| George Philip Schaffer, son
of Jacob Schaeffer and Nancy Hanawalt, was, according to
family stories, of Prussian descent. The ancestor of
both George and his father Jacob, came to the New World's at
some point just before the Revolutionary War. Just to
make the research more interesting, George and Jacob's
ancestor's name is said to be Jacob Schaeffer . . . the Prussian equivalent
to John Smith. Prussian
Duels and the American Revolutionary War
According to my late great
uncle George Stuckey, Jacob Schaeffer had been in the
Prussian Army and for reasons unknown, got in a duel with his
superior officer.
Though it should go without
saying that he was the victor on that unknown field of honour,
I say it because winning the duel was apparently Jacob's
incentive to emigrate. Perhaps he felt that his odds
for survival would increase with a change of address.
Family stories also say that Jacob fought in the
Revolutionary War, but without being able to fill the hole
between Jacob father of George, and Jacob the Immigrant, it's
difficult to pick him out of the many other Jacob Schaeffers,
with assorted surname spellings, from Prussia, who also
fought in the Revolutionary War.
Between 1719 and 1764,
there were seven Jacob Schafers who came over from Prussia:
four in Rupp's A Collection of Thirty Thousand Names, and
three in Strassburger's PA German Pioneers Vol 1-3.
There are undoubtedly more.
The name of Jacob the Immigrant's wife has
been lost to time but together they had at least one son. Well, he didn't HAVE to have had a wife,
but due to the quirks of mammalian reproduction, I know a
woman WAS involved. And just to make things a little more interesting,
it is also unknown if this unnamed son
was George's father or grandfather.
Family lore says that George's father
Jacob was an aide de camp to General
Grant. When Jacob died, Nancy remarried . . . to
another Jacob -- Jacob Sinn, who had three daughters from a
previous marriage: Emma, Grace, and Ella. Who was the
mother of the three girls?
Did Nancy have any children
with Mr Sinn?
Family Stories, Census
Listings, and the Social Security Death Index
There is a great deal about
this side of my family that I don't know, and more that I'm
guessing at.
My guesses are based upon the family
stories I have been told by the grandchildren of
George Philip Schaffer and Mary L. Miller --my great aunts, Merle and Pink, and
great uncles, George and Jack-- even
though their stories didn't always agree with each other.
Then there are the census listings
I've received from cousin Susan Williams, who has also shared info
from other cousins who descend from George's parents Jacob SHAFER
and Nancy HANAWALT, and the dibs and dabs I've found searching the
Social Security Death Index and other vital statistic indexes.
And I would like to thank
those cousins of mine who have and are helping put this family
puzzle together, namely John Stuckey, his sister Judy, Molly
Stuckey, and Susan Williams. Together, we are assembling a
jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box lid to guide us, each
of us with our own little pile of pieces.
George Philip Schaffer
George Philip Schaffer is
credited (by Merle and Pink) with "simplifying"
family surname by dropping one of the Es. In the
Washington State Death Index, it shows that he died in
Tacoma, Washington, September 22, 1913, at the age of 63;
he's buried at the Oakwood Hill Cemetery in Tacoma,
Washington, in the west half of lot 1, block 161, southwest
corner. There is no headstone but we're working on
getting him one. I'd like to find his date and place of
birth first.
On March 13, 2001,
Cousin John sent yet another bit of family lore (ya gotta
love e-mail).
Lisa,
another tidbit, whether it is relevant or not remains to
be seen...
George
Schaffer had run ins with the law (as some members of our
family have). When
my father was young he used to sit on the beach at
Dockton while great grandfather Schaffer would take
target practice with his colt peacemaker.
According
to dad, he was quite proficient with his sidearm and the
gun itself had some distinguishing features: 12 notches. When my dad asked him if
the notches represented men that he had killed in gun
fights Grandfather Schaffer replied, "They weren't
men, they were Pinkertons." The Pinkerton
Detective agency was quite notorious in the old west and
I believe still exists today!
Also
George Schaffer was supposed to have had a mining claim
in the Cascades somewhere around Tiger Mountain. He claimed to have
dynamited the mine when some Pinkertons showed up there
looking for him.
Which, to me anyway,
explains why George Schaffer has been so hard to find in the
old records.
Prior to coming to
the great Pacific North-Wet (Yes, I meant to type
"wet"; it's a Seattle thing), George Philip
Schaffer was either a mule skinner or a sheriff at/in Fort
Randall, [South] Dakota. The great aunts say George was
born somewhere in Pennsylvania and is "Pennsylvania
Dutch"; the great uncles agree, though they add that
George wasn't Pennsylvania Dutch, he was Prussian.
George had two siblings
that I know of:
Amon Schaffer -- who said
he was going to Port Alberni, (in British Columbia, on
Vancouver Island) Canada, back when the US and Canada were
debating over just where the US/Canadian border was going to
be (54-40 or Fight!). No one knows what ever happened
to Amon after that, (though there are some Schaffers listed
in the Port Alberni area that I really need to write to).
Ann Schaffer.
I don't know who/if/when she married, but she had two
children, Ida and Roy.
>Click here< to see the Stuckey tree.
If any of my family stories
coincide with any of your family stories, drop me a line
at: lisa@fortlangley.ca
|
Standing left to
right: Miles, James, Alice,
and Frederick Schaffer; unknown Stuckey, unknown Stuckey, and Alf Stuckey.
Seated: Mable Shafer and husband Bill Stuckey.