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Hessian soldiers in the American Revolution

 

 

 

 

Antis Lutheran Cemetery, Antis Township, Blair County, PA

 

 

 

 

 

 HAMMER, Johann Henrich; Corporal  born 23 Oct 1759; and died 27 Jan 1830, Huntingdon (now Blair) County, PA

 is buried (with original & 1950's stone, Hessian marker, and new family bronze plaque); aka Rev. John Henry HOMMER 

contributed by descendant Robert A. Fetters, contact through list.

 

Johann Henrich HAMMER at Antis Cemetery

 Location and Directions:

Antis Cemetery is located just north of Altoona, in Blair County, Pennsylvania.  Directions to the Antis (was Lutheran) Cemetery in Antis Township:  Exit I-99 north of Altoona at the Pinecroft Exit (Exit 39).  Turn west and proceed straight through the traffic light at the intersection with old US 220.  Continue until you come to the “T” in the road (approximately ½ mile).  At the “T,” turn left and proceed around the right curve in Pinecroft or Sabbath Rest.  After rounding the curve, take the first turn to the right (lower Riggles Gap Road).  Go west over the railroad bridge and turn right off Riggles Gap Road.  Salem Lutheran Church is located in the fork of Lower Riggles Gap and Antis Roads.  (The road on the right is Kerbaugh Road.)  The cemetery is about ¼ mile north on Antis Road.

 Salem Lutheran Church:

The Church was originally founded in the very early 1800’s.  This was the last church where the Reverend John Henry HAMMER preached, he having become a minister after establishing himself as a parochial teacher in the Lebanon, Dauphin and Berks Counties area of Pennsylvania.

 

 

Antis Cemetery:

Corporal Johann Henrich HAMMER aka Rev. John Henry HOMMER (JHH):

Johann Henrich HAMMER, a German born Hessian soldier from Hessen-Cassell, was sent by his sovereign to America as one of the British Auxiliary troops in von Knyphausen’s Regiment.  His experiences during the Revolutionary War ranged from his landing in New York in 1776, his capture by George Washington’s troops at Trenton later that year, a year or so as a prisoner of war (worked out), a prisoner of war exchange, a sojourn to Canada, to his ultimate desertion from NY Island in November 1782 (after the fighting was virtually over).

            Henry returned to Jonestown, PA where he had been “hired out” while a prisoner of war.  By trade, he was called a “weaver” on the company rolls, but in Jonestown, he worked as a parochial teacher.  It was here that he married Julianna DUBS/DUPS/TOOPS, and they eventually had a family of 10 children.  It was later here in this Pennsylvania “triangle” of Hessian soldiers that he began preaching in both the Reformed and Lutheran churches, apparently substituting for the “regular” ministers.

Right after 1800, Johann Henrich HAMMER moved his family west to Huntingdon County, and eventually to Antis Township, which became a part of Blair County when it was formed from Huntingdon County.  Rev. Henry lost his 1st wife, Julianna DUBS/DUPS/TOOPS in 1821, and re-married in 1826 to widow Elizabeth HERTZEL ADAMS.  Since Henry left everything for the use of his widow at his death in 1830, his estate was not adjudicated until 1864, after her demise in 1861 (the latest death of a widow of a Hessian soldier in America, as far as can be found).

 Bio of Johann Henrich HAMMER Used at Dedication Ceremony:

John Henry Hammer [pronounced Hommer] was born in the little town of Ibra, in Hessen Cassell to his parents, Conrad and the former Catherina Schmitt.  He was taken into the Hessen Cassell army in 1775, and in 1776, Henry was sent to assist the British in quelling the rebellion in America.  On the 26th of December 1776, Henry was one of those Hessian Auxiliary soldiers taken prisoner at Trenton New Jersey, by George Washington after his famous crossing of the Delaware River.                                                                                                                                                                  

Henry, as a prisoner of the Americans, worked in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, near Jonestown, in what is now Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.  He was exchanged as a prisoner of war back to his own von Knyphausen Regiment, after a year and one half in captivity.  It was after all the fighting was over in 1782 that Corporal John Henry Hammer made the choice and decision to seek his future in America, and deserted from the Hessian troops in New York to Philadelphia where he took an “Oath of Allegiance” to his new country.  This last act, the Oath of Allegiance, was what qualified John Henry Hammer to be called an American “Patriot” of the Revolution.

Returning to Jonestown, he married Julianna Dubs [pronounced Toops], and earned a living as a parochial teacher in the area, eventually taking on the duties of an irregular minister of the German Reformed faith.  After 1800, John Henry and his family moved west to Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.  John Henry is memorialized in the Newry Lutheran Church stained glass window (a few miles south of Altoona, in Blair County), as their first minister.  He is also recorded extensively in the Antis/Salem Lutheran Church book and is detailed in a Domer family history. 

Julianna, of Swiss ancestry, preceded her husband in death in 1821.  John Henry did marry a second time to widow Elizabeth Hertzel Adams, before his ultimate passing in 1830, at age 71. Henry’s final estate settlement did not occur until 1864, well after his widow’s death. 

John Henry and his wife brought into the world ten children, three sons and seven daughters.  From their married children, he lived to see 36 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild before his end, though these have not found to be named anywhere. 

John Henry Hommer and his wife, Julianna, helped to build a great county, the United State of America.  Not only did they leave uncounted descendants, but also it is even more difficult to enumerate the contributions made by 48 years of service by Johann Henrich Hammer as a teacher and minister.  We honor and celebrate the lives of this couple, here today, the 26th of October 2002, more than 172 years after they lived. 

Gravesite and Dedication (26 Oct 2002):

The original stone is believed on the left facing the stones, but that is completely unreadable now (a footstone with initials appears to verify this identity).  Julianna’s poor, but readable stone, is on the right.  In the 1970’s, a local descendant placed a granite stone for the deteriorated stone of JHH, and a family bronze marker, a Hessian plaque and an SAR Revolutionary War Patriot plaque and flag holder were added and dedicated in 2002

Individual pictures are shown following:

   

 

26th October 2002

 

Descendants of John Henry HAMMER/HOMMER at the Dedication:

(Robert A. Fetters, 5th from right)

Re-enactors at John Henry HAMMER/HOMMER Dedication:

_________________________________________________________________________________

Robert A. Fetters, 215 Dun Road, Chillicothe, OH 45601-1173                                   Date: 05 Mar 2006

MW file:  JHH-at Antis Cemetery

 

 

 

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The Bayreuther Zeitung Newspaper
No. 58, 23 March, 1802.

Ansbach Regiment

Marie Rasnick Fetzer

Bob Brooks

Ansbach - Bayreuth Troops

Jochen Seidel

 

TERM PDF as used by John Merz is not an Adobe electronic file, it is Personal Data File for an individual soldier.

 

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