Henry (Heinrich) Bedinger(1)
The third son of Adam Büttinger and Anna Margaretha Schush, was christened Henricus, the Latin form of the name Heinrich, in the Protestant church in the village of Durstel in Alsace, France. In 1737, at the age of seven years, Heinrich immigrated with his father, mother, and three brothers, Nicholas, Georges Michael and Peter to Pennsylvania. Raised in York County Pennsylvania, Heinrich met Mary Magdalena who lived on an adjoining farm. She was the daughter of Christoph von Schlegel. Heinrich and Magdalena were married in 1752 and settled on a farm “on his own land near his father’s residence;…”.(i)
In 1762 Heinrich and his wife Magdalene had been married ten years and owned their own farm. They had grown up in a community of Lutherans of German heritage and spoke German; their children were schooled in the German language. Heinrich knew from friends and travelers who had followed the old Indian trail southward across the Potomac River called the Cohongoroota by the Indians into the Colony of Virginia. In Virginia parcels of fertile land with forests and wildlife were being sold at affordable prices from the huge tract of land granted to Lord Fairfax by the British Crown. Following the French and Indian War, the hostilities between the Indians and the settlers in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia had become relatively calm. Heinrich was an able-bodied ambitious man who yearned to build a new life on the virgin frontier. Henry, with his brother–in-law, Henry Cookus[ii],[iii], and brother Peter made trips to look over the countryside and Mecklenburg. In about 1762, Heinrich, his wife Magdalene, and four children, Henry, Elizabeth, George Michael and Daniel, with their most needed possessions in an oxen-driven Conestoga wagon and a few cattle herded along, followed the well-established Indian trail leading from Pennsylvania and Maryland to the shallow–water fording place on the Cohongoroota to the settlement of Mecklenburg, Virginia where craftsmen of German heritage were industriously building mills, farming tools, wagons, guns and other equipment the settlers needed in their colonization of virgin lands of the Virginia frontier.
In Mecklenburg they found a population of mixed nationalities with English being the predominant language. Henricus was soon known as Henry. His sons were schooled by Richard Cockburn in English and the daughters were schooled at home by their mother who had been educated well during her upbringing. Henry learned the English language; the family attended the English church which presented services in English.
Henry was financially well-endowed from the sale of his Pennsylvania farm and perhaps other possessions he received from his father Adam Büdinger. This was about the time when streets and lots were laid out in Mecklenburg by Thomas Shepherd. Henry and brother purchased lots in Mecklenburg. The village of Mecklenburg was soon to be called Shepherd’s Town, long before it was officially renamed in 1798[iv]. Henry purchased four lots and his brother Peter Bedinger[v] purchased four lots. Henry built two town houses in Mecklenburg. Henry Also purchased land southeast of town on Morgan’s Spring branch where he built a stone house for his family[vi].
In 1762 Heinrich and his wife Magdalene had been married ten years and owned their own farm. They had grown up in a community of Lutherans of German heritage and spoke German; their children were schooled in the German language. Heinrich knew from friends and travelers who had followed the old Indian trail southward across the Potomac River called the Cohongoroota by the Indians into the Colony of Virginia. In Virginia parcels of fertile land with forests and wildlife were being sold at affordable prices from the huge tract of land granted to Lord Fairfax by the British Crown. Following the French and Indian War, the hostilities between the Indians and the settlers in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia had become relatively calm. Heinrich was an able-bodied ambitious man who yearned to build a new life on the virgin frontier. Henry, with his brother–in-law, Henry Cookus[ii],[iii], and brother Peter made trips to look over the countryside and Mecklenburg. In about 1762, Heinrich, his wife Magdalene, and four children, Henry, Elizabeth, George Michael and Daniel, with their most needed possessions in an oxen-driven Conestoga wagon and a few cattle herded along, followed the well-established Indian trail leading from Pennsylvania and Maryland to the shallow–water fording place on the Cohongoroota to the settlement of Mecklenburg, Virginia where craftsmen of German heritage were industriously building mills, farming tools, wagons, guns and other equipment the settlers needed in their colonization of virgin lands of the Virginia frontier.
In Mecklenburg they found a population of mixed nationalities with English being the predominant language. Henricus was soon known as Henry. His sons were schooled by Richard Cockburn in English and the daughters were schooled at home by their mother who had been educated well during her upbringing. Henry learned the English language; the family attended the English church which presented services in English.
Henry was financially well-endowed from the sale of his Pennsylvania farm and perhaps other possessions he received from his father Adam Büdinger. This was about the time when streets and lots were laid out in Mecklenburg by Thomas Shepherd. Henry and brother purchased lots in Mecklenburg. The village of Mecklenburg was soon to be called Shepherd’s Town, long before it was officially renamed in 1798[iv]. Henry purchased four lots and his brother Peter Bedinger[v] purchased four lots. Henry built two town houses in Mecklenburg. Henry Also purchased land southeast of town on Morgan’s Spring branch where he built a stone house for his family[vi].
Sources:
[i] Bittinger, Lucy Forney, 1904, Bittinger and Bedinger Families Descendants of Adam Büdinger, published by the author, Sewickley, Pa., 63 p., p. 40.
[ii] Henry Cookus married Catharine von Schlegel a sister Henry's wife Magdalene von Schlegel (Marye and Slagle, p. 53). We find the family Cookus to have been in Mecklenburg as early as 1725. (DD, p. 50) References of Cookuses as residents of Mecklenburg are found in 1768. (Hammond, p. 48; Danske D, p. )
[iii] The Schlegel (Slagle) Family in America, 1967, William B. Marye and A. Russell Slagle, pp. 27-35, in Frank, Karl Frederick Von, 1967, The Schlegel Von Gottleben Family in Germany, Translated. by George A. Bingley and William B. Marye, Published. by A. Russell Slagle, Baltimore Maryland, 391 p., p. 53.
[iv] Mecklenburg was in Frederick County, Virginia. In 1772 Mecklenburg (Shepherdstown) became part of Berkeley County, formed from the northern third of Frederick County. In 1801 the eastern third of Berkeley County, in which Shepherdstown resides, became Jefferson County. In 1863 Berkeley and Jefferson Counties became counties in West Virginia. In the genealogical tables, I have, in some cases noted changes in city, county and state designations. Where the changes are not noted, the locations given refer to the location at the time of the event.
[v] Peter Bedinger moved to Mecklenburg about the same time as his brother, Henry Bedinger. His name turns up rarely in documents relating to Shepherdstown and Berkeley County, Virginia. He purchased four town lots in Shepherdstown (Musser, C. S., 1931, History of Shepherdstown 1730-1931, p.10) and was a witness to the Will of Richard Morgan in 1763 (Musser, 1931, p.17). In 1769 he and his wife Catherine deeded town lot No. 81 to Martin Wolford (Musser, 1931, p. 160). Peter Bedinger was born 2 July 1734 in Durstel, Alsace, Germany, died before 1801 in Berkeley Co, Virginia. He married Katherine Kramer, born about 1735.
[vi] Danske Dandridge, 1910, Historic Shepherdstown, The Michie Company, Printers, Charlottesville, Virginia, 389 pp., p. 55.
Page revised September 3, 2019
Continued: Will of Henry Bedinger
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