Jacob Brumbaugh Chronology

1726—February 8: Johann Jakob Brombach born, Osthelden, Siegen, Westphalia, Germany. Baptized at the Evangelical church in Ferndorf. 

1750—August 31: Ship Nancy from Rotterdam via Cowes, Master Thomas Coattam, docks in Philadelphia carrying Johann Jakob Brombach and 87 other German passengers who sign a list (only known signature of JJB that survives) acknowledging their allegiance to the King of England.

1753 – Sept. 23: Jacob purchases Clalands Contrivance, a ninety-acre tract in Frederick County (later Washington Co.), Maryland, from Conrad Hogmire for £64. 

1754—Jacob purchases tract of one hundred acres called Ill Will (same area).

1755—Jacob purchases tract of fifty acres called Bromback’s Lott (same area)- total 240 acres. 

c1757—Jacob marries Mary Elizabeth Angle, daughter of Henrich Engle.

1757-58—Jacob participates as a scout in Capt. Jonathan Hager’s company of Md. militia; he also quarters six soldiers for six days during the French & Indian War.

c1758 – son Jacob, Jr. born.

c1759—daughter Mary Elizabeth born.

c1760—son John born.

1763—Jacob acquires 420 acres of vacant land contiguous to Clalands Contrivance; same year he acquires Timber Bottom (260 acres) and Chance (23 acres). This brings his total landholdings to high water mark of 798 acres. Ten years after his first purchase he owned almost ten times as much land as he first held.

1772—son Daniel is born.

1773—on a plot of land in then Cumberland Co. (later Bedford County), Pennsylvania, an improvement is first built on land (in 1785 Conrad Brumbaugh in John Brumbaugh’s application for warrant affirmed that said improvement on Jacob’s son John’s land was built about 1773 “and not before”).

1775—January: Jacob shows up in Bedford Co. land office to apply for warrants on two land tracts later sold (only tracts he ever sold) to Martin Houser; no further recorded visits by Jacob to that county for ten years; all county histories report that Indian depredations during the Revolution kept settlers away for those ten years.

1776—March 11: Jacob acquires warrant on 280 acres called Albania in Bedford Co., Pa. 

March 17: son David is born.

March 23: Jacob contributes two blankets to Committee of Observation of Elizabeth town (later renamed Hagerstown). 

May 7: upon questioning as to why he does not enroll in militia, Jacob tells Committee of Observation that he is over 50 years old, thus establishing that he was exempt from the military draft for men age 16 to age 50; sons Jacob Jr. and John each pay 3 pounds in non-enroller fines after they and 113 other men are summoned for May 7^th hearing to answer as to why they 

Sept.: their portion of Frederick County is sliced off and named Washington County for a Virginia planter who has become the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

            December 22: sons Jacob Jr. and John each pay the Committee of Observation of Elizabeth town a £3 fine as non-enrollers in the militia.

1777- Early March: son Henry born; Committee of Observation dissolves and new state government installed under the Maryland Constitution of 1776.

1778—March 1: by law of Md., before this date all men must swear or affirm their allegiance to the new government of the state of Maryland (the “test” oath); if refused, penalty of the triple tax for life and loss of civil rights; Brethren and Mennonites and others petition for relief as they cannot even affirm the new oath as it may commit them against their principles to militia service, even though the penalties include fines and loss of civil rights. Brethren do not take the oath. 

1780—March 8: Jacob sells six bushels of wheat and four bushels of rye to Dr. Henry Schnebely, acting as Washington County purchasing agent for the state of Maryland under Army Quartermaster; daughter Mary Elizabeth marries Elder Samuel Ulrich/Ulery.

1783—Jacob is assessed taxes on his 431-acre Clalands Contrivance in Salisbury Hundred of Washington County; last of his 7 children, son George, born

1785—March 2: Jacob and son John show up at the land office in Bedford County, Pennsylvania to apply for a warrant on some land; same day as Conrad Brumbaugh.

1786—Jacob shown as a “non-residentor” in Woodberry Township, Bedford County’s tax assessments.

1790—First federal census: Jacob is a “head of household” in Washington County, Md. 

1794—culmination of Whiskey Rebellion: Jacob’s name is not on the list of 116 men who were called to appear in Bedford County court in December that year to answer for whether they paid their federal tax on whiskey distillers.

1799—April 10: Jacob dies in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. His body is brought back to Clalands Contrivance in Md. to be buried in the family cemetery plot in the middle of the cornfield. 

            April 11: “duos for father” per Henry’s manuscript daybook. 

            June 9, 10: Public Vendue (auction) of Jacob’s personal property.

1800 – in second federal census widow Mary Brumbaugh is shown as doing something Jacob never did: owning a slave; sons own slaves as well: Daniel – 3; David – 2; and Henry – 5.

1803—April 2: Mary Elizabeth and Jacob, Jr. as administrators of Jacob’s intestate estate, petition the court for appointment of a commission to decide if the Md. real estate owned by Jacob “might admit of being divided without injury or loss to all the parties entitled, and to ascertain the value of such Estate in Current money according to law.”

June 18: widow Mary Elizabeth releases her dower interest in all Jacob’s real estate for consideration of £35 per year to be paid to her by the 7 heirs.

August 23: Jacob, Jr. breakfasts with Henry & Elizabeth Drinker at their home in Philadelphia and pays Henry the final balance on Dorfans Barn. This gives this land tract to the estate as Jacob Sr. had originally contemplated when Jacob Sr. signed an agreement in 1797. 

Feb. 5: Pa. conveys patent to Jacob and son Daniel on Good Intent 407 acres on Piney Creek in Morrison’s Cove, Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

            Amicable settlement of Jacob’s Maryland estate.

1806—Nov. 28: Mary Elizabeth Brumbaugh dies, according to Henry Brumbaugh daybook.

1807—amicable settlement of Jacob’s Pennsylvania estate with conveyances of deeds to various tracts there and monetary consideration passing back and forth among the seven siblings in several separate, but coordinated, legal transactions (one land tract Springfield farm is not settled until 20 years later). 

Subsequent Deaths of Jacob’s and Mary Elizabeth’s Seven Children and Spouses:

1814—Jacob Jr. dies in Washington County at 56.

1820—Jacob Jr.’s widow, Catharine, dies.

1822—Elder Samuel Ulery, young Mary Elizabeth’s husband, dies Bedford Co.

1824—Daniel dies in Washington County at 52.

1828—Mary Elizabeth Ulery dies after this year in Bedford County at 69.

1829—John dies in Bedford County at 61.

1837—George dies in Washington County at 53.

1840—George’s widow, Mary Louisa dies in Washington County.

1842—David dies in Franklin Co., Pennsylvania at 66.

1845—David’s widow, Eve, dies in Franklin County. 

1849—Henry’s widow, Margaretha, dies in Washington County.

1854—Henry dies in Washington County at 77.

1860—Daniel’s widow, Elizabeth, dies in Washington County.