Philipp Poorbaugh

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69278577/phillip-poorbaugh

The following information is gleaned from the book The Burbach--Poorbaugh--Purbaugh Family in America, compiled by Treva M. Calder, a distant relative, for the purpose of informing my own children of their heritage through one grandparent.

Philipp Burbach of Bavaria, the upper Palatinate of Germany, was one of fifty-- two young men who responded to solicitations of the agents of the Penns to come to the Province of Pennsylvania to assist in colonizing it and at the same time to share in the freedom and opportunities which this "New Land" of America offer. As soon as navigation opened on the Rhine River in the spring of 1771 the group started their long arduous journey to America. The trip from Heilbronn to the seaport of Rotterdam in Holland took 4 to 6 weeks due to the red tape at the 26 custom houses they had to pass through.

Reaching Rotterdam, and after 5 or 6 more weeks of waiting, they secured passage on the English brigantine "Recovery", Mr. Bull, Master. When favorable winds permitted, they sailed down the North Sea through the Straits of Dover into the English Channel and put into the Port of Cowes on the north shore of the Isle of Wright, just off the south coast of the English mainland. After further delays for customs, they obtained final clearance from the English authorities and when the most favorable winds prevailed they set sail in the high hopes upon their long treacherous two to four months journey across the wide Atlantic Ocean.

The Recovery docked at the port of Philadelphia on October 31, 1771. Each immigrant was then required to sign an oath of allegiance to the English Crown as well as a solemn declaration of loyalty to the proprietors of the province including strict obeyence of its laws which Phillip signed in a legible German script.

The group was consigned to Willing and Morris, a Philadelphia merchant concern, who assumed payment for passage and expenses on the part of any member of the group. They were then sent out to various sections of the Province where employment was secured for each according to his particular skill and training with provisions for repayment with interest of amounts due the Philadelphia merchants. Philipp was sent to the rich farming section around Lititz, a short distance north of Lancaster, and in all probability secured employment on a farm.

After paying off his debt to Willing and Morris, Philipp was married to Catherine Elizabeth (maiden name Ilgenfrits Blickensderfer), an attractive widow, on November 16 1779, by Rev. John Christopher Gobrecht in Royers Reformed Church and started a new life in his new homeland.

To help preserve his new found freedom, Philipp fought in the Revolutionary War in 1781. Proof of his service is found in Pennsylvania archives, 5th series, vol. 7 p. 282, 284, 330. This proof entitles all of Philipp Burbach's blood descendants to join the Daughters or Sons of the American Revolution if they so desire.

Of interest is the fact that the record of Philipp's and Elizabeth's marriage, located in Royer's Church, Philipp spelled his name "Porbach". It appears that one of the requirements of the Penns was that German names must be Angalized, take on an English spelling. Though Philipp seemingly continued using the German spelling, many of his decedents have, and are using the English spelling.

After the war, both Philipp and Elizabeth's first husband, Jacob Blickensderfer, who was a war casualty, were members of the County Militia, and as such were not entitled to donation lands as were the soldiers of the Continental Line. Upon deciding to homestead in the west of the Province, the Burbachs in 1788 loaded their belongings 01 Dec 2006 Descendants of The Old Man Ilgenfritz Page 22 on a wagon drawn by horses or oxen and started west with their six children. They more likely stopped in York County to stay with their father awhile for this might be some time in 1788 or 1789 they arrived in Bedford County and Philipp scouted around for a favorable piece of land to homestead. Like the true Bavarian mountaineer that he was he chose the very top of the Allegheny Mountains in Lendonderry Township. Here he built their home on the south side of the brow of the mountain out of sight of the road and it still is today.(An accompanying map of Somerset County in Pennsylvania shows the area.) He chose well, for across part of their land flowed a creek, now called Poorbaugh Run, and close by the house was a spring. (Note the different spelling. One of Philipp's sons made this change.)

Many of the very first settlers gave up and let the land revert to the government. It was some of this land that formerly belonged to Philip Gundle that Philipp choose. On June 17 and 18, 1789, he had it surveyed and warranted as follows: to Henry, his oldest son, 165 acres. To Philipp, 427 acres. His lands were richly forested and in all probability he felled his own trees and built their first log home. In twenty years time they had a good dwelling house and barn, a good apple orchard and about fifty to sixty acres of cleared land under good fence.

They were sturdy pioneers for in those early days they had to go to Chambersburg for salt and flour, a distance of some seventy miles east as the crow flies, but many more for Philipp as he yodeled his way across the mountain ranges. As new settlers arrived and pushed further into the wilderness to establish their homes, the distance became too great to Bedford, the county seat, where they went to transact their legal affairs and to the Township Election House in Berlin where they took great pride in exercising what to many of them was a newly acquired freedom to vote and hold office. So Bedford Co., at that time comprising all the southwest section of the province with an area of 9000 square miles, was divided and on 4 17 1795, Somerset County was formed. Philipp found his homestead to be in the new county when on 3/1/1800, part of Londonderry Township, Bedford Co., was added to Somerset County. Later the township was divided to form Allegheny Township in 1805, then Northhampton Township in 1851 and each time they were in a new township.

Philipp was an educated man for those days and it is the compilers belief that he was of the Landed Gentry of Bavaria, for only those with money could afford to educate their children. Perhaps after his fathers death, being a younger son, he had to go out and make his own fortune and chose America the new land of opportunity. He was concerned about his children's education in this new land for in 1796 he employed a German school teacher, Charles Peterman, to conduct a school in his home for their education. He then invited his neighbors children to attend. Thus it gained the distinction of being the first school in that section of the county. The first record of a school building indicates the erection of one in 1816 on an adjoining farm.

Both Philipp and Elizabeth were of the German Reformed faith and soon started to attend Reformed Meetings in the neighborhood. If, when they came, there was no such meetings, then he was sure to have helped to start them and took his turn in having them. No data is available on Philipp's parentage, but Elizabeth's is as follows:

Elizabeth Burbach was the daughter of Johann George Ilgenfritz and Margaretha (Mohr) Ilgenfritz. Johann was born 5 25 1728, at Werenz, Ausbach, Middle Franconia, Germany, and died 10 11 1810 at York, Pennsylvania, at age 82. He married Margaretha Mohr in June 1748. His father was Hans Georg Ilgenfritz, born 1703 in Werenz, Germany, and died Oct. 1749 in Dover Township, York Co., Pennsylvania. His mother was Maria Appellonia Ilgenfritz, born and married in Germany.

Margaretha Mohr, Elizabeyh's mother, was born 9 15 1731 at Bedkerbach, Palatinate, Germany and died 4 Jun 1769 in Dover Township, York Co., Pennsylvania. Married in June 1748. Although they were Lutheran, they joined the Moravian Church, York Pa. in 1757 but he severed his membership in 1770, one year after her death when he remarried.

# Birth: ABT 1749 in Palantine, Germany 1

1. Death: 1815 in Bedford Co., PA 2 3
2. Burial: Poorbaugh Family Cemetery, Somerset, PA 4
3. Note:

   Came to America about 1771.

Source: Nelson Miller Genealogy.
Recognized by DAR as a Revolutionary War Patriot. Pvt. Co. 8th, 3rd Batt. Pa. Militia.
Ref: Pennsylvania Archives, 5th Series, Vol. 7, page 282, 284, 330.
Ref: DAR Patriot Index page 100.
He left his home in the German Palatinate from which he emigrated to America in 1771. He landed in Philadelphia October 31, 1771

Philip and Catherine Elizabeth Blickensderfer (widow) were married November 16, 1779 in Royer's Reformed Church some distance from Lititz.

Phillip Burbach (Poorbaugh), one of the earliest pioneers, emigrated from Germany to York, PA prior to the Revolutionary War. After the war he moved to the present township of Northampton. During the first years of his residence here, he was obliged to go to Chambersburg for salt, and other supplies. The settlers found it difficult to obtain even the necessities of life. Salt was high and difficult to be procured at almost any price. Mills and stores were far distant and the settlers, as far as possible lived upon the scanty products of their own. In 1793 Philip Poorbaugh obtained a warrant for seven hundred and ten acres of land, upon part of which his descendants still live.

He served as a private-4th class-8th Co. 3rd Battalion-Lancaster Co. PA-under John Smuller during the years 1781-1782. His residence during Revolution-Lititz, Lancaster Co. PA. There is a record of 300 acres of land granted him and 150 acres to his oldest son, Henry, in western part of the Province of what was then known as Allegheny Twp.-Bedford Co., and this led to the family's migrating westward. Philip moved from Lititz to what is now Northampton Township in Somerset County.

The land was recompense for military service.

The following provided by FAG member #47292223: As a young man in Bavaria, Germany, Philip heard Pitt brothers speak, gathering young men to go to Pennsylvania to settle. He and a group waited until the waterways thawed, traveled to Norway, England and eventually to PA. He along with many of the others were indentured to people in PA. He was sent to work at a farm to work off the passage fees (possibly for seven years). He did such a good job, he was released early and started farming himself.

He met a young woman (from York) whose family was from the same area as he was. Catherine (Ilgenfritz) Blickensderfer was a young widow of a Revolutionary War soldier. They were married and moved their young family west to settle on land on the mountain side in Somerset County, PA, much like his home in Germany. They raised their family, many descendants of whom still live in that area.

Sources also from KL Miller database listed below.

Sources:

  1. Title: Nelson A. Miller Genealogy

Author: Dr. Mary Belle Lontz, Milton, PA
Publication: privately prepared circa 1990, copy in posession of Scott Shiley .
2. Title: Nelson A. Miller Genealogy
Author: Dr. Mary Belle Lontz, Milton, PA
Publication: privately prepared circa 1990, copy in posession of Scott Shiley .
Note: Bond filed 7/11/1815. Estate no. 19 in 1815, Bedford Co., Pa.
3. Title: Descendants of The Ilgenfritz Family (Oldest Known Ancestors on Robert Heffley's Father's Branch)
Author: Robert S. Heffley
Publication: August 2004
Page: Page 10
Note: Says died 1814 in Allegheny Twp., Somerset, PA
4. Title: Descendants of The Ilgenfritz Family (Oldest Known Ancestors on Robert Heffley's Father's Branch)
Author: Robert S. Heffley
Publication: August 2004
Page: Page 12
5. Title: Somerset County Cemetery Listings
Publication:
Note: Bowman Cemetery Listing
6. Title: Descendants of The Ilgenfritz Family (Oldest Known Ancestors on Robert Heffley's Father's Branch)
Author: Robert S. Heffley
Publication: August 2004
Page: Page 10
Note: Says married November 16, 1779 in Royer's Reformed Church, Bickerville, Lancaster, PA

The following provided by FAG member #47292223: As a young man in Bavaria, Germany, Philip heard Pitt brothers speak, gathering young men to go to Pennsylvania to settle. He and a group waited until the waterways thawed, traveled to Norway, England and eventually to PA. He along with many of the others were indentured to people in PA. He was sent to work at a farm to work off the passage fees (possibly for seven years). He did such a good job, he was released early and started farming himself.

He met a young woman (from York) whose family was from the same area as he was. Catherine (Ilgenfritz) Blickensderfer was a young widow of a Revolutionary War soldier. They were married and moved their young family west to settle on land on the mountain side in Somerset County, PA, much like his home in Germany. They raised their family, many descendants of whom still live in that area.

• Updated from Find A Grave Memorial via son Philip Purbaugh by SmartCopy: Dec 11 2015, 2:41:37 UTC