He was married to Ann DELOSS about 1750 in , Hampshire, Virginia. Children were: John WAITS II, Richard WAITS, James WAITS, Charles WAITS, Reuben WAITS, Christina WAITS, Ann WAITS, Agnes WAITS.
Children were: Betsy WAITS.
He was married to Mary MCSHANE on 27 Sep 1798. Children were: Charles Martel WAITS.
Children were: Hugh HARRIS, Angie HARRIS.
Children were: Margaret WAITS.
He was married to Mary LEVENGOOD in 1775. Children were: John WAITS.
He was married to Sarah BLAKE on 20 Jul 1729 in , , Virginia. Children were: John WAITS, James WAITS, George WAITS.
He was married to Ann GRAVES about 1745. Children were: Reuben WAITS, Obediah WAITS, Frances WAITS.
Children were: Reginald Fred SPURLOCK, Randall Alan "Randy" SPURLOCK .
Children were: Patricia BURTON, Ralph Wayne BURTON, Donald G. BURTON, Herbert G. BURTON, Jimmy L. BURTON.
Children were: Alexander HORNBUCKLE , William C. HORNBUCKLE, Jefferson HORNBUCKLE, Turner HORNBUCKLE, Elizabeth HORNBUCKLE, Mattie HORNBUCKLE, Sarah Jane HORNBUCKLE.
Children were: Malinda Gobe WALKER.
Children were: Lillian BURTON , Betty Sue BURTON, Elvin BURTON.
She was married to
Rad Byerly BURTON on 20 Feb 1910 in Davie County, NC.. F. M. Williams, JP
Witnesses: CC Walter, DJ Potts, Lillie Williams
Children were: Ralph H. BURTON,
Mary Louise BURTON, Wendell BURTON,
Garmon Walter BURTON, Mary Lee BURTON.
He was married to Katherine BYERLY
before 1738 in Bavaria, Germany. To: Asbernard
ANN:
Got another chapter for you. Enjoy. Got on your GenWeb site the other nite.
Very good job and informative. Cliff.
CHAPTER X
THE INJURY TO THE OLD BIBLE
"They Believed the Scriptures." ---- John.ii,22
It has already been briefly told that Conrad Waltman in a fit of temporary
insanity tore out the fly leaves out of the old Bible that came from Count Hiram
von Frundsberg. This was the autumn of 1777.
His eight sons were in the Revolutionary War. Only his wife and two younger
daughters, Anna Barbara and Maria, were at home. At that time the State was
seething with war. Eight were fought on Pennsylvania soil, in three months'
time, from September 3 to December 7, 1777. The American troops ran absolutely
out of wadding, a necessity to the rifles of that day. Tow, hemp and paper were
requisitioned by foraging parties sent out far and near. Church after church
loyally turned their hymn-books over to the American troops. There are Pennsylvania
records which tell that Captain Weitzel asked twice in 1777 for hemp for wadding
before he could get any. Colonel Bertram Galbraith took from the press of the
Mennonites at Ephrata,Pa., three cart loads of unbound Bibles. Shortly after
on a similar occasion, in the neighbor state of New Jersey, occurred the incident
related by Brete Harte in his poem of "Parson Caldwell."
It was in 1780 when Brete Harte's hero "gave them Watts." Over in
Pennsylvania in the autumn of 1777, when the poorly equipped American army were
fighting desperately against great odds, there was the same calamity, no wadding.
Some one told the officers that there was a "crazy German" in Northampton
County that had a whole roomful of books. That was Conrad Waltman. Officers
and soldiers appeared and demanded the books in the name of the Continental Army.
Of course the easily unbalanced fellow became excited. He carried out armful
after armful of his mother's cherished books that had been sent to him after
her death fifteen years before. Some of these books were very rare. He tore
to pieces the venerable old Lutheran hymn-book, that was then over 100 years
old.
Next followed the family Bible, 125 years old, and treasured because the last
Count Frundsberg bought it, and because it had the old, old records of the family
in it. Good Katherine begged the officers to not let it be destroyed. When
they did nothing to stop him, she and her two strong-armed daughters tackled
the madman and by sheer force took the Bible from him.
He gave a last fierce yank that tore the back loose, ripping out a V-shaped
piece, and tore off a strip of the pig-skin binding from the back cover. He
jerked out all of the fly leaves, back and front, and a dozen pages beside out
of the front of the sacred book. The officers grabbed their arms full of papers
and scraps, then fled. Those priceless records of hundreds of years, that could
never be replaced, were fired away at the British.
Religiously the three women gathered up every scrap that was left. When the
Bible came into the author's possession in July 1921, there were still three
double leaves of the more than a hundred-year-old Lutheran hymn-book in the old
Bible, Jacob Hottenstein's letter, and the dozen loose leaves torn out of the
Bible. An expert repaired it, putting in a false inside back and attaching the
old one to it, antiquating a piece of pigskin and inserting it in where the wedge
had been torn out, and making it ready for another three hundred years.
During the repairs, safely hidden under the lining of the inside back cover,
was found fragments of an old document that had doubtless been kept in the Bible,
and had been torn to bits by Conrad in his frenzy. Poor Katherine had gathered
every scrap she could find of what she knew was a most important document of
settlement between Valentine Waltman and Count Hiram von Frundsberg, on the former
becoming of age, April 9, 1699. She slipped in every scrap, some of them not
over an inch in diameter. Then she pasted the lining back.
Out of eleven pieces only two matched. This shows something of what a good
sized document it was. German experts deciphered enough to tell that it was
an accounting with an heir that had come of age. Probably not over a fourth or
fifth of the manuscript was left. Count Hiram showed a careful, methodical mind.
Everything was shipshape, and his writing was plain, as a college man's writing
should be, but often is not.
The letter of Jacob Hottenstein's has been referred to in Chapter IX. This
Jacob Hottenstein was a prominent man in those days. He lived at a considerable
distance from Allen Township, Conrad's home, in what was then Northampton County,
but is now Luzerne. But the families visited each other. There was a congeniality
between them. Jacob Hottenstein himself descended from a noble German family.
Not long after the visit of the officers to Conrad's home, seeking material
for wadding, and shortly after the visit of Baron DeKalb and Baron Steuben, a
new misfortune visited the Waltman's.
Eight sons were in the Revolutionary War. William died in the service. A
blow to the already distressed family. Then Frederick, fifer in another company,
paid the supreme sacrifice, leaving a wife and three children. But the first
of the three sons to sacrifice his life was the next to youngest son, Nicholas,
a happy-dispositioned boy and a handsome young fellow, who lost his life in 1778.
The other brothers, Frederick in 1779 and William in 1782, met their death.
Poor Conrad went stark, raving mad over Nicholas' death. He never was sane
again, although he lived eighteen years longer, dying in 1796, aged 81. Faithful
Katherine cared for him. After Andrew, the youngest child, returned from the
war, he cared for him and her until their deaths. Katherine was broken-hearted
over her husband's plight and the death of her three sons. Then it was that
Jacob Hottenstein wrote that comforting letter, reminding her that "this
world is full of trouble and sorrow, but he who puts his trust in the loving,
living God will be sustained." This letter was such solace to her that
she kept it in the Bible It was still there when the Bible came into the author's
possession. {Lora LaMance}.
The question has been asked, who fell heir to that historic book? It was well
understood that the Bible was to go to the oldest son's line. Probably that
was Count Conrad's own request in his lucid hours. John Peter therefore should
have been the next custodian. But he was not. The old man was a daily trial
to care fore. Andrew, the youngest of all, did this, and did it cheerfully.
Peter was the soul of generosity. When the father died in 1796 he insisted
that Andrew was entitled to it above any other son, as he so faithfully cared
for both parents. So Andrew kept it, and his bold autograph is seen on the inside
cover of the front lid.
Andrew told his children that the Bible should next go to his oldest son, Valentine,
the author's grandfather. But his wife, Anna Maria Margretta, thought differently.
Valentine was a fine young man, that any mother might well have been proud of.
The next son, Adam, was named for her own father. But her special favorite
was the third son, Abraham. When the two oldest sons were married and in home
of their own, Anna Maria Margretta took things into her own hands and gave the
precious book to Abraham, giving as her excuse that he was "such a fine
German scholar."
Abraham's line kept it until 1921, when the last owner of that book, Oscar
Waltman of San Diego, California, for reasons that seemed good to him, restored
it to the line of Valentine, "where we knew all of the time that by rights
it belonged." Valentine left only daughters, of whom Kezia Waltman Nichols,
the author's mother, was the oldest child. At the time the Bible changed hands,
July 1921, there were but two of Kezia's children alive, Valentine Nichols, of
San Jose, California, and Lora LaMance, the writer of this book. Valentine Nichols
was as generous in his day as Peter Waltman was in his. He surrendered his rights
to his sister, only asking that for six weeks he might have it in his possession.
He studied it lovingly all of this time and then gave it up to her.
End Chapter X
*******************
THE HOUSE OF WALTMAN AND ITS ALLIED FAMILIES
LORA S. LaMANCE
1928
VALENTINE WALTMAN®S LINE
VALENTINE 3RD GENERATION
A just man and perfect in his generation. Genesis,vi, 9
Valentine was born October 25, 1790, exactly fifty-two years after his grandfather
landed in America. Nature was lavish with her gifts. He was fine looking, had
high principles, sound judgment, and a quick brain. All of the family spoke English
or German equally well. Valentine also wrote German easily and fluently. He was
always a reader, and Countess Barbara®s books, the few that escaped Conrad®s
frenzy in 1777, when he carried armloads of them out to the American troops to
be used as wadding, had been read by him over and over.
Countess Barbara died in February, 1762. Count Conrad in 1796. Officially the
family died in the eyes of German law. Great was the Waltman family®s surprise,
therefore, along about September, 1811, to receive an official letter from the
Bavarian Government, telling them that while the estate had lapsed to the crown
upon her death, as Conrad put forth no claim to it, and was then a resident of
a foreign land, the government had kept the estate intact as well as all the
monies received from it for that half century. They had all of the time kept
track of the possible claimants. The title had lapsed, as there were no legitimate
heirs to a title. But if the family of Conrad Waltman, deceased, would bring
clear proofs of their descent from Conrad Waltman and his morganatic wife, Katherine
Bierly, and bring properly drawn up powers of attorney, the government was ready
to turn over the estate and the large sum of money accrued to a representative
of the family. Only, this must be done before the half century anniversary of
her death. Upon that date, if no proper representative appeared, it would be
turned over to the crown, and the heirs would be forever barred from receiving
this property.
There was a great commotion. It appears that all of the brothers and sisters
alive at the close of the Revolutionary War, were still living. They were not
so old; but a trip to Germany in those days of slow sailing vessels that took
two months to make the voyage, and if storms interfered, took sometimes four
months, was considered as great an undertaking as it would now to go around the
world. Every brother had some excuse or other. In family conclave it was settled
to send Valentine the Younger. He would be 21, the 25th of October, was foot-loose
and single. He prepared for the trip.
Michael2 was living in Maryland. Ludwig2 was in York County. The sisters, Katherine
Hampshire,2 Eleanor Lutz2 and Margaret Yonce2 were living in Lancaster and Berks
Counties. William,3 the son of William,2 was in Lycoming County. Frederick,3
the son of Frederick,2 and Nicholas,3 his brother, were living in a remote part
of the state. Every one of those had to be visited and a power of attorney obtained
from them for Valentine the Younger to act for them.
A fine broadcloth suit was made for the young man for best occasions together
with a suit to travel in. Everything was made by hand in those days. Valentine
had a little trunk made for the voyage. It was 24 inches long, 13 inches wide
and 12 inches deep. It had thin iron bands at the edge and two brass bands around
the center, riveted with broadheaded brass brads. On the lid was his initials,
V. W., in closely placed brass tacks. It was lined with a small figured blue
and white wall paper. It is now in the possession of his granddaughter, the author.
It had taken two months to get all of these powers of attorney and to get the
other legal papers ready for him. It was now close to December. Just as he was
all ready to start, the busybody got in his work Someone told Valentine that
such and such of the heirs had said that they never expected to see him again.
He would go over there, get all of that money and all of that property, and never
come back. He would keep it. They had signed the agreement that he should have
full authority to act for them, but he would be beyond their reach and they could
not help themselves if he kept every cent.
Valentine was a pleasant man, and one that usually controlled himself well,
but he did have in his veins some of that hot Spanish temper. In a rage he tore
up every power of attorney, threw the pieces in the fire, and swore the only
oath of his whole life. He said he®d be d----d if he would go! He used to
say that his one swear word cost a fortune. The mischief was done. It was impossible
to assemble all of those legal papers again from those widely scattered points
and get them together in time for a voyage to Germany, where the family agent
must be early in February, 1812. So perished the family fortune.
*******
Children were: Jo Dee WANCE .
Children were: Shelby Lynn JONES, Stacie Lee JONES.
Children were: Mary WARD.
She was married to Adam STERRETT on 2 Mar 1797. Children were: James STERRETT.
Children were: Edris B. JARVIS.
He was married to Ethel SPURLOCK on 30 Jan 1943 in , Douglas, Missouri. Children were: Margaret Joan WARDEN, Paul Allen WARDEN.
Children were: Miriam Rebekah CLARK, Christopher Daniel CLARK .
He was married to Elizabeth WEAVER before 1837.
She was married to James R.SNYDER on 22 Mar 1855 in , Knox, Indiana.