PA-FRANKLIN-SNOWHILL-L Archives

From: "Cheryll Reed" <>
Subject: [SNOWHILL] Monn - George, son of David Sr. (18)
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 17:00:05 -0500

David's first son was probably George. There were three George Monns that
lived in Franklin County around 1840 - George Sr. and George Jr., who lived
in Quincy Township, and a third George who was a shoemaker and lived in
Washington Township. This is made clear in the tax lists and the 1842
septennial census, as well as in the ledgers of the mill of the Snow Hill
Society , where a deliberate distinction was made by always appending one of
the three labels, "Sr.", "Jr.", or "(shoemaker)". We already know about
George Senior; and George Junior is obviously George Senior's son (see the
section on George Jr., below). But who could have been the father of George
the shoemaker? To determine this, we should first establish his age. In
the 1840 federal census, all three Georges were listed. George Sr. and
George Jr. were both in Quincy (with the "Sr." and "Jr." explicitly stated
), and the other was in Washington Township, as expected. George Junior was
said to be in his thirties, with a wife in her thirties, and a son between
five and ten years old. The George in Washington Township was in his
fifties, with a wife in her forties, four girls between five and twenty (the
oldest over 15), and a boy under 5 years of age. So George the shoemaker
from Washington Township was born in the 1880s, and was older than George
Junior by twenty years or so. In the Snow Hill cemetery, buried next to
George Senior, is a George Monn who was born in 1789 and died in 1868.
Although one might assume that this was George Senior's son, since he was
buried next to him, it is evident from the birth year that this is, in fact,
George the shoemaker. There is further evidence to support this claim.
There is a deed written in December 1849 in which "George Monn Sr. and Mary
his wife" sell land to "George Monn Jr. and Margaret his wife" and states
that after the death of George Jr. and Margaret, the land should go to
Daniel and Napoleon Monn "being lawful children of George Monn Jr.". Then
in the 1850 census, we find a George Monn, aged 45, his wife Peggy (a common
nickname for Margaret), and Napoleon, aged 20, living in Quincy Township.
This is obviously the one referred to in the deed as George Junior.
Furthermore, the age agrees with the age of George Junior in the 1840
census, and disagrees with the age of the George in the cemetery by 16
years.

In the 1860 census, there were two Georges - one was a 52-year-old laborer
living in Quincy with his wife Rebecca(!), and the other was a 71-year-old
farmer living in Washington Township with his wife Elizabeth (George Senior
had died in 1850). Again, these ages agree with the ages in the 1840
census, and the age of the older George agrees with the age on the
gravestone next to George Senior. Furthermore, this older George and his
wife had four others living with them in 1860 - Mary (age 36), Lydia (age
28), Limma (age 26), and Samuel (age 20). These ages also correspond
exactly to the children of the older George in the 1840 census. From a deed
written in 1844, we learn that there was a George who was married to
Elizabeth, the daughter of Andrew Snowberger. This can also be found in
Emma Monn's book on the Snowbergers, etal., where it further mentions that
Elizabeth moved to Bedford County after George died (consistent with the
George in the cemetery who died in 1868). It also says that Elizabeth had
five children, although it doesn't say who these five children were. But it
is still consistent with the census records mentioned above for the older of
the two Georges. In the 1870 census, we see that Elizabeth was indeed in S.
Woodbury Township in Bedford County, Pa., with Samuel Monn, age 37.
>From all of this, we can be certain that the George buried in Snow Hill
cemetery who was born in 1789 and died in 1868 was not George Junior, but
George "the shoemaker". So we once again ask, who could his father have
been? We know that it wasn't George Senior. We also know it wasn't Conrad
Junior, since he isn't listed among the children in Conrad Junior's will.
And it is unlikely that he was John Senior's son, since Susannah was only 15
when George was born in 1790, and John was still living with his father, and
evidently unmarried. David Sr., on the other hand, was married by the 1790
census, and already had two sons. The 1800 census also indicated that he
had a son born between 1785 and 1790. It certainly seems reasonable that
this son was George.

There are some other tidbits about George that we glean from the records.
There was a George Mann who served as a private in Capt. M. Magee's company
from 1812 to 1814. I'm not sure if this is the same George, but his age
would be just about right for military service. He doesn't show up in the
tax lists until 1818, when he was 29 years old. So it's reasonable to
assume he was away from the area until then.

>From 1818 to 1821 George was listed as an unmarried shoemaker in the tax
lists. In 1819, he was even said to be lame (perhaps from his military
service (??). In 1822 he was no longer listed as single, so we can assume
he got married around that time. This could have been his second marriage,
though, since the 1830 census shows another male between 15 and 20 living
with them, as well as three girls, one between 5 and 10, and the other two
under 5. George's wife Elizabeth was too young to have been the mother of a
15-20 year old male in 1830. In fact, from Will Book C, p. 629, we see that
Elizabeth was still single in April 1823. So was this boy a son from a
previous marriage, or was he merely an apprentice or a hired hand?

As was mentioned above, George and Elizabeth appeared in the 1860 census in
Washington Township, living with Mary, Lydia, "Limma", and Samuel. This
would account for all but one of the children, a daughter who would have
been in her early thirties. Dean Calimer has Mary listed as "Mary King";
presumably she got married after 1860 . He also says they had a daughter
named Susan, who would be the missing daughter from the 1860 census. He
doesn't mention where he got his information from.

From: The First Generations of MANN/MONNs in Franklin County, Pa.;
David Monn

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• [SNOWHILL] Monn - George, son of David Sr. (18) by "Cheryll Reed" <>