Clymer Weir Cox Genealogy » Landon Hillery Brewer Basinger (1861-1919)

Persoonlijke gegevens Landon Hillery Brewer Basinger 

• Hij is geboren op 18 januari 1861 in McMinn County, Tennesee.
• Hij is overleden op 15 maart 1919 in Fort Worth, Texas, hij was toen 58 jaar oud.
• Een kind van Landon Peters Basinger en Rosamond Bedwell (TN) Brewer
• Deze gegevens zijn voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 7 januari 2023.

Gezin van Landon Hillery Brewer Basinger

Hij is getrouwd met Emma Melissa Turner (TN) Armstrong.

Zij zijn getrouwd op 10 augustus 1882 te McMinn County, Tennessee, hij was toen 21 jaar oud.

Kind(eren):

1. Lillie Lee Armstrong Basinger  1883-1983 
2. Minnie Armstrong Basinger  1886-????
3. Muncye Edna Armstrong Basinger  1888-1918 
4. Horace Lawson (Jack) Armstrong Basinger  1891-1944
5. James Edgar Armstrong Basinger  1893-1960
6. Mintie Cantrell Armstrong Basinger  1897-1912
7. John Bolin Armstrong Basinger  1900-
8. Charles Spurgeon Armstrong Basinger  1909-1993 

Notities over Landon Hillery Brewer Basinger

ANCESTOR OF THE REV. JAMES BASINGER?HOME

A THREE CENTURY TREK WEST
by Donna Null Basinger
Researching and writing between 1986 - 1999

Basingers Travel West to Pennsylvania

All families come with stories and the Basinger family is no exception. There are good stories and there are bad stories and, unfortunately, most of the good stories cannot be proven and many of the bad stories have definite proof! One of the best "stories" comes from Ray Baysinger in a 1971 letter

"While serving with the Medical Corps in Paris during World War II, I spent a great deal of time in an old monastery. An old priest there became my friend. In an old history book he found a strange reference to our name. In brief, it read that the early Besingers had been Vikings. By 1492 the family had controlling interest in all the big shipping centers of the world. A Sir Henry Besinger, head of the Besinger clan, operated out of Portugal and furnished the three ships for Columbus. His family and fortune later became part of the Fugger Family, named the King Makers of Europe. Today the Fugger family of Germany is one of the ten wealthiest families of the world."

By the mid 18th century a branch of the Besinger family lived in the German Alsace region, known today as, Wissembourg, Alsace, France. The Alsace region was in essence the upper Rhine River Valley in what is now France. The Vosges mountains were the western border, the Swiss Alps the southern border, and the Rhine River the eastern border.

The region was a site of political and religious conflict between predominantly Protestant Germany and Catholic France and was fought over for centuries. In the 1700's, as European powers continued to compete for power, there were four more devastating wars which had as their counterparts the French and Indian Wars fought by American Colonists.
"In this unsettled state of affairs, serious economic dislocations and continual outbreaks of religious persecution led great numbers of harassed people of every religious affiliation to seek haven in America. Anabaptists (Mennonite and Amish) and other sectarian groups had come earlier --they had been persecuted by everybody --but now they were joined by others - Reformed, Lutheran, and in much small numbers, Roman Catholics."

By 1767 Jacob (born in Hermersweiler) and Margaret Laemmer Basinger had (at least) four sons and (at least) one daughter. Philip Jacob married Maria Dorothea Dreher at Kutzenhausen Lutheran Church in Hermersweiler on October 27, 1767. Catharina Barbara was born the following July. Shortly after the birth, Philip Jacob and Dorothea, Johann Peter (and possibly a wife and/or children), and Michael (most likely the youngest) began the journey to North America.

In October 1770 the ship Minerva landed in Philadelphia Harbor and the ship master listed three of his passengers as Johann Peter Bossinger, Phi Jacob (b) Bessinger, Michael (x) Pessinger. The disembarkation fees for the three brothers were "purchased" by Mr. Thomas Willing, Esquire, of Willing and Morris's Store, Philadelphia, a mercantile house engaged in trade with the West Indies. The brothers quickly paid their debts and trundled west by wagon to Lancaster.

Within a year of his arrival in Philadelphia, Johann Peter married Barbara Schneider at the First Reformed Church in Lancaster. Philip Jacob and Maria Dorothea had a second child, Peter, in November of 1772. Brother Michael married Eva Magdalene Brooks in 1782.

Johann Peter's family and Philip Jacob's family worshiped at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in the city of Lancaster. In 1771 the impressive brick building was only ten years old. With the help of the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America, the council called the Rev. Justus Henrich Helmuth to be the pastor in 1769.

Dr. Helmuth began his career as an instructor at Halle, Germany, the center for Pietism. He ended his career as professor of German at the University of Pennsylvania. During his ten years at Trinity he baptized four ”Besinger‘ children, probably in their homes or in the parsonage. He baptized Jacob and Dorothea's second child, Peter, in 1773 and three of Peter and Barbara's children, including our ancestor Juliana Elizabeth. ”Elizabeth‘ was born September 20, 1777 and baptized in April of 1778 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania..

Lancaster shared the excitement of becoming a new nation and members of Trinity enthusiastically participated in military drills. The Rev. Helmuth wrote home to Germany that he was wholeheartedly in sympathy with the colonists. One of Pastor Helmuth's successors wrote this summation of Dr. Helmuth's ten years at Trinity. Catharina, Jacob and Dorothea's first child born in Germany, may have been involved in the children's activities

"The labors of this man of God were simply marvelous. He preached forenoon and afternoon, every Sunday, the latter service being followed by Kinderlehre to which children flocked by the hundreds. After Kinderlehre, at five o'clock, he invited the children to the schoolhouse, where he read them short stories, extracts from good books, and the like; and then he preached the third sermon in the evening.....In Middletown he revived the parish school there and appointed the schoolmaster to read a chapter of Arndt's 'True Christianity' every Sunday morning and to catechize the children in the afternoon. In all his pastorate, Dr. Helmuth maintained a strict discipline, which subjected him to harsh criticism and at times bitter opposition, but he lived courageously through it all and in 1773, though the church could comfortable seat 1500 people, it had fifty seats less than were necessary for the membership."

In 1780 the War for American Independence was still front-page news but the battles had moved to the southern colonies. Trinity called Dr. Gotthilf Heinrich Ernest Muhlenberg, the youngest son of the patriarch, to be the new minister. Because of an extremely severe winter he did not arrive in Lancaster until March. On August 1st of that year he baptized our ancestor George, his brother Michael, and infant sister Anna Maria. The baptism most likely took place on the occasion of Pastor Muhlenberg's first visit to Philip Jacob and Dorothea's home. Pastor Muhlenberg wrote a letter to his father saying

"...As usual, I preach twice each Lord's day. I cannot visit as much as I wish, because I have no time. But I do not neglect to visit the sick, as soon as their sickness is made known; and the baptism of children, which in this congregation almost always takes place at the residence of the parent, or at the parsonage."

In a letter to his father, after completing his first year of ministry in Lancaster, he reported that he took on sixty young people for instruction during the day, as well as instructing a number of adults and married people in the evening. The instruction, always in German, continued for more than a year. On Good Friday 1781, after they were "firmly grounded in Christian doctrine," Pastor Muhlenberg confirmed 75 young people and 11 adults. Catharina Barbara would have been eligible for the classes for young people.

In 1785 Pastor Muhlenberg baptized the oldest daughter of Johann Peter and Barbara, Maria Margaret. She was the baby sister of our ancestor Juliana Elizabeth. In 1787 Princeton College conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Muhlenberg, later to become a professor at Princeton, expressed his concern for Christian Education in this letter

"Toward the close of our course of instruction, I, at each meeting, examine about ten or twelve, one by one, asking them some thirty indispensable questions. In this way I feel sure that each one has been sufficiently instructed, and also gain this additional advantage, that my catechumens approach me unreservedly, and, I must say, love me with a filial and fraternal affection, instead of fearing me. As for me, the instruction of the young is my most delightful labor. "

In 1779 Peter and Barbara bought 7 acres of land in Warwick Township (northern part of Lancaster County), north of Lititz, from Adam Bender. Mr. Bender bought the land referred to as 'ribbon' from Thomas and John Penn, sons of William Penn. The Basingers attended the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Brickerville. Tax Records indicate Peter owned one horse, one cow, and no servants. He also served in the 3rd Battalion and 6th Battalion of the Lancaster County Militia. During the 1780's Michael and Magdelene lived in Middletown, a town along the Susquehanna River just north of Lancaster County. Some of Michael's children were baptized in the Mt. Zion Lutheran Church near Middletown. It is not clear where in Lancaster County Jacob and Dorothea lived.

Basingers Travel Southwest to Virginia

About 1788 the Basingers began the long journey west. Michael and his family traveled across the Allegheny mountains to western Pennsylvania and settled in Fayette County. They had at least three more children; Nancy, Barbara, and Dorothy. Barbara and Dorothy were probably named after Michael's sister-in-laws. Johannes was born to Peter and Barbara on December 6, 1787. He was baptized on February 10, 1788 by the minister of the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Brickerville and two days later Peter sold his property in Pennsylvania in preparation to move his family to the German community in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Jacob and Dorothea also moved to Virginia about the same time and left behind their daughter Barbara who had married Heinrich Kessler, and a grandson Ludwig.

It was common for German speaking families to leave Lancaster on the Great Wagon Road and settle in Shenandoah or Rockingham Counties, Virginia. Dr. Muhlenberg's brother, Peter, was a Lutheran minister in the Valley before the Revolutionary War and his father helped establish a number of Lutheran congregations in the Valley, including the one our ancestors joined.

Jacob, Peter, and Michael probably traveled in the popular Conestoga Wagon, made nearby in the Conestoga Valley of Lancaster County. Certainly the wagon was a familiar sight on their journey. The Conestoga had a curved bottom with the rear end sloping up higher than the front end. This design cut down on the shifting of the weight inside because the center of gravity was always leaning toward the center. These heavy-duty freight wagons weighed about 3,000 pounds and could carry up to four tons! The four to six horses that pulled them were of a breed now extinct, similar to the Belgian workhorse. The driver walked beside the wagon on the left-hand side. Under the back flooring was a board that could be pulled out. When the driver became tired of walking he could sit on this and it became known as the "lazy board" . Large wheels in the back were for greater traction and smaller wheels in the front permitted sharper turns. On the left side where the driver walked was a patch or toolbox, and attached to the back was a feed box for the horses. A long break handle pressed a stone covered with leather against the rear wheel. Homespun canvas was stretched over hoops as a covering and a common sight was a Conestoga Wagon mired in mud up to the hubs of the wheels! These wagons were different than flat bed (lighter) prairie schooners that were used after the traveler reached Missouri.

Peter and Jacob settled in Rockingham County, Virginia and attended the Friedens Church, Lutheran and Reformed, east of the village of Mt. Crawford at the foot of Massanutten Mountain. The Rev. Peter Ahl was the first pastor and began his ministry in 1786. The Rev. John Brown succeeded him. Jacob and Peter can also be found on the tax lists of Shenandoah County. Peter owned at least 200 acres of land and built a large tobacco barn that he shared with family and neighbors. We can assume that the Basingers grew tobacco and that all the children were involved in growing and transporting this cash crop to a tobacco warehouse quite a distance away.

Our ancestors and first cousins to each other, George and Juliana Elizabeth, probably saw a great deal of each other. They were married in 1795. George was 21 and Juliana Elizabeth was 18. It was not uncommon for first cousins to marry.

Juliana Elizabeth's parents had more children after she was married and it is likely that she and her mother were "expecting" and "nursing" babies at the same time. A younger brother, Valentine, was born five months after her wedding and her first child was born ten months after the wedding. A descendant of Valentine, Lola Corene Wagner, has a picture of him, a well used Bible, and some letters. He refers to himself as a "Felty German who learned to talk English good enough." He died in Girard, Kansas at the age of 93.

According to Lola Corene Basinger, a fatal accident caused Johann Peter's death in 1801. He is listed on the Rockingham County, Virginia personal tax lists from 1791-1801. Those same lists declare him deceased in 1801. Peter's widow Barbara, her younger children, and her married children continued the migration west about 1802. There is some evidence and oral tradition that they joined Daniel Boone on his second trip to Kentucky. Valentine states "we lived in the country from Wheeling, West Virginia then to Tennessee and Kentucky and then to Illinois just across the Indiana line." According to Larry Payne (a descendant of Peter‘s son Johann Michael b. 1772) Johann Peter's "descendants went to Greenbrier County, West Virginia and from there, ten years later, to Breckinridge County, Kentucky." Caspar and Michael left for Greenbrier County, West Virginia by 1802. In 1810 the land records of Rockingham County, Virginia tell us that Peter's heirs of law sold undivided 2/10 of the their father's land. By 1830 Valentine, Caspar, and Peter had purchased land in Kentucky. "Johann Michael's line spread through Breckinridge and Meade Counties, Kentucky and two of his sons (John and Michael) went to Perry County, Indiana."

Juliana Elizabeth and George had a son Michael about 1800 in Virginia and probably traveled with her family to Kentucky. The fact that George is mentioned in Greene County, Tennessee records in early 1804 and in Greenbrier County, West Virginia Records later in 1804 may reflect the path of travel that Valentine reported. Julianna Elizabeth died in 1810. Her mother may have died as well and that would account for the sale of 2/10 of land in Rockingham County by the other heirs to Peter‘s estate. Records show that George then bought land in Greene County, Tennessee in 1811. This suggests that he decided to join his brothers in Tennessee. It wasn't long before he acquired 120 acres north of the Nolichucky River near Pigeon Creek. In November of 1812 Peggy Crutzinger became George's second wife. In the records George is listed as George Paysinger.

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