McTreeHugger: Emily E. Hergesheimer and Her Patriot Ancestor

Emily Elisabeth (Hergesheimer)
Sommer, about 1923

Around 1922, my grandmother, Emily E. (Hergesheimer) Sommer, sought to become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. That she wanted this very badly is revealed through her correspondence with a Philadelphia genealogist, Mame Ellison Wood, and various heads of archives and agencies. She achieved her desire on October 16, 1923, when she became national member 192821. I have the draft of her application, and I have seen the actual application on file at the D.A.R. library. Despite the great love I have for Grandma, I have to say that her D.A.R. application might stand as an exemplar of the worst lineage society application imaginable. I also have to say, shame on the D.A.R. for accepting it!

Grandma claimed she was great-great granddaughter of Johann Christoph Hergesheimer, known as Christopher Hergesheimer (1739-1808) to his descendants, of Germantown, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. The Records of the Comptroller General for Pennsylvania show that “Christn. Hergashimer was enrolled as a Sergeant in the Fourth Class, Captain Christian Snyder's Third Company, Second Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia, according to the evidence of an undated Return of the First-Fifth Classes for the year 1777”. According to the Pennsylvania Archives, 6^th Series, Vol. 1, the 1780 muster rolls of the Fourth Class, Fifth Company, Seventh Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia includes “Christ’r Hergashimer” (p. 929) and “Christopher Hergshimer” (p. 937). Anyone who could prove descent from Christopher was eligible the become a member of the D.A.R.

I often wonder if Grandma were told when she was growing up that she was descended from Christopher Hergesheimer. Or had she begun her quest for a D.A.R. membership by looking up family surnames, came across Christopher’s name and assumed, as a Germantown Hergesheimer herself, that she must be his descendant? I know from her own research notes that she was familiar with the Pennsylvania Archives series, because she made a number of notes regarding another Germantown ancestor, Conrad Root. Had she found the above reference to Christopher there as well?

Because Grandma’s application was so poorly documented, the D.A.R. asked for additional information to support her lineage claim. With the help of Philadelphia genealogist Mame Ellison Wood, Grandma provided the D.A.R. with four typed pages of miscellaneous facts. While the pages didn’t prove the connection Grandma intended to make, they include this assertion:

Both CHARLES HERGESHEIMER and CATHARINE, his wife are buried in Lot #81 Hood’s Cemetery with CHRISTOPHER HERGESHEIMER, Revolutionary Soldier. One of the relics now in our family is the deed to this lot—Lot purchased by Christopher Hergesheimer, on August 8-1799 – 8 x 10 ft. for the burial for himself and family, signed by Samuel Bringhurst, pres., and Samuel Mechlin, Sec. [“for the sum of $2.00” is hand-written]

Grandmother's D.A.R. certificate of membership

The descriptive wording strongly suggests Grandma either copied from the original deed, or she had been provided a copy by someone in the family who possessed it. If Grandma didn't have the original deed herself, her uncle, Charles William Hergeshimer, from whom she'd asked help with the application, probably owned it. In her correspondence with Mame Wood, Grandma referred to family papers Charles had at the time of his death. The critical point is that someone in Grandma’s family had Christopher’s deed, and why would that be if he weren’t our ancestor?

Grandma’s great-grandparents, Charles and Catherine (Wurfel—or it’s many variations) Hergesheimer, were her link to Christopher and his first wife, Sara Elizabeth Gilbert. In her supporting evidence for the D.A.R., Grandma referred to “an old bible” in which Catherine’s death year (1857) was recorded. She wrote: “[M]y old uncle Charles Hergesheimer, now of Germantown tells me that he distinctly remembers her death at the home of his father (my grandfather) Samuel Hergesheimer at Rising Sun, Phila. ‘an old woman, a widow for many years—who died of apoplexy’”. Grandma’s uncle would have been 14 years old in 1857, so his memory of his grandmother suddenly dropping dead was probably reliably seared into his brain. That memory supported Grandma’s claim to an ancestor named Catherine Hergesheimer. Oddly, Grandma neglected to amend Catherine’s death year in her supporting evidence, although penciled in the margin of her draft application is this note: “According to the Undertaker’s bill found among [Uncle] Charles’ papers Catherine Warfel [Hergesheimer] was buried Feb. 14, 1855.” An exhaustive (and repreated) search for Catherine (Wurfel) Hergesheimer in the 1850 U.S. census have come up with nothing.

Charles' and Catherine's marriage is the
2nd to the last entry on the page

However, the claim of descent from Christopher was, and remains, problematic, because there is no definitive proof that Grandma’s great-grandfather, Charles Hergesheimer, was one Christopher and Sara’s son. To date, only three documents relating to Charles Hergesheimer have been found.. The most significant one—because it confirms Christopher had a son named Charles—is an Orphan’s Court petition, filed 22 April 1808 by Christopher’s second wife and widow, Eva Righter. The document lists Christopher’s twelve surviving children by birth order: “Elizabeth, married to Rudolph Fraily; Anthony; George; Ann, married to John Tanner; Samuel; Sarah, married to George Cake; Joseph, Charles; Susan; Margaret; and Catharine, the last three in their minority.”

The other two documents are church records. The records of St. Michael and Zion Cchurch of Germantown show that on "Mar 21 [1802] Charles Hergesheimer and Caty Worfel, single persons of Philadelphia County" were married. The records of the German Reformed Church in Germantown state: "Oct. 24, 1819, Charles, son of Charles and Catharine Hergesheimer. Died Oct. 22, aged 12 years 4 mo. 6 days." While these latter two records confirm the existence of Grandma's great-grandparents, they do not prove that this Charles is the same one mentioned in the Orphan’s Court petition, and to date, there is no known record that can make that connection.

There is only one Charles Hergesheimer household fitting what little is known about Charles and Catherine’s household in the U.S. censuses of 1810 and 1820. In 1810, the family lived in Frankford (Philadelphia County) and in 1820 the Unincorporated Northern Liberties (Philadelphia County) where a Catherine Hergesheimer household was enumerated in 1830 and 1840. This household also matches what little we know of the family.

The absence of birth, death or burial records (beyond the undertaker’s note referred to above, which no longer exists) for Charles and Catherine is a huge problem when trying to link my grandmother’s great-grandparents to Christopher Hergesheimer. There are baptism records for all of Christopher and Sara’s children except Samuel and Charles. The birth order in the Orphan’s Court petition shows that Charles was born in the 9 ½ year period between the birth of his brother Joseph (February 1779) and the death of their mother (June 1788). The petition tells us that Charles had reached his majority in or before April 1808. The Charles Hergesheimer who married in 1802 did not need parental consent, or the record would have stated so. Depending, then, on whether the male age of majority in Pennsylvania at the time was 18 or 21, this Charles would have been born between 1781-1784, a time period consistent what we can estimate about Christopher’s son’s birth.

Uncle Charles’ memory of his grandmother’s death includes the fact that she’d been a widow for many years. Looking at the make-up of above Hergesheimer households (1810-1840), we see a male child was born between 1821-1825. Assuming this is the last child born to Catherine and Charles makes Charles’ death occur between 1821 and before Census Day (June 1), 1830. Grandma noted in her correspondence with Mame Wood that her grandfather, Samuel Hergesheimer, had a brother named Casper, and I believe he is the male in the census record. Interestingly, Samuel Hergesheimer (Charles and Catherine’s second son) and his wife, Mary Ann Mower, named their third son, Casper Weifel Hergesheimer. (This is how the name appears on the gravestone in Leverington Cemetery.) Could he be named for the brother that Grandma claimed for her grandfather, but for whom there are no other records? And was “Weifel” meant to be “Werfel”, one of the many spelling variations of Catherine’s maiden name?

What records there are, and what dates can be pieced together from those scant resources, do not provide conclusive evidence that our Charles Hergesheimer is the Charles Hergesheimer who was the son of Christopher and Sara Hergesheimer. All the Hergesheimers in Germantown seem to have been of one family, and there was, at least in the census records, only one Charles whose age range fits with what we can guess would have been the age of Christopher’s son, as well as our ancestor. Grandma asserted that Charles and Catherine are buried in lot 81 in Hood’s Cemetery, the implication being that since lot 81 belonged to Christopher and was bought for the purpose of burying Christopher and his family, this must be his son. Was there family knowledge that Charles and Catherine were buried in a Germantown cemetery, although they lived 5-6 miles away, in a different section of Philadelphia County. Or did Grandma, desperate to prove a connection, just make an unwarranted assumption? I’ve been through the burial records for Hood’s Cemetery with a fine-tooth comb, and, sadly, there is no record that anyone but Christopher is buried there.

While Grandma didn’t and I can’t firmly establish that our Charles Hergesheimer and Christopher’s son are one and the same person, I’m strongly inclined to believe they are. Many of Christopher’s descendants remained in Germantown for generations, Grandma’s family being one of them (except for a few years in the Northern Liberties and Kensington). And as noted above, all of the Germantown Hergesheimers were related. I can’t prove it—and believe no one ever will be able to—but I feel instinctively that Grandma was, in fact, Christopher Hergesheimer’s direct descendant, through his son Charles. For these reasons, and because of Grandma’s assertion, I took the liberty of making Find-A-Grave memorials for Charles and Catherine in Hood’s. Rest in peace.