BIO: DAVID FOGELSONGER, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson OCRed by Judy Banja Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/ _____________________________________________________________ >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 451-453 _____________________________________________________________ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/zeamer/ DAVID FOGELSONGER. The Fogelsongers are supposed to be of Huguenot stock. In the year 1763 there was born in the Kingdom of France a David Fogelsonger, who at the age of fifteen years came to America, with Marquis De Lafayette's army. This young man battled for American liberty and independence for one year and was mustered out of service and paid off at Newburgh, N.Y. On leaving the army he turned his face toward Pennsylvania, with the view of finding a good locality in which to make his future home. On his way he bought himself some wearing apparel at Trenton, N. J., and in his old days used to relate to his children how he paid for a pair of shoes $75 in Continental money. He first settled in Lancaster county, where in the month of May, 17--, at the age of seventeen, he married Gertrude, daughter of Wendel Minick. After his marriage he removed to Cumberland county, where he worked on a farm for a Mr. Heikes, who a year later bought for him a farm in Hopewell township, containing 237 acres. Here he lived and prospered until his death. He died on Dec. 13, 1834; his wife Gertrude died on Nov. 3, 1831, aged seventy-two years, and their remains are interred in the graveyard of the Fogelsonger Church in Hopewell township. David and Gertrude (Minick) Fogelsonger had children as follows: Barbara, John, Elizabeth, David, Jacob and Wendel. Barbara and Jacob died in Hopewell township; John., Elizabeth and David died in Franklin county, and all of them are buried at the Fogelsonger Church in Hopewell. In religion the family were German Baptist Brethren, as are most of their descendants. Wendel Fogelsonger, the youngest son, was born Feb. 4, 1801, on the farm in Hopewell township. He was educated in the public schools and trained to the vocation of farming, but being possessed of a naturally religious mind he directed his attention also into other fields, one being that of medicine. To a certain extent he practiced homeopathy and did curing by faith and the laying on of hands. He was widely known, much respected and a leader in his sect and community. In 1827 he married Mary Elizabeth Diehl, a daughter of George and Esther (Rotz) Diehl, who were born in Germany. On beginning life for himself he moved to a farm in Franklin county, not far from the borders of Cumberland, which his father had bought for him. Here he lived to the end of a well-spent life. His wife died April 21, 1869; he died July 2, 1874, and both are buried at the Fogelsonger Church in Hopewell. Wendel and Mary Elizabeth (Diehl) Fogelsonger had seven children, as follows: Barbara A., who married Samuel Cramer; David, who is the subject of this historical. sketch; Mary Elizabeth, who married George Foust; George, who married Catherine Black and is living in Shippensburg; Jacob, who married Catherine Miller; John, who married Jennie Snoke and is living in Franklin county, and W. M., who married Elizabeth Newcomer, and is living on the old Fogelsonger homestead in Franklin county. Barbara, Elizabeth and Jacob are dead and buried at the Fogelsonger Church, where so many of the family are buried. David Fogelsonger, the eldest son and third eldest child, was born Dec. 4, 1831, on 452 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. his father's farm about one mile west from Shippensburg, in Franklin county. He reached the school age before free schools were established and was first sent to subscription or pay school. Afterward he attended the district public school and for two terms an academy in Shippensburg, which completed his education. He worked upon the farm for his father until he was twenty-two years old. In 1854 he married Catherine Noftsker, daughter of Henry and Catherine (Zeigler) Noftsker. of Franklin county. On starting out for himself he first located in Greene township, Franklin county, where he farmed one year. He then moved to a farm in Cumberland county belonging to his uncle, which he farmed for a period of nineteen years. In 1873 he bought what was long known as the "old Cooper farm," near Newburg, in Hopewell township, and in the following spring moved upon it. Here he built a new barn, also a new wagon shed, and otherwise greatly improved the place and made it his home for fourteen years. In 1887 he bought the Strohm farm, containing twenty-eight acres, and lying within the precincts of Newburg, which was his home for another fourteen years. During his active days he was not only a farmer but also a business man, and in January, 1881, was elected secretary of the Centennial Insurance Company, which office he held for twenty-one years. The business of this company was heavy, necessitating a great amount of recording and correspondence, as the reader may infer from the fact that during the last year of his secretaryship he used up three pints of writing ink. David and Catherine (Noftsker) Fogelsonger had six children, as follows: Sarah Elizabeth, who married A. F. Snoke, living at Mowersville, Franklin county; Mary Gertrude, who died in 1879, at the age of twenty-two years; Jacob Edwin, who died when eighteen months old; a son who died in infancy; David Albert, who married Rebecca Miller, and is now living on the homestead in Hopewell township, and Bertha Mary, who is married to Harry Woodrow and is living in Shippensburg. The mother, Catherine (Noftsker), died in 1902 and is buried at the Fogelsonger Church. On Feb. 10. 1903, Mr. Fogelsonger married Mary Kyle Wineman, a daughter of Matthew and Catherine (Bock) Wineman, of Newburg, and a member of another representative family of that part of the country. Matthew Wineman died in May, 1893, in his seventy-eighth year, and his wife died in July, 1899, aged eighty-one years. Both are buried at the Fogelsonger Church. David Fogelsonger retired from business in January, 1904, and bought himself a pleasant home on North High street, in Newburg, where he is spending the evening of his life in comfort and contentment. He is a member of the Dunker, or German Baptist, Church, as were his ancestors before him. Upon public questions, as well as business subjects, he is well informed, and in all things liberal and progressive. He served upon the Hopewell school board for five years, and afterward, for a much longer time, upon the Newburg school board. In politics he is a Republican, with which party he has acted from its first organization. He stood by its cradle, for he was a delegate to its first State convention held at Harrisburg in 1856. An incident in his early youth had much to do with the selection of his political creed. When about eight years old he accompanied his parents to Roanoke, Va., to attend a Dunker annual meeting. On their way back they stopped in Winchester, where they witnessed in front of the court house CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 453 the sale of some slaves. Among the number was a young girl, who was almost white. She had a full round face, red cheeks and wavy black hair, and presented an attractive figure as she stood on the auction block. A young planter of near Winchester and a trader from Georgia were bidding against each other and each carefully examined the girl's person, the same as a horse buyer looks a horse over for defects before buying him. The mother of the girl had been knocked off to a young Virginian and was extremely anxious that her favorite child be also purchased by him that she might be near her. But the price kept rising and rising until it finally passed the Virginian's limit and the girl was knocked off to the Georgia trader at $1100. When the auctioneer announced the sale, and the mother realized the fact, she screamed with anguish, and the cries and sobs sent a shudder into David Fogelsonger's heart that caused him to ever afterward feel an aversion to the institution of human slavery.