♂Christian Shank

Christian Shank (died before 22 November 1724) was a yeoman of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who died without a will, holding half of a 530-acre tract that his children agreed should go to his second son, Henry; a deed of 1758 by his heirs names all six of his children. He was the sixth great-grandfather of Ora Emogene Walrath (1925–2014) by two separate lines of descent, both through his eldest son, Michael Shank (died 1759).

Switzerland and the Palatinate

He was probably the Christen christened at Eggiwil, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, on 15 June 1662, the son of Michael Schenk and Anna Stauffer, written Michel Schänk in the register. The family are said to have left Eggiwil in October 1671, when he was nine, with other Anabaptist refugees from Switzerland, and to have gone to live in the Palatinate^W.

Pennsylvania

In the summer of 1717 he is said to have been one of a large group of Mennonites who left Mannheim under Benedictus Breckbill and reached Philadelphia on 24 August 1717. A month later, on 25 September 1717, John Funk, who had held the patent for a tract of 530 acres since 30 June 1711, conveyed it to Benedictus Breckbill in trust, and Christian held half of it. He is said to have been on the first tax list of Conestoga in 1718.

Death and his heirs

He died intestate before 22 November 1724, when an inventory of his estate was taken. Administration of it at Chester, Pennsylvania, was granted to his son Henry on 1 March 1725/6. His half of the land “descended and came to and amongst his before named Sons and Daughters as Tenants in common”. The children agreed that Henry should hold it, their own shares having been “long since paid”, and on 15 April 1737 Breckbill’s heirs conveyed it to Henry.

On 7 January 1758 the heirs released their rights in it to Henry, by then of Strasburg Township, by a deed that calls their father “Christian Shank late of the said County yeoman deceased”. His eldest son, Michael, joined in it with his wife Mary. His youngest son, Jacob, had died, and Jacob’s only child, Barbara, joined with her husband, Jacob Hoober. His daughter Margaret had died too, and her husband, Jacob Graff, joined with their daughters Margaret, the wife of Lodowick Hoober, Barbara and Mary. His two other daughters, Anna and Barbara, joined with their husbands, Jacob Denlinger and John Bowman.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Michael and Michael’s son Michael Shank (died before 10 February 1777), whose daughter Magdalena Shank (1752–1837) married Peter Gingerich (1749–1829). Their daughter Cattarina Gingerich (1793–1861) was the wife of John Kunz (1786–1865), and the lines divide between Cattarina’s sons Samuel Kunz (1825–1904) and Jacob John Kunz (1814–1866). They meet again when Samuel’s son Thomas Koons (1855–1938) married Jacob’s daughter Magdalena M. Koons (1852–1923) on 24 December 1876 in Henry County, Indiana. Their daughter Mary Magdalene Koons (1885–1977) was the mother of Ora Emogene Walrath. John Kunz’s will, dated 29 July 1864, names a son Jacob as one of his executors; that this Jacob is Jacob John Kunz rests on a family letter of 1916 and on the two men living in the same county.

Notes

Eggiwil and the voyage of 1717

The Swiss origin rests on a family history published in Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage in January 1994. It identifies him with the child Christen christened at Eggiwil on 15 June 1662, and the Eggiwil baptism register does record that christening, naming the parents as Michel Schänk and Anna Stauffer. No record ties that child to the man who died in Lancaster County; the identification is the history’s. The same history places the family’s departure from Eggiwil in October 1671 on a list of Anabaptist refugees kept in the Mennonite archives at Amsterdam, and puts them at Ibersheim, in the Palatinate, by 1 January 1672. It counts the 1717 group, led by Benedict Brackbill, at 363 Mennonites, and says that Christian bought the 530 acres with Brackbill about a month after landing. The history spells the name Brackbill; the deed of 1758 has Breckbill, and a published abstract of the 1737 deed Brakebill.

Date of death

The deeds say only that he died intestate before Breckbill’s heirs conveyed his share to Henry on 15 April 1737. The 1994 history gives his death as 1724, in Strasburg Township, citing administration papers of that year at Chester County; Lancaster County was not formed out of Chester County until 1729. The Chester County estate papers (no. 213) date the inventory 22 November 1724, and the administration bond 1 March 1725/6, with Jacob Kendrick and Wendel Bowman as sureties. The history also gives him six adult children, the six named in the 1758 deed.

His wife

His wife’s name is not known. The 1758 deed names only his children and their families, and the 1994 history suggests that she died before him, since the administration papers of 1724 do not mention her.