John McEwen (1745 - 1815)

There is evidence that my Scots-Irish McEwen ancestor,  John,  was living in Northampton County, Pennsylvania  during the time of the Revolutionary War.  He was among the people who made up the Hunter Martin Settlement in Lower Mount Bethel.  

His name appears on the January 1775 Tax List for Hunter Settlement in Mount Bethel Township as John McKoun.  On August 7, 1777,  John McQuown signs the Oaths of Allegiance, Northampton County.  And in 1785 we find land warrants under the name John McOwen for 80 and 200 acres in Northampton County.   The McEwen name is found spelled many different ways in the old records: McCowen, McCuen, McQuen, McQuan, McQuowin, McQuowen, McQuown and McEwen.   At that time, this area was populated with predominantly German speaking people. I am sure  the McEwen Scottish brogue was  very difficult to decipher  to the ear of the German men who recorded the name in all these different records.

 

The following passage, taken from "The Scotch-Irish in America: Proceedings and Addresses of the Second Congress at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 29 to June 1, 1890"  sums up the character of these frontiersmen.  "The Scotch-Irish, as they were called, were emigrants from the northern part of the sister kingdom, descendants of the Scotch colonies planted there by Cromwell. They were a hardy, brave, hot headed race, excitable in temper, unrestrainable in passion, invincible in prejudice. Their hand open as impetuously to a friend, as it clenched against an enemy. They loathed the pope, as sincerely as they venerated Calvin and Knox. If often rude and, lawless it was the fault of their position.  Impatient of restraint, rebellious of any thing that in their eyes bore the resemblance of injustice, we find these men readiest among the ready on the battle fields of the Revolution. If they had faults, a lack of patriotism or of courage was not among them."

John McEwen's  service record is recorded in the Revolutionary War Military Abstract Card File of the pennsylvania Archives.    Item number 54 names John McQuen, Northampton County, 6th Battalion, 6th company, 2nd class, May 14, 1778. 

His record is also  recorded in the Pennsylvania Archives 5th series Vol. 8  p. 426 - 437.  There are no other men with a similar name in Northampton Co. at that time.  

The 6th Battalion, Northampton County Militia was under the command of  Colonel Jacob Stroud at Fort Penn which was located on the site of present-day Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.  The men  of the 6th Battalion played a pivotal role in General Sullivan's campaign  to destroy the  Indian settlements on the frontier. 

John (McQuown) McEwen  was  born on  April 15, 1745.   He  married Margaret Herin,  a daughter of John Herin, who also  was a part of the Hunter Martin Settlement in Martin's Creek, Lower Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania.  Margaret was born November 29, 1755. They were married December 3, 1771. It is not known exactly were John and Margaret lived out their lives and where they are buried.  Evidence shows that they lived in both Northampton County and Columbia County.

They became  the parents of  nine children.   Their son, William,  was born in Berwick, Columbia County, Pennsylvania on November 8, 1775.   He married Sarah Johnson  of Lower Mount Bethel township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.  William and Sarah pioneered to Ohio in 1823, but their son John returned to Northampton County. Descendants of John McEwen still live in Northampton County today. 

I wish to thank Bruce McEwen for all the research he has done on the McEwen family  and for his generosity in sharing it with me.  His diligence in searching  for the forbears in the McEwen family is to be admired.

Pennsylvania Profiles: Scotch-Irish. http://gentreeforme.files.wordpress.com
Pennsylvania State Archives @ http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us. 

                                               This page and all contents © 2013 Cynthia H. Smith
                                                                      Email  to chsmith47@yahoo.com 

Peter Laufer (1752 - 1830)

                                                Peter Laufer, The Shoemaker

We can be happy that Peter's wife, Magdalena Susanna Grosher,  refused to travel  to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in 1774 with the rest of the Laufer's when Peter's father, Christian,  opted to relocate there and fight the Indian hostilities on the Western front.  Peter  first married Magdalena Susanna Grosher who was the mother of his children.  Later he married Magdalena Althause.

The following is taken from The Lauffer History (1905),  The Peter Laufer Branch.   "He lived in troublous times, for it is said that it was not safe to sleep in the house at night, for fear of the Indians.  The settlers had to go to the block house at Howersville.  When his father Christian, and all his brothers and sisters emigrated into Westmoreland Co., he alone remained in Northampton Co.  Tradition has it that he married a wife who refused to cross the Mountains."

He was a farmer and a  shoemaker by trade.  It is reported that he was a very short man and therefore too small to carry a musket, but he was one of the Pennsylvania German farmers who wanted  to  contribute  to the success of Liberty's cause.  So he joined Washington's army as a shoemaker  and practiced that skill during the length of his enlistment.   His name appears as a private of the 8th class, spelled Lawfart, in  the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Company under Captain  John Deeter of the Northampton County militia, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel  Nicholas Kern, in 1782, and  again on March 3, 1783.   He joined the company in 1780.

The shoemaker's shop in Williamsburg, Virginia

In 1780  Peter Laufer was assessed on his property in Moore township at 292 pounds. In 1785 Peter Laufer is named as the owner of 150 acres of land in Moore township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania and was by occupation a farmer and shoemaker.

He married Magdalena Susanna Grosher.   They  were members of the Reformed congregation  of  Stone Church at Kreidersville, Northampton county.  They were the parents of  eight children who were: 

  1.  Catharine,  born July 26, 1778, and died may 28, 1847.   She married Michael Asch.
  2.  Eizabeth,  born Nov. 14, 1779,  and died Nov. 14, 1859.  She married  Mathias Greber.  They resided near Petersville, Pennsylvania.
  3.  Susanna,  born December 8,  1782, and died in 1847.  She married Andrew Lilly, of Petersville, Pennsylvania.
  4.  Peter Laufer, Jr., born June 25, 1785, and died Aug. 29, 1855.  He married Eva Bush.  They are buried at Kreidersville, Pennsylvania.
  5.  Adam Laufer, born in 1790, and married Elizabeth Koehler and moved to Monroe  county.
  6.  Jacob Laufer who married  Elizabeth Strauss. 
  7.  Rachel, married Henry Renner.
  8.  Anna Maria, born Sept. 20, 1792, and   died March 18, 1877.  She married George Marsh, of Klecknersville, Pennsylvania.

Peter Laufer, son of Christian "The Pioneer" Lauffer and Susanna Best, was born Oct. 18, 1752, and died July 21, 1830.   He is buried at Kreidersville Church, Allen township,  Northampton county where his grave is marked with  an American Flag by the Veteran's Administration to recognize his service in the Revolutionary War.

It is unknown when his first wife Magdalena Susanna Grosher  died or where she is buried.   A record of burial for his  second wife Magdalena Althause  is found in the Burial Record of Zion's Stone Church.  She was born May 15, 1767 and died  in 1831 and is also buried at Zion Stone Church in Kreidersville, Pennsylvania.  

We have two lines of descent  from Peter Lauffer.  Estella May Kunkle Smith was the granddaughter of Peter's daughter, Anna Maria Laufer who married George Marsh.  Through a different line she was the great grand daughter of Peter's daughter, Susanna who married Andrew Lilly.

                                                        This page and all contents © 2013 Cynthia H. Smith
                                                                      Email  to chsmith47@yahoo.com

This site may be linked, but not duplicated in any way without consent. The copyright on this page must appear on all copied and/or printed material.

GENEALOGY IS A WORK OF HEART Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. It is with pleasure that I am able to present this information here for you to see. If you discover a relationship here, I would very much enjoy hearing from you.

Christian Laufer (1723 - 1796)

Laufer family researchers call him The Pioneer and a Zealous Patriot. He was among the thousands of Germans who adopted  this land as their own and fought valiantly for her independence.  It is said that his descendents in the United States number in the tens of thousands.

Christian Laufer emigrated to this country in 1731.  He  traveled from his homeland in the Palatinate area of Germany  along the Rhine River in the accompaniment of his stepfather,  Barthel Gucker, mother Anna Catharina  and  brother  Lorentz.   The family arrived in Philadelphia on September 10 on board the  ship the Pennsylvania Merchant.  Christian was 8 years old.

Eventually the family settled in Moore Township of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, a  sparsely  settled  area that was still occupied by Native Americans.  Sometime in 1751, Christian married Susanna Best, the daughter of Wilhelm Best and his wife, Anna Susanna Schaeffer.   Life was difficult on this Pennsylvania frontier as they struggled to protect themselves from attacks during the French and Indian War  (1754–1763), a forerunner to the American Revolution.

On October 5th, 1757, Christian, along  with almost all the heads of the households living in the region along the Blue Mountain  met at Peter Doll's Block House  and sent a petition to the Governor of Pennsylvania asking for arms and ammunition to protect themselves against hostile Indian attacks. 

Records show that Christian was a land owner and tax payer in  Northampton county.  In 1762 his name is listed  as a tax payer in Lehigh township.   In 1768 he was taxed for 40 acres of cultivated and 120 acres of uncultivated land.  On Nov. 13, 1771, he purchased a tract of 40 acres of land and in the year 1772 he paid tax in Lehigh township.   

Showing  his ever increasing support  for the fight for the  independence of this country,  Christian became a naturalized citizen in 1765 in Lehigh township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.  The  patriot spirit  was growing among he and his neighbors.

In 1774, Christian Laufer moved across the Allegheny Mountains to  the newly formed Westmoreland County, taking with him his whole family, with the exception of Peter, who remained in Northampton County.   Bellows, in his book, The Lauffer History said, "We can be proud of our hardy pioneer ancestors, who crossed the Alleghenies to hold the marauding Indians in check, to build homes and protect the western outposts in the troublous days of the American Revolution."  Christian Laufer  was  just such  a man.   He and fellow pioneers built homes and cleared land for  farms, producing  food staffs for themselves and the people living in  the outlying  fort towns. Their bravery helped stem the tide of  the Indian aggression.  With the endurance of German pioneers like  Christian and his  family the western outposts secured our claims to the Ohio and Mississippi.

The Daughter's of the American Revolution recognize him for having provided Patriotic Service  and cites that he “suffered depredation.”  A monument to his honor is placed in the Denmark Cemetery in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.  Christian was born in May of 1723  and died in 1796.  His wife Susanna was born in Germany in 1735. She died July 19, 1796 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.  They were the parents of six sons and five daughters.  Christian was the 3rd great grand father of Estella Kunkle Smith.

More to come with the story of Peter Laufer, our  5th great grandfather.

Henry W. , Bellows. The Lauffer history; A genealogical chart of the descendants of Christian Lauffer, the pioneer. New York Public Library, 1905. Ebook. <http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/henry-w-henry-whitney-bellows/the-lauffer-history-a-genealogical-chart-of-the-descendants-of-christian-lauffe-eer.shtml>.

For more about the Laufer family please visit  their website at http://www.lauffer.us/index.htm

                                                  This page  © 2013 Cynthia H. Smith
                                                                 Email  to chsmith47@yahoo.com