Source: Pennsylvania, A History, George P. Donehoo, (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1926), p. 100
Surnames: Filbert, Batteiger, Ache, Webber, Reith, Fidler, Meyers, Leiss, Machimer, Umbenhaur, Stoudt, Lamm, Clayton, Reitzel, Kitzmiller, Conrad, Beltzhoover, Herman, Hitch, Saulsbury, Henning
A well-known attorney of the Schuylkill County Bar, John Harry Filbert, who has been in the practice of his profession for the past three decades in the county, is also deeply interested in educational matters, and has ably served his district along these lines. He has always been active in the civic life of his community, and although like many men who have attained prominence, he has created enmities by the wayside, yet even those who opposed him at first were compelled by results to see that his actions of conservatism were in the right. Mr. Filbert comes of a long line of American ancestry, and his name dates back beyond that into an antiquity whose beginning is in the Teutonic language, being derived from "fielbrecht," which means very bright or illustrious. This appellation was borne by many of the old Teutonic chieftains, whose descendants carried it into all the countries of Western Europe in their early conquests. The earlier spellings of the name were "Philbert" and "Philibert," and in England it exists both in the form Philbert and Filbert; while Philibert, Prince of Orange was one of the generals of Charles V., and fell in the Italian campaign of 1529. St. Philibert who founded the Abbey of Jumieges on the north bank on the Seine and died in 683, had been an Abbot at the Merovingian Court. He was so greatly beloved by the peasantry that at his death they took his day, August 22, to gather the hazel nut which ripened in that locality about that time and called it St. Filbert's nut. The admiral of the French Fleet that made the demonstration against Morocco several years ago belonged to the French branch of the family. There were several counts of the name who ruled over Savoy in the twelfth century, and the descendants of Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy became kings of Sardinia, and later the reigning family of Italy.
(I) The American branch of the family traces its ancestry to John Samuel Filbert, who was born in Wurttemberg, January 8, 1710, and who with his wife Susanna came to the New World on the ship "Samuel," of which Hugh Percy was master, sailing from Rotterdam, and took the oath of allegiance to the crown of Great Britain and the Province of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, August 30, 1737. He spelled the name "Filbert," but the Rev. John Casper Stover, who kept the baptismal records of the family, spelled it "Philbert." The children of John Samuel Filbert were: 1. John Thomas, born in 1737, died in 1784; married Catherine Batteiger. 2. Marie Catrina, born 1739, married John Heinrich Ache. 3. Anna Elizabeth, born in 1741, married John Henry Webber, a captain in the Revolutionary War. 4. John Philip, of whom further. 5. John Peter, born in 1746, who was a delegate from the First Battalion of Berks County Militia to the convention held in Lancaster, July 4, 1776, to elect three brigadier-generals for the Pennsylvania and Delaware Militia, and who was elected sheriff of Berks County in 1785. 6. Maria Christiana, born in 1749, married to Jost Reith. As the father and three sons had the first name "John" in common, they dropped it in active life, and the only places that it can be found are on their baptismal records and tombstones. The father Samuel and his wife, Susanna, settled immediately on coming to this country in Bern Township, Lancaster, now Berks County, Pennsylvania, at what is the present site of Bernville. Samuel Filbert and Godfried Fidler each gave an acre of ground to the North Kill Lutheran Church at Bernville. A log church was built in 1743 on the part donated by Samuel Filbert; tradition says that he paid half of the cost of the building, which was used for a church on the Sabbath, and as a school on week days. In 1791 the log church was replaced by a brick building, at which time his son, Philip, acted as president of the building committee. In 1897 the present handsome brown stone edifice was erected on the same ground. Back of the chancel in the new building is a beautiful stained glass window dedicated to "Samuel Filbert, Founder, 1743." He died September 25, 1786, and is buried in the center of the old church yard.
(II) John Philip Filbert, son of John Samuel and Susanna Filbert, was born December 7, 1743. He was commissioned as a captain of the Eighth Company of the Sixth Battalion of Berks County militia, June 14, 1777, and was recommissioned in 1780, 1783, and 1786, so that he served as an officer of the Pennsylvania militia during the whole period of the Revolution. Captain John Philip Filbert's battalion was mustered into the Continental service on December 13, 1777, for sixty days, and was engaged under General Washington in the Schuylkill Valley, between Valley Forge and Germantown. Tradition states he assisted in erecting the last works at Valley Forge. He married Anna Maria Meyers, and they were the parents of three children: Samuel, of whom further; John, married Anna Maria Leiss; and Catherine, who married William Machimer. John Philip Filbert died August 20, 1817, and is buried at Bernville.
(III) Samuel Filbert, eldest son of John P. and Anna Maria (Meyers) Filbert, was born about 1770 and died about 1795. He married Sibylla, daughter of Francis Umbenhaur, a captain in the Revolutionary War, and they were the parents of two sons: Joseph, who died in 1904; and Peter, of whom further.
(IV) Peter Filbert, son of Samuel and Sibylla Filbert, was born at Bernville, Berks County in 1794. His father died when he was about six months old, leaving his two sons to the guardianship of their grandfathers, Philip Filbert and Francis Umbenhaur. In 1814 Peter Filbert enlisted with the troops called out for the defense of Baltimore against the British Army, and marched under Captain Smith to Springfield camp, near that city, and after the retreat of the British was honorably discharged from service. He married Elizabeth Stoudt, daughter of John Stoudt, in 1818, and the following year removed to Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, to take charge of the Pine Grove Forge. Subsequently he was the presidential elector chosen to represent this district in the election of 1840, and cast his vote for the successful candidate William Henry Harrison. He died February 14, 1864. He and his wife, Elizabeth (Stoudt) Filbert, were the parents of the following children: 1. Samuel P., married Lavina Lamm. 2. Edward T., married Mary Clayton. 3. Peter A., who was a major in the Ninety-sixth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War; married Theodosia Reitzel. 4. Leah, married Dr. John Kitzmiller. 5. Rebecca, married F. W. Conrad, D. D. 6. John Q. A., of whom further.
(V) John Quincy Adams Filbert, son of Peter and Elizabeth (Stoudt) Filbert, was born in Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, February 11, 1827. At the age of sixteen years he served on the engineer corps of the late Colonel Benjamin Aycrigg, and later he removed to York , Pennsylvania, and then to Baltimore, Maryland, where he lived when the Civil War broke out. Mr. Filbert was a staunch Unionist, and was one of the men who helped save Maryland for the Union. When it was reported that the confederates were going to seize the city, he stood in the trenches to help guard it. All of the coal yards of the city were in the hands of southern sympathizers who would not coal the government vessels, and the government did not dare to confiscate them for fear of further inflaming sentiment. Mr. Filbert, at the request of the leadership of the Union element in the city, came up to Schuylkill County and made arrangements to procure coal for the national vessels. He returned to his native county in 1866, residing on his farm below Schuylkill Haven for thirty-five years, and died there December 4, 1910.
John Quincy Adams Filbert married, April 30, 1856, Mary Beltzhoover, daughter of Michael G. and Mary (Herman) Beltzhoover, of Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, and they were the parents of the following children: 1. Benjamin Aycrigg. 2. Mary E. 3. Helen B., who married Dr. Gaylord A. Hitch, of Laurel, Delaware. 4. Charles B., married Florence Saulsbury, and they reside in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 5. John Harry, of whom further.
(V) John Harry Filbert was born in the city of Baltimore, October 19, 1865, and when but a few months old, his parents removed to Schuylkill County, where he has resided ever since. He was educated in the local schools and then was graduated from the Pottsville High School, and later attended the Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. He registered as a student at law under the late Judge David C. Henning, and was admitted to the practice of law in the courts of Schuylkill County, on the first day of January, 1894. He has always taken a deep interest in educational matters, and in all movements that were to benefit the community. He has been a member of the Midwinter Educational Club of Pottsville for upwards of two decades. He was one of the incorporators of the Schuylkill County Historical Society, and was its first vice-president, and he has the reputation of being one of the best read men in the community on local historic matters. He has been active in the civic life of the section, and has held a number of offices of honor and trust. During the great World War he was chairman of the Schuylkill Haven divisions of the Committee of Public Safety, a member of the Fuel Committee of Schuylkill County, and handled many delicate tasks in a diplomatic manner. He steadfastly refused to fall in with the popular hysteria as to the prevalence of spies, and the menace of alien enemies, and yet Schuylkill County went through the war without one overt enemy act of a destructive nature. Mr. Filbert's work was of the highest order, and won widespread praise. He also was the leader in all of the sales of Liberty Bonds. Fraternally he is a member of Page Lodge, No. 207, Free and Accepted Masons, of Schuylkill Haven, and he is also a member of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. He maintains his law offices at Pottsville, but resides at Schuylkill Haven.
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