Tag Drei continued: For Good Purpose,
                           finding Georg Stophel Harrold
                              "Defender of the Frontier"
                 
We know Georg Christopher "Stophel" Herrold was born in 1723 (records say) in Stouchsburg and served in the French and Indian War and the Revolution. After spending the afternoon with our cousin Tom Harrold of the Baltzer Meyer Historical Society in Greensburg, PA we believe Stophel was a teamster with wagons or pack animals traveling the only road from Philadelphia west to land, resources and opportunity and at that time considered a gateway to the west. He knew Conrad Weiser and may have worked for him or General John Forbes Expedition and so may have seen this area he later settled in: rolling hills, water, covered in huge oaks and other timber. We suppose he might have also worked as a quartermaster during the French and Indian War doing what he knew how to do. After French and Indian war Stophel most likely marked 300 acres through a "Tomahawk" grant (slashing a tree to mark your territory until a land office can register you) and oficially named it Harroldtown. The documented grants required settlers to set aside land For a Good Purpose: Build a church, secondly practise freedom of religion, thirdly, build a school, all of which Stophel complied. Old Harroldtown is now part of Greensburg, PA.
We have learned how important churches were for the success of these young communities. It was usually one of the first thing a settlement built and could function as a school too. After church meetings in homes Stophel built a log church, then a stone church and finally a brick church and school to fulfill the Good Purpose. Today we drove all around the perimeter of the original 160 acres Stophel donated that now has three modern beautiful schools and a healthy community in the Good Purpose land.


In 1973, the Stophel Harrold homestead site was studied by a University. It was three stories with thick 8 inch walls on a stone foundation. Four down, four rooms up and one on the third floor. Teri's Herrold book has the house plans.

The original brick Lutheran Church and school are still standing. Apparently the Lutherans split into two churches, one for German speakers (Stophel's family) and English speakers down the hill, cemetary in between.

                          Harrold Lutheran Church, wood

Harrold School, one room with a bell. The oak beam is 30 feet of single length timber

With his other land we think he farmed, had a mill and sold timber, and had a distillary. Gradually he added to his acreage and raised a lot of little Lutherans.
By the time Stophel died 1787, he and his wife Maria Catherina Pontius (married 1744) had over 1000 acres and were considered prosperous. Amazing what they accomplished at that dangerous time. They are buried by the Harrold Zion Lutheran Church and marked with the plaque, Defender of the Frontier.