Our Fourth Great-Grandfather
A Soldier in Revolt
Georg Stophel's first son John, born 1745, moved farther west in 1771 and settled near the juncture of the Conemaugh River and Black Lick Creek. 1788 records show he got a warrent to land adjacent to his father-in-law and called his farm Forerunner Plantation. Tribes of the area were Delaware and Shawnee and the land still wild and covered with old growth hardwoods. When John was twenty, he faught with the 12th Regiment-Virginia in the Revolution, officially Navy Mil 1st Partisan Legion 3; trp musician 10/26/1781The local frontiersmen were drilled nearby at Elder's Ford which is gone now but was on the flats by the river and near John's home.
Together John and Barbara became successful owning 250 acres, a grain mill, sawmill, tannery and distillary they passed on to their son John, one of their thirteen children. The second son called Christopher is our lineage. The family continued to speak in broken German all their lives.
Barbara worked alongside her husband all her married life. It was common in those days for wives to not to inherit their "husbands" property at their passing and in John's will money and property were set aside to care for Barbara until her death.
John (d February 28,1828 age 83) and Barbara (b 1757-d January 19,1837 age 80) are buried near their home in row 2, Hopewell Methodist Cemetary, no, not the Lutheran one.
Teri found a site map of John and Barbara's bottom land and after several deadly floods (Johnstown Flood) in the area, the Conamaugh was dammed causing John's land to flood. The Army corps of engineers oversees the area and has opened it to hunting and farming....
Herrold Hunters
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