Conrad Stuntz

biography

Conrad Stuntz born in Wurttemburg, Germany, 1738. He was a weaver by trade and a soldier for seven years under Frederick, King of Prussia. Sympathizing with the Colonists in their struggles against England, he deserted and joined the Hessians in order to get passage to this country when George III hired these troops to fight against the American Revolutionary forces. As the ship was about to land he jumped overboard, swam ashore, and shortly after joined the American Army under the immediate command of General Washington. He took part in the battles of White Plains, Brandywine and Monmouth (where he was wounded). HE spent the winter at Valley Forge when Washington and his troops were quartered there. He was present at Yorktown when Cornwallis surrendered. In 1778, in Lancaster Co., PA, he married MARGARET BRIEFLING (1738-1830 a native of Pflaz, on the River Rhine. When but a girl of thirteen years, she lost all her relatives in a plague. Alone, with only a change of clothing in a bundle, she walked 300 miles to Rotterdam and hired out to a money lender to serve four and one-half years for her passage to America. A copy of the indenture is in the family, thus, she bound herself to Martin Miller of Philadelphia. The labor which she performed was felling trees, digging ditches and other work of similar nature and as a result she was bent and decrepid all her life. In return for his distinguished services in the Revolution, Conrad was given a grant of 600 acres of land in the extreme northern edge of Virginia, and there three boys and four girls were born. Not wishing to rear them in a slave state they exchanges the Virginia land for a larger acreage in the PA Wilderness, later known as Beaver Twp., Crawford Co., moving in 1801 and there the Pilgrim of Fortune lived until his death 24 July 1810; his body lies buried in a field belonging to that farm. It is surmounted by a simple stone.

"Listed in "Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots, Vol. 4, p. --Serial: 11912; Volume: 4