| The Pfeiffers from Langenhein | |
Henry Paul Payfer's Relatives: the Pfeiffers of New GermanyWe have just seen HERE that Henry Paul Payfer had a brother called Pierre in French, a nephew called André in French, and another called John Wever. We have also seen that his father was called André Payfer in French. Now this family name is Pfeiffer in German, and so the various names would become Peter Pfeiffer, Andreas Pfeiffer, and Johannes Wever. We have also seen that this people were living in "New Germany" an area along the Mohawk Valley of what is now New York State, an area which was quite close to New France and which was hotly contested as many other border areas between New England and New France. TO SEE MAPS OF THE AREA, PRESS HERE That this area was hotly contested is clear from the story of Elisabetha Pfeiffer when an attack in 1758 nearly killed her. Attacks had taken place at least the two years previous. For more on this, press HERE, In fact we know that in many cases people from New England were abducted from their area and brought to New France where they settled, became part of the population and subjects to the King of France and started families. Whether this is what happened to Henry Paul Payfer we do not know at this time. This being said, others have found some Pfeiffers living in New Germany at that time and all of them seem to be from one family only. The information found below comes from independent work done in New York State. [I will add to their information what I consider is most likely considering what we have put together in the previous page already quoted. This will be done in red and in square brackets as here.].
The British decided to recruit settlers for their Colonies in the Lower Palatinate as early as 1706. The first group came via England with Rev. Kocherthal. The list of these emigrants dated June 28, 1708, still exists. A particularity worth noting is that the German feminine ending "in" is added wherever the name of a wife or daughter occurs. Johann Henrich Pfeiffer was living in Langenhain, east of Wiesbaden, in Germany in 1709. Johann Heinrich had been confirmed at Lorsbach, Germany, in 1686. Registries found at Wiesbaden indicate that Johann Henrich Pfeiffer of Langenhain paid for his release to go to the New Land in 1709. TO SEE MAPS OF THE AREA, PRESS HERE Henrich Pfeiffer, pionner, was thus recruited in the Palatinate to settle in what was to become the State of New York under the patronage of Queen Anne in 1710. The newcomers would first stay at the Queen's expense in a camp before going to where they would actually settle in what became New Germany. The British Colonial Governor of New York called Hunter, kept ledgers of those Palatines who received subsistance from her either by being in one of the camps and by being in need from June 1710 to September 1714. Henrich Pfeiffer was on the Ration list of 30 June 1710 as head of a family of 2 persons over 10 and 1 person under 10 (his wife, his self and his child then under ten). He must have died before 24 June 1712 as his wife Catharina Pfeiffer was then head of family of 2 persons over 10 years on 24 June 1712 (herself and her son now over ten) and called a widow with one child (he would have been about 15) at Neu-Quunsberg [New Queensburg] circa 1716/17. The only child of Johann Henrich and
Catharina Pfeiffer who came to New England with them
and survived the journey was
Andreas, born probably in Langenhain around 1701.
Andreas Pfeiffer was probably born in Langenhain, in the Palatinate, around 1701. He was confirmed on 23 March 1712 at Queensburg at the West Camp Lutheran Church, which means that his mother and him were not yet in what became New Germany. He was a member of the congregation at the [Little] Fall[s] circa 1744 (Schoharie Lutheran Church). By 1723 he was a patentee at Stone Arabia. [It is believed that date should be 1763, as he would have been too young to have been a patentee in 1723, and he was listed as a freeholder in Albany County in 1763.] He thus died after 1763. Among the children of Andreas: Johann Peter Pfeiffer married first to Maria Catharina and then to Gertraud. He appears on the tax list at Burnetsfield in January 1766. His assets were worth 11 pounds. He was a a sergeant in Capt. Conrad Franck’s militia company in 1767 probably at German Flatts. [He also fought the war of Independence during which he was taken prisoner while in the German Flatts in 1778, was released under his brother Henrich's supervision in Sainte-Geneviève, was present at his niece Marie Catherine's wedding and, paroled, went back home in the Fall of 1781.] The will of Peter Peypher of German Flatts was dated 20 June 1786 and probated 12 August 1786. Peter and Marie Catharina had many children, among them:
Jacob Peiffer married Elisabetha Folz at the Stone Arabia church on March 16th 1763. He appears on the tax list at Burnetsfield in January 1766. He then had assets worth only 1 pound. They had many children, among them:
Andreas Peiffer born 6 January 1760, baptized 24 January 1760 sponsored by Andreas Wever and wife. [He was part of the Rebel Army during the War of Independence and was taken prisoner on June 21st 1781 in the German Flatts. He was still living with his father then. He was taken captive to Montréal where he tried to be released in the care of his uncle Henrich.] He married on January 4th 1785 Elizabeth Fox at the German Flatts church. Andreas and Elisabeth had the following children baptized at the German Flatts Reformed Church also known as the Fort Herkimer Reformed Church:
"THE ENDURANCE OF ELIZABETHA"
Elizabetha Pfeiffer Bell In 1749 Elizabetha Pfeiffer, born in 1731 to Palatines Andreas and Ernestina Pfeiffer, married Johannes Bell, son of the Palatine Johan Frederick and Anna Maria Helmer Bell, originally Burnetsfield residents who later went to Andrustown. Johan Frederick Bell and other family members died there in the Andrustown Massacre. The year 1758 found Johannes and Elizabetha Bell and their children living in the small community of German Flats, which then consisted of about twenty houses on the south side of the "River Corlaer" (The Mohawk) and eight on the north side, which had been abandoned in the 1756 and 1757 attacks which ravaged the area. A fort, known as Ft. Khouri, or Fort Harkeman, had been built on the south side of the river. It was described as "Harkemeis house at ye German Flats", and consisted of "stockaded work around a church and block-house, with a ditch and a parapet pallisadoed, thrown up by Sir William Johnson last year (1756) upon alarm then given". In the spring of 1758 word came of an imminent attack by the Onondaga. "Captain Herchamer commanded the fort at this time, and, on the first intimation of danger, collected within the fort all of the inhabitants he could gather, before the attack was made upon the settlements" "On April 30, 1758 a large party of Indians and a small number of French attacked the settlements on the south side of the river near the fort." "Captain Herkimer sent word to all of the residents to come into the fort. Mr. and Mrs. Johannes Bell, with two of their children and an infant, went first into the woods to drive in their cows. They were surprised there by Indians who killed Mr. Bell and all the children before the mother's eyes, and dashed out the infant's brains against a tree." Elizabetha Bell "was scalped, her nose cut off and grievously wounded in her breast and thigh" and was left for dead. During the night she revived to that terrible scene, and somehow found it within herself to crawl "some distance" to the fort. Her arrival is described in The History of Herkimer County. "A woman came into the fort the next morning, who was scalped, her nose nearly cut off, and wounded in the breast and side; and she was even then, in that mutilated condition, supposed likely to recover". Ladies at the fort stitched her nose back on, that was described as "hanging from a little piece of skin", and tended her wounds, nursing her through her recovery and the birth three months later of a daughter Catharina. This child, Catharina Bell is my five times great-grandmother. Scarred, but indomitable, Elizabetha wore, ever after, a little black cap to cover her head wounds. On the 13th of December 1761 she re-married a widower and longtime family friend Theobald Nellis, who had been left a widower with a large family. Elizabetha gave Theobald Nellis two more children:
Her surviving children by Johannes Bell were:
Elizabetha Pfeiffer Bell Nellis lived for 32 years after her bludgeoning, scalping and other terrible injuries, "there being a small soft spot upon her head which was always sensitive. Going down into the cellar one day she struck this spot upon a beam", and this was thought to have caused her death soon after. Elizabetha carried me, and a myriad of her descendants with her in her womb as she crawled along that awful night. As a woman I feel deeply that it was this knowledge of the life within her, that shone ahead of her like a bright spark of hope, lighting her way from that valley of death to her remaining years of full and fruitful life. She deserves to be remembered. This occurrence is detailed in
By Sharilyn L. Whitaker October 1998 When you say you want records from the 2 churches, I assume you mean the ones at Stone Arabia and German Flatts. If you mean the original church books, I have no idea where they might be. However, transcriptions exist and have been published and certified accurate. They have been transcribed (typewritten) exactly as they were written in the originals, and you would learn nothing more than what I have given you. They simply give births, marriages and sometimes deaths in chronological order starting with 1739 at Stone Arabia and 1763 at German Flatts. The records at Stone Arabia from 1739 until the 1760s are fairly scanty. No such thing as a marriage certificate exists, and only rarely are the parents of the bride and groom mentioned. I didn't look at marriages before, but today I found the following from the German Flatts church:
The last two are probably children of the Jacob who m. Elisabeth Folz in 1763 and perhaps all of the marriages are siblings of Andreas/Andre. If you really want to do a detailed study of the Peiffers in Herkimer County, there are more records in the Herkimer Reformed Church in the early 1800s which I haven't given you. Conrad Seckner and Margaretha Pfeiffer had a son John Jost born 24 March 1798, baptized 9 April 1798 sponsored by Jost Kessler and Lena Seckner.
I have sent a message to the F & M college archives looking for further
info on a Peter Pfeiffer I found on a site of the revolutionary war. I found patened land owners in Burnetsfield. B There is no info on these men, just a list of names. Burnet was the new Gov and gave land to many early settlers. One was Andreas Wever lot # 11 on South side of the River. The other Jacob Wever lot #10 at what is now Herkimer.
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