Heinrich Graff

THE GRAFF FAMILY

The major part of this collection was made by H W Lensner in 1939, likely at a time when the clan had a reunion, and updated some in the following years. It is unfortunate that Mr. Lensner did not include many dates and places. It is hoped that some day, a member of the family will work to fill the story out.

THE GRAFF FAMILY

Henry Graff was born 1 March 1781, in Germany. He was married about 1809 or 1810, to Margareth Fries, , who was born in 1786. They lived in Unstadt, near Darmstadt, in Hessen, Germany. (See: Fries Family) “Our grandparents were born in a very sad time. It was the time when Napoleon I wanted to conquer all Europe. At first, he was very successful, too, and with his great army he intended to invade Russia also. But, almighty God soon told him, ‘Here shall thy proud waves be stayed.’ (Job 38:2) He met his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and passed the rest of his days in exile on the Island of St. Henens, where he died in 1821.

“My dear Grandmother Grimm often told me, that when she was only one day old, her mother had to flee with her little babe in her arms from the oncoming mighty army of Napoleon I. That was on 2 November 1813. Her older brother, John George Graff, was not quite three years old. In Germany, people raised many geese at that time. About 1830 a law was passed that no one in a village or town was permitted to raise geese anymore. This angered our Great Grandmother Graff, so much, that she would not stay in Germany any more. Her husband, our Great Grandfather Graff, also, had made up his mind already to take his family to a country free from kings, and threats of war, and old traditions “Early in 1831, they prepared to leave their home, to cross the mighty Atlantic ocean, and go to a country where thay were free from tyrannical rulers. My Grandmother Grimm often told me that they filled many bags with dried bread before they left their home.

“When we think of the small sad boats they had at the time and the great distance, over 3000 miles across the great Atlantic Ocean, we must wonder of the courage those good people had. I do not remember when they went on the boat, nor how long it too them to cross the Ocean, but the Koebling brothers came over about the same time, and it may be on the same boat, for there were over 100 peole that came over with the Koebling brothers. They left Europe on May 1831, and after a long and tedius voyage of 2½ months, landed in Phildelphia, where our great grandparents also landed.

“After a few weeks, they departed for Pittsburgh, by the way of the Pennsylvania Canal, crossing the Allegheny mnountauns by the ‘portage’ railroad and inclined planes. This railroad does not exist anymore, for many years. The route from Philadelphia to Pittsburg went firt by horse rail, the rails were of wood covered with strips of iron, and the cars pulled by horses, from Philadelhia to Columbia on the Susguehanna River and then by canal along the susguehanna and Juniata Rivers to Hollidayburg, then over the steep sides of the mountain by a ‘portage railroad’ to Johnstown. The ‘portage’ railroads were a series of inclines. The trains were pulled up those mountains sides by engines and let down on the other side of them, from Johnstown by canal down to Pittsburgh.

“They cane to Pittsburgh, which ws only a small town at that time, in 1831. Our Grandfather Graff wanted to buy 40 acres of land in the now downtown Pittsburg, along the Alleghenny River. He could have had the 40 acres for $200.00, but a friend of Mr. Klever, the music store man, who had a music store in Pittsburg, that was already pretty well-to-do, advised him not to buy the swampy land, but to go farther north to where good land was to be had very cheaply. So he came with his family to Saxonburg in the spring of 1832, where more Germans had already settled.”

Margareth died in 1840, age 34. Henry was married/2, to Elizabeth Grosch Baer, who was born 25 March 1794. Henry died 23 January 1858, age 76yr 10mo, 22da. Elizabeth died in 1871, age 77. All were buried in the Graff Cemetery. There were probably other children.

Children: John George Graff, born 1811 Elizabeth Graff, born 1813; married Henry Grimm Margareth Graff, died young; married Mr. Ulrich Adam Graff, born 1828, in Unstadt, near Hessen, Germany, died 1896