Mary Eliza ZENTMEYER

Notes:

"Johannes died in 1844 and was the father of John N. Zentmeyer. John N. had been clerk of the courts from about 1837-1855. As a matter of fact, the courthouse had a pic of every court clerk since the beginning of time - except for John N. Zentmeyer. So I gave them one and it now hangs in the courthouse with the others. John moved the family to Mayo Forge, Virginia in 1855 for benefit of his wife who was in in poor health - it was much warmer in Mayo Forge than up on Floyd mountain. His kids, Peter and Edwin, lived in Mayo Forge, Peter had three boys, one was my Grandfather, John Edwin. By the way, the house in Mayo Forge, built in 1852, every brick, nail and board made on site by slaves, is still owned by the Zentmeyers. Interesting stuff." - Gentry Zentmeyer, Martinsville, Virginia.



According to a letter written by John William Zentmeyer to Rev. William DeShazo, John was a surveyor prior to becoming Clerk of the Court. After his marriage to Martha Penn, John and Martha made their home in the Floyd Courthouse. They moved to Patrick County in 1855, and John engaged in the mercantile business in Mayo Forge for the remainder of his life. Sons Edwin and Peter were associated with him.



According to Chataigne's 1888-89 Virginia Business Directory for Patrick County, 'Zentmeyer & Sanders' were Tobacco Manufacturers in Mayo Forge.

John married Martha Ann Catherine PENN 15 Sep 1847, Patrick Co., VA. Martha was born 9 Aug 1820, Patrick Co., Virginia; died 20 Mar 1897; was buried Oakwood Cemetery, Martinsville, Henry, Virginia. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Johannes Zentmeyer, grandson of Johann Bernhard Zentmeyer, emigrant ancestor of the Zentmeyers in the US. The surname was also recorded as 'Centmeyer,' 'Sentmeier,' 'C. Meyer,' 'C. Mayer,' 'St. Moyer,' and 'St. Mire.' Johannes married Barbary Windle about 1790. He was an early member of the Little River church, later renamed Zion Lutheran Church, which still stands in Floyd, Virginia. Rev. Robert J. Miller, a circuit preacher, wrote in 1813, "In the evening we went home with Mr. Zentmeyer, who appears to have a sense of divine things, and has a serious and promising family of children."

Time Line:
1763 baptized in Lancaster County
1783 was granted Treasury Land Warrant for 135 acres in Montgomery County near present-day Floyd, on Oldfield Creek near Franklin Pike
1789 married Barbary Windle in the Shenandoah Valley
1792 daughter Elizabeth born
1797 bought 40 acres from Jacob Miller in Montgomery County, Virginia, on Mudlick Creek near the present corner of McVitty Rd. and Old Cave Spring Rd., Cave Spring, Virginia.
1799 son Daniel born
1800 moved from Cave Spring to Montgomery County near present-day Floyd
1801 daughter Catherine born
1802 son David born
1805 daughter Rebecca born
1806 listed a Sponsor for baptism of Jacob Marchel and Sarah Krank
1808 listed as Sponsor for baptism of Lydia Marchel
1808 purchased 153 acres on south fork of Little River
1809 listed as an Officer of Little River Church, predecessor to Zion Lutheran
1809 unnamed daughter born who succumbed after one year
1810 US Census in Christiansburg, Montgomery County as John Zentmeyer
1812 135 acre Land Warrant property surveyed
1815 purchased 18 acres on Oldfield Creek from David Howell
1816 listed as Sponsor in baptism of Benjamin Herman
1817 listed as Sponsor in baptism of John Williams
1818 Cave Spring land was sold to John Hartman
1820 US Census in Christiansburg, Montgomery County as John Zentmin
1830 US Census in (La) Fayette, Montgomery County as John Zentmine
1840 US Census in Floyd County as John Zeatriger (Floyd County was formed from Montgomery County in 1831)


It is not clear why Johannes is listed in the 1810 and 1820 Census in Christiansburg, and in the 1830 Census in (La) Fayette. But there can be no doubt as to the identity of these three families, as the number and ages of the wife and children in the Censuses exactly match Johannes' family.

Johannes married Barbary WINDLE Abt 1789, Shenandoah, Virginia. Barbary was born 29 Mar 1771, Dunmore Co., Virginia; died 2 Oct 1839, Floyd Co., Virginia; was buried Oct 1839, Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery, Floyd Co., Virginia. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

It was unclear to me as to why Barbary was named in the will of her husband Johannes Zentmeyer who died in 1844, as the date of death on her headstone was 1839, until I checked and found that the will was written in 1838.

Notes:

There is much additional material about Bernhard on the York Co. page.



There is a Bernhard Nicholas Santmyer b.1735 listed in FamilySearch IGI and elsewhere as the father of Jacob and George Zentmeyer, which we believe to be an unfortunate fabrication by a misguided LDS compiler, combining our ancestor Bernhard Zentmeyer b.1740 with another actual immigrant, Nicholas Sandmeier, who arrived on 9 Oct 1775 on the good ship King of Prussia. I have convinced FamilySearch to quarantine this record, although no one can remove it entirely except for its contributor, who will not respond to us. This bogus record also lists the surname of Bernhard's first wife as 'Luther,' for which we have found no evidence, see Catharina LNU, but unfortunately this fabricated 'Luther' record has generated entries on 60+ trees on Ancestry.com.

Johann married Catharina LNU Bef 1760. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

We do not have a surname for Bernhard's wife. She was identified as 'Catharina' both in the birth record for her son Johannes in 1763, and as a baptismal sponsor with Bernhard for Anna Margaretha Geister on 7 Aug 1760. This dates their wedding to around 1760 when Bernhard would have been twenty years old.

The surname 'Luther' has been put forth on the internet for her, with some claiming she was Maria Catharina Luther, born 1734 in Herbitzheim, Bas-Rhin, Alsace. This Maria Catharina Luther did in fact emigrate to Philadelphia, arriving with her parents on 15 Sep 1749 aboard a different Phoenix voyage, according to Strassburger-Hinke's Pennsylvania German Pioneers. But according to Annette Burgert's Eighteenth Century Emigrants, this Maria Catharina married Josiah Harper on 10 Sep 1763, only weeks after Johannes Zentmeyer was born, so she was not Bernhard's wife.

Others identify her as Catharina Elisabetha Luther baptized 8 Jan 1744 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. But the Kichenbücher (church records) reveal that this Catharina was married in 1765 in Frankfurt and died there in 1782.

The only place we have found the surname 'Luther' connected to Bernhard other than in Ancestry.com member trees is in the IGI on FamilySearch, where Bernhard is wrongly identified in a completely fictitious member-submitted tree as 'Bernhard Nicholas Santmyer, b. 1735' with a wife whose surname is 'Luther.' We believe this is the source of the 60+ Ancestry.com member trees which identify her as 'Luther.'

It is our suspicion that some Ancestry.com tree-makers took 'Catharina' from our website and combined it with 'Luther' in the IGI record. When you then search 'Catharina Luther,' online, the two individuals above can be found.

Anyone having any original source information for the Catharina's surname - family bibles, hand-written genealogies, anything - please contact me.

Gary Zentmyer

Notes:

The 1760 marriage date is from a birth record for Anna Margaretha Geister, which lists Bernhardt Zentmoyer and Catharina as sponsors.