Norman Gasbarro | December 29, 2010
(Part 3 of 3). Ruth Buffington, daughter of Richard Buffington (1654-1748) was born either in England or in America some time before her brother Richard, who is said to be the first child born in what is now Pennsylvania. According to the records of the Concord Monthly Meeting, Ruth married Ezekiel Harlan of Kennett, Pennsylvania, […]
Norman Gasbarro | December 28, 2010
(Part 2 of 3). Benjamin Buffington (c1730-1814), the great-grandson of Richard Buffington, emigrant from Great Marlow on the Thames, England, was the first of the Buffington family to settle in the Lykens Valley. After the American Revolution, in which he served in Captain Weaver’s Company, he brought his family to the area at the end […]
Norman Gasbarro | December 17, 2010
(Part 4 of 4). Just after 10 March 1864, Ann Ellen [Carson] Gratz received a third piece of bad news in just more than two years. The mother’s pension she had requested for her son John C. Gratz‘s Civil War service was rejected. Previously, she had been notified of her son’s death due to fever […]
Norman Gasbarro | December 15, 2010
(Part 2 of 4). John Carson Gratz was born in 1843, probably in Gratz, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, the third son of Theodore Gratz and Ann Ellen [Carson] Gratz. In 1850, John was living with his family in the large brick house on West Market Street, Gratztown. His father gave “none” as his occupation, possibly indicating […]
Norman Gasbarro | December 13, 2010
The Gratz House – from a Mural in the Gratz Community Building Theodore Gratz (1811-1863), the third son of Simon Gratz and Mary {Smith] Gratz, was born in Philadelphia. Theodore’s father, Simon, was the brother of Rebecca Gratz, and therefore Theodore was Rebecca’s nephew. Because of the estrangement of Rebecca and her brother Simon, probably […]
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