David

Until after 2010, I didn't know anything about the parents and siblings of my great-grandfather, Joseph. Then one day I was doing Internet searches for "Joseph Stauffer Kosciusko County Indiana" and found the 1849 case of Stauffer v. Stauffer (bottom of Page 1, top of Page 2). In the case, Joseph's father, David, had died, and Joseph's youngest brother, David Jr., took the rest of the family to court to obtain an equitable division of David's land (equitable = 1/9th for everybody). The land was in Logan County, Ohio. Joseph, the oldest son, had already been in Indiana for about 11 years.

Trying to find out more about this case, I ran across other descendants of Joseph and little bro David Jr. These folks had been able to establish that the David Stauffer family moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia sometime after Joseph was born (1812). Richard Davis has him still in Pennsylvania in 1817. They then moved to Ohio sometime after David Jr. was born (1822).

David Sr. is the oldest son of a man I call Ontario Abe. David was born on August 9, 1781, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in what I call Stauffer HQ: Warwick township. The family farm was 153 acres in Lexington, which was just north of Lititz. Like most of the men in this line (in the US, anyway), he appears to have been married twice. His first wife was Susannah Long. (My great-grandfather, Joseph, would name his first child after her.) The second was named Elizabeth.

There are tax records for a blacksmith named David Stauffer in Lancaster County. The first year he appears on the tax record is 1805. (See the Warwick County listing in the Appendix at the bottom of this web page (it's dead now), about tenth name from the bottom.) By way of delightful coincidence, 1805 is the year his father and most of his siblings bugged out of Warwick Township and headed to Ontario.

David's mother, Elizabeth, died giving birth to a (second) set of twins in 1802. Only one of the twins survived, so old Abraham decided to pack up the family and move to Ontario in 1805. David and a couple of other older siblings decided to stay back in Pennsylvania.

(The surviving twin was named Joseph. Because I was named after an uncle, Joseph, who was named after my great-grandfather, Joseph, I wonder if my great-grandfather, David's first son, was named after him.)

One of Ontario Abe's great-nephews, Michael Zug, documented information about the descendants of Ontario Abe. It was transcribed in 1974 into this report and housed in the Mennonite Archives at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. The document claims that the (Ontario) family was able to stay in touch with David while he was in Pennsylvania and Virginia, but they eventually lost track of him sometime after he moved to Ohio.

In Part 1 of his genealogy of the Stauffer family, Richard Davis identifies the eldest son of Ontario Abe as a blacksmith:

"He was of Warwick Township, Lancaster County when he bought 20 acres from John and Anna Dulspon in E, Pennsborough Township, Cumberland County on 27 Mar 1812. He was a blacksmith in 1812. He was taxed at E. Pennsborough in 1814 on 20 acres, 1 horse and 2 cows and in 1817 as a blacksmith on 22 acres with 2 horses and 2 cows." (p. 277)

THE FOLLOWING WAS COMPILED BY MARI NIELSON

He appears to have had nine children:

1. Mary b. bet 1805-1810, m. Christopher GROVE, d. bef 1849

2. Nancy b. 1808 (m. Solomon GARBER in Augusta Co., VA in 1834 under the name STOVER)

3. Elizabeth b. 1810, m.Abraham GARBER

4. Joseph b. abt 1812, m. Sarah Firestone

5. Sarah b. July 1813, m. Jacob CARAHOOF (KIRCHHOFF) and Samuel GARBER, d. 1849 in Logan Co., OH

6. Susannah b. August 03, 1815, m. Benjamin PHENEGER, d. 1852 in Logan Co., OH

7. Abraham b. bet 1810-1820, possibly m. Jerusha TUCKER

8. David b. 1822, m. Miriam TERRILL in Champaign Co., OH in 1854

9. Catherine b. abt 1824, m. James D. CLINGER in 1843 in Kosciusko Co., IN

Mari believes this census record is his (her guesses about the children are in parentheses):

1820 census of Rockingham Co., VA, p. 162

David STAUFER

2 males under 10 (Joseph b. 1812 and Abraham bet 1810-1820)

1 male 25-45 (David)

2 females under 10 (Sarah b. 1813, Susannah b. 1815)

3 females 10-15 (Nancy b. 1808, Elizabeth b. 1810 and Mary b. bet 1805-1810)

1 female 25-45 (wife: Susan or Elizabeth)

David died before February 1849 in Pleasant Twp., Logan Co., OH. In July of that year his son David Jr. sued the widow and other heirs for his share of the estate. (Records found in Logan Co., OH.)