A Personal History of our Ancestors

First Generation. The Story of Hans Herrensperger (1688 - 1760) and Anna Barbara Purve (1691 - 1749), the founders of the Harnsberger Family in America.

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Second Generation. The Story of John (Hans) and Anna's only son, Stephen Hancebarger (1716 - 1776).

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Third Generation. The Children of Stephen Hancebarger (1716 - 1776) and Agnes Hofmann (1722 - 1750)

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John M. C. Hansbarger (1742 - 1824) was born on the original family farm in Madison, Virginia, and moved with his family at age 8 over the Blue Ridge Mountains to his father’s new farm in Elkton, Virginia. He remained on the Elkton farm until within a few years after his father’s death in 1776. He married Elizabeth Shawver in 1777. After briefly moving a few miles north, in Shenandoah County, he permanently relocated 100 miles southwest to Clifton Forge, Virginia in 1784, on Wilson’s Creek. John built a family home in 1778, which was expanded by his son Sebastian, and was still standing as of 1937. John had numerous descendants remained in the area well into the 20th century. Of his three sons, the oldest John Jr. (1781 - 1854) migrated to the Dayton Ohio area (more on that shortly), while Jacob (1783 - 1849) and Sebastian (1785 - 1868) remained.

MORE ON JOHN'S PEOPLE.

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Barbara Hansbarger (1744 - 1777) was also born on the original family farm and mod moved to the Elkton area as a child. She was the first to marry, in 1762 to Daniel Mauck. Daniel was a Mennonite who converted to be a Primitive Baptist, and established a meeting house for all faiths on his 238 acre farm in Hamburg, Shenandoah County, Virginia. Thus, Barbara married outside her Lutheran faith, but to a person of Swiss-German ancestry. Barbara gave birth to seven daughters and one son between 1763 - 1774. Barbara died young, and was buried next to Mauck's Meeting House, which still stands today.

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Elizabeth Harnsberger (1747 - ?) was in Madison, Virginia, and appears to have remained close to her father's farm in Elkton, Virginia throughout her life. She married at an unknown date Jacob Lingle (Lingel), and had at least three children: M(ary?) Harnsberger Lingel, Elizabeth Lingel, and John Lingel. Mary died as an infant, and was likely the first Harnsberger buried in the Harnsberger Family Cemetery in Elkton, next to Stephen and Ursulla's homesite. An 1804 property transfer record shows Jacob and Elizabeth giving 400 acres to John and Mary Lingle, likely on the occasion of their marriage. The location of the parcel is easier to deduce: Two of the landmarks were creeks/streams that still retain the same names: Stony Run and Naked Creek, which merge and then flow into the south fork of the Shenandoah River between modern Elkton and the town of Shenandoah, Virginia. Thus, we know where Elizabeth resided for much of her life. Her death date is unknown, and she is likely buried with her husband either on their family farm or in the Harnsberger Family Cemetery with her parents.

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Margaret "Annie" Hansbarger (1750 - 1824) was born in Madison, Virginia, the youngest child of Stephen and Agnes. According the will of her grandfather, John Harnsberger, she was educated in Madison, Virginia even after her family had moved to the Elkton area. Her grandfather also showed favoritism to her by leaving her a slave in his will.  She married Henry Huffman on December 30, 1770 in Culpepper County, Virginia, very likely at Hebron Lutheran Church. Thus, unlike Stephen's other children, Margaret seems to have maintained strong connections with the German community in Madison, Virginia. She gave birth to 13 children in all, 12 of whom reached adulthood. Around 1788/89, her family settled on a new farm 550 miles to the west, in modern Barren County, Kentucky. Margaret lived to age 82, dying in the same year as her husband. Although the location of her grave is not known, she are probably buried with unmarked stones in one of two or three Huffman family cemeteries located in the Nobob-Eighty Eight area of Barren County, possibly in Huffman-Baldock cemetery.

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Third Generation. Children of Stephen Hancebarger (1716 - 1776) and Ursula Schaitli (1722 - ?)

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Adam Hansbarger (1751 - 1815). Adam was the first child of Stephen and Ursula, born in their newly built log cabin south of Elkton at the best ford across the south fork of the Shenandoah River. Adam had perhaps the most strategically significant military service of any Harnsberger in history: At age 23, on the eve of the Revolutionary War, he served in Dunmore's War - an expedition against the Shawnee Indians and their allies, based in southeastern Ohio. On October 10, 1774, he fought in the Battle of Point Pleasant against the Shawnee, led by their most revered leader, Cornstalk. The battle raged for an entire day, with tremendous causalities on all sides. The success of Adam Hansbarger and his fellow Virginians ensured that the Shawnee remained neutral during the Revolutionary War, protecting the Patriots from a two-front war with the British.

     Within a month of his father's death, on April 9 1776, Adam married Catherine Nalle, the daughter of his commanding officer, Captain William Nalle. Adam went on to serve in the Virginia militia during the Revolutionary War. After the war, Adam and Catherine prospered on his father Stephen's land, growing it to the point that it became known as the "Old Adam Harnsberger plantation." They had in total six sons and four daughters, all of whom lived to adulthood. All remained in the Elkton area but two: Their daughter Catherine married her first cousin Jacob and immigrated to Ohio and Indiana, while their son Emanuel settled in Cooper County, Missouri.  Adam passed away in 1815, and Catherine likely died in 1822. Both should be buried on their farm, in the Harnsberger Family Cemetery, but no tombstones have been recovered to date. MORE ON ADAM'S PEOPLE.

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Henry Hernsberger (1752 - 1834) was the second child of Stephen and Ursula, and their only son who apparently did not serve in the Revolutionary War, likely staying behind to tend his parent's farm. He wed Anna Maria Bear four years after his father's death, in 1780. Anna Maria was the granddaughter of Adam Miller, the first European settler of the Shenandoah Valley. Henry and Anna Maria left Elkton and established their family nearby, in Bridgewater, Virginia. They farmed, established a gristmill, and had three daughters and five sons, who all reached adulthood. They built up their landholdings  on  Cook's  Creek,  Dry  River,  and  in  Mt.  Pleasant  (now  Mt.  Crawford). Throughout their lives, they remained a part of their historic faith, the Reformed Lutheran, attending German-speaking services. At age 70, Henry established a separate Hernsberger family cemetery on his farm, shared with the neighboring Wynant family, into which their oldest daughter had married. The occasion was the burial of an infant granddaughter, but he soon lost his wife Anna Maria, who died in 1824. Henry died 10 years later, having established a branch of the family in Bridgewater that would remain for many generations. Two of his sons remained in the area, while two others settled in Kentucky, Illinois, and Wisconsin. MORE ON HENRY'S PEOPLE.

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Stephen Harnesberger (1754- 1820) was the third son of Stephen and Ursula, leaving the family farm to fight in the Revolutionary War at age 22. He returned from the war in 1783, and married the girl next door. Her name was Mary and she was the only daughter of Peter and Maria Zellars (Sellers), whose farm bordered the Harnsbergers to the West-Northwest. Folliwng their marriage in 1784, Stephen and Mary moved with, or followed, Stephen's older brother Henry, buying 90 acress of land next door to him in Bridgewater, Virginia, on Cook's Creek. Stephen and Mary had four daughters and one son in Virginia before selling up and moving to Wilkes County, Georgia in the spring of 1793. Stephen may have received bounty land there, in compensation for his service in the war. Stephen's new farm was a few miles south of the Savannah River, on Fishing Creek, totaling 300 acres.

     Like his brother Henry, Stephen was not content to only farm: Four years after moving to Georgia, he received a tavern license. Stephen and Mary prospered in Georgia, having two more sons and growing the family farm to 540 acres, with 15 slaves (a relatively large number for a small farmer). Stephen passed away in 1820, while his wife lived another 7 years, winning a land lottery in the last year of her life as a war widow, consisting of acreage in the Georgia frontier, specifically, Lee County near modern Albany, Georgia. Stephen and Mary's burial site is unknown (probably the family farm in modern Lincoln County, Georgia. There children either remained in northeast Georgia, or moved west. A subsequent branch of his family settled in Calhoun County, Arkansas ("the Hearnsbergers") while a second branch was centered in Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. MORE ON STEPHEN'S PEOPLE.

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Conrad Harnsberger (1756 - 1814) was the fourth son of Stephen and Ursula, and was one who remained in the Elkton area throughout his life. Like three of his brothers, Conrad entered the Revolutionary War, serving in 1777 as a private under Captain Thomas Buck’s company. May sources link Conrad to the 8th Virginia regiment, but in fact Captain Buck commanded a company of the Virginia militia of Dunmore County, now Shenandoah County. In any event, Conrad married during the war (September 14, 1778) to Anna Barbara Miller (1757 - 1827), also a granddaughter of the area's first settler, Adam Miller. The Miller family lived directly north of the Harnsbergers and north of modern Elkton, and Conrad invested his inheritance in land just north of his parents, in the modern Elkton area and to the east, following Swift Run up towards the gap in the Blue Ridge mountains. He and is wife also opened a woolen mill on Elk Run, to supply uniforms to the American Army.

     Conrad and Anna Barbara had at nine children between 1779 - 1901, three sons and six daughters, eight of whom reached adulthood. All are listed in the family Bible, which was written in German, showing literacy and an attachment to the mothertongue of their grandparents. They were quite prosperous, acquiring up to 1000 acres or more near Swift Run Gap. By 1805 at the latest (and probably starting earlier), Conrad and Anna Barbara were charging a toll to use Swift Run Gap, and would have been partially/wholly responsible for the road's upkeep.

     Near the end of Conrad's life, he may have reentered military service for the War of 1812. There is a family tradition that he served in the War of 1812 as a colonel, dying of yellow fever in Norfolk and buried in an unmarked grave. While there is no independent military records showing this service, if Conrad was active in his local Virginia militia during the War of 1812, he would have received a military rank, and given his age and prior military experience, the rank of Colonel or Major at least would have made the most sense. There is likely some truth to this story, since if he had simply died at home in Rockingham County with a known burial site, a legendary "death in Norfolk" would have been much less likely to develop. While Conrad may have been a colonel due to his seniority, he likely did not command troops in battle. Instead, he may have played a role similar to that of he and his wife in the Revolutionary War: Organizing much needed supplies for the Virginia militia.

     We know Conrad died in 1814 or early 1815 given a court document involving his widow's share of the estate. By the end of his life, his sons had relocated to Ohio; all but one daughter married locally, living and dying in Rockingham County. The exception was his oldest daughter, Barbara Anna, who married Rueben Harrison and settled in Sangamon County, Illinois. Conrad and Anna Barbara's home and mill sites are currently unknown, as are their burial sites. However, from their estate, land was donated for what became the first public institution of the growing community, Elk Run Cemetery. That has become their local legacy, along with their many descendants who remained in Elkton. MORE ON CONRAD'S PEOPLE.

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Robert Harnsberger (1760 - 1840) was the last child or Stephen and Ursula. Like his brothers Adam, Conrad, and Stephen, he served in the Revolutionary War. In fact, within his branch of the family, it has been said that Robert was sick in camp at Williamsburg the day Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.  He is also said to have been involved with the Wiskey Rebellion. Robert married after the end of the war, in 1785, to Christina Miller (1766 - 1841), the younger sister of Anna Barbara Miller, Conrad's wife. It was likely just after his marriage that he established his own family farm. His brother Henry had moved 30 miles west of Elkton;Stephen left for Georgia; Conrad moved a few miles north of his parent's farm; Robert and Christina chose to move south 40 miles, to the Christian's Creek area southeast of Staunton. Robert and Christina's first child, Stephen, was born in 1787, and together they had 10 children in total, nine of whom reached adulthood. They are documented in Robert's family bible, in German, again attesting to the fact that even the third generation of Harnsbergers maintained their German heritage in America. As with his brothers, Robert proved to be very prosperous. After his death, his farm was auctioned off, and was inventoried as detailed in the attached newspaper advertisement placed by Robert and Christina's son, Samuel Harnsberger (Left: Original Ad, Right: Transcription):

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Robert passed away at age 80 in 1840, with Christina following him a year later (1841). Their children for many generations remained in Virginia, in either Augusta County or Port Republic - not showing the same drive to move to Ohio, Illinois, or Missouri. Their numerous descendents remained prosperous and engaged with their communities. Robert and Christina's burial site is somewhat unclear. Robert is memorialized at the old Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church Cemetery, along with many other Revolutionary War soliders. However, he was not a practicing Presbyterian, and the more common practice was to be buried on his own farm. There was, in fact, a family cemetery documented on his farm, with Harnsberger tombstones dating back to Robert and Christina's era, including a grave of their daughter Mary Catherine (1806 - 1863) and a suspiciously transcribed tombstone of a Robert Harnsberger with a deathdate matching this Robert, but with a stated age of 18. Interestingly, the cemetery design is extremely similar to that of Robert's older brother, Henry (1752 - 1834), matching it in dimensions and building materials, as documented here. It does not appear that the site has been documented / visited since the early 1970s, but one enterprising Harnsberger genealogist in the late 1970s gathered local testimony that is was, in fact, the burial site of Robert (and therefore Christina). It certinaly bears further investigation. MORE ON ROBERT'S PEOPLE.

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