Hans Funk (abt. 1690 - abt. 1759)

Born about 1690 in Bonfield, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Ancestors

Descendants

Died about 6 Feb 1759 at about age 69 in North Fork Shenandoah, Frederick, Virginia

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Biography

Hans (John) Funk, second son of Heinrich (Henry), was probably born at Bonfeld in the Kraichgau region of Germany about 1690, left Bonfeld in 1709 and went to Pennsylvania with the first group of Mennonites, including Hans Herr and Martin Kendig, who settled in the Conestoga-Pequea Creek Valley of what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.^[1][2]

Emigration : 23 September 1710, aboard the Mary Hope in the first wave of Palatine Mennonites to arrive in Pennsylvania.

Hans married about 1712 in Pequea Creek area, Chester County, Pennsylvania and in 1715 he received patent for 250 acres of land in the area that became Strasburg Township.^[3] John was joined by his father, and the rest of the family in 1717 and together they jointly applied for a warrant to survey 550 acres north of Conestoga Creek. 200 acres of this tract was patented to John Funk, November 30, 1717.^[4]

About the time his father arrived in 1717, John Funk sold his portion of the original 1710 tract to Benedict Brechbill and probably lived on the 250 acre tract he acquired in 1715. John (Hans) Funk appears on the 1729 list for this part of Lancaster County in 1729 and is on the list of land owners requesting naturalization that year.^[5] John Funk was authorized to keep a tavern in Lancaster County, August, 1729^[6]

In the 1730s John Funk apparently got the urge to move on to new frontiers, this time to Virginia. Jacob Stover, a land speculator who wanted to entice settlers to Virginia, applied to the Virginia government for a patent to a large tract of land in the Shenandoah Valley in December 1733 and listed the names of 100 people ready to settle there. Among those listed were John and Barbel Funk, who may have been acquainted with Funk^[7] John definitely intended to move to Virginia and in February, 1735, sold the 200 acres he acquired in 1717 to his brother-in-law, Michael Meyers^[8] Two years later, February 1737, "John Funk of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania," purchased 180 acres on the North Fork of the Shenandoah from Jacob Funk (his brother), who was already living there.^[9] John and Barbara were still in Pennsylvania in August 1737, when they sold the 250 acres he had acquired in 1715 and left for Virginia soon afterwards. When he sold a remaining tract in Pennsylvania in September 1739, his residence was listed as Orange County, Virginia. ^[10]

John Funk purchased 180 acres on the North Fork of the Shenandoah at the mouth of a run and a place called "Stony Lick" in February, 1737 and this is where he established his residence in Virginia. The site is at the mouth of Tumbling Run, about a mile and half southwest of Strasburg in present-day Shenandoah County, Virginia, but at that time was still in Orange County. For many years Tumbling Run was known as "Funk's Mill Run," because John Funk established a mill there as soon after he arrived in Virginia. This site was ideal for a mill. It is located on what was called the "Great Wagon Road" and later the "Valley Pike," originally and old Indian trail that became the primary thoroughfare up and down the Valley. Here the stream drops over several falls before it enters the river, providing excellent water power for a mill. An Orange County road petition dated February 3, 1742 ("old style", ie. 1743) refers to the need for a better road from John Funk's mill to Benjamin Allen's mill and was signed by a number of recent settlers on the North Fork, including John Funk, John Funk Jr. Henry Funk, Jacob Hackman and George Huddle. ^[11] John Funk and several of his older sons were among the signers of a 1739 petition to the colonial government of Virginia to form a separate county from the lands west of the Blue Ridge Mountains because it was too far and inconvenient to travel to the Orange County Court to conduct business. ^[12] Frederick County was finally created in 1743, with the county seat at Winchester, about 20 miles north of the North Fork community. In the meantime John Funk purchased 320 acres of land from Thomas Russell in 1738 and another 500 from Thomas Chester in 1740. In 1744 he parceled out this land to his older sons: John Jr. Adam, Matthias, Jacob, Henry and Martin.^[13] His wife, Barbara, may have been deceased by this time because she is no longer named on the deeds of sale. In 1749 John Funk obtained patents to land for his younger children, including daughters. He requested a survey and patent for 150 acres on the North Fork to be made out to his daughter "Barbara Hoodle. 220 acres to Ann Funk and 220 to Joseph Funk, "son of John." ^[14] Two Moravian missionaries, Johannes Brandmüller and Leonard Schnell, traveled to Virginia in the autumn of 1749 and recorded a stay with "Old Mr. Funk" and his four sons, one of whom is a Captain." They also noted that the people in the house were "very kind to us."^[15] One of the last references to John Funk Sr. is a deed dated April, 1754 in which he had to reconfirm the sale of his land in Lancaster County, to John Breckbill, grandson of Benedict, to whom Funk originally sold the land in 1717.^[16] Having obtained land for his children and attended to other business John disappears from the public record, but probably lived several more years, most likely with his oldest son, John Jr ("Captain" John), at the mill site. On February 6, 1759, John Funk Jr. "Heir at law," posted letters of administration in Frederick County Court on the estate of "John Funk Sr, deceased." At the same time George Dellinger, John Dellinger, George Bowman and Leonard Balthis were appointed to appraise the estate. ^[17]

Hans John was buried in Mount Zion United Methodist Church Cemetery, Strasburg, Shenandoah County, Virginia. ^[18]

Research Notes

• Indenture dated 18 Jun 1747, John Funck to James Hamilton :

Indenture dated June 18, 1747. btw John Funck, eldest son of Henry Funck of the borough (now city) of Lancaster, of the 1st part and James Hamilton of Pennsylvania, of the other part, for 120 acres, in Strasburg Twp., Lancaster co., Pennsylvania. This deed recites as follows : whereas in and by a certain patent, bearing date the 30th day of Nov. AD 1717, under the hands of Richard Hill, Isaac Norris & James Logan, the then Commissioners of Property, the great seal of the province there was granted unto Henry Funck (since dec'd), in fee, a certain tract of land situated in the Twp of Strasburg, then in the Co. of Chester (but through the dividing of and erecting Lancaster Co., the Twp is now in that Co.), containing 350 acres & the allowance & whereas the said Henry Funck died, since intestate seized of 200 acres, part of the said 350 acres of land having, before his death, by a certain writing or instrument in the German language, for a valuable consideration, transferred or intended to transfer, the said 200 acres to son, Henry Funck, & the said Henry Funck, father, having left other issue besides his eldest son, Henry, viz. John, Martin, Jacob and Samuel, Barbara, wife of Michael Meyer, and Mary, the wife of Jacob Nutt; Frena, the wife of Joseph Musser; it finally come to John Funck, the above named grantor.

• Downey-1809: Several Hans Funk found in Ancestry International but no clear matches.
• Bly-242: There is no evidence that the "Hans" (no last name), who married a Barbara Schoepfler in 1705 is Hans Funk, who emigrated from Bonfeld in 1709. She has been removed as his wife.

Sources

1. ↑ Swiss and German Settlers in Lancaster County
2. ↑ William H. Egle, "Minutes of the Property Board of the Province of Pennsylvania," in Early Pennsylvania Land Records (Genealogical Publishing Co.), Baltimore (1976), p. 624.
3. ↑ Pennsylvania Archives, Series II, Volume XIV,p. 600
4. ↑ Pennsylvania Patent Book "A," Volume 6, pp. 155-64.
5. ↑ Isaac D. Rupp, History of Lancaster County, p. 121.
6. ↑ Ellis and Evans, History of Lancaster County, p. 394.
7. ↑ Lyman Chalkley, Chronicles of the Scots-Irish in Virginia, Volume I, p. 523. Fourteen other Funks were listed, namely: Rudy, Christian, John, Matthew, Joseph, Isaac, Peter, David, William, Anna Christiana, Franey and Dorothy. John and Barbara had several children with names listed by Stover, but most of these as well as many others were fictitious in order to fill a list of 100.
8. ↑ Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Deed Book "B," p. 354.
9. ↑ Orange County, Virginia Deed Book "2," pp. 13-18.
10. ↑ Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Deed Books "LL," pp. 344-5 and "A," p. 50.
11. ↑ Peggy S. Joyner, Abstracts of Virginia's 'Northern Neck Warrants and Surveys, Volume I, Orange and Augusta County, 1730-1754. Portsmouth, VA (1985), p. 57.
12. ↑ John W. Wayland, The German Element of the Shenandoah Valley, Dayton, VA (1907), p. 58.
13. ↑ Frederick County, Virginia Deed Book "1," pp. 179-191.
14. ↑ Peggy S. Joyner, Abstracts of Virginia's Northern Neck Warrants and Surveys, Volume II, Frederick County, 1747-1780, Portsmouth, VA (1985), pp. 59-60.
15. ↑ John W. Wayland, History of Shenandoah County, Virginia, Strasburg, VA, (1929), p. 92.
16. ↑ Pennsylvania Patent Book "AA," Volume 4, p.177 and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Deed Book "D," p. 9.
17. ↑ Frederick County, Virginia Order Book "8," p. 189.
18. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194607234/hans-john-funk: accessed 17 October 2023), memorial page for Hans John Funk (1690–1759), Find A Grave: Memorial #194607234, citing Mount Zion United Methodist Church Cemetery, Strasburg, Shenandoah County, Virginia, USA; Maintained by Gathering Roots (contributor 47213048).

See also:

• FamilySearch Person: LN8D-6Q9
• Annette K. Burgert, Eighteenth Century Emigrants, Volume I, "The Northern Kraichgau," Lancaster (1983), pp. 118-9.
• Martin Brackbill, "Origins of the Pequea Settlers-1710," Mennonite Quarterly Review, January, 19711, pp. 86-89.
• John W. Wayland, The German Element of the Shenandoah Valley, Dayton, VA (1907), and History of Shenandoah County, Virginia, Strasburg, VA (1929).
• Funk Chapter in Daniel W. Bly, From the Rhine to the Shenandoah, Baltimore, (1992), pp. 55-57.
• Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Deed Books.
• Frederick County, Virginia Deed Books and Order Books.
• Will of Henry Funck recorded in Lancaster Co. dated 1736.
• http://www.frenchfamilyassoc.com/FFA/SurnamesGerman/Funk.htm