Wolf Christian Schwend (1754 - abt. 1823)

Born 3 Mar 1754 in Willershausen, Hesse-Kassel, Germany

Ancestors

Husband of Elisabetha Engel — married 18 Feb 1787 in Frederick County, Maryland

Descendants

Died about May 1823 at about age 69 in Franklin, Pennsylvania, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Lorraine Keith [send private message]

Biography

Christian was born 3 March 1754 and baptized on 5 March 1754 in Willershausen, Hesse-Kassel, Germany, as Wolf Christian Schwend.^[1]He was known as Christian Schwend, Swend, Swand or Swank. He died about May 1823 in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.

James I. Johnston (Johnston-18149), a great-grandson of Henry Luther Whitlock, summarized Christian's early adult life:

Christian arrived in New York in 1776 as a Hessian soldier. He was captured at the British surrender of Yorktown on October 19, 1781, and arrived at Frederick, MD January 31, 1782 as POW. He deserted in May 1783, either just prior to, or on, the march to New York when they were on their way to return to Germany. October 26, 1783 is the first time he shows up in the records of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Frederick City, Frederick Co., Maryland, Vol 1.

Harry E. Foreman, in his book, History of the Little Cove, published in 1967, provided the following information.

SWEND (SWANK) on pp. 174-77

The Swend name appeared in the Little Cove about 1781. The earliest recorded date discovered by the writer was 1783 when Christian Swend served in the Ayr Township, Bedford County Militia. His name is found on the 1791 tax list and he possibly owned three tracts of land by 1800, one of which was recorded in 1796.

The writer found three Swend brothers in the Little Cove Casper (Gasper ) , Henry, and the above mentioned Christian (Christly). All owned land shortly before 1800 while some were possibly charter members of the Stone Church. The early Swends were definitely buried at the Stone Church. The names of Casper and Kathleen are on the 1806 list of communicants.

The writer uncovered tradition which indicated that the Swends and some other neighbors were Hessian Soldiers and that Christian Swend, possibly Henry and Casper were captured by George Washington on Christmas Eve 1776 at the Battle of Trenton. This claim came from early Swank descendants and the same tradition is quoted by Helen A. Murphy, Swank Historian, in the recently (1967) published Christian Swank Family Record Vol. 1.

Casper Swend owned lands near the Tuscarora Mountain. His will of May 29, 1824 which is found in Will Book C page 713 contains some interesting reading concerning the new church of Rev. M. C. Study; also he left money (as did Henry) to any of his brothers or their heirs who should come to America within five years. Some descendants claim that a Nicholas Swank came to America but no trace of him is found in the Little Cove.

A Casper Swend place was the present Etta Zimmerman dairy farm well down the Cove. When Barbara Reader Swend signed a release to this farm in 1838 it states that Michael Smiers was the original Patentee of this 143 acre tract in 1784. Martin Seavolt was married to Martha Swend, daughter of Casper Swend and the Seavolt place was taken off the Swend tract.

Since Casper Swend left no issue, this Casper Swend may have been the son of Christian Swend. The writer did not find concrete evidence of this fact, but meager findings indicate that this was one of the Christian Swend farms.

The name of Casper Swend's wife was Kathleen and their names are on the Stone Church List in 1806.

Henry and Christiana Swend owned several tracts of land along the Tuscarora. One tract of seventy acres adjoined Peter Cook, Michael Cook, and Peter Troxel in 1799. He sold one hundred acres to Peter Weller as early as 1798, this is the present J ohn H. Secrist place.

The Henry Swend will of April 1, 1825 is found in Will Book C page 740. He likewise left no children but made provisions to aid any relatives to come to America as Casper had done.

Christian Swend preceded his brother Casper in death by one year and his brother Henry by two years. He died in 1823. Christian and Elizabeth Ingle Swend left six children and Christian and Martha Sailor Swend left five children.

The "Old Place" of Christian Swend is the present upper Lewis Pine place. Swend purchased it from William John in 1796. The Swend heirs sold to David Divilbiss in 1823 and the Divilbiss heirs sold it to Henry Lenher in 1865.

Will Book C, page 649 mentions the following Christian Swend children: Barbara, Catharine, Henry, Christian, Gabriel, Eve, Elizabeth, Gasper, Susan, Mary Ann, and Jacob (11).

Another Christian Swend place of 173 acres lay along the Tuscarora in the neighborhood of the Stone Church. Some of the Swend land was later owned by David Divilbiss and later William Pine, Ed. Pine and the Reed McDonald land. Some of the Swend land is now Lewis Pine land.

The majority of the Christian Swend children removed to Ohio although a number were married in the Little Cove and owned land in the Little Cove.

James Irvin Johnston's Research

Jim Johnston wrote to Lorraine Keith during the 1990's (date unknown): This last summer I spent 16 days in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario (Stormont Co.), and Vermont researching Schwend/Swank (MD & PA), Day (NY & VT), and Johnston (ON). In PA I located that stone house that Christian Schwend had built about 1790 in Little Cove, Franklin Co., PA, and also the two stone houses his brothers Casper and Henry had built.

I also went to a Swank family reunion, held at the Little Cove area, and attended a private church ceremony at the old stone church where the three Schwend brothers are buried. Come to think about it, I'm not sure that I have told you the information I found in the Willershausen, Germany Lutheran Church Records about the Schwends. I have gone back three generations beyond Christian. Let me know what you know about Christian, and I will tell you the rest (if I haven't already).

Also, in LDS church records (microfilm) for Frederick, Frederick Co., Maryland has the three Schwend brothers taking Communion October 26, 1783 about the time they deserted from the ErbPrinz Regiment from Hesse-Cassel. The records also show the birth of our ggggrandmother "Anna Barbara" Schwend on April 15, 1786 and christened on July 23, 1786.

These church records also show the "Marriage by Proclamation" of Christian Schwend to Elizabeth Engle on February 18, 1787. The birth and christening of Barbara does show Elizabeth Engle as the mother. There are also several references to Christian's brother, Casper Schwend, as a witness to a marriage and a christening.

There is an excellent book by Harry Forman, about the history of Little Cove, Franklin Co., Pennsylvania. It mentions the Schwend brothers, Christian, Casper, and Henry, several times. He also mentions the Court Document from "Barbara" in the settlement of the estate. While at the courthouse in Chambersburg, I tried to locate this document. They claimed they could find no record of it - even when I showed them the reference to it in Forman's book. (I lucked out and found a copy in a used book store. I got it for $100.00, which I considered a bargain, as it was in excellent condition, was signed by the author, and a member of the Swank Reunion I attend the week before said he had paid $150.00 for a fair conditioned one after hunting for more than a year.

The Film is only for the church records of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Frederick, Maryland (film 0013932, name index; film 00139131, church records). The Schwend records start in October 1783, and are scattered a few here and there until about 1788, when I imagine the Schwends moved out of the area and into PA. There are some earlier records of the maternal side of Barbara (i.e. Elizabeth Engle), but I don't have them all sorted out for sure.

The information from Willershausen, Germany is from a young (college student) man that does genealogical research for a reasonable fee, to help with his college expenses. I got his name on the AMREV-HESSIAN List, of which I have belonged since it first started. I've really gotten into this "Hessian" thing since I discovered for sure that Wolf Christian Schwend (his real name!) was really truely a Hessian Soldier. I've read quite a few journals, diaries, and books, some that have fairly recently been translated to English that were written by German mercenaries during or shortly after the Revolutionary War. I have about 90 pages to go on a book written by an Anspach private as a diary - from 1777 to 1784. He was captured at Yorktown (as was our Schwends, though they were in a different Regiment [ErbPrinz]). It is now about three months later, and they have marched through Virginia, staying about a month in miserable winter conditions not to far from Winchester, and have now just reached the Barracks at Frederick, Maryland. This is also where our Schwend brothers ended up. I'm hoping to get a better understanding of what our gggg grandfather went through while he was a POW there, as I finish the book tonight. I guess I digressed.

This guy in Germany, Stephan (can't think of his last name right now, but I have it in the documents he sent me) went to the original Lutheran church records in Willershausen (there are several Willershausens, but this one is fairly close to Hellershausen), which is a fairly small village. I first asked him to go back and see if he could find the four Schwend brothers. I gave him their Hessian names and approximate year of birth that I had gotten from the HETRINA - "Hessische Truppen im Amerikanischen Unabhaengigkeitskrieg" Six Volumes covering Hessen-Kassel, Hessen-Hanau, and Waldeck. Does not cover Braunschweig/Brunswick, Ansbach-Bayreuth or Anhalt-Zerbst.

This was all done by email. Within a day or two he had gotten back to me, telling me he had found them, their mother and father, a bunch of brothers and sisters, and asked me what else I wanted him to do. I only owed him $30.00 at this time, so I told him to go back as far as he could, and get me everything he could find on the Schwends. The church records only had Schwends back three more generations, to Cornelius Schwende (sometime it is spelled with a "e" on the end) who was born about 1640 and died March 03, 1731/32. The death is in the church records, as well as his marriage and all the kids births, but not his birth. Stephan surmises that he moved to Willershausen before he married, but that his parents weren't with him.

I asked him to try to located the brother, Gabriel, that returned to Hesse-Cassel, but he couldn't find him in the Lutheran Church for marriage, children, or death. I may someday ask him to do more, but I can't really think what. Maybe you will give me some ideas.

James I. Johnston, the grandson of Nellie Whitlock, also wrote the following to Lorraine Keith:

HETRINA Vol. III is the one you are interested in, it lists the SCHWEND names, and I'll just copy the entries for you (numbers are consecutive numbers in book):

13823 Schwend Christian 1750/51 Willershausen D3441, GE ERB1 11 5.1783
13824 Schwend Christian 1750/51 Willershausen D3441, GE ERB1 12 5.1783
13825 Schwend Gabriel 1760/61 Willershausen D3441, GE ERB3 01 0.1785
13826 Schwend Henrich 0/0 Willershausen D3441, KH ERB1 11 5.1783
13827 Schwend Henrich 0/0 Willershausen D3441, KH ERB1 12 5.1783
13828 Schwend Kaspar 1752/53 Willershausen D3441 GE ERB1 11 5.1783
13829 Schwend Kaspar 1752/53 Willershausen D3441 GE ERB1 12 5.1783
----------------------------------------------------------------------

GE (Grenadier) Private, 01 on Muster Roll, 11 prisoner, 12 deserted.
KH = Laborer (Knecht) (wagonhand, Packhand, Tenthand)
Willershausen D3441 = now 37293 Herleshausen, near Eschwege/Hessen."

Here is a little on the ERBPRINZ Regiment that I copied from someone's web page:

ERBPRINZ-HESSEN-KASSEL "This unit wore dark blue uniforms with rose facings and white small clothes. It was a regiment of fusiliers until late in the war. It was formed in 1680 and arrived in America on Aug. 12th 1776. It fought at Long Island, Brooklyn, White Plains, and was stationed in New York from 1777-1781. It participated in the southern campaigns of General Arnold and General Cornwallis and was captured at Yorktown, Virginia in October 1781. The POW's were kept at Frederick, MD from 1781-1783, and at the POW camp were under the command of a Hessian Major Friedrich Heinrich Scheer.

If one is looking for a Hesse-Kassel soldier of the Regiment ERBPRINZ, 3. Comp. he was probably taken prisoner at Yorktown, Virginia in Oct 1781, kept a POW at Frederick, Maryland, and on the march to New York in May 1783 deserted from the troops. He was not a defector or deserter as we think of today. He stuck with his comrades up to the time the return of the Regiment to Germany was planned. That was the time for him to make a decision."

^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Stephen Westfall, Damaschkeweg 6, 35039 Marburg, Germany, a college student who was hired in 1999 by James I. Johnston to research the Schwend family of Willershausen, Hesse-Cassel, Germany. The research was limited to the Willerhausen Lutheran Church records.
2. ↑ Franklin County, Pennsylvania, Will Book C, p. 649, FHL microfilm 323865.