John Schell Jr. (1754 - 1825)

Born 30 Nov 1754 in Philadelphia County, PA

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 30 Mar 1825 at age 70 in Bedford County, PA

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Biography

John, Jr. apparently inherited his father's estate in Montgomery County, PA after John, Sr. died suddenly without a will. He left Goshenhoppen with his family and mother after the 1800 census and founded the town of Schellsburg in Bedford County, PA.

Unknown is the reason for his 'forced' departure from Goshenhoppen mentioned by William P. Schell(below). There is a record of his mother Veronica Maurer Schell being listed as a non-associator during the Revolutionary period. Also, his departure was about the time of the Whiskey Rebellion against what was thought of then as unfair taxation. Perhaps John spoke out strongly against government overreach, and sought the frontier for more liberty. The next source below indicates he intended to go as far as the Ohio frontier(Northwest Territory), but retreated to southwestern PA instead.

An account at USGenweb claims the following:

At an early age, John Schell, Jr. became possessed of considerable means after his patriotic service in the U.S. Revolutionary War and his father's death in 1777. For many years he traveled extensively on business through Bedford County, western Pennsylvania and Kentucky, which was admitted as a state in 1792. He was impressed by the climate and fertile soil in Kentucky, decided to remove there and select land to establish his own community for his family and friends. In the spring of 1800, John Schell and his family, consisting of his wife, eight young children and his widowed mother, left their home in Montgomery County and traveled west. When they arrived at the Ohio River, he realized that it would be unsafe for his family to traverse the river by boat due to the Indians. He returned through Napier Township in Bedford County and decided instead to settle in what is the present location of Schellsburg.

Two of his descendants wrote early popular genealogies of his line: William P. Schell in 1898--'The Ancestry of Ellen Schell Garber', and Rev. Michael Minnich in 1901 for the Pennsylvania-German.

From William Schell's account, 1898:

John Schell (II) was the son of John Schell (I), and his wife Veronica Maurer. He was born in Philadelphia County on the 30th of November, 1754, within one mile of the residence of his wife, Elizabeth Hillegass, who was born 17th of Oct., 1763. She was a daughter of George Peter Hillegass, and a granddaughter of John Frederick Hillegass. In the year 1798 or 1799, John Schell (II) removed from Montgomery County (which was erected in 1784) to the banks of Shawanese Cabin Creek, in Bedford County, Penn. He purchased some 1,500 acres of land, at a cost of about ten thousand pounds. In 1807 he gave the Lutheran and Calvinist congregations some six acres of ground for church and school purposes. In 1808 he laid out the village of Schellsburg. In 1814 he gave two lots in the town for church and school purposes. He also gave the citizens of the town the right to use a spring at the west end of the town. Prior to his death he conveyed to each of his sons a farm, and gave his daughters an equivalent in money and lands. He died on the 30th of March, 1825, aged 71 years. His wife died the 10th of July. 1842, aged 78 years. They both died in and were buried at Schellsburg. His will was dated 21st of July, 1822, and was probated the 5th of April, 1825. Letters testamentary were issued to his sons, Peter, Abraham and Joseph Schell, the same day. (Will book 2, p. 160).

Also from William Schell:

I am indebted to John P. Reed Esq, grandson of the founder of Schellsburg, for the following sketch: "Schellsburg, 'the loveliest village of the plain,' is situated on the eastern slope of Chestnut Ridge, one of the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, nine miles west of Bedford, on the turnpike leading to Pittsburgh. It was laid out by John Schell, a native of Goshenhoppen, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1810, who was forced to leave his early home on account of the 'alien and sedition law,' and his 'liberty pole' proclivities. He came to Bedford County about the year 1800, and stopped at 'Nine Mile Town,' west of Bedford, and bought the tract of land patented as 'Nine Mile Town,' and an adjoining tract patented in the name of 'Pekin,' about five hundred acres, from Samuel Davidson and John Anderson, of Bedford, in 1801, and on these lands, on the road leading from Bedford to Fort Pitt, he laid out the village of Schellsburg. It grew apace, and the Legislature, by act of 19th of March, 1838, made it a borough. It is a beautiful and substantial village of about five hundred inhabitants, situated near the foot of a picturesque ridge, surrounded by beautiful meadows and fields, forming quite an extended plain, with a fine view of the distant Buffalo Ridge and the Wills Mountains. John Schell donated several lots for church and educational purposes, and some ten acres of level land, on the summit of the ridge, for a church and cemetery. Here was built, mainly through his efforts, the first church (a union church of the German Reformed and Lutheran denominations) in that part of the county, which remains today a relic of the labors of the pioneers of this section, and is used now only as a mortuary chapel of the beautiful burial-ground that surrounds it. In the village, the Reformed, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian people are represented by churches, and a creditable brick school-house supplies the wants of the villagers in that regard. A town hall is now also in process of erection. At an early day the town was the centre of business for thirty miles in a westerly and northerly direction; now the business is more diffused."

From Howard Blackburn's History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, PA, 1906:

John Schell, eldest son of John (2) and Veronica Schell, born on the old homestead, near East Greenville, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1754, died March 30, 1825. He married Elizabeth Hillegass, originally Hill de Gaze, born (October 17, 1763. She was the daughter of George Peter Hillegass and granddaughter of John Frederick Hillegass, and first cousin of Michael Hillegass, the first to hold the office of United States treasurer. Like his father before him, John Schell was a merchant. Both he and his wife had a handsome property. They were devout members of the Reformed church. As had been the case with his forefathers, he, too, was possessed with the desire to become a large land owner and in the latter years of the eighteenth century — 1798 or 1799 — he purchased fifteen hundred acres of land at a cost of ten thousand pounds sterling. The land was located in that portion of Bedford now known as Shaw, near Cabin Creek settlement. Here, in 1808, he laid out the town of Schellsburg. In 1807 he gave the Lutheran and Reformed congregations six acres for church and school purposes, and later each a town lot. He was a prime mover in the building of the Bedford and Stoystown pike. His daughter's husband, Michael Reed, was chief engineer. The children of John and Elizabeth (Hillegass) Schell were: John, Peter, Abraham, Jacob, George, Michael, Elizabeth, Henry, Joseph, Catharine, Maria and Eve.

Sources

• NG Ref. Church records, edited by William Hinke, 1920.
• 1800 Upper Hanover/Montgomery/PA
• 1810 Bedford/Bedford/PA
• 1820 Napier/Bedford/PA
• Bedford County Archives, Vol. 1-4, edited by James Whisker, 1986.
• The Ancestry of Ellen Schell Garber, William P. Schell, 1901
• 'The Schell Family', by Rev. Michael Reed Minnich, The Pennsylvania German, Vol. 11, July, 1901, No. 3.
• History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania; Bedford County by E. Howard Blackburn; Somerset County by William H. Welfley; v. 3, Pub. The Lewis Publishing Company, New York/Chicago 1906, pp. 34-38.
• http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
• findagrave.com: Schellsburg Cemetery, Bedford, PA
• Find A Grave: Memorial #12784643