Johann George Walz 
M, (8 August 1776 - 19 September 1858)
- Relationship
- 2nd great-grandson of Hans Peter Walz
Johann George Walz was born on 8 August 1776 at Möhringen, Oberamt Stuttgart, Neckarkreis, Württemberg. He was the son of Johannes Walz and Elizabeth Stahl. Johann George Walz married, at age 24, Catharina Kiess, age 21, daughter of Johann George Kiess and Dorothea Gohl, on Tuesday, 18 November 1800 at Möhringen, Oberamt Stuttgart, Neckarkreis, Württemberg.1 Johann George Walz died on 19 September 1858 at age 82 years, 1 month and 11 days. August could be the month of death. He was buried Hepburn Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.
This family is listed as 'Family H' on the Blooming Grove, Stammbaum Wäldchen (Family Tree Little Woods) that was originally printed about 1860 - 1862. The one used for this record is currently in the possession of Frederick and Zella Stabler. The Blooming Grove Historical Socitey also has one on display at their musuem. The beginning reads, "With approximately 20 family trees of families who largely live in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania and who still have living parents at the turn of the century, mostly from Mühringen and Eßlingen in Würtemberg, and who have moved here."
Travelling to America across the Atlantic Ocean from 9 June 1804 till 18 September 1804, with his wife and father-in-law, George Kies, they landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The family named was changed to 'Waltz' upon arrival to America, however you can still find sources with the original spelling of 'Walz'.
He is listed on the Good Ship Margaret from Amsterdam that arrived in the Port of Philadelphia on September 19, 1804; as having a wife, 1 child, age 28, born in Möehringen, coming from Württemberg, occupation as a farmer, 6 feet tall wititih black hair.
The following documentation comes from the Family Group Sheet of John George Waltz and Catherine Kiess as compiled by Floyd Randall Waltz, Jr; March 25, 1982:
Johann Georg Waltz, anglicized to John George Waltz, was apparently called by his middle name. Evidence of this is the passenger list of the ship MARGARET out of Amsterdam that arrived at the port of Philadelphia on September 19, 1804: 'Genealogy of William Waltz, Son of George Waltz, Pioneer of 1804,' compiled by A. Pierce Waltz, c.1940 and page 1016, 'History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania,' edited by John F. Meginnes, Chicago, IL, Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1892, pages 616-623, 655-656, 1016, 1152, 1165-1166, and 1193-1194. George Waltz spent the first 28 years of his life in Mohringen, Stadtkreis Stuttgart, Kingdom of Wurttemberg, Germany. This was a small farming village approximately 9 kilometers due south from the center of Stuttgart and contiguous with the Autobahn Karlsruhe-Stuttgart-Munich.
George Waltz as a young man was six feet tall and had black hair. He married Catherine Keiss, and they had their first child, Samuel, in Germany. Their other seven children were presumably born in Pennsylvania. The forgoing statement about children is probable but not absolute. Among the families they traveled with to America, there were two children who died and one was born enroute.
George Waltz, his wife, his in-laws, and many of his friends were Dunkards or Dunkers. This was a protestant religious sect of Germany that was opposed to military service and the taking of oaths. Holding these religious tenents during the period of the Napoleonic conquest and/or subjugation of the south German States and of Austria undoubtedly caused him and his friends in Mohringen some serious problems. Two of his friends, John and Gottlieb Heim, were imprisoned in 1803 for their opposition to conscription. George Waltz' nonconforming attitude towards the prevailing requirements by those in authority regarding military service and oaths was a major factor in his decision, and that of his friends, to emigrate to the United States.
In 1804, at the age of 28, George Waltz with his family, his in-laws, and a number of friends with their families, emigrated as a group from Germany to the United States. They departed via ox-drawn wagons from Mohringen on June 9, 1804, spending their first night in Vaihingen am Enz. (This is a pastoral farm villiage tucked into the folds of the hills where a small tributary stream merges into the Enz river. The ruins of a small castle are on the northern hill abutting the villiage.) On June 10, they passed through Bruchsal to Langen Bruken. They continued overland on the Weinstrasse stopping at Saxheim on June 11, at Alter Heilige on June 12, and arrived at Frankfurt am Main on June 13. They remained in Frankfurt until June 16 when at 0700 hours they took ship down the Rhine river for Muinden, Netherlands, and continued until noon of June 20 when they reached Arnheim, Netherlands. After numerous delays and tedious windings through the canals, John George Waltz and five of the fifteen family groups traveling together finally boarded the sailing vessel 'Margaret' on the morning of July 3, 1804. They sailed on the morning of July 12, 1804 and landed in the port of Philadelphia on September 19, 1804.
A record of the journey was kept by George Kiess, George Waltz' father-in-law. The translation of that diary, as passed down through family records indicated that the sailing ship they took from Amsterdam to Philadelphia was the 'Lulu.' The original immigrant list on file in the Division of Public Records, Harrisburg, PA, lists mosts of these families and individual persons from Mohringen as 'List of German Passengers Arrived in the Port of Philadelphia in the ship 'Margaret,' from Amsterdam, C. E. Gardner, Master, September 19th, 1804.' (See chart at end of these notes and additional comments following the chart.) The journey from Mohringen to Philadelphia too 103 days - 3 months and ten days.
These pioneers from Germany selected an area east-northeast of Williamsport, PA to establish their homes and community. The area was nearly in its primative state and the earliest settlers had been subjected to Indian raids only 26 years earlier.
Wendel Harman, a member of the group, and acting in his own name with funds pooled by the group, purchases 422 acres and 116 perches of land on May 31, 1805 from Jesse Willits for 316 pounds 17shillings in the newly formed Hepburn Township, about one mile south of Warrensville (Deed Book E, page 276). The best land in the purchase cost $1.50 per acre; the second grade was $1.00. The colonists making this purchase were named as follows: John Heim, Leonard Ulmer, Gottlieb Heim, Michael Bertsch, Leonard Staiger, Ferdinand Frederich Scheel, John George Waltz, and George Kiess, Sr. This purchase was made 8 months and 12 days after the group landed at Philadelphia on September 19, 1804. Their mode and time of travel from Philadelphia to Williamsport is not stated. Records pertaining to some other groups of German immigrants indicate they walked on foot. Regardless of their mode of travel, there are about seven and a half months, including the winter of 1804 - 1805 for while there is no account.
George Waltz' brother, Michael, settled at the same time in the vicinity of Linden and Steak Valley, about 12 miles south-southwest with some other members of the Mohringen group.
When the purchase was effected in 1805, the colonists at once went to work, built log cabins, and began to improve the land. The ground was covered with timber and it required a gret deal of hard work to clear the land and put in small crops. The outlook was not encouraging at first, but through indomnitable pluck, frugaity, and industry so characteristic of the Germans, they succeeded and founded valuable estates. When the colonists had cleared their land and planted crops, everything bloomed like a flower, and in the exuberance of their joy, they called the place 'Blooming Grove.'
Soon after the settling of Blooming Grove, the colonists built a log church, little better than a log cabin, which served as a place of worship and as a schoolhouse. The Reverend Dr. C. F. Haller was the first preacher; this was about 1805 / 1806. Baptisms in February 1841 by Reverend Konrad A. Fleischmann, who came to America as the first German Baptist missionary among his countrymen, marked an important religious epoch -- the founding of the first organized German Baptist Church in America. (Note: This line of WALTZ family had been Baptists down through Floyd Randall Waltz, Sr 1890-1949, and his sisters.)
George and Catherine (Kiess) Waltz raised their eight children to maturity on their land in Blooming Grove, Pennsylvania, and lived there for 53 and 47 years respectively until their deaths Aug 19, 1858 (age 82) and Jan 18, 1853 (her 74th birthday). They are both buried in the family graveyard on the original land on West Mill Creek, one mile south of Warrensville, Elder Township, Lycoming County, PA.
The following constitutes a graphic coorelation, thereby indicating discrepancies, of the list of emigrants from Stuttgart-Mohringen departing there June 9, 1804:
SOURCE: Joseph McMinn of SOURCE: List of German Passengers Williamsport, in 'Blooming Arrived in Port of Philadelphia in Grove' 1901. (On the sailing the Ship MARGARET, from Amsterdam, ship LULU.) (Generically, C. E. Gardner, Master, September they 'left Germany with their 19th, 1804. (Listing all passenger families,' and inferentially gers from Mohringen.) settled in Blooming Grove.)
Child-
NAME Age Wife ren Maids
John Heim John Heim 34
Gottlieb Heim Godlieb Heim 37
George Kiess George Kiess 52 X 5
George Rapp
John Duss
Samuel L. Hendricks
Rev. Dr. Conrad Hollar
Leonard Ulmer Leonhard Ulmer 40 X 5 1
Wendel Harman
Michael Gruss
Michael Biehl Michael Buhl (from 44 X 4 and mother
Mussberg, 3km SW and sister
of Mohringen)
Fred Sheel
(Ferdinand Frederick Scheel)
Michael Burghardt
Michael Waltz
John George Waltz George Waltz 28 X 1
Frederic Emhard 35 X 1
Leonhard Staiger 39 X 4 1
Thomas Ulmer 68 X 1
Catherine Kramerinn 40
Charlotte Neuferinn 34
Davig Jung 24
In 1814 the following families came from Wurttemberg - inferentially to Blooming Grove:
Christian Heim
Jacob Heim
John Wagner
Frederick Schaefer
Jacob Guinter
Jacob Sterile
Abraham Shredt
Jacob Wolf
Jacob Kurtz
John Kurtz
Ulrick Stabler
John Stabler
Michael Stroble
COMMENT: It becomes immediately apparent that ten (10) of the fifteen family groups that were reported by Joseph McMinn as departing Mohringen on June 9, 1804 traveled on a ship different than the MARGARET. This quite possibly accounts for the reported group travel via the LULU which reportedly docked in Philadelphia one day earlier on September 18, 1804.
PROBABLE SOLUTION: We know that Wendel Harman must have landed at virtually the same time because of his representation of members of passengers on the MARGARET and of the LULU in purchasing land in the vicinity of Warrensvill, Lycoming County, PA. Quite a number of those early immigrants whose names cannot be easily correlated to Blooming Grove or to any particular ship are reflected in the 'History of Lycoming County' in other contexts and as having established roots in other settlements of Germans close to Blooming Grove. Further, many of these names are reflected in A. Pierce Waltz' booklet as having intermarried in the first three generations in this country with the Waltz family.
This family is listed as 'Family H' on the Blooming Grove, Stammbaum Wäldchen (Family Tree Little Woods) that was originally printed about 1860 - 1862. The one used for this record is currently in the possession of Frederick and Zella Stabler. The Blooming Grove Historical Socitey also has one on display at their musuem. The beginning reads, "With approximately 20 family trees of families who largely live in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania and who still have living parents at the turn of the century, mostly from Mühringen and Eßlingen in Würtemberg, and who have moved here."
Travelling to America across the Atlantic Ocean from 9 June 1804 till 18 September 1804, with his wife and father-in-law, George Kies, they landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The family named was changed to 'Waltz' upon arrival to America, however you can still find sources with the original spelling of 'Walz'.
He is listed on the Good Ship Margaret from Amsterdam that arrived in the Port of Philadelphia on September 19, 1804; as having a wife, 1 child, age 28, born in Möehringen, coming from Württemberg, occupation as a farmer, 6 feet tall wititih black hair.
The following documentation comes from the Family Group Sheet of John George Waltz and Catherine Kiess as compiled by Floyd Randall Waltz, Jr; March 25, 1982:
Johann Georg Waltz, anglicized to John George Waltz, was apparently called by his middle name. Evidence of this is the passenger list of the ship MARGARET out of Amsterdam that arrived at the port of Philadelphia on September 19, 1804: 'Genealogy of William Waltz, Son of George Waltz, Pioneer of 1804,' compiled by A. Pierce Waltz, c.1940 and page 1016, 'History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania,' edited by John F. Meginnes, Chicago, IL, Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1892, pages 616-623, 655-656, 1016, 1152, 1165-1166, and 1193-1194. George Waltz spent the first 28 years of his life in Mohringen, Stadtkreis Stuttgart, Kingdom of Wurttemberg, Germany. This was a small farming village approximately 9 kilometers due south from the center of Stuttgart and contiguous with the Autobahn Karlsruhe-Stuttgart-Munich.
George Waltz as a young man was six feet tall and had black hair. He married Catherine Keiss, and they had their first child, Samuel, in Germany. Their other seven children were presumably born in Pennsylvania. The forgoing statement about children is probable but not absolute. Among the families they traveled with to America, there were two children who died and one was born enroute.
George Waltz, his wife, his in-laws, and many of his friends were Dunkards or Dunkers. This was a protestant religious sect of Germany that was opposed to military service and the taking of oaths. Holding these religious tenents during the period of the Napoleonic conquest and/or subjugation of the south German States and of Austria undoubtedly caused him and his friends in Mohringen some serious problems. Two of his friends, John and Gottlieb Heim, were imprisoned in 1803 for their opposition to conscription. George Waltz' nonconforming attitude towards the prevailing requirements by those in authority regarding military service and oaths was a major factor in his decision, and that of his friends, to emigrate to the United States.
In 1804, at the age of 28, George Waltz with his family, his in-laws, and a number of friends with their families, emigrated as a group from Germany to the United States. They departed via ox-drawn wagons from Mohringen on June 9, 1804, spending their first night in Vaihingen am Enz. (This is a pastoral farm villiage tucked into the folds of the hills where a small tributary stream merges into the Enz river. The ruins of a small castle are on the northern hill abutting the villiage.) On June 10, they passed through Bruchsal to Langen Bruken. They continued overland on the Weinstrasse stopping at Saxheim on June 11, at Alter Heilige on June 12, and arrived at Frankfurt am Main on June 13. They remained in Frankfurt until June 16 when at 0700 hours they took ship down the Rhine river for Muinden, Netherlands, and continued until noon of June 20 when they reached Arnheim, Netherlands. After numerous delays and tedious windings through the canals, John George Waltz and five of the fifteen family groups traveling together finally boarded the sailing vessel 'Margaret' on the morning of July 3, 1804. They sailed on the morning of July 12, 1804 and landed in the port of Philadelphia on September 19, 1804.
A record of the journey was kept by George Kiess, George Waltz' father-in-law. The translation of that diary, as passed down through family records indicated that the sailing ship they took from Amsterdam to Philadelphia was the 'Lulu.' The original immigrant list on file in the Division of Public Records, Harrisburg, PA, lists mosts of these families and individual persons from Mohringen as 'List of German Passengers Arrived in the Port of Philadelphia in the ship 'Margaret,' from Amsterdam, C. E. Gardner, Master, September 19th, 1804.' (See chart at end of these notes and additional comments following the chart.) The journey from Mohringen to Philadelphia too 103 days - 3 months and ten days.
These pioneers from Germany selected an area east-northeast of Williamsport, PA to establish their homes and community. The area was nearly in its primative state and the earliest settlers had been subjected to Indian raids only 26 years earlier.
Wendel Harman, a member of the group, and acting in his own name with funds pooled by the group, purchases 422 acres and 116 perches of land on May 31, 1805 from Jesse Willits for 316 pounds 17shillings in the newly formed Hepburn Township, about one mile south of Warrensville (Deed Book E, page 276). The best land in the purchase cost $1.50 per acre; the second grade was $1.00. The colonists making this purchase were named as follows: John Heim, Leonard Ulmer, Gottlieb Heim, Michael Bertsch, Leonard Staiger, Ferdinand Frederich Scheel, John George Waltz, and George Kiess, Sr. This purchase was made 8 months and 12 days after the group landed at Philadelphia on September 19, 1804. Their mode and time of travel from Philadelphia to Williamsport is not stated. Records pertaining to some other groups of German immigrants indicate they walked on foot. Regardless of their mode of travel, there are about seven and a half months, including the winter of 1804 - 1805 for while there is no account.
George Waltz' brother, Michael, settled at the same time in the vicinity of Linden and Steak Valley, about 12 miles south-southwest with some other members of the Mohringen group.
When the purchase was effected in 1805, the colonists at once went to work, built log cabins, and began to improve the land. The ground was covered with timber and it required a gret deal of hard work to clear the land and put in small crops. The outlook was not encouraging at first, but through indomnitable pluck, frugaity, and industry so characteristic of the Germans, they succeeded and founded valuable estates. When the colonists had cleared their land and planted crops, everything bloomed like a flower, and in the exuberance of their joy, they called the place 'Blooming Grove.'
Soon after the settling of Blooming Grove, the colonists built a log church, little better than a log cabin, which served as a place of worship and as a schoolhouse. The Reverend Dr. C. F. Haller was the first preacher; this was about 1805 / 1806. Baptisms in February 1841 by Reverend Konrad A. Fleischmann, who came to America as the first German Baptist missionary among his countrymen, marked an important religious epoch -- the founding of the first organized German Baptist Church in America. (Note: This line of WALTZ family had been Baptists down through Floyd Randall Waltz, Sr 1890-1949, and his sisters.)
George and Catherine (Kiess) Waltz raised their eight children to maturity on their land in Blooming Grove, Pennsylvania, and lived there for 53 and 47 years respectively until their deaths Aug 19, 1858 (age 82) and Jan 18, 1853 (her 74th birthday). They are both buried in the family graveyard on the original land on West Mill Creek, one mile south of Warrensville, Elder Township, Lycoming County, PA.
The following constitutes a graphic coorelation, thereby indicating discrepancies, of the list of emigrants from Stuttgart-Mohringen departing there June 9, 1804:
SOURCE: Joseph McMinn of SOURCE: List of German Passengers Williamsport, in 'Blooming Arrived in Port of Philadelphia in Grove' 1901. (On the sailing the Ship MARGARET, from Amsterdam, ship LULU.) (Generically, C. E. Gardner, Master, September they 'left Germany with their 19th, 1804. (Listing all passenger families,' and inferentially gers from Mohringen.) settled in Blooming Grove.)
Child-
NAME Age Wife ren Maids
John Heim John Heim 34
Gottlieb Heim Godlieb Heim 37
George Kiess George Kiess 52 X 5
George Rapp
John Duss
Samuel L. Hendricks
Rev. Dr. Conrad Hollar
Leonard Ulmer Leonhard Ulmer 40 X 5 1
Wendel Harman
Michael Gruss
Michael Biehl Michael Buhl (from 44 X 4 and mother
Mussberg, 3km SW and sister
of Mohringen)
Fred Sheel
(Ferdinand Frederick Scheel)
Michael Burghardt
Michael Waltz
John George Waltz George Waltz 28 X 1
Frederic Emhard 35 X 1
Leonhard Staiger 39 X 4 1
Thomas Ulmer 68 X 1
Catherine Kramerinn 40
Charlotte Neuferinn 34
Davig Jung 24
In 1814 the following families came from Wurttemberg - inferentially to Blooming Grove:
Christian Heim
Jacob Heim
John Wagner
Frederick Schaefer
Jacob Guinter
Jacob Sterile
Abraham Shredt
Jacob Wolf
Jacob Kurtz
John Kurtz
Ulrick Stabler
John Stabler
Michael Stroble
COMMENT: It becomes immediately apparent that ten (10) of the fifteen family groups that were reported by Joseph McMinn as departing Mohringen on June 9, 1804 traveled on a ship different than the MARGARET. This quite possibly accounts for the reported group travel via the LULU which reportedly docked in Philadelphia one day earlier on September 18, 1804.
PROBABLE SOLUTION: We know that Wendel Harman must have landed at virtually the same time because of his representation of members of passengers on the MARGARET and of the LULU in purchasing land in the vicinity of Warrensvill, Lycoming County, PA. Quite a number of those early immigrants whose names cannot be easily correlated to Blooming Grove or to any particular ship are reflected in the 'History of Lycoming County' in other contexts and as having established roots in other settlements of Germans close to Blooming Grove. Further, many of these names are reflected in A. Pierce Waltz' booklet as having intermarried in the first three generations in this country with the Waltz family.
Children of Johann George Walz and Catharina Kiess
- Samuel Waltz+ (16 Jan 1804 - 9 Jun 1873)
- George W. Waltz+ (3 Jul 1806 - 27 Sep 1881)
- Catharina Waltz+ (3 Jun 1808 - 17 Mar 1876)
- Johannes Waltz+ (1810 - 1882)
- Dorothea Waltz+ (29 Nov 1812 - 7 Oct 1899)
- Wilhelm Waltz+ (1 Apr 1815 - 18 Jan 1885)
- Abraham Waltz+ (1816 - 18 Sep 1871)
- Gottlieb Waltz+ (24 Jan 1818 - 10 Jun 1875)
- David Waltz (c 1820 - )
- [—?—] Walz (c 1822 - )
- [—?—] Walz (c 1824 - )
Last Edited=24 Apr 2009
Citations
- [S544] Stammbaum Wäldchen of the settlers of Blooming Grove, original family tree, printed in German. Stammbaum Wäldchen means "Family Tree Little Woods," being several family trees within a single large registry. This document was recorded exactly as it was printed by Kevin L. Sholder in 1997, and then all but the names were translated into the English language by Mrs. Steiner of the Centerville High School German Department, Centerville, Ohio in 1998.
The document states at the beginning: "With approximately 20 family trees of families who largely live in Lycoming Co., Pa. and who still have living parents at the turn of the century, mostly from Mühringen and Eßlingen in Würtemberg, and who have moved here."
At the end is the following explanation or legend: "The letter and numbers of this family tree agree with each other. Branches and smaller branches always were counted from left to right. So one finds the members of their family according to their age. Wherever the family of both parents is given, the families are usually indicated twice, ex. a. 1., designates a family - father's side, while 1.2. indicates the mother's side. In the list of names the children and grandchildren of the father's side only are given, except when the sex of the father is not registered, then the mother's side is given. The letter s. stands for see the following letter a. or b. etc. indicates the family line from that s. person, and the number after that indicates the order then of the ages of the range of siblings, as one can see when one looks up the family tree according to the letters indicating the names and then the branch which is indicated with the designated number. The ever appearing K. = Kinder (children). The † behind a name indicates that the person has died, as well as an entire branch that has died out. The number following indicates the J jahr an unknown date M monat [month] W woche [week] or I Iag [day] of their age = indicated by capital letter. † indicates a person whose name was unknown."
At the very bottom of the document it states: "Upon request of friends, this has been set up and put into print." This document is 28 inches by 28 inches in size and contains 19 primary families, that make up approximately 500 individuals listed within. Based on known years of birth and death from other sources of persons within this tree, this document was printed circa 1860-1862.
The founding individuals and families arrived in Pennsylvania between 1804 and 1817. At the time that the Blooming Grove community produced this document many of the original settlers were still living resulting in the high quality of this source.
The document used for this record was handed down from Johann Michael Stäbler (family m. 2. in the document) to his son Abraham Stabler then to his son Pierce Albert Stabler it remained in the family home, 1453 Job's Run Road, Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania with his son Frederick U. Stabler, it was then passed to Fred's son Daniel Leroy in the year 2000 and then to his son Kurtlan Daniel Stabler, circa 2013, who built a new home in place of the original homestead still located at 1453 Job's Run Road, Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania where it remains a fixture within the home of Kurt and wife Lyndsay (Shader) Stabler. Kurtlan Daniel Stabler (Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, USA), Family H. Hereinafter cited as Stammbaum Wäldchen.