BLOOMING GROVE COLONY
BLOOMING GROVE COLONY
Frederick Schaffer
Frederick Schaffer lies buried at the Dunker church. He was born
November 19, 1788, died May 25, 1842. In 1823 he married Elizabeth
Stroble, born April 5, 1794, died November 4, 1883. She walked to
Philadelphia to meet her sister when she came from Germany in 1817.
Their children were:
John, married Elizabeth Heim; Frederick, married Dora Heim; Salome,
married Isaac Ulmer; Elizabeth, single; Barbara, married George
Beidelspacher; Margaret, married Henry Solomon; Catharine, married
Martin Ulmer; Christina, married David Ulmer; Mary, married Jacob
Heim.
Frederick Schaffer was a weaver. He and his wife came from
Moeringen, but were not acquainted until they came to the colony,
although they came over in the same ship. In the course of time
there came to them seven daughters and three sons, some of whom are
still with us. The children were sent to school to Michael
Biehl(Buehl) at the Klump school house, where they were taught in
German. They sat around the room with their faces to the wall, and
studied the alphabet, primer, the New Testament, and completed their
schooling when able to read the Bible. The boys then worked at
farming and the girls at spinning. They occupied one large room,
with a dining table in one corner, leaving the space clear for the
spinning wheels. Each one was tuned to a tone different from the
others, and when all were in motion the music was decidedly
original. They were often accompanied by an old aunt (Barbara
Guinter) with her distaff and spindle, never having learned to use
the wheel. She died in February, 1900, aged 90 years. The father
had his weaving house where he had two looms, and wove the linen
cloth for summer wear, sheets, etc., the woolen cloth for winter
clothing, and counterpanes, coverlets, etc., for ornaments to their
bedroom furnishing.
The Schaffer girls were famous. They would wash and shear sheep,
work the wool, spin it, carry the cloth to Ball's Mills to be
fulled, and make it up into garments. They would pull the flax, and
under the guidance of their mother, put it through the entire
process of manufacture.
One morning a very short and very stout old lady said to her
daughter that she felt so sleepy she thought she would not get up.
So her daughter brought her a biscuit and cup of coffee, which she
relished. As people went by, some one said "grandmother Schaffer is
in bed." As she had never known a sick day, they called in to talk
to her and so it passed on until in the afternoon, when she fell
into that sleep that knows no earthly awakening, - aged almost 90
years, - the fulness of days awarded for a temperate, industrious
and peaceful life; a typical death in Blooming Grove.
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