Anonymous Biography of CONRAD STUNTZ

(Transcribed by Paul Krueger from, at best, a second-generation copy of the handwritten original. Some of the punctuation didn't survive the copying so a few commas and periods were added where they seemed to be implied. A few capital letters were changed to lowercase but possible archaic spellings were preserved.)

Conrad Stuntz, born in Wurtenburg, Germany in 1738, was a weaver by trade having to serve an apprenticeship of seven years. Afterwards was in army under King Frederick the Great from which he took leave of absence upon reading an order (over the orderly's shoulder) that he was to be shot for appropriating an overcoat on a very cold night. He made his escape by jumping a 12-foot span of a bridge (which was torn up) while under fire from his pursuers. He came to America with the Hessian troops which King George the Third hired during the Revolutionary War. Finding when he arrived in this country that the Americans were fighting for independence he left the service of the king and espoused the cause of the patriots and joined the American army. And was with that army at the battle of White Plains at which he was slightly wounded. He was with Washington's army at the crossing of the Delaware and was discharged at Monmouth.

Margaret Briefling was born in the province of Pfaltz(?) on the Rhine in 1760. She came to America and was apprenticed for four years and a half to one Miller near Philadelphia to pay for her passage to this country. During this apprenticeship she had to do all kinds of manual labor on a farm. Conrad Stuntz and Margaret Briefling were married about 1778 and settled on Back Creek in Berkley County, Virginia about 14 miles from Martinsburg and 2 miles from Fort Frederick, Maryland. Here were born to them seven children:

John born 1779, died 1853

Margaret born September 4, 1781, died January 17, 1864

Conrad

Betsy

Katherine

George born July 4, 1789, died January 23, 1866

Mary Magdelane born 1791

While living on Back Creek they had the smallpox and Katherine died with it. In the spring of 1801 John and Conrad went via Pittsburg to Lake Erie and were so impressed with the country that they returned to Virginia and reported that the bottom lands of Lake Erie were fifty miles wide. Whereupon the old gentleman sold out on Back Creek and, loading what effects he chose to carry and the family into a wagon, and with three horses for a team, they made the journey through the woods to northwestern Pennsylvania. Where they arrived in October 1801. And settled in Beaver Township(?), Crawford County.

After their arrival at their destination it rained every day for several weeks in succession and the old people were so homesick that they both sat down and cried. Here in this wilderness country they commenced life anew. John and Conrad leaving home and the old gentleman having spent his early days at his trade and in their family was no farmer so the clearing of the land and the support of the family depended on George, now 12 years old, the girls and the mother while the father solaced himself and his friends (of whom he made many) with a barrel of whiskey.

Soon after their arrival one Jonathan Spaulding made the acquaintance of the daughter Margaret and they were married in the fall of 1801.

The woods were full of game at this time--bears, deer, raccoon and wild turkeys. So they had meat in abundance but the houses were rude log structures with no fireplaces or chimneys. Two hand spikes set against the end logs of the house on the inside made a place to roll the back log against. In front of these the fire was built and a hole in the roof for exit of smoke and the fireplace was complete. Greased paper over a hole in the wall constituted the windows. The floors were split logs, called puncheons(?). The furniture and furnishings were of the rudest and very few in number. At this time George's bed was an elk skin in front of the fire. In the years that intervened before he went for himself, he had many experiences. At one time his brother John had made a claim and erected a log house thereon with fireplace as heretofore described. And he (John) being summoned on the jury at Meadville, he wanted George to go and occupy his claim during his absence lest someone should jump it.

One night during the week he awoke to find the whole end of the house in flames. Seizing a bucket he rushed for the spring which was at some distance from the house. It was winter and the ground covered with snow, the path to the spring led around a slough. In his haste and fright he took the shortcut and shortly found himself to the waist in the midst of the slough in ice and water. Dipping up a pail of water he rushed back! Dashed on the roaring flames. He then made repeated trips to the slough till the fire was extinguished. Then to his surprise he found he had put out all the fire but one coal. Here was a dilemma! And before he could rekindle the fire he was nearly frozen.

As the years rolled on, Conrad married Cynthia Randall and Betsy married Nathan King. So only George and Mary Magdelane were the children left at home to care for the parents and help eke out a living. They depended on principally on the game in the forest for their meat. At one time on a mild day in winter time George took his axe and went in the woods to hunt for coon. When about a mile and a half from home, his dog suddenly ran a short distance ahead and began to bark furiously. He followed on and soon came in sight of a very large buck deer with one leg broken. He thought as he was crippled he would knock him in the head with his axe. When he got within about two rods the buck made a plunge at the dog and gored him so the caul(?) hung out of the wound the size of a man's hand. The buck then faced him, raised his head, and with hair standing erect, looked so formidable an adversary that he was afraid to attack him. So thinking discretion the better part of valor he started for home to get the rifle. Arrived at home his brother Conrad had taken the rifle and gone hunting. The only gun remaining in the house was an old Hessian musket with a broken lock. On searching around he found some powder and a few slugs of lead. With these he loaded the blunderbuss, and with Mary armed with a brand of fire, they set off to shoot the deer.

They found the dog still holding the buck at bay. When they got near enough, George rested the musket against a sapling. Opened the pan (it being a flintlock) and told her when he had correct aim and said she was to touch the brand of fire to the powder. So while he aimed she got the fire near the pan and her face close down to the fire and when he said NOW she gave a blow so as to have a live coal to touch the powder. When alack! a spark from the coal went into the powder! Off went the gun, and down went the buck and their triumph was complete. But Mary with her face so close to the gun that powder blew into her face and remained there while she lived which was beyond the time allotted to mankind.

At one other time George and one of his brothers were hunting coon in the night and treed a bear in an oak six feet in diameter. They built a fire and watched it all night. In the morning they set to cut it down. It took them till afternoon to cut it. When out jumped the bear and ran away! Leaving them tired and hungry to go home to dinner with excellent appetites and no bear-meat.

Another incident occurred while George lived with his parents. Pater Familias(?) at one time jockeyed horses and in the trade became possessed of one which had been trained for the race course. Their first trial of him was at ploughing corn. Not knowing anything of his prior training, he was harnessed, brought out and hitched to the plow. With George to ride and Pater Familias(?) to hold the plow. The ground being rough and stumpy in those days required man and boy. At the word go off bolted Dobbin at the top of his speed, leaving the old gentleman in wonder and ????????????? George pulled the rein. The harder he pulled the rein the greater speed the horse put forth. The plow sometimes in the air, sometimes digging in the ground--sending the corn skywards caught a root--was demolished the harness went to pieces, George went rolling amongst the corn while the racehorse disappeared in the woods. The old gentleman meanwhile muttering Dunder and Blitzen.

The clearing of the land was slow and laborious work. First the trees had to be felled with the axe. Then the limbs were cut and piled ready to burn. The bodies of the trees were next cut into logging lengths. Such lengths as a team could draw and as could be rolled in heaps. This was usually done in winter and other odd times. Now we must wait till the brush became seasoned and dry. Then some day when the wind is favorable with lighted torch, or steel and tinder box (no matches in these early times), the heaps of brush were fired commencing on the side opposite from which the wind came and working toward the wind till all was fired. The reason for this was to keep out of the smoke as much as possible. Soon the whole chopping was a mass of smoke and flame as if pandemonium had broken loose. Such hissing and cracking, leaping of flame and curling of smoke, while the sparks leaped skyward vieing with each other as to which could leap the highest. None can comprehend who have not been an eye witness of such a scene.

After the burning of the brush came the logging. The outfit for this was a yoke of oxen, a whip, a log chain. In these days the chains were made by the blacksmith as were all tools made from iron with links three or four inches long, a hook at each end and a swivel in the center. The swivel was for the purpose of keeping the chain from twisting if a log rolled over. Some skids and handspikes.

Now we are ready for the logging. The teamster selects some low place with higher ground on one or both sides. Draws the larger logs in the low place where they are rolled close together with the handspikes, for the bed of the heap. On these other logs are rolled by the use of the skids and handspikes and the cracks or openings are filled with any chunks of parts of limbs from the burning brush.

(The manuscript ends here, apparently unfinished.)

Biographical Notes for Conrad Stuntz and Margaret Briefling

Biographical Notes for George Stuntz and Sarah Ball

Biographical Notes for Ezra Fletcher Stuntz and Jane Ann Stitt