Americanization of the Bedingers
Though the family spoke German at home, Henry Bedinger(1) sent his boys to the English school in Shepherdstown taught by a Scotchman, Robert Cockburn, where they learned to read, write and cipher. The boys were also taught the rudiments of surveying, a skill that George Michael would practice in later years on the Kentucky frontier. The girls were schooled at home.
Henry Bedinger writing to his daughter Nancy, many years later: “I must inform you of the change of our name from Biedinger to Bedinger. My mother was very well educated for those times in Germany. After the family arrived she made incessant efforts to educate her 4 sons. In a settlement where all were German emigrants, the English language was not understood but by very few in the county. My mother succeeded in teaching her boys to read and write well in the language. I was 7 years old before I knew one word of English. In my eighth year my father removed to Shepherdstown where we all learned English. My father sent us to an English school, and he himself, having a German plain education soon learnt to read and write English. Old Robert Cockburn, who but very lately died in Martinsburg, was our teacher. He molded our name to sound more to his liking, wrote and spelled our father’s name Henry Bedinger accent on second syllable, dropping the “i” and continued to sound the “g” hard [pronounced be-ding-er]. Thus the pronunciation of our name stood stationary until after the death of my father. And the Old Folks still call us Bedinger, sounding the “g” hard; but in the Revolution the Bedinger became gradually pronounced with a soft “g” to which neither of us [Henry and George Michael] objected because we knew others of German extraction such as Ballinger, Coppinger, Febiger, all sound the “g” soft instead of hard as was the original pronunciation of those names.”[i]
Lutheran Church records of Shepherdstown, written in German, reveal the first religious meetings were held in the year 1765 when no more than members of nine families met with one another and held Divine services, which consisted of a sermon by one of the number. Among these was Heinrich Budinger, Sr.[ii] Family tradition relates that when the Lutheran Church would not conduct services each week in English, Henry and his family joined the English church as the Protestant Episcopal Church was called. Although there was no English Church in Shepherdstown until ten or more years later, after the death of Henry Bedinger, they perhaps had a lay reader read the services of the English Church.
George Michael, in an account of his early life recalled that his two brothers, Daniel and Henry, were bright boys and fine scholars, but that he was less so. He says he was taciturn, and fond of hunting, fishing, and riding, and that he had a decided turn for mechanics. His mother anxious to have him learn a trade hired a man to teach him wagon making. He built a shop and got tools and worked with his teacher six months when his teacher enlisted in Dunmore’s War. But, in the six months apprenticeship he built a wagon. He proved to be something of an inventor and builder, contriving to construct wagons, water-powered grist mills and saw mills. In his youth he was familiar with the grist mill built by Thomas Shepherd in Mecklenburg in 1734-39. The mill was powered by the spring-fed creek that ran through the town. Perhaps, inspired by Thomas Shepherd’s mill, in his lifetime George Michael built five grist mills in Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky. He built salt works at the Licking River near his home at Lower Blue Licks in Kentucky. He used the surveying skills taught by Robert Cockburn in surveying land grants awarded Colonial Revolutionary veterans in Kentucky.
Henry and Daniel wrote remarkably well, in the fine Italian hand of the day. George Michael modestly calls himself “a poor writer and worse speller”.
Henry Bedinger was considerably over six feet in height, sinewy and vigorous, straight as an Indian, with a swarthy complexion, dark brown hair, and piercing gray eyes. His brother George Michael, is described as not “inordinately tall” with a fair complexion, dark hair and blue eyes.
Daniel was an impetuous youth, who ran away from home at the age of fifteen to join the fight for American independence. With maturity, he became wise and resolute, a thoughtful and sensitive friend and advisor, a proficient business man, and a passionate advocate of Jeffersonian democracy. We will follow these three brothers during their adventures in the American Revolution.
The two younger brothers, Solomon and Jacob, were too young for service in the Revolution. The youngest, Solomon, never married. He made his home in Norfolk and became a ships chandler after his brother Daniel moved to Norfolk to work in the Customs Office. Jacob, the eighth child of Henry and Magdalene, married a cousin Mildred Clark, the daughter of Margaret Bittinger and Major John Clark. Jacob owned land on both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Potomac River near Shepherdstown. Jacob and his wife had no children and lived in the Shepherdstown area until they died.
The daughters, Elizabeth, Anna Maria and Sarah married into Shepherdstown families. Elizabeth married Abel Morgan, a son of Richard and Jane Morgan. Anna Maria married Col. Abraham Morgan, the nephew of Abel Morgan and the son of William Morgan and Drusilla Swearingen. The third daughter, Sarah, married Benoni Swearingen, the son of Thomas Swearingen Sarah Morgan. Thomas Swearingen established and operated the ferry on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown.
Henry, the father of the Shepherdstown Bedingers died as war clouds were gathering. The peaceful, bucolic life in Shepherdstown would soon be transformed as the America colonies became engaged in the long and arduous struggle for independence from England. The brothers Henry, George Michael and Daniel Bedinger, their friends and relatives, of the families Morgan, Swearingens Sheetz, Shepherd, Strode, Cookus, Hite and others from Shepherdstown would take up arms in the fight for independence from Britain and defend the frontier from marauding Indians.
[i] Letter of Henry Bedinger to his daughter Nancy Bedinger Swearingen, undated, in Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
[ii] Musser, Clifford, 1931, Two Hundred Years’ History of Shepherdstown, Printed by The Independent, Shepherdstown, W. Va., 199 p., p. 13.
Henry Bedinger writing to his daughter Nancy, many years later: “I must inform you of the change of our name from Biedinger to Bedinger. My mother was very well educated for those times in Germany. After the family arrived she made incessant efforts to educate her 4 sons. In a settlement where all were German emigrants, the English language was not understood but by very few in the county. My mother succeeded in teaching her boys to read and write well in the language. I was 7 years old before I knew one word of English. In my eighth year my father removed to Shepherdstown where we all learned English. My father sent us to an English school, and he himself, having a German plain education soon learnt to read and write English. Old Robert Cockburn, who but very lately died in Martinsburg, was our teacher. He molded our name to sound more to his liking, wrote and spelled our father’s name Henry Bedinger accent on second syllable, dropping the “i” and continued to sound the “g” hard [pronounced be-ding-er]. Thus the pronunciation of our name stood stationary until after the death of my father. And the Old Folks still call us Bedinger, sounding the “g” hard; but in the Revolution the Bedinger became gradually pronounced with a soft “g” to which neither of us [Henry and George Michael] objected because we knew others of German extraction such as Ballinger, Coppinger, Febiger, all sound the “g” soft instead of hard as was the original pronunciation of those names.”[i]
Lutheran Church records of Shepherdstown, written in German, reveal the first religious meetings were held in the year 1765 when no more than members of nine families met with one another and held Divine services, which consisted of a sermon by one of the number. Among these was Heinrich Budinger, Sr.[ii] Family tradition relates that when the Lutheran Church would not conduct services each week in English, Henry and his family joined the English church as the Protestant Episcopal Church was called. Although there was no English Church in Shepherdstown until ten or more years later, after the death of Henry Bedinger, they perhaps had a lay reader read the services of the English Church.
George Michael, in an account of his early life recalled that his two brothers, Daniel and Henry, were bright boys and fine scholars, but that he was less so. He says he was taciturn, and fond of hunting, fishing, and riding, and that he had a decided turn for mechanics. His mother anxious to have him learn a trade hired a man to teach him wagon making. He built a shop and got tools and worked with his teacher six months when his teacher enlisted in Dunmore’s War. But, in the six months apprenticeship he built a wagon. He proved to be something of an inventor and builder, contriving to construct wagons, water-powered grist mills and saw mills. In his youth he was familiar with the grist mill built by Thomas Shepherd in Mecklenburg in 1734-39. The mill was powered by the spring-fed creek that ran through the town. Perhaps, inspired by Thomas Shepherd’s mill, in his lifetime George Michael built five grist mills in Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky. He built salt works at the Licking River near his home at Lower Blue Licks in Kentucky. He used the surveying skills taught by Robert Cockburn in surveying land grants awarded Colonial Revolutionary veterans in Kentucky.
Henry and Daniel wrote remarkably well, in the fine Italian hand of the day. George Michael modestly calls himself “a poor writer and worse speller”.
Henry Bedinger was considerably over six feet in height, sinewy and vigorous, straight as an Indian, with a swarthy complexion, dark brown hair, and piercing gray eyes. His brother George Michael, is described as not “inordinately tall” with a fair complexion, dark hair and blue eyes.
Daniel was an impetuous youth, who ran away from home at the age of fifteen to join the fight for American independence. With maturity, he became wise and resolute, a thoughtful and sensitive friend and advisor, a proficient business man, and a passionate advocate of Jeffersonian democracy. We will follow these three brothers during their adventures in the American Revolution.
The two younger brothers, Solomon and Jacob, were too young for service in the Revolution. The youngest, Solomon, never married. He made his home in Norfolk and became a ships chandler after his brother Daniel moved to Norfolk to work in the Customs Office. Jacob, the eighth child of Henry and Magdalene, married a cousin Mildred Clark, the daughter of Margaret Bittinger and Major John Clark. Jacob owned land on both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Potomac River near Shepherdstown. Jacob and his wife had no children and lived in the Shepherdstown area until they died.
The daughters, Elizabeth, Anna Maria and Sarah married into Shepherdstown families. Elizabeth married Abel Morgan, a son of Richard and Jane Morgan. Anna Maria married Col. Abraham Morgan, the nephew of Abel Morgan and the son of William Morgan and Drusilla Swearingen. The third daughter, Sarah, married Benoni Swearingen, the son of Thomas Swearingen Sarah Morgan. Thomas Swearingen established and operated the ferry on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown.
Henry, the father of the Shepherdstown Bedingers died as war clouds were gathering. The peaceful, bucolic life in Shepherdstown would soon be transformed as the America colonies became engaged in the long and arduous struggle for independence from England. The brothers Henry, George Michael and Daniel Bedinger, their friends and relatives, of the families Morgan, Swearingens Sheetz, Shepherd, Strode, Cookus, Hite and others from Shepherdstown would take up arms in the fight for independence from Britain and defend the frontier from marauding Indians.
[i] Letter of Henry Bedinger to his daughter Nancy Bedinger Swearingen, undated, in Bedinger and Dandridge Family Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
[ii] Musser, Clifford, 1931, Two Hundred Years’ History of Shepherdstown, Printed by The Independent, Shepherdstown, W. Va., 199 p., p. 13.