4. Jacob turns a quarter century old

Way over east in Centre County beneath the peaks of the seven mountains and walled in from the great plain of the Susquehanna River...gray sandstones, a ribbed plateau, and pale blue limestone.

The Valley runs for about thirty miles down its southern barrier of Nittany Mountain.  In some spots it's a square 2 miles wide, in others the breadth is pushing five and a half.

The central region of the Nittany Valley is called "The Barrens" and its underbelly is iron ore...pig metal when it gets furnaced.  The Barrens is part ridge and part falls away to the valley floor.  Sharp and deep ravines contribute to the "uneven" contour of which Linn speaks in a History of Centre and Clinton Counties.

Big Fishing Creek spits out of Nittany Valley by the Mill Hall Gap and flows on into the Bald Eagle Creek.

The Valley's got sections...opposite Mill Hall Gap, at Bellefonte Gap, and a section near Jacksonville.

It's near McRabin's house and Mill Hall where the variety of limestone is a pale blue.

The diagonal lines of the creeks and the stern gaps played a role in the carving into county and township.

An officer of the British Provincial army engaged in the defense of the frontier thought he'd discovered an empire when he reached the top of Nittany Mountain and saw a summer prairie and forest.  But for water he had to go to a spring at a lower elevation.  The Captain was Potter and the spring got named Old Fort.

It was nearly a hundred years later that John Snyder, a teamster in the Revolution, died in "Walker Township.  The earliest surveys had long been made and the warrants piecemealed into community.

By the time Jacob and Catharine Ann's child Matilda was born in 1831 a major split between the Lick Run Church and the "Presbyterian Church of Nitanny Valley" was five years on the horizon.  The Snyders and the Emerochs were engaged in the building of churches and seemed to have worked with Valentine Meyer (on the Reformed side) as opposed to the side of the Lutheran elders who'd traced their trail of congregating and ministering back to John Beck coming to the Valley in 1806 from Northampton County.  1806...that was a mere two years before the birth of Jacob and Catharine's first child Daniel.

Daniel came in the spring of 1808, a five year period in which to be the only son passed before the birth of Levi (20th of December).

Levi'd been about two when along came Samuel in the autumn of 1815.

[   ]

William made a four-square son-only family and so the fifth boy was named Solomon.  Solomon seems to have been born about 1823.

From there on our family tree list things get a little more cloudy as to precise dates.  Daniel seems to have died in 1830 which would've been in the year before Matilda came as the only girl on the list.  As for the John born to Jacob and Catharine D. Harrison has given us no dates.

We've got Dunkels, Dunkles, and Snyders yet to visit here in Pennsylvania.  As well as Bollanders, Beech Creek and a blacksmith over in Haines Township.

Could've been a screeching eagle or it mighta been a reference to a place called Bald Eagle in what became Mifflin County.  'Twas those inhabitants that petitioned for a division of the land that was pronounced official via the April sessions of Assembly in 1799.

 "In April, 1798, the inhabitants of Bald Eagle, in Mifflin County, petitioned for a division of that township equally by a line from the mouth of Antes Run up the said run to the head thereof, and from thence a southeast course to Potter township, and also from the mouth of said run (Curtain Station) a northwest course to the Susquehanna.  At April sessions, 1799, the township was divided accordingly, and the division adjoining Lycoming County named 'Centre Township," the other part to retain the former name.  Centre township therefore embraced the western half of the present township of Walker by a diagonal line running from Logan's Gap (now called Hecla Gap) towards Jacksonville, and all of Marion west of the same line continued towards the mouth of Beech Creek, all of the present townships of Howard, Liberty, and Curtin, and that part of the present township of Beech Creek, Clinton County, lying west of a line running from about the mouth of Big Run to the south bank of the river about a mile southwest of the mouth of the Sinnemahoning, and a strip three-fourths of a mile wide along the east side of Boggs, Snow Shoe, and Burnside Townships" (39 Linn).

First officers:  Constable William Wilson; Supervisors David Lamb and Thomas Askey; Overseers Thomas Wilson and Henry McCalmont; Assessor John McCalmont and John Thompson; Auditors Francis McEwen and John Mitchell.

"The territory above was called Centre Township until January 1810 when Howard and Walker were formed out of Centre and the latter name disappears" (39).

"First rate land valued at three dollars per acre; second rate at two dollars; third rate, one dollar; fourth at fifty cents per acre; average rate per cent., five mills." pg 39 Linn

Single freemen are each taxed 50 cents; clerks and those having trades 25 cents in addition.

Haines Twp. in 1801 included that portion of Gregg (now) south of Brush Mountain and east of a line running through Spring Mill to the head of Penn's Creek, and all of Penn Twp.

1801 inhabitants include Melchior Dunkel, Casper Emerich, Christian Emerich, Nicholas Emerich (blacksmith).  Also Snyders.




The History of Centre and Clinton Counties gives us the 92 year old John Snyder with whom was living Solomon Candy Shoemaker...

"John Snyder, who was a teamster during the Revolution, died in Walker, July 31, 1850, aged ninety-two years" (457, Linn).

We can see Solomon (his wife Catharin and children William and Catharin) on the US Census of 1850 for Walker Township, Centre County, PN...

On the next page of that Census we find lots of Emerichs!  The son of Jacob and Catharine Ann [Snyder] Candy...Samuel Candy married Mary Magdalena Emerich (daughter of John Emerick and Elizabeth Dunkle) in December of 1837.



Thanks to Ancestor Tracks we can actually see the Candy's on a map of Centre County 1861.  Right near "Snydertown" we find "Candy Heirs" and "S. Candy."  These were up near Nittany Ridge.  But where they came from is still a mystery to us.

Click on the link to view the map...

The map gives us a visual image that matches up with the 1850 US Census information for Walker Township, Centre County

3. Walker Township--1850

John Blair Linn's History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Phila.: Louis H. Everts, 1883; Press of J.B. Lippincot & Co., Phila.) goes from Campbell to the Dr. Ira D. Canfield who was found drowned in September of 1867.  Since the Doctor's mind had been "impaired dome years before his decease," it was "...supposed he ended his own life."  He'd been born the first of February at Morristown, New Jersey and had studied medicine at Reading.  He was a practicioner of medicine in Centre and Clinton Counties for over fifty years and he left one son, Dr. Ira Canfield, Jr.

The US Census of 1850 for Walker Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania gives us the physician living with a Peter Zigler, William Smith, and a Houston.  These people live near John Orr, an innkeeper, and Jacob Lotz, a blacksmith.  Around these live the Candys.

Solomon Candy is a shoemaker.  In 1850 he's 28 years old living with a Mary Candy (27) and two children--William (2) and Catharin (1).  They live int he household of a ninety-two year old man named John Snyder (Dwelling 1865, Family # 1892).

Levi Candy is a mason (36 years old) and his Catharine is five years younger.  Their child Ann is eight years old and attending school within the year.  Elizabeth is four years old and the John Candy with them is but six months old.  These are in Dwelling # 1857, Family # 1884).

And Jacob Candy is a farmer in Dwelling # 1866, Family # 1893.  Jacob is sixty-one years old and his Catharin [this is Catharine Ann Snyder] is just a tad bit older at 63.  With them are Daniel Candy (age 22) and Matilda Candy, the youngest in the household at nineteen.  Jacob lives right next door to John Emerich, also a farmer.  John Emerich is 35 and his Mary is 23 years old.  For some reason the census says on the next line [   ] "Margaret Kin Read," age 17.  And the Jacob Emerich with them is sixty-five years old.  In the next dwelling is Daniel and Rebecca Emerich.

Then for the enumerator it's on to see (Dwelling # 1860, Family # 1887) Mary Snyder (age 61) who lives with Absalom (age 26) who does blacksmithing and Peter Snyder, a tailor.  And William Conner a forty year old mason (Dwelling # 1861, Family # 1888).

It's in Dwelling # 1865, Family # 1892 where we find Solomon Candy with elder John Snyder.

The Township had been erected in 1810 so it's been forty years in the making by the time we find our people on the 1850 Census.

That milestone year, 1850, is when we find Samuel Candy and Polly up in the Town of Buck Eye in Stephenson County, Illinois.  Samuel's most of thitty years old and Polly is thirty-three.  Their Catharine is 12, Sophia is ten, and John is seven years old.  The Mary E. with them is two years old and the George Emerisk is 23 years old.  They are #520 up there.  Polly cannot read & write.  Catharine, Sophia, and John are attending school.  This is one year before Polly--Mary Magdalene (Emerich) Candy dies.  She'd given birth to Mary Elizabeth in Illinois, but the rest of the children down in Centre County.

From Betsy E. Tolstedt we learn, "I am a descendent of Jacob via his son Levi.  Levi followed Samuel to Stephenson County, Illinois.  I have lots and lots of stuff.  I have also connected with a descendent of Solomon Candy.  I am eager to look at what you have on Samuel.  His family disappeared from Stephenson County" (Ancestry.com, 31 JAN 2005).

Betsy posts news from the Orangeville Courier 20 & 27 APRIL 1901 in an article entitled, "Former Centre County People:  Prominant Citizens Who Lived in Pennsylvania."  This tells us..."John Candy, farmer near Rock Grove, son of Levi Candy, came out here from Hublersburg, about 45 years ago with his many family, and many of the older people of Nittany Valley will remember the Candy's.  They were good people, industrious, honest in their dealings with their fellow men.  The writer [of the article] was very well acquainted with Levi while in the east."

Based on a compilation of information we see that Samuel married Mary Magdalena Emerich (Polly) on the 21st of December 1837.  They gave birth to Catharine Ann in April of 1838 in Pennsylvania.  Sophia, too, was born in Pennsylvania.  And the 1850 Census tells us that our "Great/Gee" John Candy was also born in Pennsylvania in the year 1842 or 1843.  Then Mary Elizabeth was born in the August of 1848 in Illinois.  About three years later, Samuel's wife, Mary Magdalena (Polly) dies.

The US Census of 1840 back in Walker Township, Centre, Pennsylvania gives us some Kenedys there; but it also gives us a Jacob Candy; Samuel Candy; and William Candy.

Obviously the Census of 1820 would be good to read as well.  1820 would've been five years after Samuel's birth in Walker Township.  We are tracing the life of Samuel because he went on to marry Mary Magdalena (Emerich) and they bore the children including our John Candy (born 1842/43).

There is an ancestral file ("Ancestral File," database FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/pal:MM9.2.1/M4XZ-6P3:  accessed 2 JULY 2013), entry for Samuel Candy that tells us more about Mary Magdalena.

Mary Magdalena Emerich was born on the 13th of January of 1818 to the parents Johannes Emerich and Elizabeth Dunkle who'd married in about 1814.  Johannes Emerich had come from Tulpenhocken in Berks County, Pennsylvania.  He'd been christened in the Christ Lutherian church on the 14th of October 1787.  But he died in Walker Township, Centre, Pennsylvania in the February of 1845 (just six years before his daughter died in Illinois).  Johannes Emerich's wife, Elizabeth (Dunkle) lived for five years longer than her daughter Mary Magdalena.  The dates of Elizabeth Dunkle's lifetime are given as: 10 JAN 1790-24 APRIL 1856).  And Elizabeth was a Pennsylvania woman.  Elizabeth Dunkle's parents were Melchoir and Barbara Dunkle.  Melchoir had been born in 1764, the year that Captain Potter first spied the "empire" in the wilderness of the seven mountains.

Johannes Emerich (born 17 SEPT 1787 in Tulpenhocken) had a father named John Nicholas Emerich.  This is still according to the Ancestral File.  John Nicholas had been born on the 28th of June 1754 also in Tulpenhocken. Likewise his wife to be Maria Barbara was born in Tulpenhocken in 1765.  John Nicholas and his wife most likely moved to Walker Township and it was there that they both died.  John Nicholas in late November (the 28th) of 1815 and Maria Barbara on the 31st of March 1854.

The Emerich research goes back further still.  John Nicholas Emerich had been born to Bathasier and Maria Martha (Kanter) Emerich during that September 1787 in Tulpenhocken.  The ancestral file gives us the life dates for Bathasier as 1719-1810, and, suggests that Maria Martha was born about 1723.

And there is information regarding John Nicholas Emerich's wife--Maria Barbara.  She'd been a Riegel...born in 1765 in Tulpenhocken to parents Simmon (5 NOV 1738-12 JAN 1829) and Anna Gertrude (Kirschner) Riegel (born abt 1745 and dying before 1825).  But Maria Barbara died in Walker Township.

The ancestral file was submitted by someone (dwoodward2026793) with a lot of details about Samuel and Mary Magdalena's daughter, Mary Elizabeth Candy--sister of John Candy who married Sarah Maurer.  Mary Elizabeth was about five or six years younger than our Great John (who went on to father George Augustus Candy).  Mary Elizabeth married Albert De Wild--a harnessmaker.  Ancestry.com information tells us that Mary Elizabeth went to Kansas (Jewell County) for a spell and stayed with her sister Sophia, but that Mary Elizabeth and Albert went to Iowa like John and Sarah Candy.  Mary Elizabeth and Albert got married on the 11th of May 1880 in Jewell City, Kansas.  But Mary Elizabeth is buried in a municipal cemetery in Marengo, Iowa.  Albert's lifetime dates are given as 1852-1918.  And Mary Elizabeth died on the 26th of March 1921.

Mary Elizabeth's brother John had died in 1918 in Pawnee County, Oklahoma.  His wife Sarah Maurer (who'd been married to John abt 1865) had grown up in Illinois, a child of George and Elizabeth (Bolender) Maurer.  Elizabeth Bolender's people also came from Centre County, Pennsylvania, in fact, that is where Sarah's mother was born according to the Death Certificate for Mary Katharine Mengedohd (02 JUNE 1931).  Mary Katharine's parents George and Elizabeth Maurer were also the parents of Sarah who married our Great John Candy.  Elizabeth Bolender had come from Centre County and George from Union County (where he'd been born in 1810)  George Maurer made way to Illinois in 1840 and was married to Miss Elizabeth Bolender in 1841.  Their daughter, Sarah, is improperly cited in Tilden's The History of Stephenson County, Illinois as having married J. Kennedy when in fact, she married John Candy, son of Samuel (born 1815) who was the son of Jacob and Catharine Ann (Snyder) Candy.

As George and Elizabeth Maurer made way into Stephenson County, Illinois it had been two years since the Cedar Creek overflowed.  At the mouth of Richland Creek was a handful of Indian camps still menacing the settlers.  These were called "Pottawotamies" and "Winnebagoes" not "Delaware" and "Shawnees" like they were called on Big and Little Fishing Creeks near the Nittany Post Office back in Pennsylvania.  When the Cedar Creek overflowed there were new divisions made in place names.  Before the flood Buckeye Township was known simply as the Central District.  The settlers had been relying on their guns for meat which would scatter great flocks of "prairie chickens" and roaming herds of deer.  Without milling flour was hard to come by so biscuits were missing the boof and anything bread-like was flat and hard.

The tiny wave of settlers arriving in 1840 were on the heels of those who'd migrated in 1837.

2.

1.