Friday, March 9, 2018

#11: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania was founded in 1682. Named for William Penn the Elder, it was settled by the younger William Penn. The colony was a haven for Quakers and others seeking religious freedom.

A Mennonite paper maker named Wilhelm Rittenhouse arrived in Philadelphia in 1688 and settled at Germantown, where he established the first paper mill in British America.

The Evans and Pugh families immigrated from Wales in 1698 to join the Gwynedd Quaker settlement in the colony, as did the Rogers family.

The Simmons family would call Pennsylvania home on several occasions. They took refuge there briefly during the Revolution and again in the early 1790s. John Jr. would reside near Canonsburg during the late 1810s and from about 1821 until 1833.

The Schultz and Rinker families arrived from Switzerland during the 1740s and called the Philadelphia area home until leaving for Virginia.

Nicholas Crousore arrived from Germany about 1732 and made his was to western Pennsylvania. Some of his children would leave for Ohio by 1820.

The Crails, Stewarts and Berrys migrated to Pennsylvania briefly before settling in Kentucky during the 1790s.

The Prall family lived in York Co. from 1830 until the late 1860s.

John and Daniel McHugh arrived in Pennsylvania during the mid-1830s and worked in the coal mine before moving on to Illinois and Wisconsin.

John Wagner married Catherine Laubscher in Philadelphia in 1841. Both were natives of Baden. John and Catherine would join two of Catherine's brothers in going to Missouri. Catherine would die in Wisconsin, but her brothers returned home to Pennsyvania during the 1870s.

John Faucett, of Virginia, called Fayette Co. home from at least the 1770s until 1797, when he headed down the Ohio River to settle in the Ohio Territory.

Other families, like the Clarksm Millers, Hostetlers, Howells, Lakins and Thomases would call Pennsylvania home before moving west.

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