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"Startle a Guest!": A History of the Schreckengast Family: From Wittgenstein to Pennsylvaniaby Gary Schreckengost
"Schreckengast" and its derivatives is an intimidating and somewhat imposing name. It is a German name, and although no one is exactly sure where it came from or what it means, we can translate and contextualize its component parts. First off, the name appears to be a "Satzname" or nickname-a name that describes a personality trait that came out of the holocaust of the Thirty Years War. As such, in Old German, "schrecken" means "to jump because of fright" and "Gast" means "guest." Taken together, then, it literally means, "to startle guest" or "a startled guest." "Schrecken" also came to mean "to terrify" or "to scare." Taken together, then, came to mean "to scary a guest" or "a scary guest." Words like "schrecklich" or "Schreckenzeit" or "Schreck" (the ogre) all denote something that is frightening or scary. Today, "Schreckengast" would be translated to "startle a guest!"
According to Hans Bahlow's book, Dictionary of German Names (Trans. Edda Gentry. Madison, WI: 1993), "Schreck" is from the Bavarian "Schröck" which means, "someone who causes fright" (e.g., Mannschreck). The Middle High German, "schrecken" means "to jump" or "to cause to jump or startle" like a "Heuschrecke" or "hay jumper" (grasshopper). While names like Schreckhaas (scare a rabbit) or Schreckenfuchs (scare a fox) are hunter's names, names like Schreckfuß (frighten foot) would mean a jumper or juggler, and Schreckeisen (frighten iron), a blacksmith. A name like Schreckengast (scare a guest) would therefore be an funny innkeeper's name: one who startles his guests.
Others have claimed that "Schreckengast" is an "Übername zu mittelhochdeutsch schrecken auspringen machen," like a "Nagengast." In 1522 for example, Nikel Schreckengast, a Garkoch (professional cook) in Jena was listed as being a "jumping guest" because he was a famished guest (Nagengast) who made a sudden lunge for food at the table.
These name meanings, however, may not apply to our family who traces its lineage to Jeremias Schreckengast, the first known person with the family name who lived in Wingeshausen, Wittgenstein-Berleburg late in the time of the Thirty Years War. Franconia and Jena are a long way from Wittgenstein, for example, and the use of "schrecken" in Jena in 1522 is not proof of the meaning of "schrecken" in Wittgenstein in the 1630s. Also, None of the explanations takes into account what was happening in Wittgenstein, the Schreckengast Heimat (homeland) at the time Jeremias Schreckengast appears in history, when "schrecken" was a daily reality.
"Schrecken" in Wingeshausen meant something much more awful than a Gasthaus Wirt scaring a guest by saying "Boo!" For example, "Der damalige Wingeshäuser Pfarrer Anton Crawelus schreibt in der Berleburger Chronik: "...wegen des gottlosen [katholischen] Kriegesvolkes, welches ... dieses Land und also auch die Stadt Berleburg mit großem Schrecken ... unversehens überfiehl, sich selbstens ... in alle Häuser nach ihrem Willen und Wohlgefallen einlogierten, [so] daß keine Obrigkeit, keine Ordnung im geistlichen und weltlichen Regiment in Acht und Ehren gehalten, die arme Leute zu großen, unerträglichen Unkosten genötigt, geschlagen und gestoßen [wurde]. Sagte man: "Ich will bei unserm gnädigen Herrn klagen," so schlugen sie noch mehr, sagend: "Wir sind Herr im land und nicht eure Herr." Ging man aber zu underem gnädigen Herr Graf Georg ... unde klagte seine Not und begehrte Hilfe, so bekam man diese Antwort, "Ich wollt gern helfe, kann ni[ch]t helfen, sie sind gezetzt Herr im Land und ni[ch]t ich." (Albert Hoff, Wingeshausen Dorfbuch, s. 54, usw.)
English translation (supra): "Because of the Godless [i.e., Catholic] soldiers, who all of a sudden attacked this land and also the City of Berleburg, bringing much terror [mit grossem Schrecken], in all houses that they wished to be quartered. So there was no more government or order in either religious or governmental affairs. They subjugated the poor people to huge, unbearable expenses, and physically beat and mistreated the people. If a man said, 'I will report this to our merciful duke,' they beat the people even more saying, 'We are the rulers in this land, and not your duke.'"
The history of Wittgenstein continues: "Die 1630er Jahre waren für Wittgensteiner Land die schlimmste Phase des Krieges. 1630 gab es 37 Höfe in Wingeshausen. Im Jahre 1637 waren gerade einmal 23 Höfe fähig, die Kontribution für die Truppen des Rittmeisters Vogt zu zahlen. 1640 konnte die gräfliche Verwaltung nur noch 17 Höfe zur Leistung der Haferabgaben heranziehen. Die von den Soldaten verbreitete Pestepidemie von 1636 hatte sicher auch im Wittgensteiner Land gewütet; viele Höfe waren danach im wörtlichen Sinne ausgestorben. Eine Liste der Höfe, die 1637 die Kontribution für die Truppen des Rittmeisters Vogt nicht aufbringen konnten, vermittelt einen Eindruck von den kastrophalen Zuständen in Wingehausen." (Hof, s. 54)
English translation (supra): "The 1630s was the hardest phase of the war on what was left of the Wittgensteiners. Every farmstead of Aue-Wingeshausen was pillaged by the godless Catholics, and the area was laid waste. In the year 1637, 23 farms were able to pay the "contribution of oats" for the horses of Captain Vogt. By 1640, because of the occupation and horrible administration of the occupiers, only 17 farms could pay the contribution of oats. In 1636, an epidemic, spread by the occupying soldiers, raged throughout the duchy and many farms and families had become extinct. A list of the farms, which could not give the Kontribution in 1637 for the troops of the Captain Vogt grew so large that it was nothing short of a catastrophe." (Hof, p. 54)
The troops of Johann Tserclaes, Count Tilly, who occupied Wittgenstein, for example, were literally "Schreckengästern." Today in English one would call them "terroristic or scary visitors." Armies did not consist of just soldiers, either. According to noted Thirty Years War historians C. V. Wedgwood and Geoffrey Parker: "In Tilly's army then counted five servants for each lieutenant and up to eighteen for a colonel. The gunmen were hired mechanics, who with their master gunners, grooms for their huge horse teams, wives and servants, formed a compact unit, separate from, yet essential to, the army. Peasant girls dragged from plundered farms, children kidnapped for ransom and forgotten, hawkers, tricksters, quacks, and vagabonds swelled their ranks. In the army six or seven children were born in a week. The lords had a responsibility to all of these, which he must fulfill or let loose a disorder as dangerous to him as to the country in which they are quartered. All that they have, whether it be arms or apparel, weareth, wasteth, and breaketh. If they must buy more they must have money, and if men have it not to give, they take it where they find it. They spare no person of what quality so ever to be, respect no place how holy so ever, neither churches, altar, tombs, sepulchers nor the dead bodies that lie in them."
The troops of Johann Tserclaes, Count Tilly, who occupied Wittgenstein, for example, were literally "Schreckengästern." Today in English one would call them "terrorist visitors." Armies did not consist of just soldiers, either. According to noted Thirty Years War historians C. V. Wedgwood and Geoffrey Parker: "In Tilly's army then counted five servants for each lieutenant and up to eighteen for a colonel. The gunmen were hired mechanics, who with their master gunners, grooms for their huge horse teams, wives and servants, formed a compact unit, separate from, yet essential to, the army. Peasant girls dragged from plundered farms, children kidnapped for ransom and forgotten, hawkers, tricksters, quacks, and vagabonds swelled their ranks. In the army six or seven children were born in a week. The lords had a responsibility to all of these, which he must fulfill or let loose a disorder as dangerous to him as to the country in which they are quartered. All that they have, whether it be arms or apparel, weareth, wasteth, and breaketh. If they must buy more they must have money, and if men have it not to give, they take it where they find it. They spare no person of what quality so ever to be, respect no place how holy so ever, neither churches, altar, tombs, sepulchers nor the dead bodies that lie in them."
In short, the family name "Schreckengast" probably means a "scary guest" or "to startle a guest": a name that came out of the holocaust of the Thirty Years War.
The first recorded "Schreckengast" (sometimes listed as "Schreckegast") and the beginning of our story is one Jeremias Schreckengast who was from the village of Wingeshausen, Duchy of Berleburg-Wittgenstein, in the rugged, wooded mountains of the "Sauerland" western Germany, during the mid-1600s, during and just after the Thirty Years War had laid waste to much of the country.
Those who came to America have since morphed the name into "Schreckengost," "Schrecengost," "Schrecongost," "Shrekengast," etc. However the name is spelled, they're all related to Jeremias Schreckengast from Wingeshausen, Germany.
The Reverend Ned Benson, who wrote, "A Korngiebel-Schreckengast Story" believes the following about our family name: "With the caution of this truth in mind, here is the story of the name "Schreckengast" I find filled with Meaning-truth (i.e., geschichtliche Wahrheit, also called Mythological Truth):
His biological parents and all bio-kin perished during the occupation of Berleburg/Wittgenstein by Capt. Vogt's cavalry, part of Tilly's Imperial Army, which occupied the area from 1623 on. "Die schlimmste Phase des Krieges" was the 1630s.
The extinction of this family was complete-from the heavy oats taxes, pillaging, plunder, and Pestepidemie.
The child may have been the "unschuldig Kind" living with Fiegen Andreas who was left to Charity (um die Almosen gehet).
The nameless child may have lived in the unofficial orphanage in Andreas Koch's Hof ("Lucas", later "Papiers").
His birth was probably 1636-1638. There was no resident pastor during this period and church records, if they were kept, have not survived. When the child was baptized - as surely the chid would have been, pastor or no pastor, regardless of the absence of biological family-the people of the village had to give the child a name.
For a Taufname they chose "Jeremias." Jeremias was the prophet who announced God's judgment on Judah/Jerusalem for the people's sins, and who foretold both the total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, but also the preservation of a remnant. I've read enough sermons from the era to know this was how a Pfarrer in Berleburg-Wingeshausen and the theologians in Marburg interpreted the 30 Years War.
The Taufname "Jeremias" was to point to God's judgment, esp. on the "shepherds" who were appointed to look after the flock but were unable or unwilling to do so. Crawelius: "daß keine Obrigkeit, keine Ordnung im geistlichen und weltlichen Regiment in Acht und Ehren gehalten, die arme Leute zu großen, unerträglichen Unkosten genötigt, geschlagen und gestoßen [wurde]. Sagte man: " Ich will bei unserm gnädigen Herrn klagen," so schlugen sie noch mehr, sagend: "Wir sind Herr im land und nicht eure Herr." Ging man aber zu underem gnädigen Herr Graf Georg ... unde klagte seine Not und begehrte Hilfe, so bekam man diese Antwort, "Ich wollt gern helfe, kann ni[ch]t helfen, sie sind getzt Herr im Land und ni[ch]t ich."
This Taufname also pointed the people toward their only hope: in God. Psalm 121:1-2, which is carved over the entry of Kunze Hof by Jeremias' grandson Johannes, built about 100 years after Jeremias' birth: "Ich hebe meine Augen auf zu den Bergen von welchen mir Hülfe komt vom Herrn." With Jeremiah 23:1-8 and Jeremiah 31 this would have been the scripture texts for the child's baptism.
Why did they not give the child the Taufname "Jesus"? This would have been sinfully presumptuous! Even heretical. Reformed theology does not admit of such a close association with a Christ figure, unlike Italian/Spanish Catholic theology. "Jeremias" however is the most "Christ-like" person in the Old Testament, and arguably the most important of the prophets for Jesus' self-understanding.
It is significant that no other child born in Wingehausen in the 1630-1650 period was given the Taufname "Jeremias," and neither Jeremias nor any of his descendants passed this Taufname to any descendant. Only generations later would the name used again, by emigrant descendants of Jeremias in America: Jeremiah Schrecengost, born 15 Dec 1835 in Armstrong Co, PA, and Jeremiah C. Schrecengost, born 1849 in Pennsylvania.
Feigen Andrea was "a ramshackle old man" (the adjective "bäufallig" in the sense of "frail"), ("ein alt baufällig Mann, im Sinne von "gebrechlich" wird häufig in der Quellen verwendet"), who soon perished. The family was extinct (ausgestorben). So what shall be the child's Familienname?
Because these were righteous Reformiertevolkes, not "gottlosen [Kriegesvolkes] welches ... dieses Land und also auch die Stadt Berleburg mit großem Schrecken ... unvesehens überfiehl, sich selbstens ... in alle Häuser," the people chose to create a new Familienname for the child which, coupled with his Taufname, would represent for the villagers forever both God's judgment and their hope in God to preserve them in and through the worst times of God's holy judgment: Schreckengast.
In a way the child named Jeremias Schreckengast would be for them a parabolic man, in whose very persona was carried the most important story of their village: The shepherd God appointed to care for us failed us, we were almost destroyed; but unlike the godless who attacked us, (ein Gast, der Schrecken verbreitet) we responded with God's mercy to what they had inflicted on us.
Eventually the child came to live with the Stremmel family in Reitzen Hof. The Stremmel family was clearly one of the most, if not the most, influential, successful, powerful, and highly regarded of the Wingeshausen families. They would have been a natural choice of the village for the family to raise Jeremias Schreckengast.
In due course, Jeremias married Ann Elisabeth, Johannes Stremmel's second daughter. Because the oldest daughter, Elisabeth, married to Kaspar Fischer, died childless (as did Kaspar's second wife, Johannes Stremmel's third daughter, Gertraud), Jeremias Schreckengast became Hausherr of Reitzen.
So also in due course Jeremias Schreckengast became one of the (two) Kirchenmeistern of the village church.
And in 1709 when the new Pfarrhaus was built by the Fachwerkmeister Herman Riedesel, Jeremias Schreckengast and Hans Georg Wetter were the Kirchenmeistern was dedicated 6 March 1706.
The Familienname "Andreas" is extinct (ausgestorben) despite the surviving "unschuldig Kind," possibly a grandchild of Andreas, because the unnamed child was no longer an "Andreas" but the first "Schreckengast", Taufname "Jeremias".
Berleburg was part of the Graftschaft von Sayn-Berleburg-Wittgenstein-Homburg, which were tiny German-speaking Lutheran-Reformed duchies in the Holy Roman Empire that were loosely united under one family of landlords, the Wittgensteins. Although each part, Sayn, Berleburg, Wittgenstein, and Homburg, were governed as separate entities, they were collectively called the Duchy of Wittgenstein when dealing with the empire writ large. Sayn was a Graftschaft (medium duchy) and Homburg was a Herrnschaft (small duchy) south of Berleburg, near the imperial city of Frankfurt and were a stand alones, meaning that they were not connected to any of the others. Berleburg and Wittgenstein, however, were both Graftschafts and were connected to each other, Berleburg becoming the "capital" of Sayn-Berleburg-Wittgenstein-Homburg. Berleburg-Wittgenstein were therefore the heart of the confederated duchy. (Locals call the area "Wittgeschtee." "Wit" means "white" and "Stein" means "stone.") The Duchies of Berleburg-Wittgenstein were nestled in the forested mountains between the powerful Herzogthum Westfalen to the north, the Graftschaft von Nassau to the west, and the Graftschaft von Hesse (Hessia) to the south and east.
The capital of Wittgenstein was Berleburg or "Bear Town." The town originally started as a Benedictine Monastery along the Odeborn and Eder Rivers and then slowly grew after 1506 as the residence for the Count of Sayn-Berleburg-Wittgenstein (SBW). Because the area was so out of the way-an inland European wilderness-the duke offered very liberal terms to peasants if they would come to his duchy, pay his relatively low rent, and build his province. Not to be opaque, but the area was, and is still, basically known as the "West Virginia of Germany." The Schreckengasts who moved into the mountains of Pennsylvania were therefore not treading on unfamiliar ground.
One visitor described the people of the area as being "Stout and strongly built, which matched their country that was rough and wild, abounding in woods and hills…the air was cold but wholesome, the food not luxurious but nourishing."
In fact, the Brothers Grimm, the collectors/authors of such tales as Hansel und Gretel, Schneewitchen (Snow White), Cinderella, Rotkäpchen (Little Red Riding Hood), and Rumplestilskin, were from the wooded hills of Hesse.
The area from which Berleburg arose was never a part of the Roman Empire. It was a mountainous, primeval forest, in which only a few German-speaking people-the recluses-occupied. After 476 and the fall of Rome, German culture and political systems reasserted themselves across Western Europe. The strongest Germanic tribe, the Franks, founded modern day Belgium and northern France; other tribes, such as the Angles and Saxons, would dominate other areas, such as northern Germany and Celtic Britain. During the 800s, the Frankish King Karl (Charles) expanded his holdings from modern-day Belgium and northern France to the Elbe River in the east, the Atlantic in the west, and to the Mediterranean and to Rome in the south (being crowned by the Pope), founding what has become known as the "Holy Roman Empire." This man is now known as Karl der Grosse (Charles the Great) or Charlemagne.
During the 900s, Otto I, one of Charlemagne's heirs, subdivided the empire (or Reich) into "Herzogthums" or "Level 1 Duchies." Each "Herzog" or grand duke was allowed to govern his Herzogthum as he pleased as long as he paid the emperor his due and followed a few simple guidelines. This is called feudalism. Each Herzog then further subdivided his duchy into: Fuerstenthums (Level 2 Duchies) Erzogthums (Level 3 Duchies), Graftshafts (Level 4 Duchies), and Herrenschafts (Level 5 Duchies). The level of duchy, Level 1 being the highest, was determined by its size, wealth, and location. By the 1200s, some Herzogs were elevated to "Kurfuersts" or "Elector Princes." Who chose the emperor through election. The most famous of these were the Electors of Palatine, Brandenburg, and the Arch Bishop of Mainz. The area that became Berleburg, in the forested mountains where the rivers Lahn, Sieg, and Eder emanate, was part of the Graftshaft von Wittgenstein, governed by Graf Siegfried von Wittgenstein, in the name of the Herzog von Franken.
By 1322, the Wittgensteins began to build the castle and town called Berleburg, and farming villages, such as Aue and Wingeshausen, were built to service the town. By, 1500, Berleburg-Wittgenstein was an independent duchy, answerable only to the emperor, as by this time the centrifugal forces of the empire had reached its apogee. This made the empire a veritable "patchwork quilt" of disparate duchies and kingdoms, an entity that the French philosoph Voltaire exclaimed, "the Holy Roman Empire is neither holy, Roman, nor an empire."
By 1600, although still surrounded by a virtual wilderness, the Duchy of Berleburg boasted a rococo castle, a Reformed church, a stone bridge that traversed the Odeborn, and several gray stone and timbered structures that were enclosed by a town wall to keep out the bears, boars, and other wild things that came down from the mountains. As one took the road south out of town, he would hit the west flowing Eder River. If he turned left or southeast, he would head up the headwaters of the Eder, over a mountain to the border with Hesse, and on to the university town of Marburg. If he turned right or west, he would walk down the river a few kilometers to the farming villages of Berghausen, Aue, Wingeshausen, Birkelbach, Birkefehl, and Womelsdorf-the heart of the duchy. It was in these places that the story of the Schreckengast family unfolds, specifically in Aue-Wingeshausen.
The name "Wingeshausen," Jeremias's village, is derived from "wenige Häuser," or "few houses." After a catastrophic fire ravaged the village in 1856, for example, destroying 18 houses and a barn, the local newspaper, Das Siegener Intelligenz-Blatt, wrote on 21 Oct 1856: "Hülfe! Ein Brandunglück hat das Dorf Wingeshausen in Wittgensteiner Lande auf den Ursprung seines Names Wenigeshausen (= wenige Häuser) im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes zurückführt. (Help! An unfortunate fire has returned the village of Wingeshausen in Wittgenstein to the origin of its name Few Houses.)"
Sayn was a Graftschaft (medium duchy) and Homburg was a Herrnschaft (small duchy) along the Rhine River south of Köln and were stand alones, meaning that they were not connected to any of the others. Berleburg and Wittgenstein were both Graftschafts and were connected to each other, the town of Berleburg becoming the "capital" of Sayn-Berleburg-Wittgenstein-Homburg as it was centrally located. Berleburg was nestled in the forested mountains between the Herzogthum von Westfalen to the north, the Graftschaft von Nassau to the west, and the Landgraftschaften (medium duchies) of Hessen-Darmstadt and Hessen-Kassel to the south and east.
Thirty Years War
Thirty Years War was fought between 1618 and 1648, principally on the territory of today's Germany, and involved most of the major European continental powers. Although it was ostensibly a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the rivalry between the Habsburg dynasty and other powers was a more central motive, as shown by the fact that Catholic France under the de facto rule of Cardinal Richelieu supported the Protestant side in order to weaken the Habsburgs, thereby furthering France's position as the pre-eminent European power. This increased the France-Habsburg rivalry which led later to direct war between France and Spain.
During the war, Germany's population was reduced by 30% on average; in the territory of Brandenburg, the losses had amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two thirds of the population died. Germany's male population was reduced by almost half. The population of the Czech lands declined by a third. The Swedish armies alone destroyed 2,000 castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns in Germany, one-third of all German towns.
The major impact of the Thirty Years' War, in which mercenary armies were extensively used, was the devastation of entire regions scavenged bare by the foraging armies. Episodes of widespread famine and disease (a starving body has little resistance to illnesses) devastated the population of the German states and, to a lesser extent, the Low Countries and Italy, while bankrupting many of the powers involved. The war may have lasted for 30 years, but the conflicts that triggered it continued unresolved for a much longer time. The war ended with the Treaty of Münster, a part of the wider Peace of Westphalia.
For the average German-speaking peasant, though, politics and religion didn't matter much when marauding armies entered their town or village. This war was in fact so bad, that even the rugged wooded mountains of the Sauerland failed to protect its reclusive inhabitants. In 1623, for example, "Godless Catholic troops of the Emperor's army under [the infamous Johann Tzerclaes] Count of Tilly, occupied the Duchies Berleburg-Wittgenstein." Needless to say, Tilly's troops didn't simply occupy anything. They pillaged, raped, and burned entire provinces into submission.
The troops of Johann Tserclaes, Count Tilly, who occupied Wittgenstein, for example, were literally "Schreckengästern." Today in English one would call them "terrorist visitors." Armies did not consist of just soldiers, either. According to noted Thirty Years War historians C. V. Wedgwood and Geoffrey Parker: "In Tilly's army then counted five servants for each lieutenant and up to eighteen for a colonel. The gunmen were hired mechanics, who with their master gunners, grooms for their huge horse teams, wives and servants, formed a compact unit, separate from, yet essential to, the army. Peasant girls dragged from plundered farms, children kidnapped for ransom and forgotten, hawkers, tricksters, quacks, and vagabonds swelled their ranks. In the army six or seven children were born in a week. The lords had a responsibility to all of these, which he must fulfill or let loose a disorder as dangerous to him as to the country in which they are quartered. All that they have, whether it be arms or apparel, weareth, wasteth, and breaketh. If they must buy more they must have money, and if men have it not to give, they take it where they find it. They spare no person of what quality so ever to be, respect no place how holy so ever, neither churches, altar, tombs, sepulchers nor the dead bodies that lie in them."
There was a favorite saying among the troops, "... each soldier needs three peasants; one to furnish food and shelter; one to furnish a wife; and, one to take his place in Hell." In the beginning soldiers were permitted to wear what they wished. There were some attempts to create uniforms, however clothes soon wore out and require replacement by items plundered or stripped from the dead. Regiments were identified by their "colors," a six foot regimental standard. Some units were identified by wearing a colored band, or a green twig on their hats. In many battles, colors won or lost were the only tangible measure of success or failure. Few commanders seem to have had much time for their wounded. There seldom was any provision of medical care for the sick, nor any military hospitals or pensions for the wounded.
A troop (about 50 men) of imperial cavalry under Captain Vogt made Aue-Wingeshausen its home. Pfarrer (Pastor) Antonius Grawelius of Wingeshausen's Reformed Church wrote, "Because of the Godless [i.e., Catholic] soldiers, who all of a sudden attacked this land and also the City of Berleburg, bringing much terror [mit grossem Schrecken], in all houses that they wished to be quartered. So there was no more government or order in either religious or governmental affairs. They subjugated the poor people to huge, unbearable expenses, and physically beat and mistreated the people. If a man said, 'I will report this to our merciful duke,' they beat the people even more saying, 'We are the rulers in this land, and not your duke.'"
So at least the province wasn't totally burned to the ground-but it was horribly exploited and laid waste-used up. It was like a giant motorcycle gang of criminals showed up and took over, killing all the cops. And because the people themselves were forbidden to form a militia, and the duchy had no army of its own, all were generally defenseless to these mercenary brigands. When Duke George of Wittgenstein was confronted by his people to cast out the invaders he said, "Ich wollte gern helfen, aber kann nit helfen, Sie sind jetzt Herr im Land und nit ich" (I would like to help, but [I] can not to help, They are now Lord of the Land and not I."
Pastor Grawelius sadly continues, "And although our duke was 'subject,' he invited the war leaders in as his guests, giving them great honors, treasure, beautiful horses, with all their accoutrements, it did not reduce the sufferings of the common people. They still had to work day and night to provide horse fodder, calves, cows, sheep, lambs, mutton, chickens, eggs, butter, salt, and lard. The people had to work hard and run around to provide these things, to the point that their own stocks of food were reduced and began to weaken them in doing their own work in their households and fields."
Things waxed and waned over the next several years until the 1628, which was "hardest phase of the war" on what was left of the Wittgensteiners. This time, "every farmstead" of Aue-Wingeshausen was pillaged by the "godless Catholics," and the area was laid waste. The good pastor continues, "In 1628 the demands of the war became worse and worse throughout this year and continually increased. It was so bad that everyone everywhere tried to find money and could not find anywhere to borrow any. Most of the people had to harvest their crops in order to sell them in Sauerland [to the north] for a very low sum of money and order to have money for the riders [i.e., enemy cavalry led by a 'Captain Vogt']."
"Die 1630er Jahre waren für Wittgensteiner Land die schlimmste Phase des Krieges. 1630 gab es 37 Höfe in Wingeshausen. Im Jahre 1637 waren gerade einmal 23 Höfe fähig, die Kontribution für die Truppen des Rittmeisters Vogt zu zahlen. 1640 konnte die gräfliche Verwaltung nur noch 17 Höfe zur Leistung der Haferabgaben heranziehen. Die von den Soldaten verbreitete Pestepidemie von 1636 hatte sicher auch im Wittgensteiner Land gewütet; viele Höfe waren danach im wörtlichen Sinne ausgestorben. Eine Liste der Höfe, die 1637 die Kontribution für die Truppen des Rittmeisters Vogt nicht aufbringen konnten, vermittelt einen Eindruck von den kastrophalen Zuständen in Wingehausen." (Hof, 54)
English translation (supra): "The 1630s was the hardest phase of the war on what was left of the Wittgensteiners. Every farmstead of Aue-Wingeshausen was pillaged by the godless Catholics, and the area was laid waste. In the year 1637, 23 farms were able to pay the "contribution of oats" for the horses of Captain Vogt. By 1640, because of the occupation and horrible administration of the occupiers, only 17 farms could pay the contribution of oats. In 1636, an epidemic, spread by the occupying soldiers, raged throughout the duchy and many farms and families had become extinct. A list of the farms, which could not give the Kontribution in 1637 for the troops of the Captain Vogt grew so large that it was nothing short of a catastrophe." (Hof, 54)
Aue-Wingeshausen historian Albert Hof writes, "This is how it was for the populace of Berleburg during the entire Thirty Years War. No battles or sieges, only constant occupation and quartering of foreign troops, which caused a catastrophic situation in the land. The economy and local government collapsed. The count and his officials were no longer rulers of the land, instead it was warring officers and their soldiers, regardless of whether they were Catholic 'enemies' or Protestant 'friends.' The populace always had to house and supply the invaders. Also, again and again, it came down to regular plundering by the invasion forces. The little bit of harvested goods that the farmers still had, they had to sell most of it, in order to pay the "taxes" that were imposed upon them by the soldiers. Ultimately, the farmers were forced to borrow bread and seed grain from Hesse and thus go into debt." In short, it was a "Schreckezeit"-a "Time of Terror."
In 1648, with the Treaty of Westphalia, the war officially ended and each duchy was allowed to go with the religion of the occupying duke (cujus regio ejus religio). By in large, northern German states remained either Lutheran or Reformed and southern German states (except the Swiss Cantons, which were Reformed) remained Catholic. The Duke of SBW was Reformed and as per the treaty, "as goes the duke, goes the duchy," Berleburg remained a Reformed state. In 1649, Wingeshausen received a new pastor, Michael Voelpelius, who served until 1671.
Jeremias Schreckengast
The origins of Jeremias Schreckengast, the first recorded Schreckengast of Wittgenstein, is unknown. He could have been an orphan whose parents were murdered by the army of Count Tilly during the war; or he could have been the child of a mother raped by a soldier, or an orphan whose mother died in the Pestepidemie (epidemic). Why would they give a child such a "Schreckenname" (scary/horrible name)? Maybe so that the people of Wingehausen would never forget what "des gottlosen [katholischen] Kriegesvolkes" did to them? He could have also been an emigrant from Franconia-a refugee from the war who wanted to start over. Unfortunately, we'll never know as all the records of the time were destroyed. In my opinion, Jeremias was a orphan from the war who chose to settle in Wittgenstein and he was given the name "Schreckengast" to commemorate the time of his arrival.
The Reverend Ned Benson, a Schreckengast descendent who wrote, "A Korngiebel-Schreckengast Story" believes the following about our family name: "With the caution of this truth in mind, here is the story of the name "Schreckengast" I find filled with Meaning-truth (i.e., geschichtliche Wahrheit, also called Mythological Truth):
Jeremias' biological parents and all bio-kin perished during the occupation of Berleburg/Wittgenstein by Capt. Vogt's cavalry, part of Tilly's Imperial Army, which occupied the area from 1623 on. "Die schlimmste Phase des Krieges" was the 1630s.
The extinction of this family was complete-from the heavy oats taxes, pillaging, plunder, and Pestepidemie.
The child may have been the "unschuldig Kind" living with Fiegen Andreas who was left to Charity (um die Almosen gehet).
The nameless child may have lived in the unofficial orphanage in Andreas Koch's Hof ("Lucas", later "Papiers").
His birth was probably 1636-1638. There was no resident pastor during this period and church records, if they were kept, have not survived. When the child was baptized - as surely the chid would have been, pastor or no pastor, regardless of the absence of biological family - the people of the village had to give the child a name.
For a Taufname they chose "Jeremias." Jeremias was the prophet who announced God's judgment on Judah/Jerusalem for the people's sins, and who foretold both the total destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, but also the preservation of a remnant. I've read enough sermons from the era to know this was how a Pfarrer in Berleburg-Wingeshausen and the theologians in Marburg interpreted the 30 Years War.
The Taufname "Jeremias" was to point to God's judgment, esp. on the "shepherds" who were appointed to look after the flock but were unable or unwilling to do so. Crawelius: "daß keine Obrigkeit, keine Ordnung im geistlichen und weltlichen Regiment in Acht und Ehren gehalten, die arme Leute zu großen, unerträglichen Unkosten genötigt, geschlagen und gestoßen [wurde]. Sagte man: " Ich will bei unserm gnädigen Herrn klagen," so schlugen sie noch mehr, sagend: "Wir sind Herr im land und nicht eure Herr." Ging man aber zu underem gnädigen Herr Graf Georg ... unde klagte seine Not und begehrte Hilfe, so bekam man diese Antwort, "Ich wollt gern helfe, kann ni[ch]t helfen, sie sind getzt Herr im Land und ni[ch]t ich."
This Taufname also pointed the people toward their only hope: in God. Psalm 121:1-2, which is carved over the entry of Kunze Hof by Jeremias' grandson Johannes, built about 100 years after Jeremias' birth: "Ich hebe meine Augen auf zu den Bergen von welchen mir Hülfe komt vom Herrn." With Jeremiah 23:1-8 and Jeremiah 31 this would have been the scripture texts for the child's baptism.
Why did they not give the child the Taufname "Jesus"? This would have been sinfully presumptuous! Even heretical. Reformed theology does not admit of such a close association with a Christ figure, unlike Italian/Spanish Catholic theology. "Jeremias" however is the most "Christ-like" person in the Old Testament, and arguably the most important of the prophets for Jesus' self-understanding.
It is significant that no other child born in Wingehausen in the 1630-1650 period was given the Taufname "Jeremias," and neither Jeremias nor any of his descendants passed this Taufname to any descendant. Only generations later would the name used again, by emigrant descendants of Jeremias in America: Jeremiah Schrecengost, born 15 Dec 1835 in Armstrong Co, PA, and Jeremiah C. Schrecengost, born 1849 in Pennsylvania.
Feigen Andrea was "a ramshackle old man" (the adjective "bäufallig" in the sense of "frail"), ("ein alt baufällig Mann, im Sinne von "gebrechlich" wird häufig in der Quellen verwendet"), who soon perished. The family was extinct (ausgestorben). So what shall be the child's Familienname?
Because these were righteous Reformiertevolkes, not "gottlosen [Kriegesvolkes] welches ... dieses Land und also auch die Stadt Berleburg mit großem Schrecken ... unvesehens überfiehl, sich selbstens ... in alle Häuser," the people chose to create a new Familienname for the child which, coupled with his Taufname, would represent for the villagers forever both God's judgment and their hope in God to preserve them in and through the worst times of God's holy judgment: Schreckengast.
In a way the child named Jeremias Schreckengast would be for them a parabolic man, in whose very persona was carried the most important story of their village: The shepherd God appointed to care for us failed us, we were almost destroyed; but unlike the godless who attacked us, (ein Gast, der Schrecken verbreitet) we responded with God's mercy to what they had inflicted on us.
Eventually the child came to live with the Stremmel family in Reitzen Hof. The Stremmel family was clearly one of the most, if not the most, influential, successful, powerful, and highly regarded of the Wingeshausen families. They would have been a natural choice of the village for the family to raise Jeremias Schreckengast.
In due course, Jeremias married Ann Elisabeth, Johannes Stremmel's second daughter. Because the oldest daughter, Elisabeth, married to Kaspar Fischer, died childless (as did Kaspar's second wife, Johannes Stremmel's third daughter, Gertraud), Jeremias Schreckengast became Hausherr of Reitzen.
So also in due course Jeremias Schreckengast became one of the (two) Kirchenmeistern of the village church.
And in 1709 when the new Pfarrhaus was built by the Fachwerkmeister Herman Riedesel, Jeremias Schreckengast and Hans Georg Wetter were the Kirchenmeistern was dedicated 6 March 1706.
The Familienname "Andreas" is extinct (ausgestorben) despite the surviving "unschuldig Kind", possibly a grandchild of Andreas, because the unnamed child was no longer an "Andreas" but the first "Schreckengast", Taufname "Jeremias".
What we do know that is that in 1669, Jeremias Schreckengast married Anna Elisabeth Stremmel, the daughter Johannes Stremmel, the Hausherr of "Reitzenhaus" in Wingeshausen. And before long, Jeremias himself became the Hausherr of "Reitzenhaus" and he and Elisabeth reared four children: Johann Görges (1669), Johann Kaspar (1672), Johann Heinrich (1681-the date Pennsylvania was split away from New York), and Anna Maria Schreckengast (1683).
"Reitzenhaus" (built in 1575), was on the northern edge of Wingeshausen, behind the Kappel Grick. The Graff von Wittgenstein legally owned all of the land of the duchy and everything that sat on it including the houses (or farmsteads that were called Hofs). Each Hof had a name, like "Reitzenhaus," and the Hausherr had to pay rent or a tax to the duke or else he would be evicted from the premises. Generally, houses were passed down from one family member to another.
The oldest official record we currently have of a Schreckengast is from June 29, 1681, which is the baptismal record of Jeremias's and Anna's last child, Johann Heinrich. It is on the third page of the earliest extant Wingeshausen church book, Microfilm #0804044. Translated it says: "Jeremias Schreckengast, a young son was baptized (taufe lasze). Godparents were (gevatters gewesen) Johann Henrich Fischer of Artzes and Susanna Helena Dobrin. [The child is not specifically given a name in the record; presumably the child was named after the Godparent of the same sex, in this case Johann Heinrich]."
In 1695, Jeremias paid 60 Rädergulden to the church for himself and 10 Rädergulden for his eldest son, Görges, in 1702. This made them vested members of the parish and sometime between this date and 1706, Jeremias became the trusted caretaker/council member of the church as in 1706, the congregation and the province completed the parsonage for Wingeshausen's Church. Pastor Georg Ludwig Duelken was the presiding minister. On the completed parsonage it states:"Jeremias Schreckengast und Hans Georg Wetter, Kirchmeistern. Hermanus Riedesel, Baumeister anno 1706, den 6. Maerz" (Jeremiah Schreckegast and Hans George Wetter, Church Masters. Herman Riedesel, building master in the year of our lord, 6 March, 1706)."
In 1699, Görges, aged 29, married Anna Elisabeth Wetter, daughter of Engelbert Wetter (1647) of Aue (pronounced Ow-ah). Görges moved into Wetter's house and before long, he became its Hausherr and from that day until it was absorbed by other structures in the 1830s, it was known as "Görgeshaus." Concurrently, Jeremias's third son, Heinrich, became the Hausherr of "Reitzenhaus" and his son, Johann Görges Schreckengast, became its Hausherr until he too moved to Pennsylvania to join his cousins who had left in 1764. Therefore, Schreckegasts were Hausherren of two farmsteads (or Hofs) in Aue-Wingeshausen during the 18th Century.
Johann Görges Schreckegast (b. 1669) of "Reitzenhaus" became the Hausherr of "Görgeshaus" in the 1650s with his marriage to Engelbert Wetter's daughter, Anna Elisabeth. His son, Johann Jost (1703), grandson, Johann Jost (1724), and great-grandson Görges Heinrich Schreckengast were also its Hausherrs.
Görges and his wife Elisabeth of Aue reared six children in "Görgeshaus": Anna Maria (1699), Hans Georg (1702), Johann Jost (Dec. 6, 1703), Anna Elisabeth (1705), Anna Katharina (1707), and Anna Elisabeth Schreckegast (1709). Elisabeth (1709) was so weak that she had to be baptized in the house. Before long, however, both mother and child were dead.
With five children, Görges quickly looked for a new wife. Within a year, he was again married, this time to Anna Elisabeth Pithan of Birkefehl, daughter of Johann Jost Pithan (1635) on December 29, 1710 and would rear five more children (total of eleven): Anna Gertrand (1711), Georg Heinrich (1713), Christine Elisabeth (1715), Johann Jakob (1717), and Johann Jost (1726).
Although the Schreckengasts worked hard on their farms, they had to do other things to help make ends meet. Görges (1669) and the boys, for example, apparently trapped and hunted game in the local forests and fished in the local creeks (which is amazing that peasants were actually allowed to hunt and own firearms-in most other duchies only the lords were allowed to hunt and tightly restricted gun ownership). We know this not only from talking to Berleburger historians, but also from the duchy records themselves which use terms such as, "hunter," "shot," "hunting," and "deer." In fact, in 1748, Johann Heinrich Schreckengast was listed in the duchy records for not reporting game that he acquired: "On December 16, 1748, Johann Heinrich Schreckengast and his brother-in-law were accused of poaching [Rotdieberei] from the mountains." He was subsequently fined a small sum and forgiven because of "memory loss due to age." The Schreckengasts were also known as gunsmiths.
In 1724, Görges's second son, Johann Jost (b. 1703) "fell in love" with Anna Catharine Schmidt, daughter of Heinrich Schmidt (1654) who lived in "Kämmershaus" in Birkefehl, which was over the mountain south of Aue, tucked into a valley. On November 8, 1724, Anna gave birth to a son, at the time, "illegitimate," or "uneheliche" and he was later named Johann Jost Schrecekengast of "Kämmershaus."
"Johann Jost, ein uneheliche Sohn Anna Catharina, Johann Henrich Schmieds zu Birkenfehl eheliche Tochter, ist den 8 9bris (Nov) geboren und 9 ejgd: getauft worden. Gottaltern waren Johann Jost Griesern (?) Einwohners auf des ___; und Anna Gertraud, Johannes Kemmers zu Birkenfehl eheliche Hausfrau. ____ zum hatten angegeben Johann Jost Schreckegast weÿl Johann Görg Schreckengast aus der ____ nachgelaseners eheliche Sohn ___ ___ Aue mit ihr ___ ___ copulieren ........ das ... Kind tauft und ..... aus einen Tag sind gefalten worden."
English translation (supra): "Johann Jost, an illegitimate son of Anna Catharina, legitimate daughter of Johann Henrich Schmied of Birkenfehl, born the 8th of November and on the 9th of the same month (ejgd) baptized. Godparents Johann Jost Griesern (Kriesern?), inhabitant of ____; and Anna Gertrud, wife of Johannes Kemmers of Birkenfehl. Johann Görg Schreckengast of Aue, surviving legitimate son of the late (weÿl=weiland) Johann Jost Schreckegast, father of the child baptized, was married to her one the same day.]"(This birth is not recorded at all in the normal sequence of 1724 births; in sequence it would be birth #514. Apparently illegitimate births were recorded separately. This is also the only record of their marriage; it is not recorded in the normal sequence of 1724 marriages.) Kirchengemeinde Birkelbach, Kirchenkreis Wittgenstein: Westfalen; Microfilm #0591425,1666 - 1800;1724, 8th sheet on film.
Once Jost and Anna were married at the Birkefehl Church "eleven days later," Johann Jost the younger was baptized in the Birkefehl Church and Jost (b. 1703) moved his new wife and child into Görgeshaus with his father and eventually became its Hausherr, taking over for George (b. 1669).
In Aue, Johann Jost and Catharine reared three more children: Elisabeth Magdalena (1728), and the twins, Christine Elisabeth and Katharine Philippine Schreckengast (1731). Anna died while giving birth to the twins (Elisabeth later died three years later in 1734). Like his father before him, Jost (b. 1703) remarried a few years later. His second wife, Maria Katharina Rath, bore him six more children: Georg Heinrich (1734), Jost Heinrich (1735), Johann Georg (1737), Johann Heinrich (1739), Anna Maria (1741), and Johannes Schreckegast (1744).
In 1742, while the Schreckengasts were becoming one of the more successful peasant families in Aue-Wingeshausen at Görgeshaus and Reitzenhaus, Görges died. In 1749, his son, Johann Jost (b. 1703) died, and Görgeshaus was passed to the eldest son, Johann Jost (b. 1724), the first Schreckengost who would eventually emigrate to America in 1764 with his family.
With Görgeshaus in hand, Han Jost (b. 1724), at the age of 25, proposed to Katharina Elisabeth Born of Aue. She accepted and both were married in Wingeshausen. Jost and Elisabeth would rear three boys in Görgeshaus: Johann Heinrich (July 24, 1751), Georg Heinrich (January 15, 1758), and Johann Rothger (changed to "Conrad" in America) (January 9, 1761). The Wingeshausen Church records state: "24 July, 1751: Joh. Jost Schreckengast son baptized. Witnesses were: Joh. Henrich Born, Anna Gerdrauth, Joh. Deisbachs wife, Anna Catharine Honighausen. Child: Joh. Henrich"; "22 Jan. 1758: Joh. Jost Schreckegast son baptized. 15 Jan. was born. Witnesses was Henrich Fischer. Child: Georg. Henrich"; "12 Jan. 1761: Joh. Jost Schreckegast son was born 9 Jan. Witnesses were: Johann Rothger Born and Maria Elisabeth, Anton Volmar's daughter and Philippina, Joh. Jost Schreckegasts daughter. Child: Joh. Rothger."
Seven Years War
In 1757, when Jost was 30 and Heinrich was 6, Germany once again exploded into war, the Seven Years War, which pitted France, Russia, Sweden, and the Austrian-led German Empire against the "rebel" northern German Electorates of Brandenburg and Hanover (part of the British Empire), and their allied duchies of Hesse, Brunswick and Anhalt, who wished not to live under the Catholic House of Austria (Brandenburg and Hanover were dissenting votes in the imperial diet at Frankfurt). The Duke of Wittgenstein declared himself a loyal member of the empire and thus to its emperor, the Elector of Austria, Franz I. Although the duchy had no standing army save a palace guard, the Count of Wittgenstein stepped forward with recruits, money, and weapons for the Reichsarmee.
It is not known if any Schreckengasts served in the war, although it is probable that they served in one of the duchy's coveted Jäger companies with either the imperial or Hessian armies. One Schreckengast did serve as a Hessian Jäger in America as allies to the British during the Revolution.
During this war, Berleburg was often, if only for short periods, occupied. "Each time," according to Albert Hof, "was a terrible time for the populace, who had to support the foreign troops-[the Schreckengasts]. 1760 [two years after Johann Georg was born in "Goergeshaus" ] was an especially tough year. Hessian, French, and Hanoverian troops-soldiers from both sides-occupied all of Wittgenstein. On 13-14 September, 1760, some 13,000 Hessian troops, enemies of the empire, advanced from Hallenberg to Berleburg and demanded 50,000 rations from the Berleburgers and 10 pounds of oats or barley, and 5 pounds of hay or straw. As the items were being collected, a French army pushed in and the Hessians withdrew."
On October 4, some 2,250 French cavalrymen-supposed allies of the duchy-occupied Berleburg and demanded a similar ransom. A British force then moved in on October 8 from the north and the two sides clashed, the British taking Berleburg and the French falling back to Aue-Wingeshausen. There "Goergeshaus" was more than likely pillaged and raided and Johann Jost was left with nothing once the French pulled out.
In the wake of this, Berleburg was once again left in a sad state of affairs, much like when Jeremias was born in 1649-a hundred years before. Count Wingeshausen was approached by his people for help. He apparently offered little and to add insult to injury, failed to lower his rents. Legend has it that in a meeting with the count in Wingeshausen, Jost stomped on the duke's foot in utter frustration (and got away with it-showing the general impotence of the duke).
By the summer of 1764, Berleburg was still in bad shape. Because its livestock cleaned out during the war, the people were having a hard time of it. With the plentiful game that surrounded them in the duke's mountains, many peasants, like Johann Jost of Gorgeshaus, demanded the right to feed their families by hunting deer. The duke apparently refused, however, and Jost, like many of his ancestors, decided to hunt anyway-becoming a "Rotdieb" (game thief)-thinking that the restriction was unnecessary or unjust.
Jost no doubt hunted in the early evening, looking to bag his kill before sundown and then sneak back home under the cover of darkness. The duke's game warden's would wait for a shot and then pursue with hounds. On one occasion, Jost was caught and warned not to do it again. But Jost refused and was once again caught, and this time was also charged with killing one of the duke's hounds while he was being pursued. For this transgression, Jost was "pursued" but managed to elude capture by leaving the duchy "im Nacht und Nebel." In J.H. Beers' Armstrong County, Pennsylvania: Her People, Past and Present (1914) it states: "According to family accounts…Johann Jost (known as "Yock") Schreckengost…was a mighty hunter, and being caught trespassing on the hunting grounds of a great lord was warned against repeating the offense. But he was caught a second time, and to make matters worse shot one of the lord's dogs. He was sent for at once, but managed to escape and come to America."
Not wanting to go to prison, Jost secretly left Wittgenstein-Berleburg in Nacht und Nebel ("Night and Fog") with his wife and three sons. Henry would have been 13, George 6, and Conrad 3. We also know that Jost's step brother Georg Heinrich eventually took over as Hausherr of Görgeshaus, but not right away, further denoting that Jost simply took off as one needed formal permission to leave a duchy within the German Empire.
Albert Hof, an historian for Berleburg, states that there is no official record in the Berleburger archives that Jost was either fined or that an arrest warrant was issued. Either way, in the spring of 1764, a few months after peace was formally declared in Paris, Jost secretly left Berleburg with his wife and three sons. We also know that Jost's step brother Georg Heinrich, eventually took over as Hausherr of "Goergeshaus," but not right away, further denoting that Jost simply took off as one needed formal permission to leave a duchy within the empire. Family genealogist Alice Long writes: "There is no record in the princely archives at Berleburg of a Johann Jost Schreckengast [being] brought to trial for a transgression on the prince's hunting grounds, there is no record in the princely archives of Jost having paid a fee to the prince for permission to emigrate to America, which was a law that the residents had to comply with, and most important, when Jost's brother Georg Heinrich married for a second time in 1772 he stated in his marriage contract that he was the tenant in Goergeshaus. It was not until 1781 in the marriage contract of Georg Henrich's eldest daughter that he is mentioned as the Hausherr of Goergeshaus.This is an indication that Jost left secretly."
It is probable that Jost, Elisabeth, and the boys headed south up the Eder Valley into the Fürstentum von Nassau to Siegen where they took a boat down the Sieg River through the Erzogtum von Trier past Betzdorf, Wissen, and Siegburg and on to the Rhine just north of Bonn. From there, they no doubt headed down the great river past the Archbishopric of Köln and all the way down to Rotterdam, in the Dutch Republic. It is not known if it was his intent to "sail to America" when he left (probably did as the Penns had a great marketing program in the German Empire). But once Jost hit the Rhine River, there is little doubt that he was informed what to do and where to go.
In Rotterdam, Jost boarded the British merchant vessel Polly, which made regular trans-Atlantic journeys. Sometimes it even picked up Guinea slaves in Africa and sailed to the British West Indies. On this trip, however, the Polly was more than likely hauling Dutch sundries to Philadelphia and the extra space was taken up by wayward German-speaking immigrants. During this particular voyage, Robert Porter was captain of the ship and there were 184 listed passengers, including Johann Jost Schreckengast, who signed his name on the ship's manifest.
Northumberland County 1764-1804
On September 19, 1764, after two months at sea, the Polly docked in Philadelphia. What happened next is unclear (as with many of the details of this story). Jost's grandchildren claim that Jost indentured George, who was 7, to a Philadelphia artisan or merchant, possibly a blacksmith/gunsmith, for "nine years" (1764-73) to pay for the passage and other necessaries. And, as we shall see later, the Schreckengasts became, whether by necessity or choice, blacksmiths/gunsmiths during the 1770s. It is also possible that Jost himself was an itinerant blacksmith/gunsmith, although there is no record of this in Berleburg. Assuming that George was indentured (i.e., rented) to a Philadelphia artisan or merchant, Jost, Elisabeth, Henry, and baby Rothger (soon-to-be called Conrad) made their way up to their next destination: Spread Eagle Manor in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania-land that had only been recently secured by the British Crown (and the Penn Family) during the last war with the French, Spanish, and their Indian allies.
What we do know is that Johann Jost Schreckengast was the first and only tenant of the Penns' "Spread Eagle Manor" in the soon to be formed Northumberland County (separated from Berks County on March 21, 1772). As such, Jost became another Hausherr of sorts, as the Penns did not want to sell the ground outright as it was too valuable. Several manors dotted the province, the Penn's securing rents from them all, if only infrequently. The Spread Eagle Manor is on the north side of the Mahantango Mountain and in a gap-the Mahantango Gap-where the Mahantango Creek cuts through the mountain. It is called "Spread Eagle Manor" because it's at the strategic "Fork of the Mahantango" where "Station 141 of the King's Highway [i.e., Weiser's Tulpehocken Path]" was located. Many of the local Germans called it the manor the "Dopple Adler" or the "Double Eagle." The word "Mahantango" is a Lenape Indian word for "place of the deer."
The Mahantango Valley is, needless to say, extremely picturesque and well-watered. The valley itself is actually a giant bowl where the Mahantango Mountain in the south converges with Line Mountain in the north to form a "V" with the Susquehanna River forming its base about 10 miles to the west. Many of the local inhabitants call it a "Kessel" or "kettle." Today, Kingerstown is located just southeast of where Jost's first homestead was located and Troutman's Butcher Shop is located on Lot 3.
As was already stated, this was Pennsylvania's northern frontier in 1764-70. The British provincial outpost of Fort Augusta was located but 50 miles north of Jost's settlement where the east and west branches of the Susquehanna converge at present-day Sunbury. All around Jost were free holders, or people who outright purchased land from the Penns, and they were almost exclusively German-speaking immigrants, many from the Rhineland near Heidelberg. In fact, there were so many of these "Palatine Boors" in the province by the 1750s and 60s, about 30% of the general population, that Ben Franklin, a leading Pennsylvanian and proud English subject, openly questioned their loyalty and utility.
To get to Spread Eagle Manor, Jost was probably met by one of Penn's agents in the spring of 1765 or 1766 who offered him the rental property. Jost obviously accepted, more than likely took a boat up the Schuylkill River up to Reading, which also had a large number of Germans in this very English-sounding town (named after Lord John Penn's home town in England), and then took the Tulpehocken Path which connected Pennsylvania with the Mohawks and Onondagas of New York and northern Pennsylvania. This path, used by Iroquois Indian agent Conrad Weiser, went right through the strategic Mahantango Gap and that's where Jost dropped anchor-right along the road.
We don't know what they had, how he lived-nothing. One can assume that he built an austere log cabin and barn with the help of his neighbors. Granted, log cabins were not built in Berleburg so help was more than likely given and this was the beginning a long journey of cultural assimilation, which manifested itself in different ways. Aside from the fact that Jost and many of his neighbors were German speakers in an English province in North America, most of the Germans who surrounded Jost, Elisabeth, and their sons spoke a different dialect of German as they came from the region of Germany that surrounds Heidelberg, usually called the "Palatine" or "Rhineland." The Schreckengasts therefore didn't only have to begin to learn English and "English Ways," but parts of the Palatine dialect as well. The only saving grace is that all peoples in the Pennsylvania backcountry, whether they were Scots, Irish, English, Germans, or Indians, they were all performing a cultural give and take forming a new society in which elements of all became known as "American culture" by the 1770s. This is evidenced by their general individualistic "Don't Tread on Me" attitude, their building practices, their invention and use of the Pennsylvania Long Rifle, the Pennsylvania Bank Barn, etc.
In 1770, Elisabeth and Jost gave birth to the first Schreckengast born in America: John Jacob Schreckengost. Because there were no churches in the area at the time (the first church to be built north of the mountain, Himmel's, was only built in 1772), we have no official baptismal record for Jacob.
So what was it like to live in the Mahantango Valley in 1770, the year of Jacob's birth? It was without doubt a frontier area where "Pennsylvania Dutch" (a sub-culture of American provincial culture) thrived. To this day, the Mahantango Valley remains one of the last hold outs of non-Amish "Dutch" language and culture and it is where the famous University of Pennsylvania historian/anthropologist and noted expert on Pennsylvania German culture grew up and garnered many of his sources for his works, most notably, Songs Along the Mahantango (1964), which anyone with even a minor interest in understanding the "Schreckengast experience" should crack open to learn a couple of songs. These "Dutch" were particular in that they were "frontier Dutch," German-speakers who did not live in the more settled (and safer) areas of the province like in present-day Philadelphia, Montgomery, Lancaster, and Berks Counties. These people were in fact called, "Mountain Dutch" and were a little rougher than their low country cousins. They were also exclusively Lutheran or Reformed peoples who did not accept the pacifism of the Amish, Mennonites, and other Anabaptists (Widder Taufers) who tended to populate Lancaster County, especially.
So what made the "Mountain Dutch" different? First was their early blending with the more wild Irish and Scottish members of the backcountry and their acceptance of the nascent backcountry ethos: their desire to be left alone. It was here where the "Don't Tread on Me" flag of the revolution, soon to come, was born. To them, freedom meant rugged individualism: pure independence. They didn't mind the hard scrabble existence as long as they were left to their own devices. This is seemingly a recurring theme with Schreckengasts: the desire to simply be left alone-freedom to live his own life as he chooses and bowing to no man, no matter what fruits or thorns could/would be gained in the process.
Another theme that bound the backcountry people together was the need for local defense. Granted, the British had defeated the French, Spanish, and their Indian allies in the last war, and had basically subdued Pontiac's uprising in 1763-64, but the British government still only placed the border of British settlement just north Fort Augusta. From this line to the Mississippi, a giant Indian reservation to keep the peace and to keep the lucrative Indian trade active was created. So by this time, most, but by no means all, of the farmsteads had a firearm. Those who did not own a firearm did so not because they were against them, but because they were so expensive. Cheap Indian trade muskets could be had up at Fort Augusta, to be true, and one of them was probably Jost's first firearm. Very expensive and well-made long rifles, crafted from gunsmiths in northern Lancaster (present Lebanon) or northern Berks (present Schuylkill) Counties could also be procured, although it is unlikely that Jost had the resource to acquire such a weapon. In Thomas Metzgar and James Whisker's work (1998), Gunsmiths of Western Pennsylvania, they note that "Yock was a gunsmith by trade, although nothing is known of his work." The authors seems to have gotten their information from the careful genealogist Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer, a person who was extremely helpful in helping the author of this work find primary documents. What we do know is that Jost's sons, Conrad, Henry, and George, especially, were itinerant gunsmiths/blacksmiths in Armstrong County not only because of family oral tradition, but because county tax records (infra) list "many tools of the gunsmith trade." It is most probable that George was in fact indentured to a blacksmith/gunsmith and that he taught Jost and his brothers some of the skills necessary to be a "blacksmith/gunsmith" by necessity rather than design while on the manor. They had to learn how to fix the cheap trade guns in order to survive and may have begun to assemble their own guns-which were probably ugly as sin but worked. Their sons, grandsons, and great grandsons, steeped in this tradition, apparently took it to the next level, William and Lincoln Schreckengosts, ancestors of Conrad, being the most well known. And although there is no record that Jost was a gunsmith/blacksmith in Wittgenstein-Berleburg, it is probable that he had at least some rudimentary knowledge of the black arts.
While on the vast manor, Jost and his sons would clear the land, plant corn, beans, and other items, trap and hunt, and save enough money to eventually buy a couple cows and a horse. Procuring food was their number one concern. While carving out this meager but relatively free existence (as "the duke," one of Penn's land agents, was in Reading and he was mostly concerned with the "wild Irish" who liberally squatted on Penn lands without paying and then moving on), Jost and his family became members of "Himmels Kirch," (Heaven's Church), which was built north of the Mahantango Creek along Swaben Creek (called Schwowe Grick by the locals) just south of Line Mountain in present Rebuck in 1772, the same year that Northumberland County was spit away from Berks. Himmel's Church was a Union Church, meaning that both Lutheran and Reformed congregations met there. The Schreckengasts apparently belonged to the Lutheran congregation.
During the 1770s, the more settled (coastal) regions of British America began to outwardly question many of the new trade and taxation policies promulgated by the imperial government that ran contrary the traditional way of doing things. Although resentment was most demonstrative in Boston, Massachusetts, it was by no means limited to New England. For the backcountry people of the Mahantango Valley, British Indian policy was the most important issue of the day-not that it wasn't tied to trade and economics. For many poor back country people (and wealthy coastal land speculators like George Washington and Ben Franklin), the fact that the British government basically stifled western settlement of European colonists after the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, New York in 1764 (most history text books blithely call it the "Proclamation of 1763") by establishing the settlement line just west of Fort Stanwix and Augusta all the way down to the Gulf, cut their dreams off at the knees as less land, land that they helped fight for from 1755-65, as it was basically "given back to the Indians-friend or foe." Less land also equaled higher existing land prices and higher rent. In essence, the French War was fought for nothing-the raids that some of Jost's neighbors suffered from 1756-57 at the hands of the French and their Indian allies were for nothing; Washington's hard-fought campaigns in the Ohio Country were for nothing.
By 1774, many of the backcountry people started to actively fight the powers that be, whether the Quaker-led assembly in Philadelphia, the Penn family, the king and his agents, or the Indians themselves by forming "extra legal" militias called "Associations" and by passing several resolves, the most famous being the "Hanover Resolves" of Lancaster (present Dauphin) County. As the situation deteriorated, in 1775, Jost's eldest son, Henry, aged 24, married Maria Catharine Stutzman. They lived on Lot 3, 178 acres, which was in a bend of the Mahantango Creek and across the road from Jost's house. George was aged 16, Conrad Roethger was 12, and Johann Jacob was 4.
During the early summer, news reached the valley that members of the Massachusetts Provincial Militia, some called "Minutemen," had fought British regulars at Lexington and Concord and had driven them back to Boston with great loss. They also heard that other provinces had also moved expel royal authority almost spontaneously and that at least twelve of these provinces, Pennsylvania among them, had formed a "Continental Congress" to pool their resources for the sake of self defense.
A few weeks later, the people of the Mahantango were further informed that volunteer militias were being raised and that Captain John Lowden, and Irishman of Fort Augusta, was accepting volunteers of "expert riflemen" for service in the 1st Continental Regiment, a battalion that was created by Congress on June 14 for one-and-a-half year's service to reinforce the New England militiamen who were surrounding Boston. This regiment would consist of eight companies of Pennsylvania riflemen, one of them being Lowden's Irishmen. They also heard that a similar company, led by Captain George Nagel, was being formed in Reading. These were mostly Germans. Johann Jost's farmstead was along the road that connected them both. For various reasons, few, if any, of the Mahantango Germans enlisted for Continental service. They did, however, actively support the local militia, which was a township/county/province-based system that the Germans understood. It was also feared that Indian activity in the west would pick up, the British regulars being sent east to squash the rebels.
On January 29, 1776, Henry and Maria had their first child, John George (in English) who was baptized in Himmel's Church on August 1 with John and Dorthea Ried as his Godparents. A few days after his birth, on July 4, 1776, Pennsylvania, as well as twelve other British American provinces, formally declared their independence (as opposed to seeking equilibrium within the empire) once they learned that the British government intended to reoccupy the provinces by force-including the use of foreign allies the Hessians, soldiers who Jost, also now known as "Yock," knew all to well.
With the declaration of independence, and the subsequent passage of the Pennsylvania State Constitution, all of the Penns' lands were seized and placed into commonwealth status. In the short term, this meant that Jost wouldn't have to pay rent anymore. But in the long term, it may mean that they would either have to buy the land from the state, receive it gratis, or be evicted; but more on that later.
In 1778, while the Continental Army and the New Jersey Militia fought the British at Monmouth, Yock was assessed for "150 acres, one horse, and two cows." This means that he was actually using 150 acres on his warrant. But all was not well in the Mahantango. Since the war started, the valley had been largely untouched by the conflict. Although a few of its more adventurous members had gone off to enlist in the Continental Line, most stayed at home and in the local militias. Pennsylvania Germans, in general, have a very provincial outlook. For them, the family and the local community was all that usually mattered-in peacetime or wartime. Active involvement in politics, even at the local level, was voodoo. Order and relative freedom was all that mattered. They wished merely to live their own life and to be left alone. When others tried to impose their will upon them, however, they would fight back with a vengeance. I believe that this best matches the "Schreckengast Creed" if any can be made for such a disparate group of people. We know first hand what it's like to be savaged. Our very name commemorates what happens when "scary guests" or "terrible enemy occupiers" invade our lives (today, al-Qaida members living in sleeper cells in the US would be considered "Schreckengasts"). And this time, the Schreckengasts would be armed to the teeth.
With the entry of the French in the war in 1778, the British were forced to consolidate their forces in America in some coastal key cities-namely New York-and redeploy the rest of them to defend more important parts of the empire like England itself or the rich islands of the West Indies. The British also chose to more heavily arm their Indian allies in the West and lead them in raids toward "rebel settlements" that dotted the frontier to draw the Continentals away from the coast.
In 1778, for example, the Yankee settlement of Wilkes-Barre was razed by Indians of the four allied Iroquois-speaking tribes, the Onondaga, Seneca, Mohawk, and Cayuga (the Oneidas and Tuscaroras sided with the rebels), and the Queen's Rangers, led by Canadian Colonel John Butler. Today it is known as the infamous "Wyoming Massacre." In 1779, this same force of Indians and Rangers once again invaded northern Pennsylvania and attempt to pillage the Schreckengasts just as the Hessians, French, and British had done in 1760.
The Seneca Chief Cornplanter and Captain John McDonell of Butler's Rangers led a few hundred of these Loyalists and Indians down from Fort Niagara into the upper Susquehanna Valley near present-day Williamsport. They raided/burned several settlements, including Fort Reed (present Lock Haven), Fort Horn, and Fort Muncy (present Williamsport) and were even threatening Fort Augusta, the last fortification north of the Mahantango Valley. "They were," according to historian Roger Schwartz, "also looking for plunder, because their own people were starving."
In order to reinforce Fort Augusta and push the raiders or "scary guests" back, if you understand my meaning here, Northumberland County called up its militia for the first time and appealed to state authorities for help. As such, Jost was enrolled at various times in Captain John Moll's Company, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Hosterman's 3rd Battalion, Northumberland County Militia Regiment (consisting mostly of Mahantango Valley Germans) from April-July, 1779. This entitles any Schreckengast to be a member of the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution if he or she has the patience to fill out the pedigree paperwork (grandparents' birth certificates, etc.). It wasn't illustrious service, mind you, but it was service. Henry was also of age, but he apparently fled the valley with his small family as his third child, John Henry, born June 10, 1779, at the height of Cornplanter's raid, was "baptized in Klopp's Church on July 19, 1779." Klopp's Church was several miles south of the valley in Bethel Township, Lancaster (present Lebanon) County, near the town of Fredericksburg. John Henry's sponsors were "Samuel Royer and his wife, Maria Elizabeth. Henry's second child, Catharina, was born in 1778.
Johann Jost Schreckengast of "Goergeshaus," aged 55, first served in the Northumberland County Militia from April 18 to May 3, 1779, to help secure the southern reaches of the county. He then reentered service on July 27 when news reached valley that some 300 raiders were approaching Fort Freeland, about twenty miles north of Fort Augusta. "Fort Freeland," which was actually a fortified homestead, was garrisoned by 32 Northumberland County militiamen. On July 28, the militiamen, wholly surprised and outnumbered by Cornplanter's Indians, agreed to surrender if they and their families' lives would be spared as prisoners at Fort Niagara.
While the surrender terms were being finalized, the commander of Fort Augusta had ordered Captain Hawkins Boone's militia company to reinforce Freeland. As the relief force approached the farm, however, Cornplanters' Indians ambushed it. In the ensuing struggle, the local militia lost 40 men killed, including their commander, Boone. With the battle won but resistance growing, McDonell and Cornplanter ordered the retreat with prisoners in hand. Needless to say, not a single enemy soldier ever set foot in the Mahantango Valley and Jost was relieved from militia duty on August 9, 1779.
In 1783, Pennsylvania and the United States were formally granted their independence with the Treaty of Paris and the Schrecekengasts, as well as all other Pennsylvania Germans, would become bonafide and vested/tested Americans. At this time, Johann Jost was assessed for "150 acres of land, 1 horse, and 2 cattle"; *Henry was assessed for "100 acres of land, 1 horse, and 1 cattle"; Conrad "2 cattle," and Jacob "100 acres of land, 1 horse, and 1 cattle" while on the manor. Jost was now 59 years old, Henry was 28, George was 25, Conrad was 22, and John was 13.
In 1784, George and Conrad married the daughters of some local German-speaking landowners (as opposed to mere occupants of the manor). While George married Elizabeth Gebhart, Conrad married Susanna Zartman. George, with the help of his father, brothers, and in-laws no doubt, purchased Lot C-202-47 on the south side of the Mahantango Mountain in the present Lykens Valley, Dauphin County (the area in which the Schreckengasts lived is where three counties meet to form a triangle-thus the sometime confusion for historians: Northumberland [split away from Berks in 1772], Lancaster [present Dauphin which was split away from Lancaster], and Berks [present Schuylkill, which was split away from Berks]).
Conrad and Jacob seem to have stayed with Jost and farmed Lot 5 while Henry farmed Lots 2 and 3. The five men never lived farther than four miles apart from one another. While on the manor Conrad (formerly Roethger) and Susanna Zartman had Martin, Daniel (January 23, 1807), John "Gentleman Johnny," Peter, Benjamin (born on November 15, 1788 and baptized in Klinger's Church), Stauffer, and Eva, who mostly grew up in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.
Sometime around 1789, Jacob married Catherina Anna Stutzman and they lived with Jost on Lot 5 and would rear six children: Andreas (born March 12, 1790 and baptized June 13 at Klinger's Church), Mary Magdalene (born April 6, 1792 and baptized April 6 at Klinger's Church), John (March 19, 1793), Peter (July 12, 1795), Samuel (born April 30, 1796 and baptized at Himmel's Church on May 22), and Christina (born January 30, 1808 and baptized July 2 and Klinger's Church).
In 1790, Henry purchased land in "Snow Valley" from Henry Kline. "Snow Valley" or "Schnee Dahl" is only a few miles northeast of original homestead and is a "valley in a valley" in the Manhatango on the south side of the Hooflander Ridge, which is in the middle of the valley proper. I have tread the area with Earl Troutman, a native of the valley whose family has lived there since the 1760s, and we believe that we found Henry's original foundation next to a spring on a lot currently owned by the Troutmans.
Although Schnee Dahl is a beautiful place, Troutman and I both believe that it's bad farming country as it's too rocky, too hilly, and stays colder longer as the Hooflander Ridge blocks the sun. It is well watered, though, like the entire valley, and is great for hunting. It was also the first land that a Schreckengast ever owned outright. Troutman admitted that the Schreckengasts were known to be hunters, trappers, and woodsmen, and not necessarily farmers. This reputation will be further enhanced when most of the family moves out to Armstrong County in 1804.
While in Schnee Dahl, Henry and Maria Catherine reared eleven children, John George (born January 29, 1776 and baptized at Himmel's Church on August 1, 1776), Catharine (1778), John Henry (born June 10, 1779 and baptized at Klopp's Church), Philip, Jacob (1784), George (born August 29, 1785 and baptized at Himmel's Church Sept. 15, 1786), Leonard (1788), Alexander (1790), Anthony, Samuel (born July 9, 1796 and baptized at Himmel's Church August 14, 1796), and Michael (1798). With Henry in Schnee Dahl, Conrad moved out of the original house into Henry's first house on Lot 3 and farmed Lots 2, 3, and 5 on the old Spread Eagle Manor.
In 1795, John Schreckengast (1776), Henry's oldest son and possibly living on Lot 5 in the old farmstead, married Anna Maria Greninger. All told, John and Anna Maria would rear 11 children: John (1796), Mary (1799), Sarah and Henry (born January 1, 1803 and baptized at Klinger's Church on March 18, 1803), David (b. 1807), Joseph (1809), William (c. 1810), *John Eli (March 19, 1811), Leah (1819), Rachael (c. 1820), and Catherine (c. 1820).
Between 1790 and 1808, when George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were presidents, the Mahantango Valley was rapidly changing. More and more people were beginning to settle the area, especially in the upper valley, or "Kessel," where the Line and Mahantango Valley meet, as Pennsylvania Germans from the Lehigh were moving in. More people were also settling just south of the mountain, in the Lykens Valley of Dauphin County. Because of this influx, the Schreckengasts, as well as other native Mahantango Valley inhabitants, who were mostly hunters and trappers, may have begun to feel a little "squeezed." These new settlers were scaring all the game away. A new church was also built in 1789, "Klinger's," and it is still located just south of the manor in the gap.
Johann Jost and Anna Catherine also died sometime during this period, although it is not clear where they are buried. It is more than likely that they are buried on the grounds of Klinger's Church although I found no record nor head stone as of 2004, as much of their family appears on Kilnger's Church Records from 1790-1808. John (i.e., John, 1770) and his wife Catharina Stutzman, for example, are listed in the Klinger's Church registry as sponsoring three baptisms during this period; the first in 1790 and the last in 1808. For example, "Johannes Schreckengast and wife, Catharina [sponsored] Andreas [son of] Andreas Harter and Elisabeth Kissinger, unmarried, 13 June 1790." In the last sponsorship, Jost's name was listed as, "Hannes Schreckengast and wife, Catharina." Henry and his wife "[Maria] Catherine" were listed as sponsors in 1790, Conrad "Conrath" was listed with his wife, Sussanna" in 1794 as well as Jacob "Johannes Schreckengast and wife Anna Maria [Stutzman]" in 1803.
In 1795, John George Schreckengast (1776), Henry's oldest son, married Anna Maria Greninger (b. October 1, 1781 in Mahanoy Twp). All told, John and Anna Maria would rear 11 children: John (1796), Mary (1799), Sarah and Henry (born January 1, 1803 and baptized at Klinger's Church on March 18, 1803), David (b. 1807), Joseph (1809), William (c. 1810), Eli (March 19, 1811), Leah (1819), Rachael (c. 1820), and Catherine (c. 1820).
It was also during this time that Conrad and Jacob Schreckengast were apparently being pressured by the state to buy the manor warrants. The Penns wanted to sell off their remaining lands as soon as possible, as the rest of their lands had been confiscated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with the Divestment Act of 1787 and they wanted out. Lawyers for the former proprietors more than likely approached Jost and Conrad to purchase the newly-divided lots but they apparently turned down the offer for in 1803, Lots 2 and 3 were "granted to John Bickle, by attorney for John and Richard Penn, Jan. 19, 1803, formerly property of Conrad Schreckengaust." This may denote that Conrad didn't own the land, but simply occupied it. "Property" was a very strong term, meaning ownership, but John Bickle received title from the Penns and not Conrad. In 1808, the last year that Johann is listed on official documents, Lot 5 was "granted to Wm. Wrightman, Jr. by John and Richard Penn-formerly John Schreckengaust." Again, this denotes occupation and not ownership. It is very probable, however, that the Schreckengasts were given some money to vacate.
It seems that Conrad left the manor with his family for newly surveyed Armstrong County (north of Pittsburgh) in 1804 or 1805 as his son Daniel was listed as being born in Valley Township, Armstrong County in 1806. Conrad and his family were followed by Henry, George, Jacob, and John Schreckengast who departed with a "large Mahantango Valley wagon train" for Armstrong County in 1808, Henry selling his property in Snow Valley and George just south of the mountain. When the Schreckengasts moved to Armstrong County, they changed the "a" in "Gast" to an "o" to better match the pronunciation of the area. (Western Pennsylvanians pronounce their "o's" "aw." "Hot" sounds like "hawt" and "pop" sounds like "pawp.") Their names became to be spelled "Schreckengost," "Schrecengost," or "Shreckengost," etc. The bottom line is that every Schreckengast in America (and Germany nonetheless), no matter the spelling, traces their lineage back to little Jeremias Schreckengast, born in the village of Wingeshausen during the Thirty Years War (1639), and Hausherr of "Reitzenhaus."
The reason why I say Jeremias and not Johannes Jost (b. 1724) is because in 1796 several Schreckegasts, including Georg Heinrich Schreckengast of "Reitzenhaus," Wingeshausen, immigrated to Philadelphia. Also included were Maria Elisabeth, Anna Elisabeth, Elisabeth Gertrud, Floriane, Sophie, George, Daniel, Jost, and Heinrich Schreckengast. They came over on the "ship Holland, Christoph Franklin, Junior, Commander. Aug. 19, 1796." Sophie Magdalene Schreckegast of Hermeshaus, was an unwed mother, who carried a "Hurskind" or "whore's child," Heinrich, who had already had one, Jost. No wonder they immigrated.
Görg Schreckegast and his family joined the Salem Zion Evangelical and Reformed Church in Philadelphia and he died on August 4, 1836. Maria Elisabetha nee Schöneborn, died February 2, 1834. The youngest child in the family, Elisabeth Gertrud, died on April 20, 1841 at the age of 19. At her death only Maria Elisabeth (age 24) and her next older sister, Anna Elisabeth (age 27), were left unmarried and under the age of 30.
The Northumberland County Schreckengosts apparently followed the old Shamokin Trail that headed southwest to the old Delaware Indian settlement of Kittanning (destroyed SEPT 1756 by PA Militia COL John Armstrong). Crossing the Susquehanna at Fort Augusta, they would have headed southwest down present 522 (William Penn HWY) through present Snyder and Mifflin counties to Mount Union in Huntingdon County. From there, they headed due west through the mountain passes, following present route 22/422 through Hollidaysburg, Ebensburg, Indiana, and on to the Kittanning settlements. At the time, of course, this was simply a dirt path through the wooded mountains with few way stations along the way. The trip had to take a least one month.
Armstrong County 1804-1879
Once they hit Armstrong County, Henry, George, Jacob, and Henry's oldest son, John (b. 1776), spilt off. Conrad had already purchased 250 acres in Valley Township, near the river. Henry and John purchased land along the Cowanshannock Creek near Rural Valley in Cowanshannock Township. "John Schrecongost" purcharsed Warrant 672 of 500 acres. Further inland, and Jacob and John purchased lots in Redbank Township, in the extreme northeast corner of the county near Putneyville. The 1807 Tax Assessment lists all five men as property owners in northern Armstrong County: "Conrad Shrackencost, Henry Shrackencost, George Shrackencost, Jacob Shrackencost, and John Shrackencost." As such, At least 25 Schreckengasts of varying ages entered Armstrong County at this time, led by Henry, Conrad, and Hannes, three of the four sons of Johann Jost Schreckengast of Goergeshaus, and John, his grandson, who was but six years younger than his uncle Jacob.
While there, the Schreckengosts became known as gunsmiths/blacksmiths/ farmers/ woodsmen/millers/mechanics/and expert hunters. In short, they became key members of the founding of the county and the heart of the family, to this day (2004), remains in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania-even more so than Berleburg, Germany.
In Gunsmiths of Western Pennsylvania, Henry Schreckengost is listed as being a "gunsmith and farmer. [He] was a gunsmith in early life. In 1828 he moved from Cowanshannock Township to Valley Township [one township to the west], Armstrong County and gave up making guns in favor of the more stable and profitable life of farming." Conrad Schreckengost was a "son of Jacob or 'Yock' Schreckengost [and] was a gunsmith by trade. Conrad died in the summer of 1839 (age 78) and his estate was inventoried on 6 July, 1839. The estate showed many tools of the gunsmith's trade. Most items were bought by family members according to the vendue list. A few early tax lists confirm Conrad's occupation." Jacob Schreckengost was also listed as being a gunsmith. "He died in late-1820 or early 1821 for his estate was inventoried in 1821 and public sale of his goods was held on March 8, 1821. Many tools of the gunsmith's trade were again published by family members. One interesting item was an unfinished rifle, purchased by *Henry Schreckengost at $7.37." Michael Schreckengost (1820-61), son of John (1776-1821), is also listed as being a gunsmith: "son of John Schreckengost.He is reputed to have made and repaired guns in Rural Valley, Armstrong County [i.e., along the Cowanshannock Creek in Cowanshannock Township]."
Northumberland County-born Benjamin Schreckengost (1788), Conrad's oldest, "built the mill and stone house at Red Mill, Valley Township, Armstrong County." Peter Schreckengost, Benjamin's younger brother, married Polly Moyer and they "spent almost their entire lives in Kittanning [present Valley] Township." They had Catherine, who married Jacob Schreckengost, Alexander, who married Harriet Rupp, Mary, who married Jacob Rupp, Josiah, who married Ellen Selfrich, Sarah, who married John Wolf, Christina, who married Samuel Marks, Matilda, who died young, Hannah, who married Thomas Kirkpatrick, Lucinda, who married John Fry, Lewis, who married Jennie Irwin, and Jefferson and Aaron, who both died young."
"Gentleman Johnny," Conrad's second son and the first Schreckengost born in Armstrong County (1792), was "a man of energy and business enterprise, a blacksmith by trade and also a distiller, and he manufactured the first iron plows ever made in Armstrong County." He was also listed as being a gunsmith and was "quite possibly his father's apprentice. He lived in Cowanshannock Township, Armstrong County, where he had been born on 27 September 1792…. The vendue list of his estate, from the sale conducted on 29-30 March 1859, showed clearly that he had been engaged in gunsmithy at the time of his death, for it contained many tooks, parts, and mountings, a rifle, and a pistol." He acquired a large amount of land in the vicinity of Rural Valley, where his death occurred; he is buried in Pleasant Union Cemetery, in Cowanshannock Township." He married Sarah Turney and had William, who married Mary Baum and was a farmer in Cowanshannock Township, Michael, who married Mary Hawk and died of small pox at age 41, John, who married Sarah Kline, Catherine, who married John Patterson, Sarah, who married John Bittinger, and Lavina, who married John Hetrick.
Daniel Schreckengost (1807), son of Conrad, "lived his entire life in Valley Township, kept a tavern called 'Stone House' in Valley Township. In later life he moved to [the town of] Rural Valley [the major town in Cowanshannock Township], remaining there until his death. He was a thrifty, industrious, and prosperous man, followed his trade of gunsmith as well as farming and tavern keeping, and acquired the ownership of three hundred acres in [the] township. He was a staunch [Jeffersonian] Republican [and soon-to-be Jacksonian Democrat] and active in the work of his party in his locality, at one time being its candidate for sheriff of Armstrong County. For several years he held the office of constable. He was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church."
The Schreckengosts were also known for organizing several "organized wolf hunts" to kill-off every wolf of the county. Although North American wolves aren't nearly as dangerous as European wolves, most Pennsylvania Germans not only saw them as varmints but as threats to their families' lives-like in Germany. It was also here where the story of Johann Jost shooting the duke's dogs was written down in the official history of Armstrong County. One noted hunter was Philip Schreckengost, son of Henry, of Logan Township, Clinton County (northeast of Armstrong County). In The History of Clinton County it states: "Philip Schrecekengost was probably the greatest and most successful hunter. It is said that during his life he killed four hundred deer, ninety-three wolves, seventy-four bears, and a large number of dogs. It may seem strange that a hunter should intentionally kill what are generally considered his best friends, but Schreckengast did not believe in chasing and worrying game with dogs. He preferred what is called 'still hunting,' and therefore every dog found chasing deer were considered 'game.' [i.e., dogs were used to 'drive deer and Philip opposed it]. On one occasion, having shot a bear, he was reloading his gun to shoot another, which was being hard-pressed by dogs, when the animal, in his endeavors to escape his tormentors, made a blundering plunge directly towards the hunter and attempted to pass between his knees, whereupon the man 'closed in' upon him, and drawing his knife stabbed him in the heart. At another time, while hunting, he came to a hollow tree, in which he thought there might be a bear; on examining the tree he discovered a hole in the trunk, into which he thrusted his hand, which was instantly seized by the jaws of the invisible bruin. As the animal loosened his grip, probably for the purpose of getting a better hold, the hand was quickly withdrawn, and Schreckengast went a short distance from the spot, with gun ready, to await the result. Soon after the bear made his appearance at an opening high up in the tree, and was immediately shot."
The tax records of Armstrong County list Henry as being a Lutheran in religion and a Federalist in politics. Federalists were supporters of the Constitution of 1787, of a stronger federal government, and of the presidential administrations of George Washington and John Adams. The area, however, was more Democratic-Republican in nature, as the Scots and Irish were still upset with President Washington's handling of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, generally favoring a weaker federal government (stronger states), low taxes, and the presidential administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
In February 1809, Henry died at the age of 57. In his last testament, he left everything to his wife, Maria Catherine: "In the name of God, Amen. I, Henry Shreckengost of the county of Armstrong in the state of Pennsylvania, being sick and weak in body, but sound of mind, memory and understanding, blessed be God for the same, do make and publish this My Last Will and Testament in manner and form following to wit; principally and first of all I commit my immortal soul in the hands of God who gave it and my body to the earth to be buried in a decent and Christian like manner at the descreation [sic] of my Executors herein after named.
"And as to such worldly estate wherewith it has pleased God to help me in this life, I give and dispose of the same in the following manner to wit; I allow my Executors hereinafter named to pay out of my estate my funeral expences [sic], also all my just debts.
"First, I give and devise to my beloved wife, Catherine, during her natural lifetime, the ownership, possession and priviledge [sic] of all the property that I may possess at my decease, real and personal as in hereafter resighted [sic] by all my horse creatures of what kind soever [sic], also my horned cattle or cows of what kind soever, also all my sheep and hogs, together, with my wagon and wagon gears, also all my farming utensils and household furniture and for the said privilege and advantages that I have herewith put my said wife in possessege and advantages that I have herewith put my said wife in possession of, I do enjoin upon her that she will keep in the family with herself, my five youngest sons viz. Leonard, Alexander, Anthony, Samuel and Michael until each of them arrives to the age of twenty one years, my said sons to assist their said mother to work in order procure a living as they arrive to an age fitting to do labouring [sic] work. Should any of my said sons refuse to obey the lawful command of their mother during the time they are under her care, I do allow and request that my Executors will have them put to good traders, further, it is my wish to have my said sons taught to read and write, either in the German or English language, further it is my wish and I do order that at the decease of my said wife, all the property that she may then possess will be equally divided between my ten sons and my daughter, Catherina Nees, provided my five young sons are of age and further, I do give and devise to my said wife, fifty pounds to be paid out of the money that is due me from Peter Yoder, Abraham Yoder, and Jacob Reinhard, all of Berks County [present Schuylkill-Mahantango Valley men], which will further appear from their respective bonds and I do direct my said Executors to collect in said money that is coming or due to me from the said Yoders and Reinhard as soon as they can by law after my decease and after my wife is paid the fifty pounds out of said money, it is my further wish and I do devise the same, that the residue of said money be equally divided between my said ten sons and my daughter Catherina Nees, as soon as the said money comes to the hands of my said Executors. And further I do allow all such sum or sums of money as may be recovered and coming to me from William Peirt of Armstrong County as will appear from a suit entered into said county aforesaid, to be paid over to my said Executors to my said wife and she is bound by these present to lay out said money when it comes to her hand in a tract of land to the best advantage she can, which land is also to be applied to the use and for the benefit of raising my said five youngest sons until each of them arrives to the age of twenty one years and at the decease of my said wife she is at free liberty to will such tract of land to whom she thinks proper and lastly I nominate and appoint my son [John] Henry Shreckengost, and my trusty friend, Peter Richards, to be my Executors of this, my Last Will and Testament. Witness, Feb. 4, 1809."
In 1812, Martin Schreckengost (1786) was "assessed with 100 acres [in Cowanshannock Township]. Two [militia] companies, the Wayne Artillery and the Pine Creek Infantry, and a large number of citizens celebrated the Fourth of July, 1837, at Martin Shreckengost's house. The Declaration of Independence was read, and some remarks were made by Mr. A.L. Robinson. The other features were the parade and evolutions of those military companies, and volunteer toasts of a decided partisan tone given by members of both of the political parties, Whig and Democrat.He is buried at Rural Valley, Highway 85, on his farm in Armstrong County [where] the Pleasant Union Evangelical Lutheran Church" is also located.
The 1820 Armstrong Census lists 10 "Secondgart" males:
Secondgart Henry KITTANNING TWP
Secondgart John, Jr. PLUMCREEK TWP
Secondgort Benjamin KITTANNING TWP
Secondgort Jacob KITTANNING TWP
Secondgort Martin PLUMCREEK TWP
Secondgost John, Jr. PLUMCREEK TWP
Secondjort Samuel KITTANNING TWP
Secondyort Alexander KITTANNING TWP
Secorgort Anthoney KITTANNING TWP
Secorjart Conrad KITTANNING TWP
In 1821, John (1776), Henry's oldest son, died at the age of 45. His wife, Mary, with eight plus children, married Christopher Rupp and they had a few more children of their own. In 1833, John's son *Eli, now 22-years-old, married Hanna Gould and purchased sixty acres of land from the North American Land Company near the hamlet of Belknap, Wayne Township, Armstrong County, just southeast of Putneyville. The lot was numbered 4,575 and was part of "General Orr's Share." The land is about twenty miles north of Henry's old farm along the Cowanshannock.
The 1830 Census of Armstrong County lists 17 "Shrickengort" males:
Shrickengort George KITTANNING TWP
Shrickengort John KITTANNING TWP
Shrickengost John, Sr. WAYNE TWP
Shrickengost Joseph CLARION TWP
Shrickengost Martin WAYNE TWP
Shrickergort Alexander KITTANNING TWP
Shrickergort Conrad KITTANNING TWP
Shrickergort Henry KITTANNING TWP
Shrickergort Samuel KITTANNING TWP
Shrickingort Henry WAYNE TWP
Shrickingort Jacob, Jr. KITTANNING TWP
Shrickingort Sr. KITTANNING TWP
Shrickingost Anthony KITTANNING TWP
Shrickingost Christopher WAYNE TWP
Shrickingost John CLARION TWP
Shrickingost Peter WAYNE TWP
The Kittanning Gazzette on Wednesday Feb 22, 1832 reported: "Married, Thursday the 9th inst by the Rev. G. A Reichert, Mr. Harman Leonhard to Miss Hanna, daughter of Mr. Martin Schrecongost of Wayne Twp."
On December 15, 1835, when Andrew Jackson was president, *Eli and Hanna had their first child *Jeremiah Schreckengost. By mid-century, Jeremiah had eight younger siblings: Jackson (1839), Mary Ellen (1842), Samuel (1843), Lucinda (1846), George Washington (1848), "G.S." (1851), and Sarah Schreckengost (1853). It was also during this time, during the 1840s and 50s, when the most well-known Schreckengost family gunsmiths, descendents of Conrad, William (1821-1894), Levi, and Lincoln Schreckengost (1865-1949), started to create their particular firearms. William Schreckengost of Putneyville, Wayne Township, owned a general store/inn/gunshop along Mahoning Creek, although tax lists "consistently show him as a gunsmith." "His guns are frequently encountered. He was an unusually good engraver. He lived in Putneyville, Armstrong County, all his adult life. He married three times: to a Miss Nulph; to Pricilla Potts, mother of gunsmith Levi Schreckengost; and to Mary Heller.His tools, guns, and gun parts were sold at public vendue on 8 October 1894. A number of guns, ranging from a heavy barrel target model to a double barrel rifle (over-under) were offered."
The sons of William built distinctive and affordable rifles ($28) for the local population. They purchase their locks and imported German silver for inlay work from a Pittsburgh firm. The butt-stock design of the rifle is a "roman nose" pattern and was designed to be fired from the upper arms, and not the shoulder, for better accuracy. As was already noted above, William and Lincoln also built exotic guns such as "over-under" rifles, heavy target rifles, or short sporting rifles. All rifles build by William, Levi, and Lincoln Schreckengost were percussion cap.
In the fall of 1839 Alexander Foster and his son of the same name laid out the new plot of Rural Valley adjoining the old one on the west. Purchasers of the old plot were Joseph Buffington, Samuel Cassaday, Samuel Flemming, Alexnader Foster, William W. Gibson, James Gourley, Zachariah Knight, Andrew McCloskey, Samuel Potts, Samuel Ramage, Archibald L. Robinson, Martin Schreckengost, Samuel Smith and James Strain. Purchasers of the new plot: William Aitkins, Jacob Beer, James Boyd, Peter Brown, Richard Crim, Archibald Finley, Alexander Foster, James Gibson, Wesley W. Knight, Benjamin Schreckengost, Robert Stoops, John Uplinger.
In 1840, "John Schrecondgest, Joseph Schricongost, and John Schricangost" were listed as head of houses in Red Bank Township, Armstrong County. In 1850 it was "Henry Sherondgert, Christopher Sherondget, Joseph Sherondgort, John Sheroudgest, William Sheondgert, and Alexander Sheondgit." In 1841, "Benjamin Schrecongost" was assessed for lot No. 18, in Rural Valley for $5."
In 1857, "Pleasant Union Evangelical Lutheran Church is situated in the northwestern part of Cowanshannock, near the Wayne township line. Owing to its location at the forks of the Blairsville and Franklin roads, it is also called the "Crossroads church." Its organization is due to the efforts of Rev. Frederick Wise, Reformed preacher, to force his congregation to accept his choice of site in erecting a church in 1857. For some years the Reformed denomination had held services in the Schaum schoolhouse, but they decided in 1856 to build a home. Some favored the crossroads site, while others the one on Pine creek. Rev. Mr. Wise agreed to let the party taking the largest subscription decide the matter, but after the crossroads people collected the greater amount he refused to agree to their choice. He then agreed to compromise, but as soon as the books were in his hands he arbitrarily said, "we will build on the old site at Pine creek." The crossroads crowd became angry and resolved to build a church of their own, appointing W. T. Schreckongost, Jacob S. Rupp and Benjamin Geiger as a committee. When their cornerstone was ready to be laid Rev. Mr. Wise refused to have anything to do with it or to permit another Reformed pastor to come to the field. That settled the matter for the congregation, and they went over to the Lutherans in a body."
While Armstrong County grew and the Schreckengosts flourished, in April 1861, the rebel "Confederate States of America" attacked US Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC., forcing its evacuation. Hundreds of other federal offices or posts had also been taken or surrounded. Instead of negotiation, placating, or doing nothing, Lincoln, using executive authority, declared a national emergency and mobilized 100,000 National Guardsmen for three months service and called for a special session of Congress to obtain authority to suppress the Southern rebellion.
As loyal National Guard (organized state militia) units moved out to stabilize the federal capital, in July, Congress authorized the president to use whatever force was necessary and voted money to raise 300,000 volunteers for three years service. Over 100 Schreckengosts answered the call from 1861-65 and fought for the US during the Civil War, serving mostly in Pennsylvania infantry outfits. The most notable Schreckengost units, those in which more than one Schreckengost served, included the 62nd Pennsylvania, a V Corps unit from Allegheny and Armstrong Counties, the 93rd Pennsylvania, a Lebanon County unit that was attached to the VI Corps, the 103rd Pennsylvania, an Armstrong County battalion assigned to the IV and the XVIII Corps, the 111th Pennsylvania, an Erie and Warren County unit that served with the XII and XX Corps, the 139th Pennsylvania, another VI Corps unit, and Company M, 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry, which served in the western theater. Most of these units served at one time or another in the eastern-based Army of the Potomac, however. The 111th Pennsylvania, for example, served in the Army of the Potomac starting with the battle of Antietam where it, for a time, held the Dunker Church, tangled with the Confederates at Chancellorsville, held Culp's Hill against Ewell's Corps, and was then transferred out west with the XI Corps to form the hard-hitting XX Corps. There it was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, helped take Lookout Mountain, drove down to take Atlanta (their battle flag was the first US banner to fly over Atlanta since 1861), the March to the Sea, and the 1865 North Carolina Campaign.
On July 18, 1863, Jackson Schrecengost, one of Eli's sons and Jeremiah's brother, was drafted into Company B, 105th Pennsylvania (the "Wildcat Regiment"), a unit that had been decimated while fighting at the Peach Orchard during the battle of Gettysburg with Brig. Gen. Charles Graham's 1st Brigade, 1st Division, III Corps. Jackson was 24 at the time of the draft, "5'-6" in height, light hair, fair complexion, and blue eyes; occupation: farmer." He was "drafted at Allegheny, Pennsylvania [a city across the river from Pittsburgh] on 18 July 1863 as a private. Parents: J. Eli Schrecongost and Hannah Gould." His cousin, Jacob Schreckengost (1838-1925), also of Redbank Township, was also drafted into this proud Pennsylvania brigade. Jackson's regiment, was subsequently assigned to the II Corps and fought from the Wilderness to Appomattox. He was discharged on June 17, 1865, three months after the major Confederate armies surrendered to US forces.
Soon after Jack was drafted, Jeremiah either enlisted or was drafted into the Army like his younger brother. He "enrolled 24 August 1863 at Putneyville, Pennsylvania. Mustered in 3 September 1863 as a private in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania [i.e., Camp Curtin], age 25 at enrollment, ht. 5'-8", dark hair, fair complexion, blue eyes; farmer born in Armstrong County, Pa." He was assigned to Captain Cochran's Company C, 103rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment, a unit that had been raised at Kittanning in the fall/winter of 1861. Two other Schreckengosts, Adam and Levi, were also in the regiment in Company D, and they had enlisted during the early months of the war at "Camp Orr," which located on the Kittanning Fairgrounds (and staffed by Sergeant Isaac Schreckengast, grandfather of the famous Philadelphia Phillies catcher, Ossee Schreckengost). Levi, son of William, the gunsmith from Putneyville, left his father's gunshop to enlist. The colonel commanding was Theodore Lehman of Pittsburgh, a German immigrant who was trained at the Prussian Military Academy for a time.
The 103rd had seen hard service. It was originally assigned to Silas Casey's division, IV Corps, Army of the Potomac, during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862 and got hammered at Seven Pines, being one of the first units engaged. During the battle, Levi was wounded. After the Seven Days, the regiment, with the rest of the division, was transferred to the North Carolina coast where it fought in several minor, but strategically important engagements at Bottom's Bridge, Long Bridge, Black Water, Kinston, and Goldsboro. Jeremiah joined the regiment in late 1863 while it was stationed at Plymouth, North Carolina, as a unit of the XVIII Corps.
On April 20, 1864, a Confederate division under the able command of Brig. Gen. Robert Hoke, late of the Army of Northern Virginia, captured the entire Federal garrison at Plymouth after a pitched battle. About 400 soldiers of the 103rd Pennsylvania were taken prisoner, including Adam and Levi Schreckengost. The majority of the regiment, which had not seen Pennsylvania in three years, was about ready to go home on leave when the Confederates attacked. Jeremiah's Company C, however, was posted on Roanoke Island that month, and he avoided capture.
Adam and Levi were sent to "Camp Sumter" near Andersonville, Georgia and were called the "Plymouth Pilgrims" for their brand new frock coats and Hardee Hats that were issued to them for their furlough. Adam died at Camp Sumter on August 12, 1864 due to criminal neglect (i.e., sickness and starvation) and is buried in grave 5,429. Because of the severe overcrowding, Levi was transferred to a prison in Florence, South Carolina, and was then paroled by the CS (the US wouldn't honor exchanges at this point in the war) on February 26, 1865 for humanitarian reasons. Levi soon rejoined what was left of his regiment, now known as the "Hard Luck Regiment," on Roanoke and was mustered out with Jeremiah and the rest of the unit in June 1865. Levi would move back to Armstrong County, with "health impaired" and purchased 224 acres of land and kept the "largest apiary in Armstrong County" until his death (too weakened to be a gunsmith). He was active in the Grand Army of the Republic Veterans Association and a member of the 103rd Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers Association.
After the war, Jeremiah, a war veteran, returned to Belknap and married Mary Anne Bargerstock. They would eventually rear seven children: *Cyrus Boyd (June 6, 1867), Dora, (1868), Charles (1870), Sarah Anne (1872), Estella (1874), Vinnie Alice (1877-born of infantile paralysis), and Samuel Grier Schreckengost. In 1879, *Jeremiah and other veterans of the "Hard Luck Regiment" (namely Captain Thomas Cochran of Company C and Lieutenant William Kiester of Company I), moved their families north to the last county to be carved in Pennsylvania-Forest County-which was north of Belknap, up through Jefferson County and north of the Clarion River. Jeremiah and the others took the road up through Brookville and then followed a logging trail to the brown river, took a ferry at Clairington, and then continued up the logging path (present Route 899) about another ten miles to the hamlet of Roses, just south of Marienville, which was a giant logging camp. As in the past, Schreckengosts seem to have been naturally attracted to near-wilderness conditions because this area was one of the most remote areas of the commonwealth (and still is).
Forest County 1879-forward
Jeremiah only lived in Forest County for two years when he died at age 45 on January 30, 1881. He was buried in the Belknap United Church of Christ (Reformed) in Wayne Township, Armstrong County. On May 5, 1898, Jeremiah's father, *Eli, passed away at the ripe old age of 87. He was buried next to his son. Mary Anne Bargerstock, Jeremiah's wife, married Samuel Wray on September 21, 1882, in Forest County.
Cyrus Boyd Schrecengost (Eli dropped the "k" from the name and his sons and grandsons, like Jeremiah and Jackson spelled their name "Schrecengost" ) was only 14 years old when his father passed on and, being the oldest child, had to help his mother run the farm. When Cyrus reached adulthood in the late-1880s, he built another house and barn on the other end of the property, near the railroad tracks and closer to the main road in Roses (just south of where Routes 66 and 899 intersect). It was also around this time that he married Agnes Sigworth of Sigel, Jefferson County, between Clairington and Brookville. They were to eventually rear thirteen children. On December 16, 1914, *James, the second-to-the-last, was born.
Cyrus, as well as most other Schreckengasts, was a fine woodsman, hunter, and gunsmith. He was also a lumberman and stonemason who helped build many of the bridges and other stone structures of Forest County during the early twentieth century, and was a road master until the 1930s when he was forced to change political parties (Republican to Democrat). Because he refused, he was fired. When World War I broke out in 1917, Cyrus was 50 years old and had thirteen children. Many of his cousins served, however, mostly those who remained in Armstrong County, and they served in the 110th or 112th Infantry Regiments of the 28th (Keystone) Infantry Division, a unit that was made around old Pennsylvania National Guard units, or in the 317th and 319th Infantry Regiments of the 80th (Blue Ridge) Infantry Division, an Army Reserve outfit made up primarily of draftees from western mountain counties of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. Privates Turner, Benjamin, and Charles Schrecengost of Wayne Township, Armstrong County served together in Company K, 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Division.
*James Schrecengost (1914) graduated high school in Marienville, Pennsylvania in 1932 and took a job as a machinist in a glass plant in Marienville (cheap natural gas). He didn't remember the Depression much, stating "we were always poor and basically fed ourselves anyway." He also played the clarinet at with a local big band that played on Saturday nights. During one of these dances, he met Alice Crum of Pittsburgh, a woman who was full of life, and on October 5, 1941, married her. He purchased an old house on the western edge of Marienville and literally had to rebuild the place from scratch for his new wife. The walls were encrusted with coal smoke, there was no indoor plumbing (the outhouse stood until 1984), there was no kitchen (the old man he purchased it from cooked his meals on the coal stove), and no bedrooms to speak of. After a few years of hard work, however, James and Alice turned their house into a home.
During WW2, James was 28 years old and his first son, *Robert Boyd, was born on January 19, 1942, a month after Pearl Harbor. During the war, James continued to work in the "glass plant" and reared two more boys, Larry and Donald. Larry went on to have two children, Todd and Lisa, and became a draftsman in Michigan. Donald joined the USAF in 1971 and serviced avionics on spy planes during the Vietnam War/Cold War. He was stationed in Thailand for several years where he married a national, Dang, served on a NATO airbase near Bitburg, Germany, and then retired an E-7 and moved to Altus AFB, Oklahoma, where he continued his work as a civilian contractor. Donald traveled to Aue-Wingeshausen in 1991 to help me with some of the research.
*James was also a gunsmith, like his father, grandfather, etc., all the way back to Henry and Jost, and made, refurbished, and fixed several guns during the 1940s-70s. He mostly converted old German Mausers into sporting rifles. He was also a fine hunter and sound woodsman-he taught me how to shoot and hunt along with my father. He remembers that his mother said that they were "Pennsylvania Dutch," but he knew nothing of our ancestors-only that he had a ton of brothers and sisters who competed for food and attention. He also remembered that when a Schreckengost playfully meant, "It's in Timbuktu," they'd say, "It's down in Kiskiminetas Station." Kiskiminetas" is the southern-most township of Armstrong County, along the Kiskiminetas River that separates Armstrong from Westmoreland Counties, near Apollo and Leechburg. The station was the railroad. Apparently, some Schreckengosts worked for the railroad, including Jeremiah until he moved to Forest County. Some also claim that some Schreckengosts charged the spelling of their names because they got black balled from the railroad companies. A new spelling could be masked with, "that's the other Schreckengost, with a 'c' or a 'k,' etc."
Going through all of this, what struck me the most was the continuum of it all. Many of us today tend to focus so much on our own lives: where we're going, what we're doing, etc. But in the continuum, all that matters is continuity and cause and effect relationships. Schreckengasts, for good or ill, never sought notoriety; they simply wanted to live their lives in relative freedom and be left alone. Granted, a few gained celebrity status, people like Ossie Schreckengost the baseball player and Vicktor Schreckengast the artist, but they never sought it. It is also true that nobody else really knows about Johann Jost Schreckengast-but we do. Nobody will really know about us when we're gone, either, except for our own ancestors. When we make decisions, therefore, we should always calculate what effect it will have on future generations. Will they benefit from our labors and decisions or pay for them?
If you are interested in getting a more complete ppt. with pictures, scanned documents, etc., e-mail me. I'm also looking for someone to make a neat genealogy chart. Go "Scare a Guest!"
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