Jacob Funk (1695 - 1746)

Born 1695 in Bonfeld, Kurpfalz (Palatinate), Holy Roman Empire

Ancestors

Husband of Veronica (Unknown) Funk — married 1718 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died 1746 at about age 51 in Frederick County, Colony of Virginia

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Biography

Jacob Funk was a grown man when his family came to America in 1717 and by the following year he had acquired 301 acres on the Conestoga Creek in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.^[1] He purchased the land from Rudolph Bundeli and Martin Kendig in 1718 but the deed was not recorded for many years. Jacob probably married about the time he acquired his land and he appears on the tax lists for the region from 1718 onwards. (Gary Hawbecker and Clyde Groff, ^[2] Jacob Funk also signed a petition by Lancaster County landowners requesting naturalization in October 1729.^[3] A court of appeals for the Board of Property met at "Jacob Funk's on the Conestoga" in January 1730 to consider local cases.^[4] Jacob Funk and his wife, Veronica, sold their land on the Conestoga to John Snavely 15 May 1735 and moved to Virginia that summer.

Jacob Funk was the first of the Funk family to move to the frontier in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and was indeed a part of the first wave of Germans who began moving to Virginia only three years earlier. In Virginia Jacob Funk was instrumental in opening new roads, getting a new county established west of the Blue Ridge Mountains (Frederick County, established 1739, organized, 1743) and providing a place for travelers and newcomers to get their bearings. His home was an "Ordinary" and appears to have been a gathering place where local people and newcomers could transact business. His status was second only to Jost Hite, who had led the first group to the Valley in 1732.

Jacob Funk wrote a will 28 June 1746 in which he named his wife, Franey, his sons Jacob, Henry and John, daughters, Franey, Elizabeth, Mary and Barbara. He mentioned that his youngest children were still under age (apparently John and Barbara). His sons, Jacob and Henry had already received land and his youngest son, John, was to receive the land where the mill stood. In spite of the fact that his wife, Franey, had gone to court with complaints of abuse, and he was ordered to provide for her support, he also willed her additional money, livestock, a portion of the harvests and a barrel of liquor annually. His son, Jacob and "kinsman," John Funk Jr. were appointed executors of his will, which was probated 3 Dec. 1746.^[5]

Note: No specific birthdate for Jacob has been documented. An indication of the ages of his children and who the daughters married can be found in an order of January 3, 1758 to have the land appraised. The youngest son, John, had just come of age and wanted his land. His sisters were identified as; Franey Stover, Elizabeth Beam, Mary Strickler and Barbara Funk. See PDF Image.^[6]

Sources

• Buying and selling land in Pennsylvania: Lancaster County Deed Book "CC,", p. 176, and "Z," p. 119.
• Buying land in Virginia: Orange County Deed Book, "1", p. 62-67: 2030 acres on the North Fork of the Shenandoah from Henry Willis.
• The narrative biography above, is an extract from the Funk Chapter in: Daniel W. Bly, From the Rhine to the Shenandoah, Baltimore, MD (1992), Volume I, pp. 58-59. Many of his sources are cited in the text.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Lancaster County Deed Book "CC" p. 176.
2. ↑ Index to 1718-1726 Tax Records of Chester County Relating to the Areas Later Part of Lancaster County, (1988).
3. ↑ I. D. Rupp, History of Lancaster County, p. 121.
4. ↑ Ellis and Evans, History of Lancaster County, p. 26.
5. ↑ Will of Jacob Funk, Frederick County Will Book 1, p. 93.
6. ↑ Frederick County Order Book "7," p. 347.

Note: Other works that contain significant references to Jacob Funk include: Richard Warren Davis, Emigrants, Refugees and Prisoners, Volume II, Provo, UT (1997), Funk Chapter, pp 147-57. Davis has a version of Funk's Swiss ancestor different from the one presented by Bly. Cecil O'Dell, Pioneers of Old Frederick County Virginia, Marceline, MO (1995), pp. 370-380. He focuses on land transactions. Klaus Wust, Saint Adventurers of the Virginia Frontier, Edinburg, VA (1977). Wust's work deals with the Sabbatarian outposts of Ephrata in Virginia. A number of the Funks were closely associated with it. Ezekiel Sangmeister, Leben und Wandel, Ephrata, Volumes I )1826), Volume II, (1827) English translation in the Journal of The Historical Society of the Cocalico Valley, Volumes 1-X (1980-1985). Volume VII (1982) contains Sangmeister's account of the death of Franey Funk and his disappointments and frustrations with Jacob and Henry, the sons of old Jacob.