Noah Stauffer

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: Waterloo-25140

Notes:

Rsrch. Note:
TWO STAUFFER MYSTERIES -- SOLVED
Two Michigan Stauffers have been a mystery for me--one for several decades and the other only since the Internet came along. I knew about the first one from his cemetery headstone, while the other one kept popping up as I looked at links related to my ancestor Samuel Stauffer (1844-1899). A year or so ago I found out about the first one, and I just figured out about the second one as I studied some new sources and put together pieces of information.

LITTLE BROTHER NOAH
In the Bennett Cemetery in Ottawa County northwest of Grand Rapids, Abraham and Magdalena Stauffer are buried. Their son Samuel and his wife Roxy are buried on the other side of a large Stauffer monument. All four are my ancestors. Quite nearby is a sandstone obelisk headstone that intrigued me for many years. It is for a couple named Noah and Nettie Stauffer, who both died quite young. I remember many years ago my mother and I wondering who that young couple could have been, why they had died so young, and whether they were connected to our Stauffers.

When Jo Kelly sent me the descendency chart on Abraham, based on her work on the history of Chester township, I found on the very first page a Noah Stauffer listed as a son of Abraham and younger brother of Samuel and George. And his wife's name was Jennette! The data on him came from the Ottawa County Death Records, and it is confirmed in the 1860 census where Noah is listed as an 8-year-old in Abraham's household. He was born in Canada in 1851, so he would have been just three the year the family moved to Michigan.

He married his Nettie on October 22, 1876 when he was 25. Less than six months later, on April 4, 1877, she died of consumption (tuberculosis). What the gravestone hadn't told us was that six months later, on September 30, Noah married again, to a girl named Sarah Chase. And just a year after that--on September 20, 1878--Noah himself died of something called spinal fever, probably meningitis or typhus. We'll never know why we hadn't heard mention of him in the family, nor why he isn't listed in some family Bibles that contain data on that generation, except that he died about ten years earlier than anyone else of our then-known people in his generation.
COUSIN SAMUEL T.
So who in the world was this other Samuel Stauffer that I kept running into on the Internet? Despite the facts that he was born in Canada, that censuses place him in Chester Township, Ottawa County, and he is even buried in Bennett Cemetery quite near "our" Stauffers, he was clearly not my Samuel. For one thing, he was ten years older, and his name was always accompanied by a T. Most of all, in the censuses he had an entirely different family. So who was he?

It wasn't until recently when I began delving into the families of my Samuel's aunts and uncles who also moved to Michigan that I got some clues of who this other Samuel Stauffer might be. I now believe he was the fifth of Isaac and Jane Stauffer's eighteen children (Isaac was Abraham's oldest brother). So the two Samuel Stauffers were cousins!

How well did these cousins know each other? It is hard to say in the beginning. Samuel T. was 19 or 20 when his uncle Abraham moved his family away from Waterloo, Ontario, to Kent County, Michigan. After that, Samuel T. married someone named Mary and had two children. Somewhere between 1862 and 1867, his family also made the move to Michigan. We don't know if he went first to the Caledonia area south of Grand Rapids where others of the extended Stauffer family had settled, including three of his brothers. What we do know is that by the time of the 1870 census he was in Chester Township with his cousins Samuel, George, and Noah and his Aunt Magdalena (Uncle Abraham had died in 1866).

Why Samuel T chose to go there instead of where his brothers were (and eventually his parents) is one of those things we will doubtless never know. It is one of two things that suggest to me that in some way Samuel T had a bond with his uncle's family. I discovered another fact most interesting to me: October 24, 1865 my Samuel married Roxana Wells. Two years later when Samuel T. and Mary's third child was born a girl, they named her Roxana, which was definitely not a Stauffer-type name. So it appears our Roxy had a namesake!

In the years that followed, Samuel, who was a carpenter, and Mary had three more children--Emma, Willie, and Clara. Right between Roxana and Emma, in 1868, Samuel and Roxy had a baby girl whom they named for his Grandmother Esther. It's fun to imagine those three second-cousin girls having fun growing up together, perhaps attending the school on 15th Street where some of us present-day teachers in the family have sat on the steps and had our picture taken. (The Last time I was there, the school had been torn down and nothing was left but the chimney.)
0100090000034c00000003001c00000000000400000003010600050000000c024b342d4307000000fc020000000000000000040000002d01000008000000fa0200000000000000000000040000002d0101001c000000fb020c00090000000000900100000000000202024d532053616e73205365726966000a0027008a0100000000ffffffff3cd4d10a040000002d010200030000000000
From a Hawkins Photo Album
Sadly, Samuel T. died sometime in 1881 when he was only 46. His two Canadian-born sons were 19 and 23. Roxana and Emma were young teens, while Willie and Clara were just nine and seven. They laid Samuel to rest in the burial plot next to the one where his Uncle Abraham had been buried fifteen years earlier. I find in that simple fact another hint that by that time the families may have been close.

Abraham was the only Stauffer in the cemetery for a dozen years until his son Noah died at 27. Eighteen years after his cousin's death, just six weeks before the turn of the century, my Samuel would take his place on the other half of Abraham's plot. Magdalena would find hers beside Abraham not long into the new century, and Roxy would complete that quartet in 1909. Samuel T's Mary outlived them all, not dying until 1916 when she was 77.

After having that mysterious guy flirt with me around the Internet for several years, finding now that he is family--and was all along--is a strange feeling. But I'm delighted that my two mystery guys have indeed turned out to be family, and I can't wait for my next visit to Bennett Cemetery.
\f3

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: 00117-7338
• Occupation: 1844, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; shoemaker

Notes:

Abraham Stauffer, "was married to Susannah Latschaw and resided near Strasburg, Ontario, where she died of hydrophobia, leaving a family of five children. After her decease he was married to Magdalena Shupe. Soon after his second marriage he moved to near Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he died in 1866, leaving the following family, namely: Isaac, Esther, Jacob, Mary and Susannah of first wife, and Samuel, George, Moses and Aaron of second wife. All of the last named family reside in Michigan."


Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

Abraham married Magdalena Shupe 1843, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. Magdalena (daughter of Bishop George Shupe and Elizabeth Scheirich) was born 8 Sep 1820, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; died 23 Jun 1901; was buried , Bennett Cemetery, Harrisburg, Ottawa, Michigan, United States. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Magdalena Stauffer
• Eby ID Number: 00113-7178
• Residence: 1844, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

Magdalena Shupe, "is married to Abraham Stauffer. They reside in Michigan where he was engaged in farming. No information in regard to his family."


Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: 00117-7319
• Land: Bef 1831, Waterloo Township - Beasley's Broken Front Lot 25, Waterloo County, Ontario

Notes:

Samuel Stauffer, "was born October 5th, 1782. He, in company with his brothers and others, came to Canada and settled in Waterloo County, Ontario. He was married to Esther Groh who was born December 5th, 1786, and died March 5th, 1862. They resided near Speedsville where he died August 1st, 1859. To them were born ten children


Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

Samuel — Esther Groh. Esther (daughter of Michael Groh and Elizabeth Witmer) was born 5 Dec 1786, Warwick Twp., Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania; died 5 Mar 1862, Blenheim Twp., Oxford Co., Ontario, Canada; was buried , Blenheim Mennonite Cemetery, Blenheim Township, Oxford Co., Ontario. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Esther Stauffer
• Eby ID Number: 00117-7319.1
• Residence: 1852, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada

Notes:

Residence:
Lived with son-in-law John Master.

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: 00113-7171
• Residence: 1868, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada
• Occupation: 1871, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Farmer
• Residence: 1871, Wilmot Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; Mennonite

Notes:

Bishop George Shupe, "was born December 25th, 1788. He was married to Elizabeth Scheirich who was born May 26th, 1795, and died June 21st, 1866. They resided in Wilmot Township, near New Dundee, where he died April 29th, 1870. To them was born a family of six children"


Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

George — Elizabeth Scheirich. Elizabeth (daughter of Mathias Scheirich and Catharine Mooney) was born 26 May 1795, , Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania; died 27 Jun 1866; was buried , Blenheim Mennonite Cemetery, Blenheim Township, Oxford Co., Ontario. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Elizabeth Shupe
• Eby ID Number: 00100-5591

Notes:

Elizabeth Scheirich, "another daughter of Mathias Scheirich, was born May 26th, 1795, and died June 27th, 1866. She was married to Bishop George Shupe. They resided in Wilmot Township, near New Dundee, where he was engaged in farming. They had a family of two children, namely: Benjamin and Moses."


Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: 00117-7317

Notes:

Abraham Stauffer, "was born in November, 1748, and in 1780 he was married to Elizabeth Zug. After his marriage he settled near Lititz, Lancaster County, where he followed farming. To him was born a family of ten children"


Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

Abraham married Elizabeth Zug 1780. Elizabeth was born Abt 1750, Of Lititz, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; died Yes, date unknown. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Elizabeth Stauffer
• Eby ID Number: 00117-7317.1

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: 00045-3401

Notes:

Michael Groh, "the third son of old Hannes and Magdalena (Baumann) Groh, was born in 1757. In 1779 he was married to Elizabeth Witmer. In 1804 he, in company with others, came to Canada with the object of making a thorough inspection of the nature of the country. So well was Mr. Groh pleased with the appearance of the country (then all in its primeval state) that he took up a claim between Preston and Hespeler. He cleared about six acres and made it ready for fall wheat. On this clearing he erected a small log cabin into which he purposed moving on his return, with family, from Pennsylvania. In August of the same year he returned to his parental home in Montgomery County. During the first week of September (1804) he, (bidding adieu to his parents, brothers, friends and relatives, and not thinking of this being their last time of meeting here on earth) in company with his wife and family, set out on the journey for their Canadian home. They came as far as Buffalo where they crossed the Niagara River and proceeded on their journey to Mr. Boyer's who resided near the river on the Canadian side, where Mr. Groh, the father of the family, took sick and, after a few weeks suffering, died. The wife and two sons, John and Jacob, and one or two daughters, proceeded on their journey to Waterloo while the eldest daughter, Barbara, remained with her father to nurse him during his illness, and after his recovery they were to follow the family, but the mother and family had no sooner arrived at their new home when word came that the father was dead. He died about September 20th, 1804. Their family consisted of seven children"


Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

Michael married Elizabeth Witmer 1779. Elizabeth was born Abt 1760, Of, Montgomery Co. Pennsylvania; died Yes, date unknown. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Elizabeth Groh
• Eby ID Number: 00045-3401.1
• Land: Bef 1831, Waterloo Township - Beasley's Lower Block Conc. 1 Lot 07, Waterloo County, Ontario
• Land: Bef 1831, Waterloo Township - Beasley's Lower Block Conc. 2 Lot 07, Waterloo County, Ontario
• Land: Bef 1831, Waterloo Township - Beasley's Lower Block Conc. 3 Lot 11, Waterloo County, Ontario

Other Events:

• Eby ID Number: 00113-7169.9
• Land: Bef 1831, Waterloo Township - Beasley's Broken Front Lot 16, Waterloo County, Ontario

Notes:

John Shupe, "Among the early pioneer settlers of this county was old John Shupe. He was a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to which place his grandparents had moved from the Palatinate, Germany, as early as 1715 if not earlier. Mr. Shupe was born in 1759. When a young man he was married to Elizabeth Diefenbach. In 1801 he, with his wife and family moved to Canada and settled in Waterloo County, on the east bank of the Grand River, near Freeport, where he died November 8th, 1812, and she died March 21st, 1825. To them was born a family of seven children"


Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

John — Elizabeth Diefenbach. Elizabeth was born 1763, , Pennsylvania, USA; died 21 Mar 1825, Waterloo Twp., Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada; was buried , First Mennonite Cemetery, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Name: Elizabeth Shupe
• Eby ID Number: 00113-7169.10

Notes:

A POEM ON THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ELIZABETH SHOOP

The following verses were written in memory of the late Elizabeth Shoop, who was an inhabitant of the township of Waterloo, in the District of Gore, Upper Canada, where she resided with her family until the day of her death. The time of her living in that place, was something like twenty-four years, which about one-half of that time, in the latter part of her life, she lived in a state of widowhood with her children. The following poem is a true and short history of her holy life and death. The late Elizabeth departed this mortal life, March 21, 1825; and the following remarks were made a few days after her death, by JOHN A. CORNELL, an intimate acquaintance with her person, life, death and character, who had the great satisfaction to preach her funeral sermon to a numerous concourse of people, from the following words, taken from Heb. 4: 9, "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."

Ye nations of the earth give ear
To what I here relate;
Your Maker learn to love and fear,
Prepare to leave this state.

The sacred truth I now indite,
God print it in your minds;
Strong memory on your hearts to write,
With letters more divine.

Oh! cruel death, how dreadful bold,
He bears a mighty sway;
He calls away both young and old,
To long eternity.

The Lord his messenger did send,
The Widow Shoop hath died,
She was the poor, the orphan's friend,
Likewise the Pilgrim's guide.

Religion is a glorious prop,
Surely it is the best:
We have a consolating hope,
Her soul has gone to rest.

She was a soldier of the cross,
Her duty she'd fulfill;
No toil, no pain she counted loss,
To do her Master's will.

The church of God, she lov'd to meet,
To see her brethren there;
That they might fall at Jesus' feet
And join in holy prayer.

The place of praise, the house of prayer,
It was her chief delight;
She was a constant member there,
She kept the end in sight.

She never left the house of God,
But like Anna of old;
She marked the steps her Savior trod,
Bro't fruit an hundred fold.

Her heart to church and God was true,
Her soul was sanctified;
Her happy spirit never knew,
What it was to backslide.

That hateful sin. call'd dressy pride,
Her soul it did abhor;
Such vain and foolish sins as these,
She kept at open war.

What others took to paint their clay,
And dress their bodies fine;
Unto the poor she gave away,
To cheer the feeble mind;

The lame, the sick, naked and poor,
They were her constant care --
Were always welcome at her door,
With her they had a share.

She often borrowed of the rich,
To give it to the poor:
Her love and charity was such,
She gave them all her store.

She laid her own advantage by,
To do the needy good;
Yet all her hopes they did rely,
Upon her Savior's blood.

Third of March she was taken ill,
And to her bed confin'd ;
Yet to her heavenly Father's will,
Appeared to be resigned.

She seemed to think her morning sun,
Was then about to set;
She thank'd the Lord her work was done,
In Christ was made complete.

While she could use her feeble tongue,
Her Maker she ador'd;
By exhorting both old and young,
To seek and serve the Lord.

Her friends and children she did teach;
From Scripture truth was drawn,
Hoping her words would louder preach,
When she was dead and gone.

Twenty-first of March, on that day,
She bid this world adieu;
Her longing spirit left its clay,
The age of sixty-two.

At God's great and sovereign will,
Resigned her fleeting breath,
Without a doubt, without a fear,
She pass'd the gates of death.

She bid the church farewell below,
To join the church above;
Where all the happy spirits go,
To sing Redeeming Love.

Come sick, come Christians mourn your loss
Of your departed friend;
And learn to bear an equal cross,
As she unto the end.

Oft at her tomb, my heart shall rove,
To drop a sacred tear;
In token of that Christian love,
While she was with us here.

Whatever we may count our loss,
Shall be her greatest gain;
She now can say, farewell to cross,
Farewell to grief and pain.

A life so holy, true, and just,
Example so divine;
Must not be buried in the dust
Before the world must shine.

Now I'll refrain, why should I weep?
Since she has gone to rest;
She's only laid her down to sleep,
Upon her Savior's breast.

Other Events:

• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44341979
• Name: Matthias Shiry
• Eby ID Number: 00100-5559
• Land: Bef 1831, Waterloo Township - German Company Tract Lot 051, Waterloo County, Ontario

Notes:

Mathias Scheirich, "the ancestor of the family, was a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he was born December 6th, 1751. In 1805 he emigrated to Canada and settled in Waterloo County, nearly two miles south of Berlin. His old homestead is now possessed by George Histand. He was married to Catharine Mooney who was born in 1762 and died December 10th, 1825. He died February 6th, 1835. They had a family of eight (maybe they had more than eight) children"


Eby, Ezra E. (1895). A biographical history of Waterloo township and other townships of the county: being a history of the early settlers and their descendants, mostly all of Pennsylvania Dutch origin: as also much other unpublished historical information chiefly of a local character. Berlin [Kitchener, Ont.]: [s.n.].

Mathias — Catharine Mooney. Catharine was born 1762; died 10 Dec 1825; was buried , First Mennonite Cemetery, Kitchener, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202167033
• Name: Catharine Scheirich
• Eby ID Number: 00100-5559.1