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- [S926] Find-A-Grave, (www.findagrave.com).
William(Wilhelm) Smith, I
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Birth: 1783
Nunschweiler
Südwestpfalzer Landkreis
Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
Death: 1861
Jefferson County
Pennsylvania, USA
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An unmarked grave, according to church records.
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Wilhelm Schmitt, known in most English accounts as William Smith Sr., was born in 1783 in Nünschweiler in the Pfalz region of Bavaria (this area is now a part of the modern- German state Rheinland-Pfalz).
With his wife and two of his children, Wilhelm emigrated to America with Nikolaus Weber (his son-in-law) and Johann Nikolaus Haag of Windsberg, arriving in New York City 24 June 1833. Previous accounts stated that he arrived with Heinrich "Henry" Wingert, later the husband of Wilhelm's daughter Louisa, but this is inaccurate, as Wingert did not arrive in Jefferson County until early 1839. He and the Haag, Weber, Wingert, Sprau/Sprow, and Conrad families were among the founding parishioners of the Punxsutawney German Reformed Congregation.
According to the Letters of Katie (Smith) Hurlebaus, Wilhelm's granddaughter, he and wife Margaretha are thought to have died in the fall of 1861 within one month of each other, although it is more likely that he died in the fall of 1860 shortly after the recording of the 1860 Federal Census, and his wife the year before, as she is missing from this census record.
He and wife Margaretha are believed to be 2 of the 5 unmarked burials noted in the court records for the cemetery (1922).
He was the Father of:
Jakob Schmitt (Smith) of Young Township
Katharina Elisabetha Schmitt Weber, resident of Hengsberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Bavaria (now no longer part of Bavaria)
Louisa (Smith) Weber Wingert, wife of Heinrich Wingert
and Wilhelm Schmitt the younger (William Smith Jr.), most of whom were also interred at this cemetery.
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*Note*
Although the work of Melvin P. Elbel suggested that Wilhelm and his family may have been related to Christian Schmidt and Barbara Emminger of Young Township, this theory has been disproven, as Wilhelm Schmitt's son Christian died as an infant in Nünschweiler. The presence of numerous other Christian Smith/Schmitts in the family likely caused this confusion.
In "A Supplement to the Elbel Book" by Ed McKee and Melvin Park Elbel, a note is made that relatives both of the Elbels and of Philip Smith's descendants believed that a Smith-relative of Philip's had married an Emminger, and that there was mention of another Christian Smith in the family.
This detail was provided by Ira M. Smith, grandson of Philip Smith. As it turns out, only the family of Edward Elbel was related to the Schmidt/Emminger line (via marriage), although the Schmitt and Schmidt families lived a short distance from one another and exchanged property from time to time.
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Sources:
1. Miscellaneous Records for St. Peter's Reformed Church, 1922.
2. Smith, J.D. "The German Pioneers of Punxsutawney and the Zweibrücken-Pirmasens Emigration, 1820-1900." The Jeffersonian Journal 1.1 (2014). Print. 4-25.
3. "William Smith Household." 1860 Federal Census. Young Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania.
Family links:
Spouse:
Margaretha Sprau Smith (1789 - 1861)
Children:
Jakob Smith (1810 - 1877)*
Louisa Schmitt Wingert (1813 - 1892)*
William Smith (1819 - 1896)*
*Calculated relationship
Burial:
Saint Peters Reformed Cemetery
Punxsutawney
Jefferson County
Pennsylvania, USA
Maintained by: J.D. Smith
Originally Created by: Marianne
Record added: Aug 01, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 55743123
- Always Remembered -Never Forgotten
Added: Sep. 2, 2015
No grave stone photo is available
- Marianne
Added: Jul. 29, 2011
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