Beeks line: Felix Weiss, Immigrant

Much of this post will be speculation, especially regarding his early years.  I am throwing this out for amy historians who may recognize Felix and say "I know this man!"  and be able to help correct whatever inaccuracies are in this blog post.  Some of it I am quite sure about but the early years are very murky indeed.  There is at least one story that needs to be told now, and if we never get answers to our questions then at least we know this much. 

First, entirelyl speculative, is the possibility that Felix came from Switzerland.  There is a record of Felix Wyss, carpenter, and also Conrad Wyss, cooper, leaving the Parish of Affoltern, Mt. Albis (also seen as Affoltern arm Albis), which was about 8 miles southwest of Zurich.  Felix came with his wife, Anna Huber and five little children, Anna, Hans Heinrich, Hans Jacob, Johannes, and Heinrich, and he was listed as a carpenter.  Conrad, who may have been  likely a relation of some sort, came on the same ship with his wife Barbara Dupa and four young children. 

If this was our Felix, then more of his tree is available to us and we can likely go back several generations. .

 I'll get the cart ahead of the horse here for a little bit and say that the records showing Felix as having died in 1779 in Monroe County, Pa are a bit misleading.  Monroe County wasn't formed until 1836.  At the time our Felix lived there, it was Northampton County, and it was very much frontier country.  So most of our records are found in Northampton County, and as always, we wish for more. 

Felix apparently led a hard life as I have not yet found him on tax rolls for Northumberland County.  He may have been devastated by the French and Indian War and subsequent harassment (a kind word) by native Americans.   The one record I've found with his name on it is from September of 1763.  In it, he was a petitioner to the government, asking for help against the native Americans.  It was written from Brinker's Mill to Mr. Horsfield and the petiotioners were 18 men , "the neighbors that are now living or rather staying here at this present time".  The  petitioners asked for soldiers to be placed at Jacob Brinker's Mill, "the people have been driven from their houses, their livelihoods destroyed by savages; they gladly returned to their homes , their desolate habitations, so they coudl use the mill and almost forgot their woes but now, every day, they were 'exposed to the unmerciful hands of these savages just at our backs".  Only half the men had even one chrge of powder or lead, God was their only protection, "Please place soldiers at the mill."  We have no idea of the stresses and fears that our families lived under.  These fears were very real, as several families from this area were massacred before the area was truly settled. 

The mill is located on McMichaels creek in what is now Hamilton Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania, so this gives us a general location of where Felix and his family lived.  The current stone building was actually built about 1800, but there was a log mill there for 50 years prior to the "new" construction, and this would have been the location where Jacob, along with 17 others, signed the petition.  Most of the names on the petition are either German or Swiss.

Felix died in 1779 in what is now Hamilton Township, Monroe County. 

Here's another problem with this man.  Our Felix is given an approximate birth date of 1720, but other records show a Felix born in 1703.  Were there two Felix Weiss's?  Were they related?  Confounding the mystery is that our Felix's wife is shown as Anna Maria Van Buskirk, but...someone with the same purported birth date is shown on Find a Grave, which is somewhat unreliable or at least incomplete, as actually being a Weiss first and then a Van Buskirk.  Was this Anna Huber, then Weiss, then van Buskirk?  The dates are a problem, or were the names a pure coincidence?   These Felixes, and Annas, have me confused, so don't take this as written in stone.  It's written in sand, waiting for the complete facts to emerge. 

The possible line of descent is:



Felix Weiss-Anna
Johan Jacob Wise-Charlotte Raub
Andrew Wise-Mary Serfass
David Wise-Matilda Martin
Elizabeth Wise-John Beeks
Wilbur Beeks-Cleo Aldridge
Mary Margaret Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger
Their descendants