A N N A L S
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The first trace I find of my great-grand father, Yost Harbaugh, is in the Record of the Land Office at Harrisburg, Pa., Warrant Book P., p. 261. Here, it appears, that in 1739, Joost Harbogh--so his name is there spelled--owned a tract of land, one handred acres, in Maxatawny township, at that time Philadelphia, but now Berks County, adjoining the land of Matthew Speck, three miles above Maxatawny creek.

This confirms a tradition, which I often heard my father repeat, to this effect, that my grandfather, Jacob Harbaugh, was six years old when his father came to this country. He was born Feb. 5, 1730; hence my great-grand father must have arrived in this country in 1736. It seems that he settled first in Maxatawny, a valley lying in Berks county, mid-way between Reading and Allentown. From this place he removed, a few years later, before or about the year 1743, to the new settlement of Kreutz creek,* west of the Susquehanna. (* Some say that the proper name of this Creek is Kreis' Creek, from an early settler near its mouth, whose name was George Kreis. But others, with greater appearance of truth, say that the common name is the correct one. It is called Kreutz Creek, on account of the union of two streams, which so flow together as to form a Kreutz, i. e., a Cross.) He bought a tract of land on Kreutz creek, Oct. 5, 1743. This tract of land was taken up Oct. 30, 1736, by John Huntzecker; sold May 16, 1743, to Peter Beitler, and on the date above mentioned, to Yost Harbaugh.

It is mentioned in the deed, that Yost Harbaugh traded to Peter Beitler "a certain tract of land on Creutz creed." From this it appears, that Yost Harbaugh possessed a tract of land, and probably resided on it, previous to Oct. 5, 1743.

This tract he must have sold again; for I find on one of the Deeds, in the hands of Mr. Stoner, who now (1852) lives on the farm, a draught of a tract of land, on which is written as follows: "A draught of a tract of land situated in Hallam township, York county, containing 191 1/2 acres, surveyed March 30th, 1750, unto Yost Harbaugh in right of Jacob Huntzecker, and returned unto the Secretary Office the 28th of March, 1760, for the use of Yost Harbaugh, in pursuance of all acct. to accept the said survey, dated March 26, 1760." It seems it was patented March 26, 1760. The patenting cost 29 lb.13s, 6d.

On the 4th of June, 1762, this tract of land was exposed to sale "according," it is said, "to the will." The land brought 1002 lb.

The Will, which is recorded in the Office for the Registration of Wills in York County, is dated March 30, 1762. It was witnessed April 6, 1762. It was recorded April 27, 1762; so that he must have died sometime in April of 1762.

Here is a copy of the Will, procured from the Office for the Registration of Wills in York county. I give it exactly as it is recorded, language, spelling, and punctuation.*

(*The copy of the Will was kindly procured for me by H. L. Fisher, Esq. of York, Pa., who, on his mother's side, is a descendant of the family through Yost, the sixth son of the oldest ancestor Yost. In an accompanying letter , Mr. Fisher remarks in regard to this will:

"It is, like most of those ancient documents, quite singular in many of its features; indeed, in some parts, at least to me, utterly unintelligible. How strange it sounds to hear him appoint "Executors" for his children; "Guardians," he no doubt intended. You will also observe that the first probate of the Will was made before one John Adlum, who styles himself "one of his Magosty's Justices of the Peace." This, the Court, (as appears by the opinion of one Ja. Smith, on file in the Register;s Office) decided to be insufficient: and afterwards the probate was perfected before the Deputy Register.

I was forcibly struck with the strong evidence this Will affords of the custom and the desire to perpetuate proper names. This testator, it seems, had a daughter Anna Margaret. His son Yost, i.e., my grand-father, had a daughter of the same name; that daughter was my "sainted" mother; peace to her ashes and honored be her memory, which I am endeavoring to sustain and perpetuate in some sort, by calling my oldest daughter by her name, Anna Margaret." )

In the name of God Amen. this thiry th day of March and in The year of Our Lord God one thoussend Sevven Hundred and Sixty Two, I Yost Herbach of Helm Township York county and province of Pensylvania farmer being very Sick and weak in body but of perfect mind and memory thanks be given therefore unto god therefore calling unto mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to Dye do mak and ordain this my Last will and Testement that is to Say principaly and first of all I give and Recomend my Soul into the Hands of god that gave it & for my body I Recomend it to be Buried in a Christian Like and a Descend maner nothing Doubting but at the general Resurection I shall Receive the Same again by the mighty Pwer of god.

and as Touching Such worldly Estate where with it Hath pleased god to bless mee in this Life, I give and Dispose of the Same in the following manner and form

Imprimis it is my will and I do order that in the first place all my Just and funeral Charges be paid and satisfyed

Item I give and bequieth unto mary Liz my beloved wife the sum of Twelve Pounds of good and lawful money of Pensylvania & that yearly and Every year So long as She abids a widow or Lives and shee shall have a full Right to the Spring hous to Live there on or in and to any one of the Cows in the Stable and to the oper part of the medow which is fenced by itself and to Twenty apple Trees on the South Side of the orchard which Lieth over the medow all these articles for hir as Long as shee abids a widow and further I give hir a bed and what belonging to it and a Chist to hir own use and that to hir and hir asigns for Ever

But if it Should Hapen that Shee Should Change hir Condetion in Short or Long a Time and should mary again Shee shall have fifty Pounds in money of my Estate and so much as shee had of hir first Husband and that for hir Hairs and asigns for Ever

Turn over

And further I Set and order and it is my will that all my Estate both plantation and moveables to be Sold by a buplick vandu or otherwise which my hereafter mention Executors shall think proper, and my Estate then Shall be Devided among all my Children and Equaly devided Share and Shear alike to the ouldest no more than to the youngist or any of the Rest

to my Son george his Equel Share and no more and to my Son Ludwick his Equel share, and to my son Jacob his Equel share and to my son John his Equel share, and to my son Henry his Equel share, and to my son yost his Equel sheare, and to my son Leanard his equel sheare and to my two Daugters mary Liz and anmargret both theire Equel sheare, and to my youngest Daugter anCatarina her Equel share.

and I do further make and order to this my Last will and Testemment for Executors first my e Beloved Sons george and Jacob to be executors for my son Henry, to take Care of his portion and of him as good as poseble and to the best of theire Endeavor, and my True and Trusted frend John Comford to be Executor to my youngest Daugter anaCatharina--

and my beloved Son John and trusted friend Jacob Wels-Hover to be Executors for my Two Daughters mary liz and an margred and to my son Leonhard

and these my Executors Shall have a full Right to make Sale and do with my Estate as above mentioned

and I do further give to my wife above mentioned Twenty bushels of wheat the first year after my Decease

and I do hereby utterly Disalow all and Every other former wils Legaces and Executors, Ratyfyeng this and no other to be my Last will and Testement, in witness whereof I have hereun to Set my Hand and Seal the day and year above written

his

Signed Sealed publish YOST X HERBACH.

ed and declared by the mark

said Yost Herback as

his last will and Teste

ment in presents of u.

Heinrich Schmidt

Leonhart Comforth

Henry Strickler

Beni

memorandum to the will of Yost Herbach my son John Herbach Shall keep one Hundred pounds of my estate in his hand whereof he shall pay my wife yearly according to my will and moreover then shall the last payment for the plantation shall Likewise be Left for that use of if ocation

And any of the Executors if the have any money in hand for any of the Legases if the Can not Lend it out as the think proper shall not be obliged to pay interess for it. This has been forgit to put in the will afore signed and sealed, but declared and pronounced by said Yost Herbach afore signing and sealing as witness our hands the same date as in the will mentioned

Heinrich Schmidt

Leonhart Comforth

Henry Strickler

York County, ss.

Came before me the subscriber one of his Magosty's Justices of the Peace for the said County Henry Smith, Leonard Comfort and Henry Strickler the subscribing witnesses to the within instrument of writing and made oath &c that they saw Host Herbach Sign Seal Publish and Declare the same to be his last wil and Testament and that the schedule thereunto annexed should be Deemed as part of his will and that he was of a sound and perfect understanging and Memory

Henrich Shmidt

Leonhart Comforth

Sworn and Subscribed 6th of April 1762 Before

John Adlum

York County ss.

Before me the subscriber Deputy Register for the probate of Wills and granting Letters of administration in and for the County aforesaid came Henry Smith & Leonard Comfort two of the witnesses to the within will, and upon their solemn affirmation declared they were present and saw and heard Yost Hebagh the testator Sign Seal Pubish and declare the same as and for his last will & Testament & that at the doing thereof he was of sound mind & memory to the best of their knowledge and understanding.

HEINRICH SCHMIDT

LEONHART COMFORTH.

Affirmed at York, 27th April 1762

Cord. Geo. Stevenson D R

On the 26th of June, 1852, I visited the old homestead of my great-grand father, near the Kreutz creed Church. It is now owned by a Mr. Stoner, a man who wears a long red beard, and is of the Dunkard persuasion in religion. He does not live on the place, but retired in a stone house on one end of the farm. A tenant lives on the place.

I called on Mr. Stoner, and found him very friendly. I explained to him the object of my visit, telling him who I was, and that I had been informed my great ancestor once owned that place. I suggested to him that I thought the command to honor our father and mother was not designed merely to apply to our immediate parents, but also to all our ancestors--that Jacob did not only love his father Isaac, but also his grand-father Abraham; and that, consequently, I felt it to be a kind of pious desire and duty to see the place where my earlier ancestors had lived. He, being piously inclined, seemed to take up this idea with pleasure; and he entered warmly, and with much interest, into my feelings, and the object of my visit.

I suggested to him that I was anxious to know when my great-grand father settled there, and told him I supposed the old Deeds in his possession would throw light upon the subject. He readily went into his little chamber and brought out the several Deeds, which marked the various hands through which the proerty had passed; from these Deeds I obained several hints and dates, which are of use to me in making out a history of the family.

The old gentlemen then proposed to go with me to the house on the ld place, when he heard from me that I desired to visit that spot. Crossing in a lane a somewhat low or meadow strip of land, through which a stream wanders, we soon stood in the yard of the Homestead.

Here I could not help feeling strange emotions, as I looked in all directions, reflecting that the scenery on which my eyes rested, was the same, in many respects, as that on which my great-grandfather looked one hundred and ten years ago--changed, of course, in many respects, but still the same in its general features.

"How many, many memories,

Glide o'er my spirit now!"

Westward from the house these is a gentle slope downward toward the spring; directly south of the spring was formerly the garden. The place was covered with thriving oats just growing into heads; and the superior height and richness of the oats stilll marked out to my eye the limits of the ancient garden. Along the fence, which bounded one side of the old garden plat, there still grow some parsnips and lark-spurs, the degenerated and lingering relics of ancient use and ornament. Through passing years, from age to age, these plants have been perpetuating themselves on the spot on which they were originally planted by hands tht have long since ceased their activities, and are now lost amid the dust of the tomb! Their dying and reviving, year after year, seems to be a picture of how memory lingers and struggles to keep itself alive, around the spot to whicvh its fondest associations are bound. At the sight of these

"Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,

Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain."

To the north lies a strip of meadow, through which wanders a stream which turns a mill within sight and hearing. Into this stream the outlet of the spring finds its way. In sight, along the stream, there are numbers of yellow wild willows, whose silvery leaves upturned by a June breeze, glittered and quivered in the sun, making the whole a soft mellow summer scene. Red-winged starlings kept up their well known noise from bush to bush, and from tree to tree, in the meadow, perching also ever and anon upon the top of a tall, slender, swinging weed, turning their black glistening backs, and their red and yellow colored wings to the sun, and pouring notes of wildest joy from their full throats.

At the farther bound of the meadow rises the embankment of the rail-road, over whch there rolled at the time a long train of cars. But this was too modern to interest me now; and yet I could not help but think what changes in a hundred years, and how little of all this could have entered into the wildest dreams of our ancestors!

My eyes soon wandered beyond the rail-road where a gentle slope upward ends, at some two miles distance, in a range of hills, which forms, in fact, the northern boundary of the narrow, but beautiful Kreutz creek valley. Often must the eyes of my great-grand father have rested against that beautiful slope of hills.

Toward the south there is a similar range of hills, only nearer to the homestead, and forming the other boundary of Kreutz creek valley. Along this valley, and the hills that form it, the eye wanders eastward over a beautiful region of variegated scenery towards the Susquehanna river. To the east, the valley breaks into various directions between hills, until it loses itself to the eye in a rolling landscape.

I could not resist the pleasure of taking a cool drink from the spring which wells out above the spring-house, the stream of which passes through it, and idles down into the meadow. Starting down a flight of steps, and taking hold of an old rusted tin cup, my old bearded friend called to me, saying that he would get a glass in the house, and that I could get a dring from the pump near the house. I excused myself, and persisted in drinking from the spring. It being some distnce from the house, and a considerable descent to it, it seems that the modern rush for conveniences, induced the digging of a well nearer the house; so that the spring is not now in regular use. It is however, excellent water. It was to me a solemn reflection, that more than a century ago, my great-grand father saw his own image reflected from the surface of the spring when he bent down to dip the cooling draught as he returned from labor in the fields. The water that then flowed is gone to the sea, and those who drank from it have also reached that great ocean of eternity,. in which all the streams of earthly life are at length swallowed up! So passes the glory of the earth.

Time, like an ever-flowing stream,

Sweeps us away, or life's a dream

An empty tale, a morning flower,

Cut down and withered in an hour.

The old gentleman informed me that the old house which my great-grand father built, was taken down only about sixteen years ago, viz: in 1836. He says it was a large house, perhaps about forty feet square, built of hewn logs. He says that some of the logs were two feet broad, and very nicely hewn--all the logs were unusually broad and excellent. The old house stood on the same spot where the stone house now stands.

The Kreutz creek settlement must have been very new when my great-grand father settled there. I find it mentioned in the annals of early settlements, that "in 1729 John and James Hendricks settled west of the Susquehanna river, in what is now York conty, by authority of Government," and that they were soon followed "by other families." Previous to that, there seem to have been here and there squatters from the Maryland colony, but no regular settlements.

We are informed also by the annals of the times that numerous German settlements were made on the banks of Kreutz creek in 1736. To counteract the encroachments of the Maryland colonists, it was the policy of the proprietary agents to invite and encourage settlements west of the Susquehanna. This called over Germans from the earlier settlements east of the river, who all settled down on Kreutz creek. In that whole valley, except a few at Wrightsville, immediately on the river, there was only one English family known. Thus my great-grand father was one of the very first settlers west of the Susquehanna; all the region west and north being at the time uninhabited wilderness.

The habits of these early German settlers were truly primitive, simple, sturdy and severe. "The early inhabitants of the Kreutz creek region were clothed, for some years, altogether in tow cloth, as wool was an article not to be obtained. Their dress was simple, consisting of a shirt, trowsers, and a frock. During the heat of summer, a shirt and trowsers of tow formed the only raiment of the inhabitants. In the fall the tow frock was superseded. When the cold of winter was before the door, and Boreas came rushing from the north, the dress was adapted to the season, by increasing the number of frocks, so that in the coldest part of the winter some of the sturdy settlers were wrapt in four, five, and even more frocks, which were bound closely about the loins, usually with a string of the same material as a garment.

But man ever progresses; and when sheep were introduced, a mixture of tow and wool was considered an article of luxury. But tow was shortly afterwards succeeded by cotton, and then linsey woolsey was a piece of the wildest extravagance. If these simple, plain and honest worthies could look down upon their descendants of the present day, they would wonder at the changes of men and things. These honest progenitors of our have passed away, and have left many of us, we fear, nothing but the names they bore, to mark us as their descendants.

But all the good did not die with them. If they would find cause of regret at our departure from their simplicity and frugality, they would find much to admire in the improved aspect of the country--the rapid march of improvement in the soil of their adoption. Where they left unoccupied land, they would find valuable plantations, and thriving villages, and temples dedicated to the worship of the God of Christians."* (*History of York County by Carter & Glossbrenner, pp. 24, 25, 26.)

These early settlers were of course subjected to many inconveniiences. There was neither shoemaker nor tanner in the whole of York county. Shoes were annually brought from Philadelphia to supply the settlers, and the mending was done by itinerant cobblers, carrying their little leather used in mending, with their tools, from one farm house to another. Tailors and blacksmiths were also itinerants. The same inconvenience also of course attended the introduction of schools. The first schoolmaster was known by no other name than that of "Dear Dicke Schulmeister"--the thick schoolmaster. The privileges of the church they could only enjoy by going to Lancaster, where a Reformed church was built as early as 1736, and a Lutheran church 1738, and where there was preaching at intervals even some years earlier. I have heard my father say, that he heard from his father the fact stated, that ministers from "the other side of the river," came over once or twice a year and baptized the children. The lot for the Kreutz creek church was taken up Oct. 27, 1746, and there was a church erected there soon after.

My great-grand father, YOST HARBAUGH,* was a Swiss, and came to this country, as near as I can ascertain, about the year 1736, or 1738

(* In my search through various documents, deeds, wills, church-books, State records, &c. I find the name very variously spelled thus: Herbogh, Heerbach, Herbach, Heerbaugh, Herbaugh, Harbaugh. The name was evidently originally written Heerbach. I deeds, written in English, I find it generally written Herbaugh and Harbaugh. Being so written in official papers, it silently and gradually grew into use; and its old form unfortunately faded from view until it was forgotten, or the later form had so wrought itself into the associations of the family, that it could not easily be changed back to its original form.. The "schoolmaster" attempted a restoration, as he thought, when we were a boy, instructing us to write Herbaugh. But this was no nearer correct than the spelling in vogue; and it did not succeed. Now the generations are so large and wide-spread that it would require a tremendous convention, before a return to the old spelling could be agreed upon. Then what a business it would be to set the documents all right. We give up all hope of a change, and await the appearance of some stern reformer with zeal and courage equal to the task.)

He was twice married, and his children were as follows:

FIRST WIFE.

1. George Harbaugh.

2. Ludwig Harbaugh.

3. Jacob Harbaugh.

4. John Harbaugh.

5. Henry Harbaugh.

6. Yost Harbaugh.

SECOND WIFE ,

Named "Mary Lizzy" in the Will

7. Leonard Harbaugh.

8. Mary Elizabeth Harbaugh.

9. Ann Margaret Harbaugh.

10. Ann Catharine Harbaugh.

Leonard Harbaugh, the oldest child of the second wife, was born in 1746; which fixes the date of his second marriage previous to 1746. The precise date of the death of his first wife, and his marriage to the second, I have not been able to ascertain.

Tradition says, that my great-grand father was a man of stout physical frame, energetic spirit, and great courage; just such a man as would enter upon new settlements, and brave the dangers, and endure the hardships of border life.

He was a member of the German Reformed Church. This is certain, from the fact that he came from Switzerland, where all are confirmed to the Church at fourteen years of age. I find also that a lot of ground was taken up on Kreutz creek for a church, only about a mile from the Homestead, as early as Oct. 27, 1746. I find also in the records of that church the baptism of children of his sons John and Yost, as early as 1759, which was before his death. This indicates that he raised his children to the faith, and order, and worship of the Reformed Church. This has also since been prevailingly the ecclesiastical connection of all the families which have sprung from this patriarch.

He is buried, as tradition says, in the grave-yard at the Kreutz creek church. There is, however, no stone to mark his grave. I found, on the western side of the grave-yard, a tombstone inscribed, which marks the grave of one of Yost's daughters, who married a Mr. Bahn, and died in 1790, aged twenty-nine years. This may be safely taken as designating the spot in the grave-yard where the family interments had previously been made. This stone stands also in a row of graves, marked with unpolished and uninscribed stones, in which row, no doubt, lie the bodies of these great-grand parents of the family. Long since has the sentence been fulfilled: "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Although no carved stone marks their resting places, yet they rest in peace; and we know that around that spot, almost a century ago, stood loving children, with wet eyes and mourning hearts, listening to the comforting words as they fell upon the air from the lips of the man of God: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence-forth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." There in that quiet rural cemetery, near Kreutz creed church, they sleep,

"Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,

Each in his narrow cell for ever laid.

The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,

The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,

The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing hour,

No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,

Or busy housewife ply her evening care:

Nor children run to lisp their sires return,

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield;

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;

How jocund did they drive their teams afield!

How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stoke!

Far from the madding crowds, ignoble strife,

Their sober wishes never learned to stray;

Along the cool, sequestered vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."

Of Yost Harbaugh's first wife, I have not been able to learn anything. She must have died about the year 1740.

Of the second wife, tradition does not speak favorably. I will follow the advice of the good motto: " De mortuis nihil nisi bene:" concerning the dead, speak only that which is good.

When cold in the earth lies the friend thou has loved,

Be his faults and his follies forgot by the then;

Or if from their slumbers the veil be removed,

Weep over them in silence and close it again.

We know that step-mothers have not always, perhaps not often, justice done them; and it may be that some things, at least, which tradition has preserved to her disparagement, are to be explained in the light of this fact.