Tag Archives: Pennsylvania

Eva Maria Stahler’s Widow’s Pension: The Battle Continues

Leave a reply

IMPORTANT NOTE

Although this story about Adam Stahler and his widow continued to be fascinating, I now believe I was barking up the wrong tree branch, and they are not actually related to me.  I explain elsewhere how that happened.

BEWARE if you are researching the family of Joseph Kaser. There apparently were two Elizabeth Stahlers from Berks County, and the one I have been researching, whose parents were Adam Stahler and Eva Maria Henrich, is not the one who married Joseph Kaser. 

I have left this post for those people who might be researching the Stahler-Henrich lines.

The Soldier and The Widow

Adam Stahler, my 4th great-grandfather, a German immigrant, fought in the American Revolution–not just once but several times–not just as a humble private as many of my New England ancestors, but as a Captain.  However, when his widow, Eva Maria tried to collect her widow’s pension, she faced a legal ordeal. The battle for the pension lasted longer than the war had taken to fight.

During her lifetime, although the court paid her the minimal widow’s pension, she was unable to get the increased amount due the widows of officers. You can see how I discovered the widow’s pension here, and read about what the first part of the legal battle entailed here.

The Soldier’s Son and the Second Hearing

Ten years after her death, and twenty years after the first hearing, the story resumes when her son, Christian, goes back to court to argue that, as the song goes, “they done her wrong.”

By this time, 1852, Christian is in his seventies, and only one other child of Eva and Adam Stahler still lives–Eva’s namesake Eva Marie Stahler (Neur), who is now married and living in Ohio.

Christian had hired an attorney who came loaded with proof of Adam Stahler’s length of service and the fact that he was indeed a Captain, served the appropriate length of time and his family should collect a higher pension.

Apparently, the court found several holes in Eva Maria’s case, and one of them had to do with spelling.

In a letter that seems extremely sad in retrospect, Christian Stahler explains that neither he nor his mother knew of concrete proof of his father’s service (beyond the testimony of fellow veterans) at the time of the first appeal.  In fact, they had asked at the pension office at Pennsylvania capital city Harrisburg and been told there was nothing. Had they found any records they would have presented them.  However, the new attorney (presumably he gets credit) discovered pay records, enrollment records, and more official records that are testimony to the service of Captain Adam Stahler/Stohler.

…That the person she other employed to assist her with her application had a great deal of trouble with it. Spent some weeks riding the country to obtain the testimony necessary to support it. That had he known that the offices at Harrisburg could have shone any light upon the services of the said Adam Stahler he would have applied there and presented with what testimony he acquired from _____ ______ the testimony in that office, but there was nothing to inform him that there was testimony there.

Because of Adam’s rank, Eva would have been eligible to receive $280 a month instead of $120 for her widow’s pension.

Can’t you just feel the frustration that then 84-year old Eva must have felt in back in1832, along with all Adam’s fellow veterans who had testified?

In an earlier article about this pension, I focused on a letter that reported that the writer of the letter had studied the Revolutionary War rolls looking for Adam Stahler, Stohler, or Stoller and had proven that regardless of how it was spelled, there was only one Adam Stahler.  Apparently, during the first appeal, evidence presented did not convince the commissioner of pensions as to Adam’s service.  Part of the problem of course, involved the free-wheeling spelling of the 18th century.

In June 1852, the new lawyer in the case, J. E. Buchanan, says

The proof herewith submitted will show that he was called ‘Staller.’ In the copy of the record which shows that he was at time of the battle of Brandywine until at Chester Aug. 18th 1777 he is called ‘Staller’ and in one of the affidavits he is called by that name. He is called Stahler in the retinue of the 3rd battalion of militia officers dated May 21 1777. But in the Retinue on the same sheet he is called ‘Stahler’ which reconciles the apparent difficulty of the name. The names are the same in sound however.

And it appears that the bureaucrats just weren’t paying attention in the 1852  widow’s pension hearing.  A full year later, Mr. Buchanan (Esq.) writes again, introducing the testimony mentioned above from the man who analyzed the rolls.

 I forward to you additional testimony in the case of Eve Maria Stahler of Pennsylvania making application for an increase of her pension under the act of July 4 1836. In your letter of April 5th inst. I am requested to furnish in the form of an affidavit the opinion of some old respectable inhabitant of Northampton County Pennsylvania that there was but one officer of the name of Adam Stahler vs Stohler in the militia of that County who rendered services during the Revolutionary War.

I just don’t see how he could have explained it more clearly. And he chose, he said to forward testimony from the Secretary of the office where the records are kept as a better source of information, than the requested old soldier’s testimony.  And he repeats once again that although the names Stahler and Stohler and Stoller are spelled differently, they sound the same.

Surely after such a frustrating widow’s pension case, Christian Stahler’s attorney must have stalked off to the nearest tavern, muttering about the blockheads who could not understand that a name might be spent several ways but still apply to the same person.

Did they win the case? One piece of paper that might contain the answers, has faded beyond recognition and the columns of numbers do not make sense to me. So I have not been able to figure out yet who won the case. UPDATE: Another accounting is clearer and shows that Christian and his sister, the only surviving children were awarded the amount that their mother should have received. THEY WON!

But this story proves that genealogists are not the only ones who have a problem when surnames are misspelled.

Notes on Research

U.S., Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1900, index found at Ancestry.com and 84-page file read and copied from “Application of Eva Maria Stahler, widow of Captain Adam Stahler,”  www.fold3.com/image/18467518?terms=adam%20stahler&xi
d=1945  Accessed at the Family Search Center, Tucson NW

Stahler widow's pension

Pension Application: Is This Adam Stahler THE Adam Stahler?

3 Replies

IMPORTANT NOTE

Although this story about Adam Stahler and his widow continued to be fascinating, I now believe I was barking up the wrong tree branch, and they are not actually related to me.  I explain elsewhere how that happened.

BEWARE if you are researching the family of Joseph Kaser. There apparently were two Elizabeth Stahlers from Berks County, and the one I have been researching, whose parents were Adam Stahler and Eva Maria Henrich, is not the one who married Joseph Kaser. 

I have left this post for those people who might be researching the Stahler-Henrich lines.

———————————-

How many Adam Stahler/Stohler/Stollers were there serving in the Revolutionary army from Pennsylvania? A pension application surprised me with an answer.

Thanks to Fold3, the website that digitizes millions of military records including pension applications, and thanks to the Family Search Center at a local LDS church, I have been able to see the eighty-plus page application for a widow’s pension for my 4x great-grandmother Eva Marie Stahler, survivor of Captain Adam Stahler. I say “see” advisedly, because just because you can see an image of an old document does not necessarily mean you can read it. (More about that in my next post.)

Several references on Ancestry.com referred to Adam’s service in the American Revolution –or the Continental War as it is called in some of the pension application legal papers.  However, those Ancestry references in other people’s trees were not sourced, so I could not verify the information.

I knew that Eva Marie/Mary, Adam’s wife had received a widow’s pension because as I wrote in this article on her–the 1840 census told me so. But that didn’t help with information about where Adam served and when.

Maddeningly, the only piece of paper available on Ancestry.com that might prove his service, the pension application, had this scanty information, a cover page to a pension application.

Stahler widow's pension

Cover page, application for widow’s pension for Eva Maria Stahler.

 

This is the cover page of the lengthy file for Mary’s application for a widow’s pension.  Her husband died long before she did.  He died in 1803 and she not until 1842. The act re-authorizing the orphans’ and widows’ pensions passed in July 1836. Between 1784 and 1836 widows received no pensions, and their right to pensions was reinstated in 1836. The changes in the pension law over the years are quite complex.

The rest of the legal document resides at Fold3, a pay-for site for which I do not have a subscription.  To the rescue comes the Family Search Center a few miles from me.  At the LDS Family Search sites, you can utilize their computers to find documents on some pay sites.

I struggled through the many, many pages with the many, many different forms of unreadable handwriting and faded images since I wanted to squeeze out every bit of information possible.  I knew from studying some of the records of my New England Revolutionary veterans that they would contain a full description of Adam’s service, as well as verification of things like birth and death and marriage dates and place of residence.

What I didn’t expect was sworn testimony that Adam Stahler, my 4th great-grandfather was the ONLY officer with that name, including variant spellings.

Sure enough, one witness swore that he had studied the officer’s lists from Pennsylvania for men named Adam Stahler, Stohler or Stoller, and verified that the Captain Adam Stahler whose wife was applying for a pension stood alone.

YAY!  That nagging fear that I might be mixing up the records of two people vanished.  A witness in 1853  provided information helpful to a family history search in 2018. Amazing!

The Letter

Letter of testimony

Letter Testifying there is only one Capt. Adam Stahler 1853

 

TRANSCRIPTION

Secretarys Office

Pennsylvania

I do hereby certify that I have carefully exmined the rolls of the collection of Northampton County remaining on file in this office the years 1777, 1778, 1780 and 1785 and that I find but one Adam Stahler, or Stohler, or Stoller, Captain in said rolls.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Secretary’s office to be annexed [affixed] at Harrisburg this seventh day of April in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and fifty three and of the Commonwealth the seventy-seventh.

E. C.[?] [surname unreadable]

Depy Secy of the Cowlth

Next up: Adam’s military record and why there is testimony coming in in 1853, when Eva Maria/Mary first applied for the pension in 1836 and she had died in 1842. Curiouser and curiouser.

A Note on Research

Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, The National Archives, Application of Eva Maria Stahler, widow of Captain Adam Stahler,  www.fold3.com/image/18467518?terms=adam%20stahler&xi
d=1945  Accessed at the Family Search Center, Tucson NW

Just the Facts: Elizabeth Stahler and Her Family

Leave a reply

ELIZABETH STAHLER (Kaser) (1775-1843)

IMPORTANT UPDATE

I have done extensive revision of this post because I discovered that I had the wrong parentage for Elizabeth Stahler.  How that happened is explained elsewhere, but if you were depending on my research here, you will need to revise along with me. I have chosen to leave the previous information with lines through it, so you will know that although it does not apply to my ancestor, Elizabeth Stahler, Adam Stahler DID have a daughter named Elizabeth and the Goshenhoppen Catholic church records will be a help to you if you are looking for that Elizabeth.

My 3rd Great Grandmother on my father’s side, Elizabeth Stahler Kaser, was born to a German immigrant family who settled in Berks County Pennsylvania.  Unlike many of my ancestors on my father’s side who belonged to reform churches, the Stahler family belonged to the Catholic Church.

As I am researching the Stahler family, that religion has proved to be a blessing  because the earliest generations in American show up in the oldest church registry still extant for the eastern United States–the Goshenhoppen Register.  Because once the German settlers left the Philadelphia area they were venturing into virtual wilderness, with, at best, very small towns, Catholic priests traveled from settlement to settlement until churches could be built.  Two who covered the circuit out of Goshenhoppen from 1741 until 1764, wrote down every wedding, conversion and baptism they officiated at in a small book. That treasure was translated in the 19th century, and is available on Google Books today. (See research notes).

I will talk more about the traveling priests when I get to Elizabeth Stahler’s grandfather–the first comer of the Stahlers–Christian Stahler.  But for now, her family history leaves me with a couple of religion questions.

The Birth Family of Elizabeth Stahler

According to the records (written in German) kept by Jesuit priest, Rev. John Baptist Ritter, Elizabeth Stahler was born January 19, 1775. The priest baptized her on the 19th of March at the home of her grandfather, Christian Henrich.  Christian was a man as religious as his names sounds.  He built a sort of way station for the priests on the circuit who stopped by to say Mass and officiate in church rituals.  The name, Asperum Collum, meaning ‘sharp-pointed mountain’ in Latin, appears frequently in the Goshenhoppen Register as the site of baptisms and marriages. Today the place, in Berks County, near Allentown Pennsylvania, is known as Spitzenberg Mountain (or Hill) (sharp pointed mountain/hill in German).

The Registry in translation lists Elizabeth’s parents as Adam Stahler and his wife Mary. This may be a simplification by the translator, as their “real” names were Johann Adam Stahler and Eva Maria (or Mary).  The sponsor at Elizabeth’s baptism included her grandmother, Margaret Henrich.

Elizabeth had an older sister Catherine, born in 1768.  Either I am missing some records, or the couple may have lost some children in infancy, but for five years there are no more additions to the family.  Following Elizabeth in quick succession came Christian, 1776 (named for their Grandfather) ; and Eva Maria/Mary, 1777, named for their mother. If there were other children, I have not seen them in church records.

Besides having lots of little children around the house, the big event in young Elizabeth’s life must have been her father’s military service. During 1776 and 1777, Adam was serving in the militia as a Captain fighting the British in the American Revolution.  (His service record will get more detailed attention when I talk about his life.) As a toddler, Elizabeth might not have understood, but she would have been very aware of his activities with the militia.

In fact, my ancestor, also named Elizabeth Stahler, born August 5, 1777,  probably would have been  baptized in a reform church more in keeping with the religion of the Kaser family.

Building a Family with Joseph Kaser

Between 1798 (speculation) and 1800, Elizabeth Stahler married Joseph Kaser (also spelled Keiser, Kaiser, Kayser). He wasa year younger than Elizabeth.  Joseph and Elizabeth had nine children while they lived in Pennsylvania. I listed the children and my reasoning behind certain assumptions when I wrote about Joseph Kaser. You can check that post here. Since I wrote about Joseph, I have read the Kaser History on microfilm at an LDS Family History Center.  I have also scanned the church records that I previously had only seen indexed. I will continue to review that material and update any information I have written about the Kaser family.

About 1824, they moved to Ohio in the area of Clark, a small town bordering Holmes County and Coshocton County.

According to  The Kaser History: A History of Dates and Other Interesting Facts (1994) edited by Deborah D. Morgan and others, of the nine children of Joseph and Elizabeth, seven remained in Ohio and two moved to Indiana after the deaths of their parents.

1800: George Kaser (Kaser History., Census reports 1840-1870) [My ancestor.]

George married in 1822, had a son born in Pennsylvania in 1823, and another born in eastern Pennsylvania in 1824.  I believe they were traveling with his parents and his wife was pregnant when they left Lehigh County and had the baby along the way.

1802/3: Elizabeth Kaser born (according to the Kaser History No other evidence yet.)

1806: Jonathan (Find a Grave–buried in New Bedford, OH; 1860 census)

1807: Lydia Kaser (Church birth and baptism dates)

1808: Joseph Kaser, Jr. (Census records and Find a Grave , buried at New Bedford, Ohio)

1810: Anthony (or Andrew?) Kaser ( Church birth records)

1814: Nathan Kaser (Church records; some census records)

1816: Timothy Kaser (Church birth records; Find a Grave–died in N. Liberty,St. Joseph County, Indiana)

1818: William Kaser (Church birth records; Find a Grave–died in St. Joseph County, Indiana)

(The Kaser History also mentions a “Tom” and an unamed infant who died early, but I have found no record of them.  It is possible that “Tom” could be a misreading of Tim for Timothy, but I do not know for sure.)

Although the oldest five would have certainly been old enough to help with the move, it certainly was quite an undertaking for Elizabeth to move her entire household with children from six years old to twenty-four years old. You can see a map that clarifies how difficult the terrain was, if you click on this link to George Kaser.

Questions:

Is my speculation about the birth of Joseph Kaser III correct?

What is the relationship of Elizabeth Stahler (Kaser) to the wife of George Kaser –Lydia Stahler/Stehler/Staehler (Kaser)?

Apparently the Kaser family was close–quite literally because they lived on farms that were adjoining or very near each other in Holmes County, Ohio.

End of Life

The children were grown and independent by the time their father died in December 1842. Joseph left Elizabeth one stove and a cow, two beds and bedding and such other household and kitchen furniture as she may select, not exceeding eighty-dollars in value. You can see what else the will said at the updated Joseph Kaser post. Joseph signed his will in German and from what I have learned about the German immigrants and their church, I doubt that he spoke much if any English.  I wonder if Elizabeth also spoke only German?

I believe that Elizabeth went to live with her son William in or near Nashville, Ohio after Joseph died. William was married, 24 years old and had been named executor of his father’s will.

Five months after her husband, Elizabeth Stahler Kaser  died at the age of 68.

Although Joseph had been buried in the churchyard of the New Zion Church in New Bedford, Ohio where many Kasers lie, Elizabeth was buried in the cemetery in Nashville, Ohio.

I always try to weave a story around an ancestor’s life, but I can only share the bare facts about Elizabeth, because there is very little evidence to build stories.  She married in Pennsylvania, had nine children–about one every two years before the family moved across the central mountains of Pennsylvania to settle in the sparsely settled northwest territory of Ohio. There her sons’ farms thrived and they lived close together, with, I imagine, many family dinners and much sharing of work.  Her husband left enough property to be sold and provide for her, but she only outlived him by a few months.

Her legacy is a family that grew and spread, not only in Ohio but particularly in Indiana and now far beyond the midwest.

How I Am Related

  • Vera Marie Kaser (Badertscher) is the daughter of
  • Paul Kaser, who is the son of
  • Clifford Kaser, who is the son of
  • Joseph Kaser II, who is the son of
  • George Kaser, who is the son of
  • Elizabeth Stahler (Kaser)

Notes on Research

  • The “Kaser Genealogy” (aka Green Book) referred to is The Kaser History: A History of Dates and Other Interesting Facts (1994) edited by Deborah D. Morgan and others. Out of print. I first obtained information from a cousin who owns a copy of the book, and then accessed it on microfilm at an LDS church Family History Center.
  • Zions Lutheran Reformed Church, Zionsville, PA index of records at Ancestry.com)Unfortunately the website for the church has been updated and they no longer have the history page, but I have given you a link to the “wayback machine” where you can find the old page.
  • Find a Grave, Elizabeth Stahler www.findagrave.com/memorial/77111754
  • Cemetery records from the New Zion UCC church (formerly German Reform) in New Bedford, Ohio.
  • Ohio, Wills and Probate Records, 1786-1998, Record for Joseph Kaser, Will Records, 1825-1906; Index to Wills, 1825-1965; Probate Place: Holmes, Ohio