Elijah Anderson and Catherine Bordner were lifelong residents of what would become Snyder County in Pennsylvania. Their lives spanned the greater part of the nineteenth century and, except for Elijah’s service in the Civil War, they rarely if ever felt the need to travel far from home.
Elijah was the son of William Anderson, of an Scottish heritage, and Catherine Arnold, of a German background. Both William and Catherine had been born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and Catherine’s grandfather, John George Herrold, was a Revolutionary War soldier. Their son Elijah was born in Chapman, Union County—which later split into multiple counties, including Elijah’s birthplace in what would become Snyder County. He was baptized at one month old at Botshafts Lutheran Church. Elijah’s grandfather, William Anderson, was a Revolutionary War soldier—a private in Lancaster’s 6th Regiment, 4th Company, 6th Class.
Elijah was William and Catherine’s fourth child. His older brothers were George, John, and Peter. After Elijah in 1820 came yet another brother, Samuel—the fifth boy in a row. Finally, Catherine presented the family with two girls, Elizabeth and Mary. Elijah and his siblings were born into a primitive area of Pennsylvania. Union County had been formed and Snyder County was thirty-five years off, with a County-wide population of less than 9,000. Tragically for the siblings, mother Catherine would die due to complication of Elijah’s’ birth and father William would pass eleven years later.
Catherine’s parents, John Balthaser Bordner and Maria Magdalena Emerich, had been born in Berks County, southeast of Harrisburg, but by the time of Catherine’s birth and baptism, the family had relocated to Lower Mahanoy, a rural township in Northumberland County across the Susquehanna River from Chapman. The Bordner family was of German-Swiss heritage and the Emerichs were of German descent. Catherine’s grandfather, Jacob Phillip Bortner, was also a Revolutionary War soldier—a private in Northumberland’s militia.
Catherine was one of thirteen children born to the Bordner family over a span of twenty-one years. Preceding Catherine were five brothers in a row—John, Jacob, Jonathan, Philip, and Peter—and two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. After Catherine in 1817, came Annabelle, Joseph, Louisa, Isaac, and George.
There are sixteen couples in this generation, ten of which were fully literate, including the Thompson, Goodmans, Hensels, Batdorfs, Werts, McClouds, Oberlanders, Gauglers, Keefers and Livezlys. The Andersons and the Laymans of this generation, were slightly literate, where one adult was literate, and one was not. Elijah was literate, but Catherine was not able to read or write. Two families, the Peters and Rows, were illiterate. The Updegrove family became literate as adults and the Dankerts were Germans, the only couple of this generation not in America.
Elijah and Catherine married in August 1843 in Lower Mahanoy. Elijah was twenty-three years old, and Catherine was twenty-six. Elijah and Catherine settled in Chapman and keeping to the tradition of large families had nine children: Samuel, Mary, Susan, Sarah, Josephine, Emma, James, Evaline, and Catherine. Eventually, Elijah and Catherine passed away only a little more than a year apart—Elijah on October 18, 1892, in Port Trevorton, and Catherine on December 13, 1893, in Chapman. They were buried together at St. Johns United Methodist Church in Port Trevorton.
… see ‘The Bios’ for entire narrative, Please support our research and view our books for purchase at, https://arcifc.com/genealogy/books-and-blog
Recent Comments