Brumbaugh Family

Posted By: Wally Garchow
Date: 24 January 2003

transcribed from Frazer Wilson's History of Darke County, v. 2, 1914, pp 536-539.

BRUMBAUGH FAMILY.

The name Brumbaugh is of German origin and in America has taken various spellings and includes all such as Brumbach, Brumback, Bombach, Brombach, Broombaugh, Brombaugh, Brownbaugh, Brownback and perhaps some others, all due no doubt to the fact that people in America on hearing the newly arrived immigrant pronounce the name each gave his own spelling to it.

One of the family who came to America was Gerhard Brombach, who was born in 1662, in Saxony, near Wittenberg, Germany. His name is found spelled not less than five ways, not from his writing it himself as he always made "his mark." He settled at Germantown, Pa., when there was but one house there, which was built in 1683. He was then about 21 years of age. It has been asserted that he came across on the Concord. He must have been about 54 or 56 years of age when he married Mary Rittenhouse Papen, who was born in 1695. She was the daughter of Heivert and Elizabeth (Rittenhouse) Papen. Her father was a man of considerable means and Gerhard Brombach settled the estate and his wife had quite an inheritance. At this time there were several spellings used in the name and the second generation used that of Brumback, but in the third generation it became Brownback, which remains to the present time.

Gerhard settled in Vincent Township on 600 acres of land, but later acquired more, until he had about 1,000 acres. It was at that time a wilderness and there was a village of about 300 Indians nearby. With these he made friends and employed them as laborers, smoked the "peace pipe," took part in their wrestling matches, and other sports. He paid them in provisions. He built a house and barn of logs, very substantial, the house with a door through which logs could be hauled by a team to get the logs to the fireplace. The farm descended to Henry, then to Peter, then what is called the upper farm to Jesse. then to another Peter. and now both farms belong to Garrett Ellwood Brownback and have never been owned outside the family since the original grant from Penn. There was such a demand made upon him to keep travelers over night that he applied for and received permission to open a "public house," which became "Brownback Inn" about 1736. He was "Ye jolly landlord" until nearly the time of his death, which took place 1757. His son Benjamin succeeded him and on September 4, 1777, and for several days thereafter had the honor of entertaining Generals Washington and LaFayette. LaFayette had received a wound at Warren Tavern and had retreated to join Washington's army on its way to Germantown. The landlord, Benjamin Brownback, held a lieutenant's commission in the continental army dated August 21, 1776. Not only was Gerhard an innkeeper, but he was interested in many other enterprises. The most prominent of these is the part he took in establishing German Reformed church in 1743. The first building was of hewn logs. This was later replaced with a building of stone in 1800, rebuilt in 1846, remodeled and enlarged in 1878, and in 1907 a tower and a Sunday school room were added. It is today one of the most beautiful churches in the county.

Another of the family to come to America in colonial times was Johann Jacob Brumbach, who was born about 1728, and came to America on the ship Nancy, arriving at Philadelphia August 31, 1750. It seems that his parents had passed away before he left Germany and he brought with him as his inheritance about two hundred fifty dollars with which he seems to have bought a tract of land in what was then Frederick County, Maryland, south of Mason's and Dixon's line, not far from Hagerstown, but north about four miles from there. When about thirty-two years of age he married Mary Elizabeth Angle. He had built a log house before his marriage. This building is still standing and occupied. He rendered efficient service as a packman in the French and Indian war. He was well to do in later life as is shown by his securing 6,000 acres of land. On arriving in America he must have dropped the name Johann and was thereafter known as Jacob Brumbach. He was a very religious man and died in Pennsylvania April 10, 1799. Of his seven children we have to do only with the fourth, Daniel S. Brumbaugh, the spelling having already been changed no doubt by someone in making out legal papers and writing it as pronunciation sounded. He was born in 1772 in what is now Washington County, then Frederick County, Maryland. He died August 24, 1824. He had married Elizabeth Long and to them were born nine children. His wife lived until December 12. 1860, being 81 years and 11 months. Of their children the third was named for his father, Daniel, and was born in Washington County, Maryland. August 6, 1803. When twenty years of age he married Annie Gray, a cousin of Ex-Gov. Isaac P. Gray, of Indiana. She was born in Maryland August 5, 1805. Four years later they moved to Bedford county, Pennsylvania. In December, 1863, they moved to Darke county, Ohio, where they carried on farming. Daniel died in that county January 29, 1882. His wife had passed away about 1874. Of their ten children, the fourth, Samuel David, was born January 7, 1831, near Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland. On December 8, 1853, He married Elizabeth Darner, who was born June 24, 1831, near Beaverstown, Montgomery County, Ohio. He had come to Ohio several years before his parents came. His wife was a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Darner.

Samuel David Brumbaugh was drafted during the Civil war but when he went to take the examination he was rejected as being physically unfit for military service. He afterward was commissioned first lieutenant of Company E, Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for which he did a recruiting service. He died March 18, 1868. To them were born five children as follows: John Franklin, born November 12, 1854. He married Sarah M. Campbell of Darke County, Ohio. He later became the owner of the farm which had been bought by his father before the latter's death. To him were born four children: Maude Elizabeth married John E. Kline, who served as deputy auditor for Darke County from 1909 to 1914, when he was appointed deputy district tax commissioner by W. D. Brumbaugh. They have two children. The second of John Franklin Brumbaugh's children was John Walter, who died at the age of two years. The third is a daughter, Hattie. She married Claude Oswalt, a farmer residing on a farm adjacent to Brumbaugh farm in Greenville Township. No children. Gertie, single, lives with her widowed mother on the Brumbaugh homestead across the road from Concord German Reformed church. John Franklin Brumbaugh died September l0, 1898. The second child of Samuel David is Daniel Harmon Brumbaugh, born October 11, 1856. He married Ella Bender of Darke County. He is a farmer and lives near Arcanum, Ohio. To them have been born eight children, five of whom are living. The third child of Samuel David Brumbaugh is Virginia Bell. She was born December 21, 1859. She married John W. Stephens, a farmer of Darke county, Ohio. They live in Greenville now and have five children. Clement Laird Brumbaugh, fourth child of Samuel David, was born in Richland township, Darke County,
Ohio, February 28, 1863.

William David Brumbaugh, the youngest of the five children, was born August 1, 1866. He was about 18 months' old when his father passed away. The father had bought the old Deed's farm by the Concord church in Greenville Township, consisting of 80 acres, in the fall before his death. The mother then took up the struggle of rearing these children and of keeping them together. This she succeeded in doing and by hard labor upon the farm, often doing a man's labor of out-door work, she with the help of the children succeeded in saving fifty-five acres. A part of the struggles is told in the biographies of her two sons, Clement L. and William David, which follows this article. She lived to see all her children well established in the world and her last years were spent in her little home on Martin Street by the side of her daughter's residence, where she was cared for and administered to by her loving and faithful sons and daughter. The bosoms of her children swell with pride when they say that "they never heard her speak a reproachful word of any person and that they never knew her to seek her repose at night without first committing the care of herself and her little family to the keeping of her Savior, whom she fervently served to the last moment of her earthly existence."

Messages In This Thread

Brumbaugh Family -- Wally Garchow -- 24 January 2003

Re: Brumbaugh Family -- David Blake Brumbaugh -- 18 December 2004

Re: Brumbaugh Family -- Ned Donoghue -- 21 March 2005

Re: Brumbaugh Family -- Katina -- 8 June 2005

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