Shenk Family
Biography from Biographical Annals of Lancaster County, PA, pages 794-795
Submitted by Wanza CampbellSHENK. One of the old and influential families of Lancaster county is that bearing the name of SHENK. Among its worth representatives several generations ago was Martin SHENK, a native of Manheim township. His wife, Elizabeth, was a native of West Hempfield township. They were life-long industrious, honest toilers of the fertile soil, and reared a large family of children.
John SHENK, one of their sons, was born in Manheim township, Lancaster county, about 1808. John was reared on the farm and followed farming as his vocation in life. He married Mariah KAUFFMAN, daughter of Jacob KAUFFMAN, one of the sturdy settlers of Manheim township. They were devout members of the Mennonite Church, and lived in West Hempfield township through life. John, in his later years, was a Republican in politics, and lived to the ripe old age of eighty-five years, passing away in 1894. His wife, Mariah, died in 1870, aged sixty-six years. They are buried at Marietta. Six children were born to John and Mariah SHENK, namely: Henry K., a retired farmer of West Hempfield township, whose sketch appears below; Martha, who married John MINNICK, a farmer of West Hempfield township; Jacob, who lives retired in Myerstown, Lebanon county; Elizabeth, wife of Henry ROYER, a farmer of Lebanon county; Christian K., farmer and tobacco merchant of West Hempfield township, whose sketch also appears herewith; and Mariah, of Lewistown.
HENRY K. SHENK, one of the old and highly honored citizens of West Hempfield township, for almost half a century, has lived on the farm which he now occupies. He came to the farm when twenty years of age, and his earnest, active, influential and successful career is known to all men in that locality. He is the son of John and Mariah (KAUFFMAN) SHENK, and was born on the old homestead in Manheim township, Feb. 27, 1833. He married Dec. 25, 1862, in East Donegal township, Mary S. RHOADS, who was born in Manor township, April 18, 1833, daughter of George and Elizabeth RHOADS, residents of East Donegal township, where George RHOADS was widely known as an industrious and skillful blacksmith, and as an enterprising farmer. To George and Elizabeth RHOADS were born six children, as follows: Abraham, who lived retired in Maytown, Lancaster county, and is now deceased; Elizabeth, wife of Benjamin HOFFMAN of Conoy township; Mary, deceased wife if Henry K. SHENK; Levi, a retired farmer of Quarryville; Susan, widow of Christian BRANT of Maytown; and George, a farmer of East Donegal township. Mary, the wife of Henry K. SHENK, died Dec. 23, 1893, aged sixty years. The only child of Henry K., and Mary S. (RHOADS) SHENK is Elizabeth, who married Eli L. NISSLEY, a tobacco merchant of East Donegal township, by whom she has a family of four children. In politics Henry K. SHENK is a Republican. His well cultivated farm comprises ninety-eight acres, and as an agriculturalist he has been progressive, wide awake and eminently successful. As a public spirited citizen he ranks high, and he holds the deep esteem of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
CHRISTIAN K. SHENK is one of the most active and prominent citizens of West Hempfield township, - a man who has engaged extensively in agricultural pursuits for many years, latterly in connection with the tobacco business, and prospered to a marked degree. He was born in Manheim township, March 5, 1840. He remained on the home farm with his parents, assisting in the arduous agricultural pursuits of the times until his marriage, which occurred when he was twenty-nine years old. He was married at Columbia, in December, 1869, to Miss Anna HEIDLER, and by this marriage had two children: Oliver, who married Elizabeth HOSTETTER and lives in Manor township; and Laura, who married Benjamin KOCH, Dec. 27, 1900, and lives in Conshohocken, Pa. The wife died in March, 1876, aged thirty-five years, and for his second wife, Christian K. SHENK married at Columbia in December, 1881, Martha HEIDLER, sister of his deceased first wife.
They were the daughters of Levi and Martha (HOUGENDOBLER) HEIDLER, who individually represented two of the oldest families in Lancaster county. Levi was the son of William and Nancy (FORRY) HEIDLER, natives, respectively of Bird-in-Hand, and of West Hempfield township. Both died comparatively early in life, while residents of Marietta. William HEIDLER was drowned in 1826, at the age of thirty-five years, while fishing in the Susquehanna river. His wife died in 1829, aged thirty-three. They left five children as follows: Levi; Nancy, who married Samuel JOHNSON and is now deceased; Hannah, deceased wife of Harry HEISE, Cyrus, deceased; and William who became a miller and went West. Levi, who was a prominent retired farmer of Cordelia, was born Aug. 26, 1815, and died in October, 1901.
Levi HEIDLER married in Lancaster, Jan. 9, 1838, Martha HOUGENDOUBLER, who was born in West Hempfield township April 1, 1820, daughter of Nicholas and Barbara (GELDMAKER) HOUGENDOBLER, and granddaughter if Isaac and Elizabeth (PETERS) HOUGENDOBLER. Isaac and his three brothers emigrated from Germany, and were among the earliest settlers of West Hempfield township, Lancaster county, buying the land from William PENN. Nicholas, son of Isaac HOUGENDOUBLER, was born in West Hempfield township, and was a weaver by trade and later a distiller. He died in Indiana in 1880, aged eighty-seven years. He married three times. By his first wife Barbara GELDMAKER, who died in 1827, aged thirty years, he had four children: Barbara, deceased wife of Jacob BARD; Nancy, deceased wife of Michael CRIDER; Martha, who married Levi HEIDLER; and Henry, a tailor, now deceased. By his third wife, Mary ESTON he had eight children, namely: Sarah, who married Amasiah YOUNG, of Manheim; Jacob, Amos and Abraham, who live with their mother in Indiana; and Harriet, Lizzie, Franklin and Harriet(2), who died young.
To Levi and Martha (HOUGENDOBLER) HEIDLER were born eleven children as follows: Anna, who married Christian K. SHENK, and is now deceased; William, who married Mary BART, and lives in Cordelia; Henry of San Diego, Cal.; Barbara; Harriet, wife of Henry BRENNEMAN, a veterinary surgeon of Mt. Joy; Cyrus, proprietor of a bakery at Mountville, Pa.; Sarah, wife of Dr. Charles MC AULEY, a physician of Petersburg; Martha, wife of Christian K. SHENK; Mary who died young; Samuel, who married Adelia BUNN, and is a school teacher of Springfield, Ill.; and Horace, a telegraph operator of Chickies, Lancaster county. Levi HEIDLER retired from active farming in West Hempfield in 1887, after which he lived in Columbia and Cordelia, successively. In politics he was a Democrat, and in religious faith he was for many years a member of the English Lutheran Church, to which his wife also belongs.
After his marriage Christian K. SHENK operated his father's farm for ten years on the shares. He then engaged in the tobacco business in connection with farming and trucking and is now one of the prominent tobacco merchants of the county. In politics he is a Republican. His wife is a member of the Lutheran Church. They are prominent in the social life of the township, and most highly esteemed for their many estimable qualities. Christian K. SHENK has proved himself a successful business man, and his keen business judgment integrity and energy have placed him among the foremost citizens of West Hempfield township.
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