Grandma Catharine's birth was recorded by our ancestor, Pastor Waldschmidt, in the church records. The Pastor wrote that she was the daughter of Peter and Fronica. In Peter's will, he names his wife, Maria Barbara. So Catharina's mother is in question, but most seem to think that Peter was just married once - to Maria Barbara - and that Pastor Waldschmidt had the name "Fronica" on his mind since he'd written it in his record book several times recently.
Catharina was brought up in southeastern Pennsylvania where there were several German settlements. The German language was spoken and residents belonged to the German Reformed Church. Catharina's father, Peter, probably immigrated from Germany to Pennsylvania in l750 and settled in Berks County. Her dad died when she was a child and she married Christian, the pastor's son, when she was only 15 and he was 25.
Christian was in the Revolutionary War. After the war, they may have moved to the Brush Valley in central PA or to Norristown near Philadelphia, or both. In l796 they moved on west to southwestern Ohio. According to one publication, the Waldschmidts and the group they moved with. did so because they were "compelled to leave the county" due to their affiliation with a Piest Church "which was offensive." This may not be true at all. A man named Fitzwater who was a child during the trip to Ohio wrote the following.
"C. Waldsmith, our own family, and four other families started for this State on or near the first of May, 1796 . . . A day or two after leaving Pittsburg, Christian Waldsmith was walking on a sand bar when he picked up a fife which looked very ancient. The brass on the ends was black and somewhat corroded, and it was full of sand. It was supposed it had been in the river since Braddock's defeat - nearly forty-one years . . . After being on the river seven weeks, we landed at Columbia. The Miami was pouring out muddy water and driftwood. This was the first sight I got of that river. . . Not far above the mouth of the Miami the boat which contained Waldsmith's family ran aground. The four men and a boy tried to get it afloat that afternoon and into the night, but did not succeed. The next morning another boat came along, when they hailed the inmates for assistance . . . in two or three hours the boat was afloat . . . Waldsmith was so pleased to get his boat afloat that he told them he would give them ten gallons of whiskey for their services. They brought a keg which held three gallons, and he filled that."
The Waldschmidts Americanized their name to Waldsmith, built a paper mill, distillery, school and church on 1000 acres which they apparently bought for $1 per acre. In 1804 they built a house that is now an historic landmark. They had nine children. The oldest son, Peter, married Hannah Long whose family I've been unable to trace.
Catharina died in 1810 when she was only 45 years old. Her husband and one son died in the flu epidemic four years later.
sue<hilda casey lynch<ulric casey<lemira mcclure casey<deborah young mcclure<jane waldsmith young<peter waldsmith<catharina bolender waldsmith
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