 13, 1800 and died in June of 1845.  He married first Phebe McCamon, daughter of John and Mary Davis McCamon and had five children with her, Thomas, Solomon, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Jacob.  Phebe died in 1839 and Leonard then married  Margaretha Barbara Schnieder, daughter of Jacob and Barbara Renschler Schneider, and had at least two additional children, Leonard and Phebe.  Leonard died in June of 1845 in Marion County, Ohio. 

Susanna was the next daughter born, on April 18, 1802.  She is variously reported to have died in 1803 and to have married Jonathan McCammon, but I can't find supporting evidence for the marriage.  I think it's possible that she died at the young age mentioned here, but don't rule out that she survived long enough to marry.

Catherine was born February 7, 1804 and died October 20, 1876.  She married John Castetter, the son of Sebastian and Maria Johnsonbaugh Kerstetter.  Their known children are John, Margaret, Samuel, Susan, and Daniel. Elizabeth, and probably Emmanuel.   Her husband John bears the identification of "Reverend", and they died in Elkhart County, Indiana.  

Next was Thomas, born April 15, 1806 and died about 1863.  His wife was Salome Leitner (also seen as Sally Lightner), the daughter of Christian and Salome Bechtel Leitner.  I haven't been able to locate him in either the 1850 or 1860 census, so I'm not sure where the death date came from.  He and Salome or Sally are the parents of Leah, Sarah, Rachel, and John.

John Heinrich, known as Henry, was born May 31, 1810. He married Sophia Bachman in Stark County, Ohio in 1834.  There are several Bachman families in the 1830 census there but I am unable to identify even a guess as to whether she belonged to any of these families.  Their children include Daniel, Urias, James, Amos, and Eve or Eva.

Christina was born June 7, 1813 and died October 21, 1893.  She married Jacob Kepler, the son of Andrew and Anna Maria Kramer Kepler, and yes, brother and sister married sister and brother here.  Their children were Elizabeth,  Adam, Solomon, Sophia, Alfred, Susanna, Mary Magdalena, William, and a boy who died as an infant.  One web site also mentions a Christina as their daughter. Like many in the Harshbarger family, she died in Summit County, Ohio.  

Their last known child was Maria Magdalena, born Feb. 6, 1816.  She married Charles Rodebaugh in 1851, when she was 35 years old.  I have four children listed for them, but am not sure whether these were hers or not.  Their names were William, Charles, Thomas, and Susannah.  Again, I'm not locating census information so am not entirely certain this is correct.

So John was the father to many children and the grandfather to many more, perhaps as many as 50.  Some of his family moved further west, as he had done in moving from Centre County, Pennsylvania to Summit County, Ohio, but some stayed in the Summit County area.  This is yet another Harshbarger family that needs further research, but we know they were hard workers and good citizens.