In the town of Kusel, Germany Grandma Maria was born in 1733 to Johannes Christian Grube and Susannah Schreiner. It was recoded in the Reformed Church records. Five years later, the family which included Maria's two older brothers, took the ocean voyage to America and settled in Berks County, PA.
As Maria was growing up in Berks County, John Waldschmidt attended the University of Herborn in Germany studying for the ministry, was recruited for a post in America, and arrived in Philadelphia in 1752. He had Reformed churches in Lancaster and Berks counties, and the Grubes were members of one of his congregations. In 1754, when Maria was 21 and he was 30, they married. In 1755, they purchased 100 acres where they lived with their 8 children.
Grandma Maria must have been pretty tough as her husband had several congregations to serve and would have been away from home a lot. His church records still survive in the Pennsylvania Archives. Perhaps she ended up with an emotional illness as the following is in the record.
"A circumstance in connection with his [John Waldschmidt] tombstone happened about six years later [6 years after he died in 1786] which was thought very singular, and which is not only traditionally remembered in our neighborhood, but we find a record of it in the church book. On a Sunday, June 1, 1793, while a large congregation was assembled in the church, listening to the Word of God, and when the winds were quiet, the tombstone of Rev. Waldschmidt suddenly broke off at the top and fell flat on the tomb. Many saw it and all heard it fall. The wonder in connection with this event was vastly increased in the minds of the people by the fact that Mrs. Waldschmidt [Grandma Maria] who was demented long before, and had not spoken a word for years, began to speak again with others on that same day."
The pastor's estate papers show he had 175 books in Hebrew, Latin, German and Dutch.
One Grube researcher claimed the family was from Switzerland and very well off financially. But the record is pretty clear that Grandma Maria's dad was a shoemaker and her Grube grandparents innkeepers in Kusel, Germany.
Maria died in 1803 when she was 70 years old.
sue>hilda casey lynch>ulric casey>lemira mcclure casey<deborah young mcclure<jane waldsmith young<peter waldsmith<christian waldsmith<maria elisabetha grube waldschmidt
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