Maria Elizabetha (Keifer) Brake (1730 - abt. 1765)

Born 6 Oct 1730 in Oberacker, Bezirk Dertingen, Herzogtum Württemberg, Heiliges Römisches Reich

Ancestors

Descendants

Died about 1765 at about age 34 in Hardy County, Virginia

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Biography

Maria Elizabeth Kiefer, daughter of Hans Jacob Kiefer and his wife Anna Maria Dellinger, was born 6 October 1730 in Oberacker.^[1]

When Maria Elizabeth was born the village of Oberacker was in the Dertingen District, Duchy of Württemberg, Holy Roman Empire [in German: Bezirk Dertingen, Herzogtum Württemberg, Heiliges Römisches Reich]. Oberacker now is part of the State of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Maria Elizabeth Kiefer was age two when she immigrated with her parents to Philadelphia, PA, from Germany in 1732 on the ship Samuel, Hugh Percy, Commander. She was too young to be listed on the passenger list. Kiefer family members on the passenger list include^[2]:
Frederick Keffer ae 49 [his occupation was cooper (barrel maker)]
Leonhard Keffer ae 27
Jacob Keffer ae 27
Maria Kefferin ae 46
Elizabeth ae 18
Maria ae 24.

The Keifer name was probably anglicized to Cooper when the family moved to Virginia from Pennsylvania around 1750.

Anthony Brake lived at Ulm, Germany, the same village from whence came the distinguished physicist Albert Einstein. Anthony Brake had a daughter named Regina, who married one Hans Gall Keiffer in 1657. Hans and Regina in turn had a son named Friderick who married Maria Scheuffelin. In 1732 they, with their two married sons Leonard and Jacob, came to America. Jacob and Leonard changed their names to Cooper and migrated from Pennsylvania into Frederick County, Virginia. Jacob Cooper had a daughter Elizabeth, who married Jacob Brake, and this couple became the ancestors of all of the Brakes in West Virginia today. So the ancestry of the Brakes of West Virginia can be traced back to the late 1500s on the maternal line.

1. JOHN JACOB3 BRAKE (JOHANN JAKOB (BRECHTEL)2, JACOB1 BRECHTEL)1 was born Abt. 1725 in Durlach Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany, and died Abt. 1808 in Moorefield, Hardy Co, W(VA). He married (1) MARIA ELIZABETHA (KIEFER) COOPER about 1750 in unknown, but probably Virginia, daughter of JOHANN KEIFER and ANNA DELLINGER. She was born 06 Oct 1730 in Oberacker, Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany, and died about 1765 in Hardy County, West Virginia. Jacob Brake married (2) CATHERINE STUMP Bef. 1779, daughter of HANS STUMPF and MARIA WHITECOTTON. She was born 22 Oct 1741 in Schlaitdorf, Germany, and died 31 Mar 1816 in Hardy County.^[3]

Catherine was killed during a Shawnee Indian attack. She was captured along with son Jacob, but being pregnant she was unable to keep up and was killed.

• [Note: the name "Catherine" in the above statement appears to be incorrect. David Armstrong (a Brake family researcher) states: "It seems to have been almost a decade from the time Jacob Brake's first wife and children were killed or captured by the Indians until the time that he married his second wife, Catherine Stump, or at least until the birth of their only known child, Michael Brake in 1779. It is known that he was married to Catherine by 1775. In 1771 Jacob Brake purchased from James Jones 200 acres on a fork of the South Branch called the Little Springs. He sold this property to John Wolf in 1775, and in that deed the name of his second wife Catherine appears."]^[4]

Northern Neck [of Virginia] Deed Book Series Vol 2, Deed Books 5, 6, 7, 8 for Frederick Co., Va, Book 8, pg. 335.
6 Sept. 1762. (Lease) Between Jacob Brake and Elizabeth his wife, John Nisewanger and Magdaline Nisewanger his wife, which said Elizabeth and Magdaline are Adm. of the goods and Chattle Rights and Credits of Jacob Cooper Deceased (to) Leonard Cooper of the Parish and County of Frederick yeoman. Consideration of five Shillings. Tract of Land Containing Two Hundred and Twenty Acres Situate lying and being on Pan Creek a Branch of Cedar Creek...and the same Granted to said Jacob Cooper in his lifetime by Survey made by Mr. R. Rutherford one of his Lordships Surveyors Rent. Wit: Lewis Stephens Jacob (JB) Brake Thomas Smith Elizabeth (X) Brake, Christopher Wetzel John Nisewanger, Magdaline (M) Nisewanger, Recorded 3 May 1763, Bk 8, pg. 337-7 Sept. 1762 (Release) Between Jacob Brake and Elizabeth Brake his wife, John Nisewanger and Magdalene his wife, all of the Parish and County of Frederick (to) Leonard Cooper of the said Parish and County for and in Consideration of Forty Pounds 220 Acres (same as above) Wit: same

Sources

1. ↑ Evangelical Lutheran Church of Oberacker in present-day Bruchsal District, State of Baden-Württemberg, Germany; Family History Library microfilm 1,272,382.
2. ↑ Ralph Beaver Strassburger and William John Hinke, Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A Publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia from 1727-1803, 3 vols. (Birdsboro, PA: Pennsylvania German Society, 1934; Picton Press 3 vol. reprint, 1992), I: 59-66.
3. ↑ Descendants of John Jacob Brake.
4. ↑ David Armstrong, "The Brake Family of West Virginia German Immigrants", speaking 7 August 1993 at the Brake reunion, Clarksburg, West Virginia.

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile UNKNOWN-77376 created through the import of mat.ged on Jun 17, 2011 by Jeanne Schmitz.