Decendants of Theobald Gerst

DEATH: aged abt 48 yr

MILITARY: Revolutionary War, 8 years (Capt. Stoever's Company, 7thClass, Second Battalion, L ancaster Co., PA, Militia in 1781)

Family records suggest that John Nicholas Garst II never left Pennsylvania. It appears that he did not move to Virginia with his parents, brothers and sisters as the Will of his father, John Nicholas Garst I states that (his son) John Nicholas lived "a considerable distance" from Botetourt County, Virginia.

NOTE: The John Nicholas Garst III position in this family profile is "out of sequence" as regards his date of birth. The reason was his correct birth record wasn't found until after this book was in its final stage of completion.

GARST FAMILY CONFUSION:

The family of John Nicholas Garst II was the only Garst family not to move from Pennsylvania to Virginia in 1790, the year when John Nicholas Garst I and eight of his children and their families left Little Swatara Creek in Bethel Township, PA, to relocate in Botetourt County, VA.

John Nicholas Garst II did not go with his father and his siblings but settled instead on the banks of Little Swatara Creek downstream in East Hanover Township. This location is given in the land warranteee map and land records for John Nicholas Garst II.

According to the GarstFamily website file, John Nicholas Garst II had five children, three of whom were baptized in Tabor Reformed Church. It is here that there seems to be some confusion:

(1) The GarstFamily file has a son Jacob being born on January 2, 1787, and baptized on January 17, 1792. This does not agree with the Tabor Reformed Church records compiled by William Hinke which says that he was born on October 29, 1791. The baptism is for a Jacob Garst, son of Johannes Garst, born in 1791, not for the Jacob Garst, born in 1787, who was son of John Nicholas II.

(2) The GarstFamily file has a daughter Mottelena "Molly" being born on October 29, 1791, and baptized on January 17, 1792. This does not agree with the Tabor Reformed Church records which has no such birth or baptism, but, instead has Molly as the mother of the Jacob Gerst baptized on that date.

(3) The Garst Family file has a son Johan Nicholas III being born on September 13, 1789, and baptized on November 15, 1789. This does not agree with the Tabor Reformed Church records which has the same dates but a different name: Johannes Gerst. This Johannes was the son of Johannes Garst, not the son of John Nicholas Garst II. The names Johannes and Johan Nicholas are not the same in the German Reformed culture.

(4) The Garst Family file has the father named as John Nicholas and his wife as Elizabeth. The Tabor Reformed Church records has the father named as Johannes and the mother as Magdalena and/or Molly.

Since the GarstFamily website file says that the source for the baptisms of the three above children of John Nicholas Garst II is based on Tabor Reformed Church records, it is clear to this writer that the compiler of the file did not read the church records correctly. The information in the GarstFamily file does not match the information in Hinke’s transcription of the Tabor Reformed Church records in EARLY CHURCH RECORDS OF LEBANON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, by F. Edward Wright, Willow Bend Books, 2000, pp. 1-46. Garst researchers will probably not find any church records for the births of the children of John Nicholas Garst II. John Nicholas II was born into a German Baptist Brethren family that did not believe in infant baptism. Birth years for these children are usually found in tombstones inscriptions, census records, bible records, and obituaries.

Dwayne Wrightsman Lee, NH

Family of John Nicholas Garst Jr.

John Nicholas Garst Jr. did not move from Pennsylvania to Virginia as did his parents and his brothers and his sisters. He was mentioned in his father's will, written 1801, as living "a considerable distance" from Virginia. Indeed, he may have been living on the 146 acres on the north bank of Swatara Creek in Hanover Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, which he patented on February 19, 1813.[1] This land was part of a tract of 368 acres applied for by Peter Wolf in 1765, of which 222 acres were patented by Wolf in 1768, the remaining 146 acres warranted, surveyed, and patented by "Nicholas Gerst" in 1813. In the following year, 1814, "John N. Kerst" warranted, surveyed, and patented a five-acre island in Swatara Creek, just offshore from his farm.[2]

The family of John Nicholas Garst Jr. has not been documented in Pennsylvania records. There are no known birth, marriage, death, or burial records for him and his wife (or wives). It is only through his father's will written in Virginia, in 1801, that we have his name, and through land records recorded in Pennsylvania, in 1813, that we have his place of residence. We do not know whom he married. There are no baptismal records for his children. Five children are listed, however, in the 1950 Garst family book compiled by William Tell Garst, namely Jacob Garst, Mottelena Garst, Elizabeth Garst, John Nicholas Garst III, and Henry Garst.[3]

Four of the five children listed in the Garst book can be documented by Pennsylvania and Ohio marriage records and by Ohio land, death, and burial records. However, the evidence indicates that the fifth child, named "John Nicholas Garst III" in the Garst book, as described on pages 200 and 296, was not the son of John Nicholas Garst Jr.[4] Still, there was a fifth child: The Ohio documents provide evidence that John Nicholas Garst Jr. had a daughter, Anna, who never made it into the 1950 Garst family book.

The oldest known child of John Nicholas Garst Jr. was Magdalena Garst. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1785,[5] married Christian Zehring in Warren County, Ohio, in 1817,[6] died in Warren County, Ohio, in 1878,[7] and was buried in Woodhill Cemetery (Old Franklin Cemetery) in Franklin Township, Warren County, Ohio.[8] She was 92 years of age at her death.

The second oldest known child was Jacob Garst. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1787, and died in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1845.[9] He married, first, Catharine "Eley" [Aley] in Greene County, Ohio, in 1815.[10] He married, second, Clarissa Troup in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1832.[11] Both of his wives were buried with him at the Germantown Cemetery, German Township, Montgomery County. Jacob Garst was a member of the United Brethren Church.

The third oldest known child was Elizabeth Garst. She was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in 1794,[12] and was married to William Zehring (brother of Christian Zehring) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1819.[13] The couple moved to Butler County, Ohio, in 1819, but ended up living the greater part of their lives in Montgomery County, Ohio.[14] Elizabeth died and was buried in Warren County, Ohio, in 1885.[15] [16] William and Elizabeth [Garst] Zehring joined the German Baptist Brethren Church in 1830, and remained members until death.[17]

The fourth oldest known child was Anna Garst. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1796, married Jacob Aley in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1827,[18] died in Greene County, Ohio, in 1844, and was buried in the Aley Chapel Cemetery, Beavercreek Township, Greene County, Ohio.[19] The land for the church and cemetery was donated by her husband, Jacob Aley, who was buried next to her. The land was part of the Isaac Aley estate that son Jacob Aley bought from the heirs, his siblings, one being Catharine [Aley] Garst, wife of Jacob Garst.[20]

The fifth oldest known child was Henry Garst. He was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in 1801, and died in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1887.[21] He married Elizabeth Wenger in Jonestown, Lebanon County (formerly Dauphin County), Pennsylvania, in 1826.[22] They moved to Ohio and settled in Mad River Township, Montgomery County, near the line with Greene County. Elizabeth [Wenger] Garst died in 1886. Both were buried in Hawker Cemetery, Beavercreek Township, Greene County, Ohio. This cemetery was one mile south of the Aley Chapel Cemetery where Henry Garst's sister Anna [Garst] Aley was buried.

All five children of John Nicholas Garst Jr. moved from Pennsylvania to the area of Ohio where Montgomery, Greene, and Warren Counties meet. There is no record, however, that their father, John Nicholas Garst Jr., ever set foot in Ohio.

[1] Pennsylvania Archives, Harrisburg, Survey C-61-220, Patent H-8-569. [2] Pennsylvania Archives, Harrisburg, Survey C-101-181, Patent H-10-316. [3] William Tell Garst, OUR GARST FAMILY IN AMERICA, 1950, p. 199. [4] Page 200 of the Garst book says that John Nicholas Garst III married Harriet Wertz in 1843, and that she was born in 1818. Page 296 of the Garst book says that John and Harriet Garst were buried in Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio, John in 1885, age 68; and Harriet in 1893, age 75. These ages are fully consistent with those entered in the 1860, 1870, and 1880 Montgomery County census records for this family, each record yielding an 1817 birth year for John Garst. The censuses also state that John Garst was born in Ohio. If John was born in 1817, in Ohio, he would not have been the son of John Nicholas Garst Jr. and wife, both of whom would have been in their late 50s, or early 60s, living in Pennsylvania, assuming that they were still alive. [5] According to an October 1875 Greene County, Ohio, court deposition written by her daughter, Martha Z. Beall, Magdalena Garst was born on October 19, 1785. [6] Magdalena Garst and Christian "Serring" were married on May 18, 1817, Warren County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1803-1834, Warren County, Ohio, Genealogical Society, 1988, p. 129. [7] Magdalena Garst "Zering" died on April 9, 1878, Warren County, Ohio, Death Records, 1861-1881, compiled by Ellen Van Houton and Florence Cole, 1999, p. 478. [8] Warren County, Ohio, Cemetery Book, Volume 9, Warren County, Ohio, Genealogical Society, p. 97. [9] Jacob Garst, d. June 20, 1845, age 58 years, 5 months, 18 days, Germantown Cemetery, German Township, Montgomery County, Ohio. [10] Green County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1803-1818. [11] Montgomery County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1803-1850. [12] Obituary, Dayton Daily Journal, Tuesday, September 22, 1885, page 3. [13] Elizabeth Garst and William Zehring were married on April 27, 1819, Records of Pastoral Acts at Zion Lutheran Church, Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 1795-1827, published by the Pennsylvania German Society, Kutztown, PA. [14] Obituary, op. cit. [15] Elizabeth "Zeahring" died on September 15, 1885, Warren County, Ohio, Death Records, 1881-1904, compiled by Ellen Van Houton and Florence Cole, 1999, p. 116. [16] Elizabeth Garst Zehring, d. on September 15, 1885, age 90y, 10m, 26d, Woodhill (Old Franklin) Cemetery, Warren County, Ohio, Warren County, Ohio, Cemetery Book, Volume 9, op. cit., p. 97. [17] Obituary, op. cit. [18] Montgomery County, Ohio, Marriage Records, 1803-1850. [19] Aley, Anna, Consort of Jacob, d. Jun. 13, 1844, age 48y, 2m, 18d, Tombstone Inscription, Row 9, Aley Chapel Cemetery, Beavercreek Township, Greene County, Ohio. [20] Jacob Garst and Catharina (her mark) his wife, of Montgomery Co, to Jacob Aley of Greene Co, Ohio, 3-5-1819, Quit claim...Catharina being the daughter of Isaac Aley dec'd, Deed Book 14, Page 169. [21] Born Dec. 6, 1801, Died April 15, 1887, from Tombstone Inscription, Hawker Cemetery, Beavercreek Township, Greene County, Ohio. [22] Records of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Jonestown, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, Marriages 1810-1859; Burials 1809-1857.

Dwayne Wrightsman Lee, NH