Best of Wertz

Best of the Wertz
The Helen Marie Wertz side of our family has significant German pedigree
There is genealogical evidence taking our Wertz family seven generations back to Hans Jacob Wertz, the sixth great grandfather of the author.
Genealogical information takes the Wertz, Kollar and Swinehart lines back to Germany.
The Kollar and Swinehart families are covered in separate chapters. Helen Marie is covered in the Pete and Maisie chapter, while her parents Horace Wertz and Lillian May Hunt are covered the Horace and Lillian May chapter.
This chapter starts with John Wertz and his wife Belinda Kollar. They are parents of Horace Wertz.
JOHN WERTZ
John Wertz, the son of George Wertz and Catherine Raffensperger, is our next direct ancestor. He was born in September of 1831 in Ohio. There is one record which puts his birth as Aug. 23, 1831 in Holmes County, Ohio.
John, at about age 22, moved about 350 miles from Ohio to northern Indiana in 1853, settling in St. Joseph County’s Center Township.
It was about a year after Belinda Kollar moved to the same area.
Two years later, John married Belinda on August 5, 1855 in St. Joseph County, Indiana.
Belinda was born Sept. 16, 1832 in Fairfield, Tuscarawas, Ohio. She was the daughter of Adam Kollar and Hester Ann Swineharrt.
John and Belinda Wertz had six children: Thomas J. (born 1856), David James (1860), George Millard (1862), Horace G. (Nov. 26, 1864), William (1868) and Cora (1871).
In the 1860 census, John is 29 and a farmer in Center Township, St. Joseph County. Belinda is 27. Their real estate his valued at $2.200 and personal property at $400. Others in the household are children Thomas and David, plus Martin Swinehart age 21.
The 1870 census has the family living in St. Joseph County’s Center Township. John is 37 and Belinda 36. Their real estate’s value has grown to $7,000 and personal property $1,000.
Others is the household are David 9, George 7, Horace 5 and William 2.
John and Belinda Wertz moved to German Township in St. Joseph County in 1872. The 1880 census had John and Belinda Wertz living in German Township with five of their children; David J., age 20; George M., 18; Horace, 16; William, 12, and Cora M., 9. The same census showed their oldest son Thomas living next to them with his wife Alice and daughter Bernice. A published biographical sketch listed John as an industrious man and “upright and honest.” It also noted he was a Republican with limited education. Belinda was a member of the Baptist Church. They were farmers who owned 80 acres of good land, worth about $65 per acre. The 1880 census has them in German Township, St. Joseph County, while the 1900 census puts them in Portage Township, St. Joseph County.
In the 1900 census, John is 68 and Belinda 67. They are living 803 North Cushing Street in Portage Township, St. Joseph County. They rent their home.
John is retired.
Both can read and write.
Others in the household are David 40, George 38 and William 28. All three are carpenters.
John died at age 73 on Jan. 10, 1905 in South Bend, Ind.
His obituary read:
“John Wertz, for the past 52 years a resident of St. Joseph County and for the past nine years a resident of this city, died at his home 703 North Cushing Street about 5 o’clock this morning after an illness of two hours.
Mr. Wertz was apparently in his usual health last night and ate a hearty supper. About three o’clock this morning he was taken ill with heart trouble and a physician was summoned, but he passed away in a short time.
Mr. Wertz was nearly 74 years of age and leaves a wife and several children.”
His funeral was at the German Baptist Brethren Church at the corner of Van Buren and Cushing Streets.
In 1910, Belinda was a widow living with William on North Cushing Sreet.
Belinda died at age 81 on March 19, 1914 at her Cushing Street home in South Bend.
Belinda was survived by brothers J.J. Kollar of South Bend and David Kollar of Moreland, Okla., and children Mrs. Lee Gillis, Thomas, Jerome, Milan and William Wertz of South Bend and Horace Wertz of Niles.
John and Belinda are buried in Riverview Cemetery in South Bend.
GEORGE WERTZ
John’s father, George Wertz, was born Feb. 15, 1797 in Quincy Township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Conrad Wertz and Anna Maria Cook.
George married Catherine Raffensperger in 1822.
Catherine was born in Pennsylvania on May 22, 1803, the daughter of Johannes Raffensperger and Margaret Spahr.
Their children included John Andrew, Jerome, Daniel, Mary, John, Harriet, Elizabeth, Catherine, Margaret, George W. and Amanda.
George and Catherine moved to Tuscarawas County Ohio, a distance of about 150 miles.
In the 1860 census, they are living in Fairfield, Tuscarawas County. Their post office is at Tabor.
George is 57 and a shoemaker. Their real estate is worth $400. Catherine is 57.
Others in the household are Daniel 31, Eliza 24, Catherine 22, Margaret 20, George 19 and Amanda 15.
George died in Zoarville, Tuscarawas County, Ohio at age 74 on July 30, 1868.
The 1870 census lists Catherine as 67 and a farmer living in Fairfield. Others in the household are Daniel 47 and a farmer, plus George and Eliza.
Her real estate is worth $900 and personal property $375.
Catherine was found living as a widow with son Daniel in the 1880 census of Fairfield, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. She is 77 and keeping house.
She died at age 77 on Feb. 9, 1881. She is buried in the Zoarville Cemetery in Tuscarawas County.
CONRAD WERTZ
George’s father, Conrad Wertz. was born Aug. 6, 1770 in Quincy Township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of John Conradt Wertz and Mary Catherine Hoover.
Conrad married Anna Maria Cook. She was born March 3, 1775 in Quincy. She was the daughter of Johann George and Rebecca Koch (Cook).
Their children include George, Catherine, Anna Maria, John, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Nancy, Rachel, Henrietta, Martha Magdalina and Conrad.
Conrad died in 1820 in Quincy. He is buried in the Saint Thomas Lutheran Cemetery in Franklin County.
Anna Maria was 76 and living with her daughter in St. Thomas in the 1850 census.
Anna Maria died April 29, 1867 in Quincy. She is also buried in Saint Thomas Lutheran Cemetery.
JOHN CONRAD WERTZ
Conrad’s father, John Conrad Wertz, was born Oct. 15, 1735 in Coventry, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Jacob Wertz and Ann Barbara Hoff.
John was baptized Oct. 25, 1735 in the Dutch Reformed Church.
John Conrad married Mary Catherine Hoover in 1757 in Franklin County. Mary was born in 1735 in Quincy. She was the daughter of Andrew Hoover and Catherine Byerley.
Their children included included John, Jacob, Mary, Peter, Conrad, Christian, Andrew and Daniel
On 6 October 1766, Conrad received a land warrant for 100 acres
Mary Catherine died Dec. 20, 1791 in Quincy.
John Conradt died March 25, 1793 in Quincy.
Both are buried in the Quincy Cemetery.
JACOB WERTZ
John Conrad’s father, Jacob Wertz, was born in Bretten, Karlsruhe, Baden-Wurtternberg, Germany on June 20, 1705. He probably was the son of Hans Conrad Wertz and Anna Maria Ursula Goetschy.
It is believed Hans Jacob came to America with a band of Palatines who had been persecuted by the Germans because of religious beliefs.These people had deserted Catholicism and become Lutherans. 
A footnote in Rupp’s book of names of immigrants in Holland in 1731 says 800 exiled Palatines passed through there to take a ship for America. They were furnished by the church in Holland with provisions and medicines.  Hans Jacob Wertz, age 26, arrived in Pennsylvania in September of 1731 on the ship Britannia of London. 
Jacob purchased 118 acres of land in Coventry Township in the county of Chester, Pennsylvania on 3 March 1734, and named it “Pleasant Dale.”
Another record says Jacob was granted 150 Acres of land in Chester County in 1734. 
He married Anna Barbara Hoff on 29 December 1734 in Coventry. Anna Barbara and Jacob were married by the Rev. John Casper Stoever, an Evangelical Lutheran minister in Pennsylvania.
Anna Barbara was born Dec. 29, 1707. She was the daughter of Johannes and Susanna Hoff.
Jacob Wertz and Anna Barbara Hoff may have known each other in Europe. They were both born in Bretten, Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
They were of similar background. In America, they were members of a community of German people in Coventry, Pennsylvania. 
The couple had five children: Conradt, Maria Catharina, Anna Margaretha, George and John.
Jacob and Anna Barbara lived in Coventry for some time. 
At least three of their children were born there, according to baptismal records of the Rev. Stoever.
There is no significance in the different spellings of the family name. The ship’s list gave Jacob’s name as Wirtz. Rev. Stoever spelled the name Wuertz. On Jacob’s will the name is Worts. The name is usually know as Wertz.
Jacob and his family then moved east about 125 miles to land near Quincy, Franklin County, about 1747.
Jacob, his wife and their five children probably built a temporary shelter, and then perhaps a log house. That was the custom in those days.
Family records tell us the first part their large frame and brick house, which still stands, was built about 1756. It was remodeled and added onto in 1826. 
When Hans Jacob Wertz died Sept. 25, 1775, all of their children were married, except youngest son, Johann George Wertz, who married a few years later in 1778.  
No doubt young George and his wife, Catherine Stoner, began their married life here on this farm.  And they probably shared this house with his mother, until she died in 1788.
Anna Barbara died Feb. 11, 1788 in Quincy. She and her husband are buried in the Quincy Cemetery.
Best of the Wertz Timeline
1793
Adam Kollar, was born April 27, 1793 in Collier’s Creek, Rockbridge, Va.
Hester Ann Swinehart was born March 3, 1793 in Washington County, Pennsylvania.
The day before, on March 2, George Washington was inaugurated as President for the second time.
The US federal government passed its first fugitive slave law. This gave slave holders the right to reclaim their human property in free states.
   The department heads of the U.S. government met with President  Washington at his Mt. Vernon home for the first Cabinet meeting on record.
1794
George Wertz born on Feb. 15, 1794 in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America’s cotton industry.
George Washington issued a proclamation telling a group of Western Pennsylvania farmers to stop their Whiskey Rebellion. In the U.S. in western Pennsylvania, angry farmers protested a new federal tax on whiskey makers. The protest flared into the open warfare known as the Whiskey Rebellion between US marshals and whiskey farmers.
The Treaty of Canandaigua was signed at Canandaigua, New York, by 50 sachems and war chiefs representing the Grand Council of the Six Nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy (including the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora tribes), and by Timothy Pickering, official agent of President George Washington. 
1803
Catherine Raffensperger was born May 22, 1803 in Pennsylvania.
Ohio became the 17th state.
Congress ratified the purchase of the entire Louisiana area in North America, which added territory to the United States for 13 subsequent states.
1813
Adam Kollar married Hester Ann Swinehart on March of 1813 in Fairfield Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio.
British forces under Henry Proctor along with Indian allies under Tecumseh defeated a U.S. contingent planning an attack on Fort Detroit.
    A combined British and Indian force attacked an American militia retreating from Detroit near Frenchtown, later known as Monroe, Mich. Only 33 men of some 700 men escaped the battle of the River Raisin. Over 400 Kentucky frontiersmen were killed.
The Battle of Moraviantown was decisive in the War of 1812. Known as the Battle of the Thames in the United States, the U.S. victory over British and Indian forces near Ontario at the village of Moraviantown on the Thames River is know in Canada as the Battle of Moraviantown. Some 600 British regulars and 1,000 Indian allies under English General and Shawnee leader Tecumseh were greatly outnumbered and quickly defeated by U.S. forces under the command of Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison. Tecumseh was killed in this battle.
1823
George Hunt was born about 1823 in Spafford, New York.
The first steamboat to navigate the Mississippi River arrived at Ft. Snelling, which was located between St. Paul and Minneapolis. President Monroe, replying to the 1816 pronouncements of the Holy Alliance, proclaimed the principles known as the Monroe Doctrine, “that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by European powers.” His doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere insured that American influence in the Western hemisphere remain unquestioned.
1831
John Weaver, the son of George and Catherine Weaver, was born in September of 1831 in Ohio.
The year of John Wertz’s birth also was the year Cyrus McCormick demonstrated an early version of his famous mechanical reaper, which would revolutionize American agriculture.
1832
Belinda Kollar, the daughter of Adam Kollar and Hester Ann Swinehart, was born Sept. 16, 1832 in Fairfield, Tuscarawas County, Ohio.
It was in 1832 that the Democratic-Republican Party renamed itself the Democratic Party and ran Andrew Jackson for re-election. He won
Elsewhere, American troops fought the Sac and Fox Indians in the Black Hawk War, the last armed battle with Native Americans north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi.
1845
Hester Ann Kollar, wife of Adam Kollar, died in Fairfield Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio in 1845 at the age of 51. Susan Swartz was born in 1845 in Willerstown, Snyder County, Pennsylvania. Susan was the daughter of Peter and Catherine Swartz. Texas was annexed as a state of the US. Florida became the 27th state.
James K. Polk was inaugurated as 11th President. The style of button-fly pants was introduced to the US “despite protests from the religious community, who saw the flap as a license to sin.”
1855
John Weaver married Belinda Kollar on Aug. 9, 1855 in St. Joseph County, Indiana.
In 1855 developments, Walt Whitman published a collection of 12 poems titled Leaves of Grass. His enthusiasm for self-expression made Whitman one of the leading American poets.
Also during which time, Chicago grew from a small lakeside town into one of the country’s greatest metropolises.
1864
Horace G. Wertz, the son of John and Belinda Wertz, was born Nov. 26, 1864.
President Abraham Lincoln officially commissioned Ulysses S. Grant lieutenant general in the U.S. Army. After leading Union victories in the West in 1862-63, Lincoln gave Grant supreme command of the Union forces with the revived rank of lieutenant general.
General Sherman began to advance on Atlanta.
1868
George Weaver died in Zoarville, Tuscarawas County, Ohio at age 74 on July 30, 1868.
Adam Kollar died at 74 on March 4, 1868 in St. Joseph County, Indiana. Impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson began. The House of Representatives voted vote 126 to 47 to impeach the President.
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were re-admitted to the Union. The Jesse James Gang robbed a bank in Russellville, Kentucky. Congress enacted legislation granting an eight-hour day to workers employed by the Federal government. Congress passed an act creating the Wyoming Territory
1870
George Hunt married Susan Swartz in Bertrand Township, Berrien County, Michigan, on Dec. 18, 1870. The Democratic party was represented as a donkey in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly. John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) and his brother William incorporated the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. The original Standard Oil Company, founded by John D. Rockefeller and three partners in 1870, was incorporated in Ohio. The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race was declared in effect.
Georgia was the last Confederate State to be admitted to the Union. Woodsmen marched west to Michigan clearing forests of white pine, yellow birch, hemlock, maple, and oak.
1872
Lillian May Hunt was born Sept. 10, 1872 in Niles, Michigan. She was the daughter of George Hunt and Susan Swartz.
President Ulysses S. Grant signed a measure creating Yellowstone National Park. Grant was also re-elected U.S. president.
1881
Catherine Wertz, the wife of George Wertz, died at age 77 on Feb. 9, 1881.
Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
James A. Garfield was inaugurated as 20th President. Later that year, Garfield, died of wounds inflicted by assassin. Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as the 21st president.
Barnum & Bailey Circus debuted.
Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops.
The Michigan Legislature required that the bodies of indigents, who would otherwise be buried by the state, to be turned over to the Univ. of Michigan Medical School.

1888
Horace G. Wertz married Lillian (Lillie) May Hunt on Dec. 25, 1888 in St. Joseph County, Ind. A major blizzard hit South Dakota and left hundreds of children and adults dead. The famous “Blizzard of ’88” struck the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths. New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington were cut off for days.
1894
Helen Marie Wertz, the daughter of Horace and Lillian Wertz, was born Dec. 8, 1894 in Bertrand Township, Berrien County, Michigan. American humorist James Thurber, writer and editor, best known for “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” was born the same day as Helen Marie.
Fire caused serious damage at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. New York passed the first state dog license law. Jacob S. Coxey began leading an “army” of unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., to demand help from the federal government. Coxey advocated, as a way to provide jobs and increase the amount of money in circulation, a public works program of road construction and local improvements to be financed by the issuance of $500 million in legal tender notes. Coxey’s Army of unemployed disbanded when Coxey and two other leaders were arrested for trespassing on the White House lawn in 1894.
Labor Day was established as a holiday for federal employees on the first Monday of September.
1905
John Wertz died at age 73 on Jan. 10, 1905 in South Bend, Ind.
Pennsylvania Railroad debuted the fastest train in world (New York-Chicago in 18 hrs).
Orville Wright piloted the first flight longer than 30 minutes. The flight lasted 33 minutes, 17 seconds and covered 21 miles.
1914
Belinda Wertz, the wife of John Wertz, died at age 81 on March 19, 1914 in South Bend, Ind. Henry Ford astounded the world as he announced that he would pay a minimum wage of $5 a day and share with employees $10 million in last year’s profits. The wage increase counterbalanced the increased demand on the workers from the new assembly line production methods. President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May 1914 the first national Mother’s Day. Britain and Belgium declared war after German troops entered Belgium. The United States proclaimed its neutrality.
The Panama Canal opened to traffic. Detroit got its first stop sign. Wrigley Field baseball stadium was built.
1915
Horace Wertz died the age of 50 on July 21, 1915 in Berrien County, Michigan.
World War I had been underway for a year at the time of his death. In 1915, German U-boats blockaded Britain, intensifying the hostilities of World War I. A U-boat sunk the passenger ship Lusitania, killing 1,198. Though a passenger ship, the Lusitania was carrying 173 tons of military supplies for Britain. 1915 also saw long-distance telephone service begin between New York and San Francisco. 1918
Susan Hunt the wife of George Hunt died in 1918 at about age 73.
The war also ended in 1918. Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated, leading to the end of hostilities in Europe. The combined death toll from the war passes six million. Another twenty-million were wounded. The dying continued. An influenza epidemic spreads across Asia and war-ravaged Europe to the Americas. The epidemic eventually killed 20 million people, including 500,000 Americans.
The Supreme Court struck down the Owen-Keating Child Labor Law of 1916 as unconstitutional. It argued that regulations restricting child labor violate states’ rights. In the film industry, Warner Brothers Pictures was incorporated in California by Polish-born filmmakers Harry and Albert Warner and their Canadian-born brother, Jack.
1928
Lillian Wertz, the husband of Horace Wertz, died at age 55 on April 6, 1928 in Niles, Michigan. Republican Herbert Hoover was elected 31st president of the United States.
The country also was in the midst of Prohibition and the Great Depression was near.
(Author, Lucy Mark-Vanden Heede, luciluv@aol.com)