Jacob Stalnaker Sr (abt. 1708 - 1792)

Born about 1708 in Colony of Virginia [uncertain]

Husband of Maria Elizabeth (Truby) Stalnaker — married about 1735 (to about 1792) in Virginia, British Colonial America

Descendants

Died Aug 1792 at about age 84 in Beverly, Randolph, Virginia, United States

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Biography

Jacob Stalnaker, Sr was born about 1708 in South Carolina. He is the son of Captain Samuel Stalnaker born in Westphalia, Germany and died in 1769/1777; and Sarah Susannah Williams who died on June 18, 1755 in Augusta County, Virginia (killed by indians).

Jacob married Marie Elizabeth Truby about 1751. She was born in Holsten, Augusta County, Virginia about 1720 and she is the daughter of John Truby and Esther Westfall. She died in 1816 in Beverly, Randolph County, Virginia, USA.

Jacob, Sr (another son of Samuel), came to Tygarts Valley with his sons in 1772. They preempted land in the pioneer way of "tomahawk right." Later these lands were surveyed and grants were signed by Benjamin Harrison, Governor of Virginia.

Later, Jacob built his home on the hill in Beverly, later owned by his great grandson, Daniel Baker, and still known as the Baker home. The house was built of logs taken from the old Westfall fort on the river-bank, but the building has been destroyed and not even a picture remains.

Jacob died in 1792 in Beverly, Randolph County, Virginia and is buried in Stalnaker Cemetery, Scotts Lake, Beverly, Randolph County, Virginia.

In Book L, Richmond Virginia Land Records, we find the following grants to Stalnaker's father and son.

October 23, 1870, record grand was to Jacob Stalnaker, Jr, on east side of Tygarts Valley River, adjoining lands of Jacob, Sr, and Joe Westfall. (Page 272)

In Will Book 1, Page 8, Randolph County Court:

The will of Jacob Stalnaker, Sr, dated April 25, 1791, proven August, 1792, names wife, Elizabeth and son, Andrew and Executor, Mathew, Whitman. Test: John Wilson, John Elliott, Edward Jackson, Abraham Claypoof.

The name Stalnaker is derived from the German word "Stahal" and "Stald" for steel, and "Negel" meaning sharp point or spear. The origin was "Stahlnegel" meaning sharp pointed steel spear. So the word was first applied to a warrior who was armed with such a weapon.

Name

Name: Jacob/Stalnaker/^[1][2]

Birth

Date: 1701

Place: Virginia^[3]

Death

Date: 1792

Place: Beverly, Randolph County, Virginia, USA^[4]

Captain Samuel Stalnaker and Sarah (Susannah) Williams had the following children:

1. Jacob Stalnaker Sr, born about 1708; married Marie Elizabeth Truby, born about 1720
2. Adam Stalnaker, born in Virginia and died June 18, 1755 in Virginia (killed by indians)
3. Nancy Stalnaker, born about 1717; married James Booth born 1705 in Wales
4. George Stalnaker

Captain Samuel Stalnaker was an explorer, trapper, and guide, and the first white man to discover Cumberland Gap, and who hunted and explored in Kentucky many years before Daniel Boone ever entered it. He was a Captain in the French and Indian Wars, and was a mediator between the Indians and the early Virginia government. He commanded a stockade fort at Draper's Meadows.

Notes

Note: That Samuel Stalnaker was in Augusta County, Virginia before 1748 is proven by the Journal of Dr. Walker, who states that in April, 1748, he met Samuel Stalnaker on his way to the Cherokees. ^[5]On March 23, 1750, Dr. Walker again met Stalnaker, who had just come to the place to settle on Middle Fork of Holston River, the last western settlement in Virginia. Here his house was built and here, no doubt, the Cherokees wished to meet the Commissioners of Virginia.

On the map of 1751, this settlement is located on the Middlefork of Holston River, a few miles above its junction with the south fork, which is now Washington County, formerly a part of Fincastle, and the first county in Virginia named for George Washington. When Samuel Stalnaker was born; where he was born; when and where he was married, is unknown. The next record we have is in Summers History of southern West Virginia, Page 58, in which is given a register of persons killed or taken prisoners by the Indians in 1754, 1755, and 1756, on the New and Holston Rivers and Reedy Creek. This register states that Samuel Stalnaker on Holston River was taken prisoner, and escaped, but that his wife, Mrs. Stalnaker and his son, Adam, were killed. The official report of this is found in Dinwiddie Papers, Vol. 2, Page 447, in a letter written to Governor Sharpe of Maryland by Governor Dinwiddie dated April 1, 1756, regarding Indian troubles saying "One Stalnaker who was taken prisoner by Shawnees escaped and says he saw six French officers and one thousand from Outboten? Bound to Fort Duquesne and the frontier.

Note: From - First explorations of Kentucky: Doctor Thomas Walker's journal of an ... by Josiah Stoddard Johnston

23rd: "We kept down Holston River about four miles and Camped; and then Mr. Powel and I went to look for Samuel Stalnaker, who I had been inform'd was just moved out to settle. We found his Camp, and returned to our own in the Evening."

24th: "We went to Stalnaker's, helped him to raise his house and Camped about a quarter of a mile below him. In April, 1748, I met the above mentioned Stalnaker between the Reedy Creek Settlement and Holstons River, on his way to the Cherokee Indians, and expected him to pilate me as far as he knew but his affairs would not permit him to go with me. This was the Middle Fork of the Holston, which joins the French Broad near Knoxville and forms the Tennessee. The Holston was called by the Indians first the Cat-Cloo, afterward the Watauga. It took its present name from an early hunter and explorer named Holston. Haywood's Tennessee. Samuel Stalnaker was probably, as his name indicates, one of the early pioneers from the Lower Shenandoah Valley or from Pennsylvania, of German descent, the family having numerous representatives in the valley. He was doubtless a hunter and Indian trader who had visited the Cherokees and was acquainted with the route to Cumberland Gap, upon which Doctor Walker had never been, or he would not have needed a guide. It was from him evidently that Doctor Walker received information as to certain localities he was about to visit, as Clinch River, Cave Gap, and other points of which, as he advanced into Kentucky, he gave evidence of previous information. It is not improbable that the route from the Ohio River to Cumberland Gap and the Cherokee country, which at that time was defined and known as "the Warriors' Path," was traveled by hunters and traders, and that Stalnaker was acquainted with it personally or from others. On Fry and Jefferson's Map, 1751, Stalnaker's settlement is put down as the extreme western habitation."

It is not known when the first Stalnakers came to America. Some writers believe they entered at Charleston, South Carolina, possibly Samuel and some brothers. It is known that Samuel was in the Upper Holston River area in 1746. Harassment by the Indians after arrival may have caused dispersion, or even murder of some of the family, driving Samuel into the mountains of southwestern Virginia. A search of history in Charleston shows that no considerable groups of Germans were known to have immigrated to Charleston from 1696 to 1730. Howver, from 1730 to 1750 the counties of Orangeberg, Congaree, and Wateree received a large proportion of German immigrants. In July 1735, and in 1736 and 1737, Jean Pierre Perry, for the Colony, solicited and brought over a large body of immigrants from the German Cantons, who were settled in Orangeberg County. The record did not reveal any by the name of Stalnaker. The record did say that some of the German immigrants left Chrleston and sailed to Philadelphia.

Correspondence with the Bucks County (Pennsylvania)Historical Society brought information that in the latter two-thirds of the 19th century, there were records of Stahlneckers among the descendants of the Schwenkfelder exiles.

Spelling of this name varied as Stalenecker, Stallenecker, Stalnecker, Stahneker, and Stahnecker. Records from the History of the Goshenhoppen Charge in Lancaster County shows the above family names between 1767 and 1803. Northumberland County also shows Jacob Stahlnecker as a free man in the late 1700s. The name was not found on German Pioneer immigrant lists of those who entered at Philadelphia.

In the Genealogical Division of Western Reserve Historical Museum, Cleveland, Ohio, it was found that passenger lists were required of ships entering Philadelphia. It is apparent that some ship's passenger lists were not available, but those that were revealed only the following similar names between 1727 and 1750: Jurgh Steiniger, family of 7 arrived September 27, 1727 on ship James Goodwill from Rotterdam, via Falmouth, England. Captiain was David Crockett. On list 2-B, same ship was listed Jerg Steinieger. On September 11, 1731, the ship Britainia arrived from Rotterdam via Cowes, England with 269 passengers, including Johan Leonard Steininger on List 16-A. List 16-B showed Leon Hart Steininger (probably the same person), aged 35. Then, on May 29, 1735, Ship Mercurius arrived with a load of Switzers, including Magdalena Steininger, aged 30, ship's Captain William Wilson.

Jacob Stalnaker, Sr., son of the pioneer Samuel, married Elizabeth Truby, daughter of John Truby, whose land was next to Jacob Sr.'s in Randolph County, near Beverly, West Virginia. John Truby came from Pennsylvania; therefor, one could deduce that Jacob and his father Samuel could also have come to Virginia from Pennsylvania

Jacob was born in 1739. Jacob Stalnaker ...

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #S-1772620588 Note: Ancestry Record genepoolb #4264323 Note: Data: Text: Birth date: 1708; Birth place: Virginia: APID: 5769::4264323
2. ↑ Source: #S1288539992 Note: Ancestry Record genepoold #2489841 Note: Data: Text: Death date: 1792; Death place: Virginia, USA: APID: 5771::2489841
3. ↑ Source: #S-1772620588 Note: Ancestry Record genepoolb #4264323 Note: Data: Text: Birth date: 1708; Birth place: Virginia: APID: 5769::4264323
4. ↑ Source: #S1288539992 Note: Ancestry Record genepoold #2489841 Note: Data: Text: Death date: 1792; Death place: Virginia, USA: APID: 5771::2489841
5. ↑ Filson Club Papers, No. 13, Page 42

• Family Data Collection - Deaths: Author: Edmund West, comp: Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc, 2001. Note: APID: 5771::0
• http://hackerscreek.com/norman/STALNAKER/SAMUEL%201700.htm
• The Stalnaker Family written by Knight Wees, published in the Randolph Enterprise, Thursday, August 25, 1932
• http://www.stalnakerfamilyassociation.org/early-history/

See also:

• Family Data Collection - Births: Author: Edmund West, comp: Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc, 2001.

• Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Page: Ancestry Family Trees Note: Data: Text: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/14361320/family
• Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
  Find A Grave: Memorial #15674078 (accessed 19 March 2024)
  Memorial page for Jacob L Stalnaker Sr. (1710-Aug 1792), citing Old Stalnaker Family Cemetery, Randolph County, West Virginia, USA; Maintained by Danita (contributor 48556412).

See also: FamilySearch Person: LBK6-G4X