William Eberenz immigrated from Germany to Pennsylvania in 1817, when he was but sixteen years of age, and soon after located in Tioga county. Here he married Mary Hoover, a daughter of Dr. Samuel Hoover (Huber), who lived near Wellsboro, and immediately settled on a tract of timber land which he purchased from Morris, paying $1.50 an acre for it in county orders, which he earned by clearing up the public square in Wellsboro, then covered with timber and underbrush.

The young couple were very industrious and practiced the most rigid economy. They reared a family of six children, viz: Mary, wife of Edwin Matson, Sr.; John, who was drowned when twenty-one years old; Canelia, deceased wife of Elisha Brown; Margaret, deceased wife of H. Guernsey; Charles, who died in 1882, and Caroline, wife of James H. Smith.

The wilderness condition of the country may be realized by the reader of today when informed that Mrs. Eberenz used to say that she did not see the face of a white woman for three years after moving into their cabin. She made moccasins for her children out of deer skins, and the family knew only bear and deer meat, while their couch at night was composed of the skins of wild animals. No luxuries entered that humble cabin. Grain was scarce and flour hard to obtain. At that time the county contained less than 500 taxable inhabitants and Wellsboro had less than a dozen log houses.

Mr. Eberenz was a substantial citizen and left to his son Charles one of the finest farms in Delmar. He was remarkable for his pleasant disposition and social qualities, and the quaint sayings and humorous anecdotes of "Uncle Billy Eberenz," as he was familiarly called, are well remembered by the older residents of Wellsboro. He spent three score years on the farm which he carved out of the forest with his own hands, and died May 31, 1880, at the age of seventy- nine years. His wife died December 27, 1865, aged seventy years. They passed through the trials and vicissitudes of pioneer life, and when they died an abundance of the good things of life surrounded their home.

Retyped from "History of Tioga County, 1897", page 721

William Eberenz Outline Descendant Report covering 4 generations