Revised
August 5, 2016
There has been considerable research into the Waltman family origins, and it is not without controversy. Most of the dispute relates to the immigrant Conrad Waltman, who is said to have become the founder of the Waltman Clan in the United States. He is claimed by some as a patriot, a private in the Revolutionary War, but this view is rejected by others who believe the man named "Conrad Waltman" who was in the war was a different person of the same name, apparently the grandson of the immigrant Conrad Waltman. This is the first of three chapters on the Waltman family of Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Part II of this presentation looks at the numeous children of Conrad Waltman, with special emphasis on his son Valentine Waltman and on Valentine's son Conrad Waltman (who is called "Conrad Waltman Junior" in this text for purpose of distinguishing the two men of the same name). Part III looks at Peter Waltman of Allentown, the son of Conrad Junior, and at Peter's son Joseph Waltman of Easton, and at his descendants. The first section, below, also contains a critique of the book The House of Waltman, by Lora S. LaMance. This section examines:
LINKS Footnotes to this Section Back to Waltman Home Page Back to Top of Part I, Conrad Waltman Ahead to Top of Part II, Children of Conrad Waltman Ahead to Top of Part III, Peter and Joseph Waltman Lora LaMance and the House of Waltman The Battle of Fort Washington and Conrad Waltman Neil Boyer's Home Page The Waltman Genealogists Various individuals have endeavored to determine the truth about Conrad, his life and children. They include these people:
The Waltman Family Name. One component of this research is the tale (primarily from LaMance, true or not) of how the Waltman name was given to the family by a Bavarian count, Hiram von Frundsberg, in 1681. Walking on a path in the Black Forest, the story goes, Count Hiram is said to have encountered the three‑year‑old son of a Spanish count. Recognizing that the boy's life was endangered by political enemies of his recently murdered father, Count Hiram adopted the boy and called him Valentine Waldman -- "Valentine" because he was found on Saint Valentine's Day, "Waldman" because he was a "man of the woods." Over time the name was changed by some descendants to "Waltman." The boy grew up to be the founder of a large Waltman clan in America, estimated about 1960 to number more than 3,000. [11] Other Waltmans? LaMance and several other genealogists gave the impression that this Valentine Waldman and his son Conrad were the main source of all the Waldmans or Waltmans in America. The first sentence in her book began, “Nearly every Waltman is a descendant of one Valentine Waldman.” Nevertheless, there is evidence of other lines. Indeed, one genealogist has written that “the name of Waltman or Waldman is and was very common in the south of Germany. Waltman is a very old name.” A search of U.S. census reports for the name Waltman in the early 19th century reveals many people by that name, including immigrants, who seem not at all related to Conrad and his descendants. U.S. census reports covering the years 1790 up to 1930, and the Social Security Death Index, both on the internet, show numerous lines of Waltmans with family members having been born in Europe. LaMance, however, suggested that the Waltman name in these cases had been chosen rather than inherited. She contended, proudly and rather arrogantly, and probably wrongly, that “it was not at all surprising that among the many millions of people in Germany, when the fashion of surname-taking came in like a flood, that more than one family, absolutely independent of any other family, should have selected the same family name, that of Waltman. It is a musical name and withal a poetical one, meaning a man of the woods.”[12] The Line of John Emanuel Waldmann. Aside from the work that has been done on Conrad Waltman, one line that is well-studied relates to John Emanuel Waldmann, who was born on June 19, 1715, in Appenhofen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. Details on this family are presented in part because Lora LaMance's book on the Waltmans confused some of the children of Emanuel, as he was known, with chidren of Conraad. Family research showed that the father of Emanuel was Christoph Waldmann (1680-1743), who was born and died in the same German town. Emanuel was married in 1744 in Rheinland Pfalz, Germany, to the former Margaretha Beuerle (or Beuerlin) who was born about 1729 and died at the age of 57 on October 13, 1786. When he was 53, Emanuel, his wife and several children traveled to America aboard the Crawford, arriving in Philadelphia on October 26, 1768. The ship's passenger list showed the names of two of their older sons, George Jacob Waltmann and Johan Wilhelm (William) Waltman, but apparently the entire family made the voyage together. Emanuel settled in Lovettsville in Loudoun County, Virginia, about 30 miles from Washington, D. C. He died there in on February 13, 1784, and was buried with his wife in New Jerusalem Lutheran Church Cemetery, in Lovettsville. Some of his descendants remained in that area of Virginia, while others moved to the area of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and some went further west. [13]
Back to Top of Part I The Conrad Waltman Story: Furstenberg Origins According to the LaMance account of the Conrad Waltman origins, the House of Furstenberg was one of the great families of southern Germany in the Middle Ages, and had numerous castles and great riches. The Castle of Furstenberg in the Black Forest, about 13 miles north of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, was built in 1218 by a branch that called itself the Zahringen‑Furstenbergs. [14] The Furstenberg name was used mainly by the Catholics of the family, while the Protestant members called themselves Frundsberg. Reportedly, there was also discord between the two family groups. According to LaMance, two brothers, Egon and William Furstenberg, were both bishops of the Catholic Church and allies of Louis XIV of France, who was constantly seeking new territory. In an act said to be regarded as treason by the Protestants of the family, the two bishops in 1681 turned over to France the keys to the city of Strassburg, the Protestant capital of Alsace (which adjoined Bavaria). Although various accounts of the family used the names Furstenberg and Frundsberg interchangeably, in time virtually all people of both names disappeared. LaMance said this was partly because the family was not prolific, partly because they tended to get involved in wars, and partly because many of them married commoners, which meant that offspring of the marriages were not regarded as legitimate heirs. By the end of the Thirty Years War, in 1648, according to LaMance, virtually the entire line of the Protestant Frundsbergs had died out. The only known exception was Count Hiram von Frundsberg, then probably only 10 years old. Although Catholicism became the state religion of Bavaria after the war, the large Frundsberg estate there was regarded as a Protestant settlement and refuge. In 1652, the boy's guardian secured for him a large and elaborate Bible published in Wittenberg, said to symbolize Hiram's leadership of the Lutheran church in the area. In her 1928 book, LaMance said she was in possession of that Bible. In early 2006, the Bible was reported to be in a display case in the library of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, placed there by a descendant of LaMance. The Child is Called Valentine. Count Hiram apparently married early, to a woman named Margaret, but they were childless, and the Frundsberg line appeared doomed. The LaMance story is that every Saint Valentine's Day, Count Hiram went hunting wild boar in the Black Forest with friends. On February 14, 1681, as they were returning from the hunt, they came upon a little boy, not quite three years old, in the middle of the road. Judging by the velvet and lace dress of the child, it appeared that this was the child of a noble. Hiram took the boy to his home and decided to raise him as his son. Hiram was 43. LaMance said that Hiram immediately realized the identity of the boy. Spain at that time possessed Alsace, a wealthy Protestant area about the size of Connecticut, with Strassburg as its capital. Louis XIV wanted possession of Alsace, but Spain was resisting. Spain had sent a certain Count Pedro to watch over the territory, and Pedro was succeeding. (Several researchers have said they believe Pedro’s last name was “Ferrette.”) [15] Because Pedro was "in the way" of Louis XIV, LaMance said that he "met with foul play." But also in danger was Pedro's son, who had been born on April 9, 1678. It was probable, LaMance said, that the widow of Pedro, Countess Eleanor, hid the child for a time, but shortly a group of Bavarian noblemen friendly to Pedro "kidnapped" the boy in order to take him to safety and help him regain his father's rights in Alsace; they spirited him into the Black Forest. The story of the kidnapping apparently spread, and thus Count Hiram had no difficulty identifying the three‑year‑old boy who stood on the path in the Bavarian woods. In order to protect the boy's true identify, as well as to protect himself, LaMance said that Hiram swore everyone to secrecy, announced that he had adopted a child, and called the boy Valentine Waldman. (A parallel but less dramatic account is that the friendly kidnappers simply delivered the boy to Hiram, a known defender of Martin Luther and opponent of Louis XIV.) In 1685, four years after Valentine was adopted, Hiram and his wife, both probably about 47 and childless for 25 years, had a baby girl; they named her Barbara, after a famous Frundsberg ancestor. In time, according to LaMance, Valentine fell in love with Barbara von Frundsberg. In 1710, when Valentine was 32 and Barbara 25, they married, and Count Hiram had to prove to local officials that they were not blood relatives. Conrad is Born. LaMance said that five years later, in 1715, Valentine and Barbara had a son, Conrad Waltman, born in Bavaria. She said that Conrad had an older brother, Peter, who was the legitimate heir, but Peter was crippled and died relatively young. However, Byron Waltman said there was no documentation for this. Little else is known about Valentine. LaMance said that he died in 1750, at the age of 72, on his wife's estate in Bavaria. She said Barbara died in 1762, at the age of 77.
Back to Top of Part I The Story of the Davy The LaMance story is that, like many of his Frundsberg ancestors, Conrad fell in love with a commoner, Katherine Bierly, born in 1718 in Bavaria. LaMance said their marriage would have been illegal in Germany, due to the rule of eben burtig, or equal birth. “Royalty could not marry nobility, and nobility could not marry commoners. The Bierlys were commoners.” [17] Both Katherine’s parents, who were very religious, and Conrad’s parents strongly opposed a marriage. Frustrated by this opposition, in 1738, when she was 20, Katherine and a maid fled to Holland. (Five of her siblings had already sailed to America.) Conrad met Katherine there shortly afterward, and they were married, according to LaMance. Refusing the urgent pleas of his parents to return to Bavaria, LaMance wrote, Conrad took Katherine to Amsterdam, and in July of 1738 they sailed aboard the vessel Davy, commanded by William Patton. [18] On the 25th of October, 1738, they arrived in Philadelphia, and in time traveled northward to the eastern portion of Pennsylvania near what today is Allentown. [19] Conrad signed the list of passengers with an “X” (his mark). [20] LaMance wrote that, after their arrival in America, “now Katherine was a legal wife. None too soon, for late in the year she gave birth to twins.” The twins, Katherine and Margaret, were born on Christmas Day, 1738. The year 1738, when Conrad Waltman sailed, has been reported as a devastating year for trans-Atlantic travel. Large numbers of Germans, especially from the Palatine, converged on Holland anticipating ship transportation to America. They were kept in holding areas for long periods of time, and many became ill before being sent on to England. Often they were transferred to other ships for the passage across the Atlantic. A newsletter entitled Beyond Germanna [21] has provided some of the “horror stories of sufferings and death” aboard these ships. There had been a steady increase in the number of Germans sailing for Philadelphia – 268 in 1735, 736 in 1736, and 1,528 in 1737, according to a report in this newsletter. Despite this, shippers were not ready for the massive number of Germans who sought to sail in 1738. The report said that the first wave of Palatines in 1738 reached Dutch territory in April and was sent to a holding area near St. Elbrecht’s chapel below Kralingen. The ships did not begin moving until June, and in the meantime much disease had broken out among the prospective passengers at Kralingen, who were by then called the “Kralingers.” Exceptional crowding then occurred within the ships. Upon arrival in Philadelphia, the captains of four ships reported the combined deaths of 425 people during the crossing. Another report said that most of the deaths were blamed on “dysentery, head sickness and violent fever.” A letter dated October 18, 1738, from Philadelphia, a week before the Davy arrived, said that about 1,600 people had died on the 15 ships that had arrived so far that year. Writers in Philadelphia called 1738 “the Year of the Destroying Angels.” The Davy, which carried Conrad Waltman, left Amsterdam for Cowes, in southern England, in July, and then crossed the Atlantic, and it was part of this series of ships that was afflicted in this way. One might assume that Conrad Waldman, despite his wealth, could have been among the “Kralingers” who had to face this ordeal. The document cited above, Beyond Germanna, included this paragraph, in part drawn from the Pennsylvania Gazette:
Most reports of the arrival of the Davy in Philadelphia identified William Patton as the captain, but if the report above is correct, Patton was actually the ship’s carpenter and was only captain by default after the real captain perished. There are differing reports on how many people were on board the Davy. The report here said a total of 121 – 74 men and 47 women. The classic book on Pennsylvania German Pioneers, by Strassburger and Hinke, provided lists of the names of immigrants into Philadelphia. It said there were 141 passengers on the Davy, including 94 men and 47 women. Another report listed 95 people on the Davy, all men. [23] Still another said there were 180 passengers, but it provided a list of only 40 names. [24] If the account above is correct, these 40 might have been the ones who were well enough to go to the courthouse to take the oath of allegiance. Of these, one was “Conrad Waldman,” and he was one of 18 who signed with an “X” and had their names written by a clerk. Where was Katherine? LaMance contended that Conrad Waltman’s wife, Katherine Bierly Waltman, journeyed to America with him aboard the Davy. But did she? There is no Katherine on any list of the Davy’s passengers. There are only men. Normally, the absence of female names on a ship’s passenger list would not be surprising, since it was the practice in the mid-1700s that these lists contained the names of only the males over age 16. It was much later in that century that women and children were regularly included in the lists. However, the organization ProGenealogists, a family history research group in Utah, has begun to publish on its website passenger lists from this period that include some names of women and children, [25] and it has published a list for the Davy that includes women. Its website in early 2006 said the Davy carried a total of 141 -- 94 men and 47 women. Its list included the names of children aged as young as six months, which would indicate that the Gazette quotation above (“no children”) was not correct. It also included names of female passengers. Most interesting was that its list of females on the Davy did not include “Katherine Waldman” or any other “Katherine” (except for two unrelated children with their parents), nor did it include any “Bierly.” This raised the question of whether Conrad and Katherine actually sailed on the Davy together, whether they ran to Holland and then together to Philadelphia, as LaMance said. [26] The ProGenealogists explanation of its inclusion of the names of some women and children, and the non-listing of others, is that its lists began with the Strassburger and Hinke lists of males over 16 and then added women and children to them, but only to the extent that accepted research by other genealogists had verified that those women and children had been aboard. No official record exists of all the passengers on the ships, and ProGenealogists has said its list, at best, would be only be partial in regard to women and children and most likely never complete. Thus far, there is no proof that Katherine Bierly Waltman was on the ship, or that she wasn’t. LaMance reported [26] that in the period 1725-32, four Bavarian brothers and a sister – all named Bierly – traveled to America. She said they left behind another sister, Katherine Bierly, the one who married Conrad Waltman. [27] The LaMance account that Conrad and Katherine traveled together may be correct, but it may also be possible that Katherine went to America with her brothers and met Conrad Waltman there. Perhaps later research will confirm that Katherine was on the Davy with Conrad. Perhaps it may also address the suggestion (in the next chapter) that Valentine Waltman, a son of Conrad and Katherine, was born a number of years before the 1738 sailing of the Davy, and the possibility that he may have traveled to America as a child. Currently, there is no record of Valentine either traveling to America or being born in America. Back to Top of Part I Conrad in America LaMance contended that Conrad's parents were heartbroken that their son would not return to Bavaria, and several times they sent him small kegs of gold to pay his transportation home. (It is not clear how LaMance knew these details, for there is no supporting documentation and only her claim that this information was passed down through her family, in particular her mother’s recollections of conversations with her grandmother.) [28] For four years, LaMance said, Conrad flatly refused to leave his commoner wife to return home, and his father Valentine then urged him to bring back the entire family. While they could not be presented to the court or to society, they would be made welcome at home. According to the recollections of LaMance's family, Conrad concluded that he would be humiliated if his family was ignored by the nobility when he returned. But in a spirit of reconciliation with his father, he named his most recent child, born in 1742, Valentine Waltman, after Conrad's own father. (Valentine’s birthdate is in dispute, as will be detailed in the next chapter. Some believe he was born about 1732 and came to America with his parents in 1738. Also, it is possible that Conrad's daughter Eleanor was born in Europe about 1730, and she may also have traveled to America with her parents. These possibilities raise doubts about LaMance's stories of Conrad's flight to America.) LaMance indicated that Conrad traveled frequently to Philadelphia, basically for the purpose of gambling, but she was unclear about the location of his home. She never actually said the homestead was located in Kreidersville, but one can infer that from her book. Kreidersville is in Allen Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, on the border with Lehigh Township. [29] The little village is south of what at one time was Route 45. By 2006, it had been renamed Route 248. The town is about one mile east of the Lehigh River and the border with Lehigh County, about two miles north of the town of Northampton, ten miles north of Allentown, about four miles west of Bath. LaMance said that Conrad’s new home “was a large but plain log house in a frontier land, with what he considered peasants for neighbors, and occasional Indian visitors dropping in upon him.” It is clear that family members lived near Kreidersville, for they attended Zion (Stone) Church in Kreidersville and the Emmanuelsville church only two miles away. The website of the Dreisbach Family Association at one time contained an interesting history of Zion Stone Church in Kreidersville, with photographs, but the link does not always work. See also this site. (One of Conrad Waltman's daughters, Elizabeth, married a Dreisbach.) Various records also suggest that the family stayed in different communities, including at least one in Bucks County, possibly before reaching the Kreidersville area, as they journeyed north from Philadelphia, their port of entry, or on a temporary basis after reaching the Kreidersville area. There is evidence that they lived in Bucks County in the area around Bedminster, east of Quakertown, during the period 1745-1760. This comes from the baptism record of their daughter Anna Barbara in 1745, the marriage of their daughter Elizabeth in 1758, and the baptism of two sons of Elizabeth in 1759 and 1760. Their son Valentine reportedly married Catherine Brücker in 1755, in this same time period, and it also could have occurred in the Bucks County area. One factor in this is that Catherine Brücker's parents were sponsors on October 14, 1759, for the baptism of a Susanna Konig, suggesting that the Brückers also lived in this area. If Valentine Waltman married Catherine Brücker in 1755, as has been recorded, it is possible that the marriage took place during this period when both Waltmans and Brückers lived in Bucks County. However, Bucks County may not have been their permanent home. It has been reported by genealogist Hannah Roach that many people from Northampton County temporarily moved south to Bucks County during this time to avoid troubles with Indians. When Jacob Brücker died in 1761, his estate was handled in Northampton County courts. Both the Waltman and Brücker families may have been regular residents of Northampton County residing in Bucks County only on a temporary basis. Certainly in later years, church records indicated that several of Conrad Waltman’s family members (but not Conrad!) were regular in their attendance at communion services at the Zion Church. Work for a new church building began about 1771, when additional land was purchased. The idea was to consolidate three small churches in the area, since it had proved difficult for them separately to obtain a pastor. One of the earlier churches was in Howersville or Indian Creek. It was also known as Dreisbach Church, since it was started by Simon Dreisbach, Sr., about 1747. The other two were at nearby Indian Land, and at Emmanuelsville in Moore Township. In 1772, a building committee that included Valentine Waltman, a son of Conrad, was named and charged with construction of a Union Church to serve Lutheran and Reformed citizens of Lehigh, Allen and Moore townships, including education of children “in the German Tongue.” The deed of December 7, 1770, showed that Peter Friedt, a “yeoman” (farmer who owned his land) of Allen Township, sold the land for three pounds. A church history said the church land adjoined property owned by Valentine Waltman (also described as a yeoman) on the north side. [30] The church property was in Allen Township, bounded on the north by the border between Allen and Lehigh Townships and land of Valentine Waldman (which was in Lehigh Township), on the west by the King’s Highway and land of Conrad Kreider, and on the south and east by land of Peter Friedt. After its construction, the church was the site of numerous Waltman family baptisms and burials. The church is located on Kreidersville Road north of the town, at the top of a hill at the intersection with Church Road. [31] In this area, the family encountered many hardships, according to LaMance, including difficulties with local Indians. LaMance said Katherine was a patient mother and did her best to tolerate Conrad's moods and raise his children. She said Conrad and Katherine’s home was always open to visitors, and that Baron DeKalb and Baron Von Stueben spent two days with them, visiting from Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War. Other visitors included Bishop David Nitschmann, Bishop Spangenberg, and Count Nicholas Zinzendorf and his daughter Benigna. Conrad was spoken of as "Count Conrad." [32] LaMance said that Conrad purchased several tracts of land with the money supplied by his father (although there is no record of this), but she said he later took to gambling and lost everything. “It is in the Spanish blood, that craze for gambling,” she wrote, choosing to blame an entire country and culture for Conrad’s failings. Because of his mother's wealth, it was said that Conrad Waltman became a "spoiled child." LaMance put it this way:
Where was Conrad? There is little genealogical evidence of any of these reports about Conrad. His name appeared among the passengers on the Davy, arriving in Philadelphia in 1738. The names of Conrad and Katherine appear in the record of the baptism of one daughter, Anna Barbara, in 1745 in Upper Milford Township, southern Lehigh County. The township is near Zionsville, south of Allentown, about 20 miles from Kreidersville (see details in the next chapter). And there is a record of Katherine’s tombstone in the cemetery of Zion Church in Kreidersville (although without mention of Conrad). But those three points are the only indications of the presence of Conrad in normal genealogical sources. In contrast, there are these negative points:
*
Although there
is a Conrad Waltman in a list of privates in the Revolutionary War in
1776, most genealogists (other than LaMance) believe that that Conrad
was not the immigrant who arrived in 1738 and who would have been 61,
but a younger Conrad Waltman, then 17.
*
Many Waltmans
appeared in the records of Zion Church in Kreidersville and of Christ
Church in Schoenersville during this period – at communions,
baptisms, marriages, burials -- but no Conrad. (The church
cemetery marker honoring Conrad as a private in the Revolutionary War
is considered in error.)
*
There is no will and no land transfer record mentioning Conrad.
*
A search by DAR
staff in its Washington library concluded there was no Conrad Waltman
in the 1772 Proprietary Tax List, when Conrad would have been 57 (if
born in 1715). The other Conrad would have been only 13 in
1772
and not required to pay taxes in that year.
*
Conrad did not
appear in the published tax lists of 1785, 1786 and 1787 in Northampton
County, [34]
as determined
by the DAR staff. Genealogist
Hannah
Roach found evidence of Valentine, Peter and other Waltmans on the tax
lists of Lehigh Township in Northampton County from 1761 through 1788,
a stretch of 27 years, but no Conrad.
*
Conrad did not
appear in the list of takers of the 1777 Oath of Allegiance, although
the law required that all white male inhabitants above the age of 18
had to sign. The second Conrad Waltman, born in 1759, would
have
been close to the age required for signing the oath, but there is no
Conrad Waltman at all on the list.
*
The 1790
census, the first one undertaken by the U.S. Government, [35]
revealed
that in Allen Township, there were only two heads of household named
Waltman, and they did not include Conrad. They were
Valentine, a
son of Conrad, and Andrew, who apparently was a son of Valentine and
not a son of Conrad. Another son of Conrad, Peter, was shown
in
nearby Lehigh Township. Each of the three households
contained
only one male over 16, which indicated that Conrad was not living with
one of these men.
LaMance believed that Conrad died in 1796 at the age of 81 at the home of Andrew Waltman, whom she believed to be his son and with whom she said he resided. For the last years of his life, LaMance said, Conrad was a "great care" to his children, since he was "completely out of his mind." [36] She said Conrad was "worse than a child" and complained that the demented man tore the fly leaves from the massive family Bible, thereby obliterating the last name of his real grandfather, Count Pedro of Spain. Further, he lost all of his money. But there is no evidence of this. Despite LaMance’s creation of a book based on stories of this man and his descendants, it is a mystery why the immigrant Conrad Waltman does not appear in official records in the area where she said he lived. If he went insane and was cared for by his children and grandchildren near the end of his life, there nevertheless should have been some record of his existence – in tax files, church attendance, land transactions, and even the 1790 census. A possible answer for the lack of evidence of Conrad's life is that he was long since dead! Even if it were true, as LaMance thought, that Andrew Waltman was the last-born child of Conrad, and that Andrew was born in 1760 (and there is evidence that Andrew Waltman was not a son of Conrad), 1760 would be the last date on which there is any suggestion that Conrad was still alive. Certainly, there is no documented evidence of Conrad's existence after that date. Perhaps LaMance's story about Conrad's visitors from Valley Forge 16 years later, in 1776, was just the product of her imagination. Conrad’s wife, Katherine Bierly Waltman, died at the age of 68, ten years before LaMance's date of death for Conrad. Her tombstone gives her date of death as March 25, 1786. She was buried in the cemetery at Zion Church in Kreidersville. Her tombstone is near the front door of the church, the second or third stone away from the large DAR plaque that honors Revolutionary War soldiers. A monument at the back of the church says that the current structure dates from 1838, and thus it was not in existence when Katherine and Conrad died. The congregation, however, has a longer history, dating from 1745, when the Howersville congregation was begun. Later, two nearby smaller churches were incorporated with the Howersville group to form the Kreidersville church. [37] Katherine’s tombstone, outlined in LaMance’s book on page 44, is shown below.
In translation, it says “Here rests Maria Katarina Waltman, born 1708, died 1786, March 25.” Hannah Roach’s research also provided the identical text. See the stone above. LaMance said the stone incorrectly gave the date of Katherine’s birth as 1708 rather than 1718, but some believe 1708 was correct and that Conrad, three years older, was born in 1705. A list of communicants at Christ Lutheran Church in Schoenersville, near where Valentine Waltman lived, on November 24, 1782, included “Catherine Waltman, Jr.” and “Catherine Waltman, Sr.” It is not clear who these Catherine Waltmans were, since Conrad Senior, Conrad Junior and Valentine were all married to a “Catherine.” Nevertheless, if the “senior” Catherine was the wife of Conrad Senior, this would be virtually the only public mention of the wife of the immigrant Conrad aside from her tombstone. She was no more evident in the genealogical records than her husband. Back to Top of Part I The Genealogical Problems Genealogists have focused on several major issues relating to the Waltman family:
*
First
is the
question of whether the “Conrad Waltman” who is
recorded as
serving as a private in the Revolutionary War was the immigrant Conrad
Waltman (1715-1796) or a later Conrad Waltman (1759-1785).
*
Second
is
whether the younger Conrad Waltman (referred to here as Conrad Junior)
was a son of the first one. Some believe he was.
Some
believe he was a son of Valentine Waltman, who was a child of the first
Conrad Waltman (Conrad Senior), and that therefore Conrad Junior was a
grandson of the first Conrad. LaMance believed the second
Conrad
Waltman did not exist at all.
*
Third
is the
question of when Valentine Waltman was born, and where.
LaMance
said he was born in 1742 in America, but genealogist Hannah Roach
thought he must have been born before 1733, although this is before the
immigrant Conrad Waltman traveled to America in 1738.
*
Fourth
is
whether Peter Waltman (1779-1836) was the son of Valentine Waltman or
of Conrad Waltman, Junior.
As will be indicated below, the answers appear to be these:
The Battle of Fort Washington There was only one “Conrad Waltman” in the records of the Revolutionary War, and it is not clear if it was the immigrant Conrad (1715-1796?) or his grandson Conrad (1759-1786). In the Pennsylvania Archives, a muster roll of “Captain Rundio’s Company, Northampton County, Flying Camp, 1776,” in the War of the Revolution, [38] showed 43 privates and three officers. “Conrad Waltman” was one of the privates. It is clear that the company was involved in the infamous Battle of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776, but it is not clear whether Conrad Waltman was then with the company, or which of the two Conrad Waltmans it was. The senior Conrad Waltman would have been 61 in 1776. Some believe that at this age Conrad was too old for military service, and under the existing rules his service would not have been required. Some who think otherwise argue that it was logical that a patriotic man aged 61 could have offered his services to help the Revolution and that, lacking military experience, he probably would have been given only the rank of private. The rule was that all fit men between 16 and 50 were required to join the militia, but the oldest in most of the companies was in his mid-30s. As best can be determined, the privates in Captain Rundio’s company were quite young, many in their teens. Peter Rundio (1738-1817) himself was 38, and his first lieutenant, Robert Brown (1744-1823), was 32. The “Flying Camp,” of which Conrad Waltman was a member, was created by the Continental Congress on June 3, 1776, as a mobile reserve to defend the ground between New York and Philadelphia. Flying Camp members differed from the regular militia by expressly accepting service outside of their home states under the command of Continental general officers. The Flying Camp militia members from Pennsylvania were enlisted only through December 31, 1776, and if they had not been captured or killed, it is likely that those in Captain Rundio’s company did not serve beyond that date. The Pennsylvania members were especially active in serving as a reserve for General Washington in protecting New Jersey for his Army, but they also served in the battles of New York, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. [39] It was not until September 10, 1776, that the Standing Committee for the militia for Northampton County met at Easton to make major decisions regarding the company. The minutes [40] reported that Peter Rundio was appointed captain in the room of John Hays, “who declines going into service on account of the present troubles in his family having lately lost his Daughter, as by Colo. Dreisbach’s Letter to this Committee appears.” Robert Brown was appointed first lieutenant to Captain Rundio, Andrew Boyd (who did not appear in the later muster roll) was appointed second lieutenant, and John McDowell, Junior, was appointed ensign. A history of Northampton County, published in 1877, said that the county was assigned a quota of 346 men for the militia, [41] and that Captain Rundio’s company of Flying Camp volunteers fought in the battles of Long Island and Fort Washington in 1776. (The Long Island battle actually occurred in August, before Rundio became captain.) The big event at Fort Washington, on the northern tip of Manhattan Island, was described by historians as perhaps the biggest disaster of the war, and it seems clear that Rundio’s company was there. It took place on November 16, 1776. What happened with the Flying Camp on that highly troubled day at Mount Washington is not recorded. In the confusion of the surrender of 3,000 men, it is highly likely that various military units were merged and intermingled as the Americans sought to defend Fort Washington and then surrendered, and it is likely that unit affiliation was lost, or at least confused. One history said that Rundio’s company “was in the battle of Long Island, and after the evacuation of New York was left in Fort Washington on the Hudson River under Col. Magaw of Chester County. On the 15th of November, Sir William Howe invested the fort and demanded an immediate surrender and after a day of hard fighting, Col. Magaw surrendered his 2,000 men to Howe . . . . Rundio’s men were imprisoned in a church and left for days without food; many died, etc.” [42] What appears to be an official account of the battle was printed in the 1877 history of Northampton County:
William Paul Deary, a scholar of the military at that time, [44] provided a similar version of what occurred that day. He wrote that in early November 1776, it was clear that the British, having taken lower Manhattan, were going to try to complete the capture of the island, then known as York Island. They would then advance into New Jersey from the northern tip of the island, near Mount Washington. On November 12, American reinforcements were sent forward from Fort Lee, across the river in New Jersey, including 840 from the Pennsylvania Flying Camp. The effect was to increase the Mount Washington garrison by half, to a little over 3,000 men by the morning of November 16. The British and Hessians were coming in superior numbers, about four to one, but General Washington and his colleagues, meeting on boats in the middle of the Hudson River on the night of November 15, decided to hold their positions and not withdraw their troops. By the morning of November 16, the garrison on Mount Washington, led by Colonel Robert Magaw, consisted of about 1,300 continental regulars, 1,100 from the Pennsylvania Flying Camp militia, and about 600 state troops from Pennsylvania and Connecticut. The Flying Camp group included full regiments led by officers Baxter and Swope, and it appears that the Baxter contingent included Captain Rundio’s company. By 1 p.m. on November 16, Deary wrote, after five British attacks on Mount Washington on three fronts, nearly all of Magaw’s garrison had been driven into Fort Washington itself or its perimeter. Surrender talks began before 2 p.m., ended at 3 p.m., and at 4 p.m. the garrison marched out and laid down its arms. In the fighting, only 54 Americans had been killed and 100 wounded. British General Howe later reported that 2,837 prisoners were taken, of whom 230 were officers. General Washington and three other generals actually had been on York Island in the morning, but they left in time to avoid becoming casualties themselves. Deary wrote that the name “Battle of Fort Washington” is “misleading, since the small earthwork pentagon that overlooked the Hudson River atop Mount Washington served no purpose except to provide temporary and illusory shelter for the American defenders.” He said the battle was “commonly regarded as the worst defeat for American arms during the eight-year war for independence.” [44] The British moved on. If the Mount Washington garrison had been evacuated in advance, the three thousand men there would have been able to join Washington’s army in New Jersey. Deary said that “Generals George Washington and Nathanael Greene have long been regarded as the American parties most responsible for the debacle on upper York Island.” However, the battle never received the attention it deserved because the Americans recouped with victories at Trenton on December 26 and Princeton on January 2, and Fort Washington was largely overlooked by historians. The British apparently were ill-prepared to house and feed the 3,000 prisoners they took at Fort Washington. Many were marched to lower Manhattan where they were incarcerated aboard the infamous prison ships, in churches, in a hospital, and in one or more sugar warehouses. Both the churches and the prison ships were reported to be horrible places, lacking in food and water. Many prisoners died, and others became very ill. Deary quoted one historian as saying that when an exchange of some of the prisoners occurred on May 6, 1778, “of the three thousand who were captured at Fort Washington, but eight hundred were reported as still living.” [45] However, other accounts indicate that a number of the soldiers were paroled. Deary said that most of the officers taken in battle, if not seriously ill or gravely wounded when captured, were put under loose house arrest, at first in New York City and later on western Long Island, and most survived until they were paroled or exchanged. There is much information about the battle on the internet. For a sampling, search on "Battle of Fort Washington." What Happened to Rundio’s Company? The details of what happened to Captain Rundio’s company – and to Conrad Waltman – are not known. The muster role of the company listed Peter Rundio as captain, Robert Brown as First Lieutenant, John McDowell as Ensign, and 43 privates, including Conrad Waltman. Altogether, they were 46. Lieutenant Brown was definitely one of those captured, which suggests that the entire company was at risk. Mrs. William Brown, of Bethlehem, a daughter-in-law of Lieutenant Brown, provided the author of the 1877 history of Northampton County with a framed certificate in which Brown and his colleagues, writing from the prison ship Judith, pledged to British General Clinton that if released they would not challenge the British authorities. This was understood to permit Brown and others to be paroled. The date of the document is December 10, 1777, which indicates that the group had been imprisoned for more than a year. [46] Brown’s text is as follows, misspellings from the original:
It is not clear how many men were covered by this document, or who they were. The certificate held by Mrs. Brown did not show the names that Lieutenant Brown said were “hereunder written.” Nor is it clear if the men had to remain aboard the ship or could walk about freely. An applicant to the DAR in 1918 wrote that Lieutenant Brown had been able to pursue his previous trade as a blacksmith and thus was able to earn money to provide food and other necessities for his men. A profile of Robert Brown, who was later promoted to general, written for the 1877 Northampton County book, described the event this way: Brown had been captured at the surrender of Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. He and his companions had fought for 48 hours without food or water, and when their ammunition was gone, they surrendered. Along with 2,000 others, they were held in a church in New York, where two or three hundred died. Although he was let out on parole, Brown was not released until January 25, 1781 – more than four years after the battle -- when he returned to Northampton County. [48] Later he was a prominent citizen, elected to the Fifth United States Congress from Northampton County and reelected seven times, serving from 1798 to 1815. Another account of the prison ship Judith is provided in the story of a famed French volunteer named Dubouchet, who was put aboard the Judith a year later, in October 1777, but apparently during the time that Lieutenant Brown was on board:
There is no way to determine if Conrad Waltman was among the group captured with Lieutenant Brown. Nor is there a way to determine if all of the 46 soldiers on the muster roll were actually present at the battle. It is possible that the list was taken at some earlier time as simply a general account of those who were once part of Captain Rundio’s company. It does not appear to be a post-battle “return.” What Happened to the Men in Captain Rundio’s company? There are two sources of information. One is the Pennsylvania Archives listing, which indicated that nine of the 43 privates died shortly after their capture, between December 25, 1776, and January 14, 1777. Their names on the muster roll of Rundio’s company are followed by “d. [date].” For example, the listing for one of the nine reads “Jacob Moritz, d. Dec. 28, 1776.” The second source is an apparently official document, forwarded to the editor of the 1877 Northampton County history. This is in two parts. The first is a list of Captain Rundio’s Company which is virtually identical with the list of 43 privates in Pennsylvania Archives, except that the order of names and some of the spellings vary, suggesting the second list may have come from a different source. The other part is headed “A list of those that died in their imprisonment in New York, 1776.” This list includes ten men, not nine, adding John Dull, who died on January 4, 1777. This full list is as follows:
The signing of the list is curious. Ensign McDowell seems to have signed it on December 30, 1776, which would have been the day before the term of service for the Flying Camp expired, but the deaths covered by the list continue up to January 14. Andrew Boyd, who “endorsed” the list, was the man appointed Second Lieutentant in Captain Rundio’s Company at the meeting of the Standing Committee in Easton on September 10, 1776, but his name did not appear on either list of Rundio’s company. If these lists are correctly interpreted, within eight weeks of the fall of Fort Washington, nine or ten of the 46 men in Rundio’s company had died – nearly 25 per cent! – apparently either from wounds of the battle or from illness or malnourishment. However, there is evidence that some of these suggestions of deaths in the Pennsylvania Archives were not correct. At least three of the ten who were reported to have died were still living in the 1800s.
Was Conrad Waltman Involved? No one is known to have claimed that Conrad Waltman was taken prisoner, but if he was present, he may well have been captured, given the reports of the events of November 16. However, one can speculate that Conrad, if he was captured, may have escaped or been released before Lieutenant Brown was released. If it was the elder Conrad who was involved, it is possible that he was simply enrolled in the battalion and then sent home because of his mental disability, as LaMance claimed, without having participated in any battles. If Conrad Junior was the man mentioned in the Pennsylvania Archives, it is clear that he was back in Northampton County shortly after the battle, at least by the time his son Peter was conceived in May of 1778, six months later, and by the time he was married on September 15, 1778. Indication that the soldiers in the Flying Camp may have been younger (and therefore that this was the younger Conrad) comes from the testimony of a Frederick Nagel, of Allen Township, who was only 15 in 1776. [54] Although his name does not appear with Captain Rundio’s company, Nagle clearly came from the same area as the other recruits. Nagle testified in court in 1837, 61 years later, in quest of a pension relating to his service. He said that at that time he came from Allen Township, that in June 1776 he had become a volunteer in the Flying Camp, enlisting in Lehigh Township under Jost Dreisbach. He had marched into Moore Township and joined the company commanded by Captain Nicholas Kern. They in turn joined with other companies in Easton, under the command of Colonel Peter Kichline, and then went to New York. On August 26, Nagle said, his group joined still other forces and went to Long Island in boats. The next morning, the battle commenced, he said, and the British came so hard that the colonel ordered a retreat. Nagle said he was taken prisoner, along with about 700 others, and they were kept in churches and fed on only green apples. About the first of October 1776, they were put on a British ship, the Julianna, and at the end of October, they were offered a release if they would swear that they would not take arms again, but Nagle and several others refused. They were then taken to Halifax, where they remained for more than two years. He was discharged after being released and reaching Windsor. The story of this Flying Camp battalion is similar to that of Captain Rundio’s company, but the event that Nagle described was earlier, on August 26, and the one attributed to Lieutenant Brown was on November 16, 1776. The ship names also differed, although they were similar: Julianna for Nagle in August, and Judith for Brown in November. Much attention has been given to the prison ships used by the British in the War. One article claimed that “more Americans died in British prison ships in New York Harbor than in all of the battles of the Revolutionary War. . . . They were sinkholes of filth, vermin, infectious disease and despair. The ships were uniformly wretched . . . .” [55] Back to Top of Part I Which "Conrad Waltman" was in the Flying Camp? LaMance was clear she thought it was Conrad Senior who was in the war. She wrote that at that time Conrad’s brain was troubled because of his family difficulties, and that melancholia gripped him. [56] However, she said, “old as he was, in July, 1776, when he was 61, he joined the Flying Squadron to repulse the British in New Jersey and Long Island. . . . But it was soon evident that there were too many ‘wheels’ in his head for a soldier, so he was dismissed and sent home.” She concluded that “the old Count not only joined the army himself, but all eight of his sons served in the Revolutionary War, three sons-in-law, and sixteen grandsons. We doubt if there is another American family that has a record that equals it.” While there may be doubt about Conrad, it appears to be correct that, at least, eight people, possibly all sons of Conrad, served in the military during the war. In 1926, when LaMance applied for DAR membership on the basis of the patriot status of “Baron Conrad Waltman,” she justified it by citing the Pennsylvania Archives record. Her application said there were “27 soldiers from this one family who served in the Revolutionary War, a record without equal in the War.” It was undoubtedly because of LaMance’s claims that “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” a popular newspaper cartoon of the mid-1900s, carried a sketch of Conrad Waltman on February 13, 1941. [57] The cartoon, printed in hundreds of newspapers across the country, said this:
Family descendants who accepted these conclusions placed in the Zion Church Cemetery in Kreidersville, about 1986, a metal marker honoring the senior Conrad Waltman (1715-1796). Immediately next to the marker for Conrad is a German-language tombstone and an English-language metal marker for “Peter Waldmann.” This is the John Peter Waltman, known as “Peter,” who was a son of Conrad Senior. Conrad would have been 26 when Peter was born. The markers for Conrad and Peter are about 20 yards beyond the southeast corner of the church, and in 2007 each had a bronze marker and an American flag.
Conrad was believed by LaMance and others to have been buried in the same churchyard, but no grave has been located. However, LaMance also said that Conrad’s son John Peter was the one who established the tombstone for his mother but he did not do so for his father because of the grudge between his wife and Conrad, who never accepted the common low status of Peter’s wife. [58] This seems odd, since LaMance also said that Conrad died at the home of Andrew Waltman, who she argued was also a son of Conrad, and if that were true (apparently it is not),one might think that Andrew would have been the one to erect a stone to his father. Family researcher William Fiedler [59] said he understood that Conrad was buried in a pauper’s grave toward the back of the Kreidersville cemetery, but there is no written evidence for this. An expert on the cemetery said that, if Conrad’s name had been found among the stones or records, it would appear in the church record of burials, but it does not. (The “Burial Record” published by the church said that the committee that compiled the list of burials found 478 “unknowns.” They were graves with sandstone markers bearing no inscription. Later, when the graveyard was improved, these stones were removed.) In any event, the marker that honors Conrad is simply a memorial of honor and not a tombstone or a place of burial. Genealogists with the Daughters of the American Revolution said that a study of the men and women buried in the cemetery of the Zion Church in Kreidersville, first copied in 1937 and then revised in 1943, did not mention a Conrad Waltman. The same is true of the church’s own list of burials, compiled in 1940. Although some observers believed that the plaques honoring Conrad and John Peter were placed there by DAR staff, one of the people responsible for installing them, William Fiedler, [60] said that the plaques were requested of the Federal government through the military affairs office of Northampton County. Fiedler and others presented documentation to certify the participation of Conrad Waltman in the Revolution, and the county forwarded this to Washington and obtained the plaques. DAR staff said that, since about 1985, the DAR has required verification of information placed on its cemetery markers. The plaque in honor of Conrad had not been verified with the DAR, and the DAR said it would not verify it in 2006 without further proof of Conrad’s service. In any event, the marker is not a DAR plaque. It is understood that the documentation submitted to the Northampton County office to justify issuance of the bronze plaque consisted, in part, of submission of the Pennsylvania Archives listing of a “Conrad Waltman” as a private in the war. Also submitted was a copy of a letter of May 4, 1928, from the Archivist of the Pennsylvania State Library and Museum, certifying that the name of “Conrad Waltman appears as a Private on a Muster Roll of Captain Rundio’s (Rundis) Company of Northampton County Militia, Flying Camp, 1776, in the War of the Revolution,” and citing the pages in Pennsylvania Archives where the name appeared. [61] Although those who believe this letter certified that Conrad Senior was the one who was in the War, in fact the letter said only that a person by the name of Conrad Waltman was on the roll, and thus it left open to interpretation which of the two Conrads was the one on that list. Also noteworthy is a large plaque placed in front of the Zion Church in 1931 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell Chapter of the DAR. [62] It says: “This tablet is in commemoration of the services of Revolutionary War Soldiers buried in Zion’s Stone Church Cemetery, Kreidersville, PA. This marker is dedicated in grateful recognition of their patriotism, valor and fidelity.” The tablet contains 60 names, one of which is “Peter Waldman, May 9, 1741 – Nov. 9, 1817.” This is the only Waldman/Waltman on the plaque. There is no Conrad, which suggests either that the compilers of the list did not believe Conrad served in the War or that he is not buried in that cemetery, or both. Another consideration is the genealogical study of the Bieber/Beaver family, which attributed the military service mentioned in Pennsylvania Archives to the younger Conrad Waltman (1759-1785) but said (incorrectly) that the younger Conrad was a son of the immigrant Conrad. The 1939 book, on page 651, in a list of the children of Michael Bieber (1740-1832), said this:
Back to Top of Part I Applications to the DAR The genealogist Margaret Wilkins first applied for membership in the DAR in 1943 based on the assumption that she was descended from Conrad Senior and that he had been a private in the Revolutionary War. She then said her line ran from Conrad down through his son Valentine, and Valentine’s son Peter. However, she wrote to the DAR on October 10, 1950, to provide a page of corrections to the LaMance account. Peter was the son of Conrad Junior, she said, and not the son of Valentine. Conrad Junior, according to Wilkins’ changed DAR application, was the son of Conrad Senior, and Valentine was not included in her line. (Dorothy Waltman Ware’s application to the DAR in 1978 said the same thing.) Further, Wilkins wrote in 1950, it was wrong for LaMance to say that “the old Count not only joined the army himself,” since it was Conrad Junior who had been mentioned in the Pennsylvania Archives and not Conrad Senior. Wilkins’ page of corrections was pasted inside the copy of the LaMance book in the DAR library in Washington – possibly by Wilkins herself – and it was still there in 2006. The page was also included in the library’s Conrad Waltman patriot file. Byron Waltman wrote in 1962 that the LaMance claim that Conrad Senior was a member of Washington’s army at the age of 61 had been recorded in the DAR as an error, the name being confused with that of Conrad Junior. The 2003 edition of the DAR Patriot Index included four Waltmans who had been designated as “patriots” – Andrew, Conrad Junior, Michael and Peter -- but did not include Conrad Senior. [64] The record on Conrad Waltman Senior at the DAR Library in 2006 said, in one computer file, “Patriot Deleted.” A newly established computer file on Conrad Senior was then marked “FAMPCS” – Future Applicants Must Prove Correct Service. What this meant was that, although, as of March 2006, the DAR had approved the membership of 17 individuals who based their applications on the presumed participation of Conrad Waltman Senior in the Revolutionary War, it would accept no more unless it was proven that Conrad Senior actually had participated in the War. [65] Nine of these 17 members (including LaMance) had traced their lineage through Andrew Waltman (believing him, apparently erroneously, to be a son of Conrad) , four through his daughter Margaret, one through his son John Peter, one through his son Hiram Michael, and two through his “son” Conrad Junior (Wilkins and Ware), although it appears that Conrad was not the son of Conrad Senior either. Following the interaction with Margaret Wilkins, the DAR decided to accept applications based on the participation of Conrad Junior in the war, accepting the view that the Pennsylvania Archives was referring to Conrad Junior and not to Conrad Senior. In 2006, there were four DAR members who had based their applications on the patriot status of Conrad Junior, including Margaret Wilkins (after she revised her application) and Dorothy Ware (both through Joseph Waltman, son of Peter Waltman), genealogist Irene Diehl Konrad, of Florida (through Mary Waltman Meyer, a daughter of Peter), and Pamelia Trupiano Bennett Carter, of Michigan (through Rebecca Waltman Hinckle, another daughter of Peter). The evidence may be considered inconclusive regarding Conrad Senior’s service in the War, but it would appear very difficult for future DAR applicants to prove that he was in fact the private listed in the Pennsylvania Archives. The arguments against Conrad Senior having been in the War are these:
DAR officials concede that they are not omnipotent and that the information in a DAR file is not necessarily dispositive of the military status of a presumed patriot. Despite this caveat, it must be said that most of the DAR records are very valuable in examining the information developed by others in their genealogical research and in providing clues for further examination. The DAR staff clearly has become stricter as time proceeds in regard to the degree of proof it requires. All of the genealogical issues are open to further debate and proof, but it would not be easy to prove a different result for Conrad Senior.
This
account continues in the next chapter, with a focus on the children of
Conrad Waltman. A
third chapter carries forward with Peter
Waltman of Allentown and his
descendants.
Back to Top of Part I Development of Northampton County Members of the family of Conrad Waltman Senior lived in a variety of places within Northampton County at a time when the structure of the county was in a state of great change. Many of the family members had residence in and were taxed as part of Allen Township, but that township was steadily broken up, and Lehigh County was taken away from Northampton County entirely. Waltman family members in the area often lived not far apart, even though their township affiliations were quite different. This brief outline of the nearby counties and townships is drawn from the website of the Pennsylvania State Archives. * Bucks County and two other counties were created by William Penn’s family in 1682. * Northampton County was created out of Bucks County on March 11, 1752.
Allen
Township was created
in 1748, although settled in 1728 when it was still part of Bucks
County. Much of Allen Township’s area was taken
away in the
creation of other political subdivisions. The township in
2006
had a northern border just above Zion Church in Kreidersville, where it
meets Lehigh Township. It is also bounded by the Lehigh River
on
the west, East Allen and Moore Townships on the east, and Hanover
Township and the town of Northampton on the south. The name
is
derived from Chief Justice William Allen, of Philadelphia, who at one
time owned the “Allen Tract” of 5,000
acres. The city
of Allentown is also named for William Allen, although he originally
wanted it called “Northamptontown.”
East Allen
Township, east of Allen Township, was created in 1845 out
of Allen
Township.
-- Bath Borough
was created in 1856 out of East Allen Township.
Northampton Borough
was created in 1901 out of Allen Township.
North Catasauqua
Borough
was created in 1908 out of Allen Township.
Hanover Township, Northampton County, south of Allen Township, was created in 1798 out of Allen Township. Much of it was given over to Lehigh Valley International Airport.
Lehigh Township
was created
in 1752, but settled in 1732. It lies between the Lehigh
River
and Walnutport on the west and Moore Township on the east.
The
southern border of Lehigh Township is Church Road on the north side of
Zion Church in Kreidersville, although the church itself, and the
village, are in Allen Township. Lehigh, Moore and Allen Townships meet
at a point one-half mile east of Zion Church. Valentine
Waltman
owned property in Lehigh Township just across the line from Zion Church.
Moore
Township was created
in 1765, but settled in 1740-1750. It includes Emanuelsville
Church, just north of Petersville, which is about two miles northeast
of Zion Church of Kriedersville.
* Lehigh County was created out of Northampton County on March 6, 1812.
Hanover
Township, Lehigh
County, was created in 1798 out of Allen Township,
Northampton County,
but settled in 1745. It borders Catasauqua on the west, North
Catasauqua on the north, Hanover Township of Northampton County on the
east, and Lehigh Valley International Airport on the south.
Schoenersville is part of this township.
-- Catasauqua
was created in 1853 out of Hanover Township.
Back to Top of Part I A Note on Lora LaMance and her Family Lora Sarah Nichols LaMance, the Waltman family chronicler, completed her book on the Waltmans in 1928, when she was 71, after reportedly working on it for 25 years. (Her name has sometimes been spelled "Lamance" and "Laymance.) Lora S. Nichols was born on April 2, 1857, in Wolcottville, Indiana. She wrote in her book that she was descended through Conrad Waltman (1715-1796), his son Andrew Waltman (1760-1796), his son Valentine Waltman (1790-1873), and his daughter Kezia Waltman (1814-1895). [69] But LaMance apparently was wrong in claiming that Andrew was a son of Conrad. As indicated elsewhere, Andrew was a grandson of Conrad, the son of Conrad's son Valentine (1733-1810?). Thus, her lineage would have been Conrad, Valentine, Andrew, Valentine, and Kezia Waltman. Lora’s mother, Kezia Waltman, married Nelson Irvin Nichols (1812-1865), and they had 10 children, the last of which was Lora Nichols. Nelson Nichols was the son of David Nichols and Nancy King. Nancy, in turn, was the daughter of Deborah Greene King (1767-1820). She apparently was the stimulus for Lora LaMance's genealogical pursuits. Lora's book The Greene Family and its Branches was published in 1904, 24 years before publication of her book on the Waltmans, and it was dedicated to Deborah Greene King. Lora LaMance's later applications for membership in the DAR were based, inter alia, on ancestors in the Nichols and King families, as well as on Conrad Waltman. Lora Nichols attended the Wolcottville schools and Miss Susan Grigg’s Academy, but she did not attend college. On April 14, 1880, Lora married Marcus N. LaMance (1844-1906), a merchant, born in McDonald County, Missouri. She said there was no dissension between the families, although hers had provided soldiers to the Federal side in the Civil War and his, which included slaveholders, had fought with the Confederate army. Kezia Waltman Nichols and Marcus LaMance’s parents lived with Lora and Marcus until they died. Lora, among many other activities, was an active campaigner against the use of alcohol. She became the local and county president of the WCTU, in what she said was the “second wettest county in the state.” Her Waltman book reported proudly that she “put on a hot campaign and took the county dry by local option.” She also worked for women’s suffrage, wrote a history of the Nichols family (her father’s), as well as historical sketches and a series of floral booklets. Marcus LaMance died in 1906, when he was 62 and she was 49. At the time of the death of Marcus, Lora wrote, “the WCTU insisted that she turn all of her energies into temperance channels. It seemed the call of  duty.” She became a national
organizer
and lecturer of the WCTU and, according to her book, “in 21
years
she has traveled over half a million miles, spoken in every state and
in every Canadian province but two, and has visited over fifty other
countries [her penciled amendment changed that to 71 countries] in
Europe, Great Britain, Asia and Africa, including Egypt and the Holy
Land. She has been in 145 local option, state-wide and
national
campaigns to banish liquor, and won in all but four . . . . She has
spoken from whisky barrels, in front of saloons, in churches,
courthouses, picture shows, air domes, on ship, from the back of
railroad engines, in factories, fire barns, capitol buildings, and in
parks and on the street. She has given over 12,500 lectures
and
sermons.” At
right is her passport application, submitted in March 1920, when she
said she was going to England and France to attend a WCTU convention
and to visit battlefields. Curiously, given the amount of travel she
said in her 1928 book that she had done in the last 21 years, she
suggested that this was the first time she had applied for a passport.Somehow, in the midst of all this activity, she found time to prepare her book on the Waltmans, which was published in 1928. In 1919, when she was 62, Lora Nichols LaMance moved to Florida to live with her daughter Lora Lee Watkins on the shores of Lake Wales. The 1930 census showed them, both widows, living together in Lake Wales, Polk County, Florida. Lora died on May 9, 1939, at the age of 82, and she was buried next to her husband Marcus LaMance in Pineville Cemetery, Pineville, McDonald County, Missouri. Lora and Marcus LaMance had a daughter, Lora Lee LaMance, born January 27, 1881, in Pineville, Missouri. On April 14, 1902, on her parents’ 22nd wedding anniversary, Lora Lee married Joseph Clarence Watkins. Joseph had been born on September 1, 1877, to Joseph Carrington Watkins and Bettie Gamble Alderson. He was a civil engineer and later a major in the first World War. “A finer man, a better man never lived,” LaMance wrote. He died on September 9, 1926. Lora Lee Watkins died in Polk County, Florida, in 1941. Lora Lee and Joseph Watkins had one child, a daughter, Loralee Watkins. She was born on August 2, 1904, in Pineville, Missouri, and graduated from Wesleyan College in Georgia. On the day before her father's death in 1926, Loralee Watkins was married to Robert Leon Johnson of Lake Wales, Florida. Loralee Watkins Johnson died on March 1, 2000, in Lake Wales, Florida. She and Robert Johnson had two children, Robert Leon Johnson, Jr., and Betty Jo Johnson. Robert Jr. inherited the Waltman family Bible and donated it to the University of North Carolina, from which he had graduated in 1952. In 2008, he was living in North Carolina. His sister, Betty Jo Johnson, married Charles Eugene Wildman. Their daughter, Kathy Johnson, contributed information about the LaMance descendants to this report. In 1919, when Lora Nichols LaMance went to live with her daughter, Lora Lee Watkins, they both joined the DAR. Memberships of both were approved by the DAR on February 26, 1919. Lora LaMance’s DAR number is 144950, and Lora Watkins’ number is 144951. Their initial DAR memberships were based not on a Waltman but on David Nichols, ancestor on Lora LaMance’s father’s side. Subsequently, the two Loras claimed DAR membership on the basis of six other people. The DAR verified the claims under these patriots: Samuel King (March 29, 1923), Captain Adam Zerfass (December 1922), Baron Conrad Waltman (October 1, 1926), Andrew Wilson, Andrew Waltman (June 26, 1937), and Captain Magnon Le Roy (King), July 2, 1936. LaMance obviously worked on genealogical research for many years, for her last DAR application was approved when she was 79, just three years before her death. LaMance’s 1926 DAR application on behalf of “Baron Conrad Waltman” cited the Pennsylvania Archives record that a man of the name Conrad Waltman was a private in the Revolutionary War. Her claim of membership said (erroneously, see above) her lineage came from Conrad through his son Andrew Waltman. In this application, she quoted from her own research and said this in turn was based on information that her mother, Kezia Waltman, learned from her grandmother, the wife of Andrew Waltman. A Critique of the LaMance Book on the Waltmans Over the years, there have been numerous criticisms of the LaMance book The House of Waltman and its Allied Families, published in 1928, even though most researchers have begun their study of the family with her work. Future work on the Waltman family might well begin with LaMance's work, but it should be considered that the book contained serious problems. Many of the issues cited here relate to people she described as children of Conrad Waltman. More specific commentary on them is provided in Part II and Part III of this work. Here are a few of the comments, corrections and claims about the LaMance book that have surfaced:
See more details of these genealogical issues in Part II of this paper. An Interesting Puzzle. A special curiosity regarding LaMance's research is that, although she presented herself as the confident expert on the Waltmans, her 1904 book on some of her other ancestors, The Greene Family and Its Branches, mentioned the Waltmans only very briefly. In this book of 394 pages, only pages 247-250 related to Waltmans and descendants (these pages can be viewed on the pdf version of the link above). Most surprisingly, these pages do not mention Conrad Waltman. Instead, they suggest that the progenitor of the Waltman family, Valentine Waltman of Germany, had a son, also called Valentine, who traveled to America with "Miss Bierly," and among their children was a John Waltman, whose "proud little wife" was "Anna Maria Marguerite (Surface)," and they had a son Valentine Waltman, who married Achsa Wilson. In short, this 1904 account omitted the immigrant Conrad Waltman who was the focus of her 1928 book, suggested that the Valentine Waltman who traveled to America was married to "Miss Bierly" (her second book said that it was the immigrant Conrad who married Katherine Bierly), and indicated that the man who married Margretta Zerfass was not Andrew Waltman but "John" Waltman. Thus, there were major errors in her account of the Waltmans in the 1904 book, exacerbated by her account in the 1928 book. A question is why her 1904 account of the Waltmans was so erroneous, when she was younger (47), presumably more energetic in genealogical research, and had more recent ties to her mother and other ancestors. Since the 1928 book attributed much of the Waltman information to Lora's mother and Lora's great-grandmother, Margretta Zerfass Waltman, why did they not provide her with the correct information as she developed her 1904 book? A possible explanation for this is provided by LaMance's descendant Kathy Johnson: I
think that the bulk
of the Greene book was written during the latter part of the nineteenth
century. Nelson
Nichols (Lora's father) died in Ohio in 1865, and around 1878 Lora and
her mother Kezia ended up in
Missouri. This was a sparsely populated area, and with the
two women in
the same house there would be ample opportunity for sharing of family
history. [Kezia Waltman Nichols died in 1895.] With the
publication of the Greene
book in 1904, the death of Lora's husband Marcus in
1906, and the marriage of her only child, there was
time to concentrate on the other side of the family. Her
travels for the
WCTU took her all over this country, providing opportunities for
research and
writing. I have newspaper clippings from 1912 to 1927, from
Miami to
Alaska, showing her speaking engagements. I have some of her
original
papers on "The Southern Watkins Family," which she wrote after her
son-in-law joined the family. There are 8 pages and she
incorporated some
of the information in the Waltman book. I imagine that family
history was
a lifelong passion as it is for so many.
As indicated earlier in this chapter, a fair amount of what was written by LaMance about the Waltmans was greeted with skepticism. She claimed she got the information from her mother, who got it from her grandmother, but LaMance seems to have been very liberal in presenting fact and opinion regarding the immigrant Conrad Waltman and his descendants. She was contested strongly on her view that Conrad had served as a private in the Revolutionary War and on her opinion that there never was a Conrad Waltman Junior. As indicated here, Margaret Wilkins presented evidence to the DAR to try to prove that LaMance’s 1928 book had many errors. More detail on this dispute is presented at the end of the next chapter. LaMance also received mixed reviews on genealogical work that she presented on other families, including the one on the Greene family. [66] One relating to the LeValley family included this comment on a website:
Another LeValley researcher published the comment that “Laura LaMance wrote a lot of speculative balderdash.” [68] Lora LaMance clearly was not deterred from her genealogical mission by any of the criticism. Her book on the Waltmans remains as the main source of information for many researchers, despite the efforts of others to point out problems. In addition to the notes and “corrections” supplied by Margaret Wilkins, the copy in the DAR library contains a pasted-in page of Errata from LaMance herself. The page noted that much new material had arrived after the first 13 chapters had been sent to the press. It said that LaMance fell and broke her right shoulder at the age of 71 and had to dictate changes to a stenographer, and some errors, presented in the errata sheet, did not get corrected. The changes, however, did not appear to affect the text relating to Valentine or Peter Waltman or their descendants. Nor was the substance changed by comments that she penciled into her copy of the book after it was published. Back to Top of Part I
Genealogical Charts of the Waltman Family Branches Back to Waltman Home Page Back to Top of Part I, Conrad Waltman Ahead to Top of Part II, Children of Conrad Waltman Ahead to Top of Part III, Peter and Joseph Waltman Lora LaMance and the House of Waltman The Battle of Fort Washington and Conrad Waltman Neil Boyer's Home Page |
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