George Shank of Hummelstown was a weaver who died in 1826 leaving a wife Maria and eight children. Two of the children named in his will were Elizabeth and George, who were probably the two of that name who appear in Huntingdon County by 1820. The elder George signed the will on the 28^th of February 1826; it was probated on March 27. He was obviously in his final illness when he wrote it.¹

He left several pieces of real estate: two lots on Market Street and a tract of woodland in West Hanover.² Maria was to have the use and occupancy of the house, and any profits from it, as well as the woodland tract. She was also to have the choice of the four beds, with the bedsteads, also the tables, kitchen dresser, stove from the dining room, eight chairs, a spinning wheel, the family Bible, a prayer and hymn book, as well as a cow, and all the beef, tallow, flax and tow linen in the house. After her death the real and personal property was to be sold to pay the debts, and any remainder was to be shared equally among the children. The exception was the son David, who was to have the weaver’s loom, which was not to be deducted from his share of the estate. A trusty friend Frederick Hummel was the executor.

The will suggests that George was prosperous, since he owned the real estate. It suggests that Maria would continue to receive an income from the house or the woodland. There is no mention of selling anything to pay debts until after her death.

It is believed that this George served in the Lancaster County militia, Seventh Batallion, the same company that a Daniel Conrad served in.³ This could be the father of Elizabeth Shank’s future husband, also named Daniel Conrad.⁴ It is important to be cautious, however, since there were other Shank families around, and even other men named George Shank. A different George Shank married Maria Brandt; they had children baptized at Hummelstown Lutheran Church between 1804 and 1819.⁵ These are later than the children of George and Maria of Hummelstown. Perhaps the Georges were cousins. Nothing definite is known of the parents of George the weaver.⁶

Children of George and Maria (the one who died in 1826):⁷

Elizabeth, b. 1775, d. 1853, m. Daniel Conrad, lived in Huntingdon County

John, b. 1776, d. Aug 25 1836, m. Mary Bower (1781-1839), bur. at Hummelstown Zion Evangelical Lutheran⁸

Nancy

Catherine

George, b. Nov 1786, d. June 1868 in Warriors Mark, Huntingdon County, m. Nancy Funk, had a large family⁹

Jacob, moved to Centre County, at least 3 children¹⁰

David, b. 1802, d. 1864, buried at the Old Cemetery, Hummelstown Zion Lutheran Church¹¹

Daniel Conrad was a German-speaking ironworker from Lancaster County, who moved north to Huntingdon County and raised a large family there. He was part of a movement of Germans out of Lancaster County. German farmers had prospered in Lancaster and York Counties, but farmland had become expensive by the late 1700s. Some moved up to Huntingdon for opportunities in the iron industry. There the rolling hills were dotted with small villages that grew up around each forge or furnace. The Germans often married other German families, but not exclusively.

It is generally believed that Daniel Conrad of Huntingdon County was the son of another Daniel Conrad who lived in Mount Joy Township, Lancaster County. The older Daniel owned 150 acres of land there, served in the Lancaster County Militia in 1781, and appeared in the census through 1810, with his family mostly of sons.¹ He made his will on August 19, 1811; it was probated in January 1812.² He provided for his beloved wife Barbara with household furniture, a cow, and yearly cash payments. The farm implements were to be sold to cover his debts. After her death the estate was to be divided equally among his ten children: a girl and her nine brothers.³ There was no mention of the land. Presumably he had already disposed of it, and he and Barbara were living with one of their children.⁴

Some lore about Daniel Conrad Senior was passed down through the family. W. Fisk Conrad, a grandson of the younger Daniel, was keenly interested in the family history and wrote an account of the family in his Bible. He wrote that “My great grandfather immigrated to Lancaster County from Germany, I think Saxony. He was [the] father of five boys and six girls.”⁵ This could apply to Daniel of Mt. Joy if you generalize it to mean that he had a large family of children.

The younger Daniel Conrad appeared in Franklin Township around 1795, as a young man. Jacob Conrad and Michael Conrad showed up in records about the same time, and it is believed that they were his brothers.⁶ Daniel of Mount Joy, the man with the nine sons, named sons Daniel, Jacob and Michael in his will.

Daniel was probably drawn to Huntingdon County by the opportunity to work in the iron forges there. Some say that he went with George Anshutz, the iron master from Alsace.⁷ Anshutz set up an iron forge and furnace and became the biggest landholder in Franklin Township.⁸

Daniel’s wife Elizabeth Shank was from Lancaster County as well, so they may have been married before they moved.⁹

They were Lutherans. At first they worshipped in the Dry Hollow meeting house. After 1805 they went to the Lutheran Church at Seven Stars, close to where they lived on Eden Hill.¹⁰ Seven Stars probably took its name from a log cabin tavern that stood there for many years. Early families in the Lutheran Church included Mattern, Anshutz, Adam Mong, Daniel Conrad, “a number of the latter being workmen at the nearby Huntingdon Furnace.”¹¹

Daniel and Elizabeth raised a family of ten children. Some of them stayed nearby, while others moved further west and north in Pennsylvania.

Daniel wrote his will on January 1, 1824; he died on March 11, and the will was probated in April. The will was written in German; a translation accompanied it in the will book.¹² It was witnessed by Samuel Conrad and John Watson (Daniel’s son-in-law). Was Samuel one of Daniel’s sons? The will specified the care of Daniel’s “weak-minded” daughter Elizabeth, who never married, as well as the education of the five youngest children. It also provided for his wife Elizabeth, referred to as “Mother” in the will. It implied that the dowry for the older girls was a bed, a cow, and a sheep. His wife Elizabeth Conrad and George Shank were to be the administrators. There is no clue in the will where Daniel and Elizabeth were living at the time, and no mention of land.

“January 9 the year 1824. My wish is that my wife shall sell all that she don’t need for to pay the debts; and when the same is paid all shall remain in her hands so long as she is my widow. Elizabeth shall have her bed and cow and one sheep as the other girls and one hundred dollars shall remain at interest as long as she lives and the child that keeps her shall draw the interest for to buy Sunday clothes. My will is that the two little girls shall be put out to a virtuous place to be raised in the fear of God. And John has his choice to choose his trade now or in two years after my death if he don’t take up with loose company and then he must go directly to a trade. Jacob shall remain two or three years with Samuel with wages what he earns for schooling and clothes with good instruction if he has not a notion of going directly to a trade. Mother can keep the ?moll mare and her saddle and bridle if she will one cow, three sheep, one heifer, other household goods that she needs, one hog. All the rest big and little shall be sold at public vendue as soon as convenient. Daniel shall remain with his mother till he is schooled if she lives, or as long as she can keep him. And after Mother’s death each child shall have their share if anything remains. And Elizabeth’s hundred dollars shall that child inherit after her death with [whom?] she lives and dies with good attendance. This is the last will and testament in my life in earthly terms.”

Elizabeth outlived Daniel by almost twenty years, dying on May 7, 1853. They are buried together at Seven Stars Cemetery.¹³ He died at age 49; she died at age 77. According to W. Mills Davis, Daniel was a frail man, while Elizabeth was robust and stout, and blind before she died.

Children of Daniel and Elizabeth:¹⁴

Samuel William, b. 16 March 1796, d. 1866, m. Catherine Mattern, from a large German family. Samuel became a minister and moved his family to Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He and Catherine had ten children.

Margaret Jane, b. 3 June 1799, d. 10 April 1877, m. David Henderson in 1821. He was a successful farmer in Franklin Township and a shoemaker with a large business, employing men to work for him. He did work for the ironworks, got paid in iron, and took it over the mountains to Pittsburgh twice a year.¹⁵ He and Margaret had nine children, and also took in her sister Elizabeth after Daniel died.¹⁶He was a Democrat and a Methodist. A man of “genial disposition, social habits, and kindly nature”, he died in 1882.¹⁷

Elizabeth, “Betsy”, b. 1800, d. 1872, “weak-minded”, did not marry. She lived with her sister Margaret Henderson for at least part of her life.

Catherine, b. 1803, d. 1872, m. James Dickson. They lived at Eden Hill, Birmingham, Huntingdon County at first, later moved outside of Tyrone. He worked as a miller all his life. They had 11 children. James died in 1872 or 1873; Catherine died in 1893.¹⁸

Mary Ann, b. 1 January 1806, d. 1877, m. John Watson, an iron worker. She was short and slender, had dark eyes and dark hair, smoked a pipe. She was exceptionally kind and affectionate.¹⁹ They had ten children.²⁰

John, b. 11 March 1809, d. 1855, m. Mary Ann Stonebraker in 1831. They kept a store in Franklinville, selling shoes, dry goods, and groceries. John went to Philadelphia for his goods, bringing them back on a canal boat, “which was the only way of traveling with a heavy load in those days”.²¹ He and Mary Ann had colorful sons Fisk and Fletcher. ²² Mary Ann had her last child on May 31, 1853; the baby died the same day and Mary Ann did too. There were two doctors on her case, Doctors Irvin and Bates. Bates accused Irvin of murdering her and her body was exhumed a week after the funeral to search for traces of poison but nothing was found.²³John’s mother Elizabeth had died earlier that month. John died at McAlevy’s Fort, Jackson Township in 1855.

Jacob, b. 1813, d. 1844, m. Catherine Markle, buried at Franklinville. He was only 31 when he died.²⁴

Susan, m. George Dinsmore, moved to Sharpsburg, Allegheny County.

Nancy, d. 1897, m. William Hunt in 1837, moved to McAlevy’s Fort.²⁵ They had no children.

Daniel, b. July 1818, d. 1877, m. Mary Ann Lowe, had seven children, including Elizabeth who married Hunter LaPorte, son of John & Mary Ann. Daniel and Mary Ann lived at Eden Hill, where he was a farmer. He died in 1877. Mary Ann died in 1896 in Tyrone at the home of one of their daughters.²⁶

John Watson first appears in Huntingdon County records in the 1830 census. He was an ironworker. Many ironworkers moved up from Lancaster County in the early 1800s as the iron forges were set up in Huntingdon. He may have been one of them. ¹ Years later one of his sons wrote that John was the son of another John, who lived in Lancaster County and had sons John and William.²  Is there any independent evidence for the older John? The only John Watson in the 1790 or 1800 census of Lancaster County is the physician John Watson, who can probably be ruled out as the father.³ By 1810 there were two John Watsons in Lancaster County, both in Donegal Township, one with a large family and one with a small family. There is no way to connect either of them with the John who came to Huntingdon County. If the older John was really a veteran of the Revolution, then the second John would have been a rather late son.⁴

In any case, John Watson was supposedly born about 1796, raised by a relative, “perhaps an aunt”, after his father died, and moved to Huntingdon County about 1813.⁵ The only Watson in Franklin Township in 1820 was George Watson, living close to Daniel and Samuel Conrad.⁶ Was George an uncle of John’s?⁷  George and his wife were between 26 and 45, with three sons in the same age range, and a daughter 10 to 16. This is a mature family, where John could fit nicely, as a nephew, probably not as a son since John did name any of his sons George.

By 1830 John was married to Mary Ann Conrad, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth, and they were living in Warriors Mark Township.⁸ John and Mary were both aged 20 to 30, with four young children and one girl age 10 to 15.⁹ Since Mary Ann was born in 1806, they could not have been married before about 1823. The girl over 10 may have been a niece (or a servant). She was still with them in 1840. By 1840 John and his wife had five children, plus the girl now age 15 to 20. They were in Franklin Township, the area that includes Spruce Creek. They were a few houses away from Jacob Conrad, a younger brother of Mary Ann.¹⁰

John was a worker in the iron forges as well as a farmer. He was exceptionally strong. The story was passed down in the family that the men of the town had a contest of strength, where they pushed a wheelbarrow filled with pig iron. John wheeled a total of 2,240 pounds which was considered remarkable.¹¹ Where John was strong, Mary Ann was short and slight. She was kind and affectionate, and had dark eyes and hair.¹² In 1832 John bought 112 acres from Henry Kreider. This was in Warriors Mark, near George Mong. It cost $600.¹³

By 1850 six children were still at home with John and Mary Ann in Warriors Mark, where he was called a farmer .¹⁴ By 1860 they were in Franklin Township, where John was a foundry worker.¹⁵ In 1864 two photographers, Burchfield and Buttorf, traveled around Pennsylvania and took photographs. John and Mary Ann had their photograph taken, and thought this was better than their son Jerry’s paintings. “The father of the artist naturally thought that photographing was a marvelous improvement over his son’s slower way of painting portraits.”¹⁶

In 1870 John and Mary Ann were living with their son-in-law Anson LaPorte and his wife Nancy.¹⁷ John is listed as a foreman or forgeman in a blow furnace, still working at a rigorous job even at age 70 or more. John died on June 23, 1871 and was buried at the Lutheran Cemetery at Seven Stars, Franklin Township. In his will, written two months before his death, he left his estate to his “beloved wife Mary Ann”. He signed it by mark.¹⁸ After his death Mary Ann went to live with her youngest daughter Elizabeth Salkeld in Washington DC, where Elizabeth’s husband John was a policeman. The bustling city must have been a change after a life spent in rural Huntingdon County. Washington had expanded dramatically after the Civil War, partly because of the growth in the bureaucracy serving war issues such as veteran’s pensions.¹⁹ Mary Ann died on April 12, 1877 and is buried with her husband at Seven Stars.²⁰

Children of John and Mary Ann:²¹

Elizabeth, b. Aug 14, 1824, d. Nov. 4, 1901, m. 1842 Samuel Davis, lived in Altoona where he was a farmer. Samuel fought in the Civil War.²² He and Elizabeth were grandparents of W. Mills Davis.

John B., b. ab. 1827, d. March 18, 1892, m. Elizabeth Haslett, moved to Harrisburg, where he was an express messenger and later managed an express stable.²³ He died in Harrisburg.²⁴

Daniel, died of typhoid fever as a young man.

William, b. ab. 1829, d. 1903, m. Elizabeth Buck of Warriors Mark, moved to Lee County, Illinois.

Mary Ann, b. ab. 1833, d. 1915, m. 1861 Framton (“Frank”) Bloom, lived in Sunbury, Northumberland County, Frank was a farm laborer there in 1910.²⁵ She died in 1915.²⁶

Jeremiah, b. Feb. 1836, d. June 23, 1888 in Tyrone, m. 1863 Rachel Hall; he was a portrait painter and a veteran of the Civil War.²⁷ He and Rachel had four children including a son Claude.²⁸ He died of a pulmonary disease, probably tuberculosis, contracted during his service in the war. For the last five years of his life he was unable to walk, but continued to paint.²⁹

Samuel A., b. April 29, 1838, d. May 20, 1917, lived in Bradford, later in DuBois, Clearfield County,  served in the Civil War, married, had a son Claude. Samuel wrote to W. Mills Davis in 1911 giving information about the family, unfortunately not including the name of his wife. In May 1901 Samuel and his son Claude visited Nancy Ann LaPorte in Tyrone, “whom he had not seen for twenty-nine years”.³⁰

Priscilla, b. ab. 1840, d. before 1888, m. John Martin, r. Osceola Mills, Clearfield County, died there, had five children.

Nancy Ann, b. 1843, d. 1906, m. Anson LaPorte, lived in Franklinville, had two sons and five daughters

Mary Elizabeth, known as Lida, b. ab. 1847, d. Jan 5, 1892, m. John L. Salkeld, lived in Washington DC³¹